Excited for the SD Pheasant Opener...

[breachless]

On my way home from work last night I saw a few roosters on the side of the road picking up gravel and noticed the corn is changing colors, and that can only mean one thing: Pheasant Season is just around the corner! This year we are heading back out to South Dakota to the same place we went last year. Should be awesome: last year was a slow year and we still nailed them pretty hard. This year should be even better...

I started working with Jake, my German Shorthaired Pointer last night with the training dummy and some feathers from some of the birds we got last year. He seems to have retained pretty much everything from last season... Those dogs are so ridiculously smart... Still working on the recall though: if he picks up a scent, sometimes he is GONE, and no amount of shouting seems to break his concentration... Not cool.

Anyway, I have been shooting clays all summer so the gun is ready to rock and roll. October 16th cannot come soon enough...

 

[ShadowWalker]

I'm hopefully going to go here in Illinois this year. My dad always told me how he'd almost crap his pants every time he stepped on one when he was a kid.

Its odd really, he hunted when he was a kid, still has his Ithaca 20 gauge single shot, but stopped before I was born (I'm 21). I think I can remember once or twice when he went with a couple guys from work. Maybe I'll twist his leg and get him to go with me for my first time.

 

[Jim]

No hunting dog here, but we still walk the fields trying to kick up something now and then. If we get 1-2 per season we done good.


Good luck man, I hear pheasant hunting is real popular out there in South Dakota.

 

[breachless]

Indeed: the Pheasant Hunting in South Dakota is pretty incredible... In Minnesota, we too are lucky to get a small handful of birds all fall long, but in SD, it's crazy: you can push one field and have 6 birds or more for 20 minutes or so of walking. It's a blast!

We busted one little patch of weeds on the edge of a stock pond last year and got 9 birds between 6 of us in one spot... and about 20 more got away. I would give anything to find that kind of hunting in Minnesota...

 

[lswoody]

That sounds great. Have never had the opportunity to hunt those beautiful birds but I know it would be a real blast. Hope you do well this season. good huntin, Scott Woody

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I was going to Iowa for a few years. It was a good time then the ice storms and flooding wiped out the pheasant population.

 

[baseball_guy_99]

I shot my 1st Pheasant last year...

It all started with a slow day of duck hunting haha. We were hunting about 300yds from one of the fields where they do controlled pheasant hunts. (I hunt Pyramid State Park in Southern Illinois. They let a bunch of birds go every year for people to come out and run their dogs.) Anyways, they duck hunting was slow so we picked everything up around 9am. On our way out we noticed 8-10 roosters run off into this field. A game warden was coming down the road towards us so we stopped him and asked him if pheasant season was in...it was. So we asked him about hunting them and he said go for it. 2 of the guys that were with us had to leave so me and my other buddy grabbed our guns and took his lab (yes I said lab haha) and headed out into the field. I got about 20yds into the field and jumped one up. 2 shots later and the lab was after it! Surprisingly he brought it right back to us at the truck.

I wish I had the money to have it mounted...extremely beautiful bird.

 

[breachless]

Nice Ring Neck! Nice long tail feathers too.

How did you like the way it tasted? I LOVE eating Pheasant. In my opinion, it is the finest tasting of all wild game. Just phenomenal.

 

[FishingCop]

I used to pheasant hunt every winter back about 30- 35 years ago here in northern Illinois. They were plentiful back then - walk along the fence lines of the cut corn fields and kick them up or drive them until they flew - usually at a fence line end/intersection - it was great following their tracks in the new snow. Alas, I haven't seen a pheasant here in over 20 years. Don't know where they went, but I think they are pretty much extinct in the western suburbs of Chicago - I mean about 60-80 miles west of Chicago where the farm fields are

 

[baseball_guy_99]

Pheasants are not native to Southern Illinois...that's why they have to let them go. Once let go here, the ones that are not shot just roam until they die. It has something to do with the way our soil is. Their eggs will not hatch after they have been laid.

 

[WhiteMoose]

Breachless- Do you just hunt public lands in South Dakota? I've heard about the walk-in program there but haven't looked into it too much. Been thinking about heading out there this November.
I'm in Central Iowa and we have seen a 40 to 60% decreases in the pheasant population each year for the last 3 or 4 years. Horrible winters the last 2 years and ethanol are the main culprits IMO. I can't fault the farmers for trying to make a buck off their land, but all the decent habitat is disappearing to make room for crops.

 

[Loggerhead Mike]

one more thing ive always wanted to do.

prettyest birds around

 

[breachless]

Breachless- Do you just hunt public lands in South Dakota? I've heard about the walk-in program there but haven't looked into it too much. Been thinking about heading out there this November.
I'm in Central Iowa and we have seen a 40 to 60% decreases in the pheasant population each year for the last 3 or 4 years. Horrible winters the last 2 years and ethanol are the main culprits IMO. I can't fault the farmers for trying to make a buck off their land, but all the decent habitat is disappearing to make room for crops.

I haven't tried hunting public land out there. I have talked to a few guys that have though, and from what I understand it's still pretty good compared to Minnesota at least. The problem is that the out of state opener happens later than the local opener, so if you make a trip all the way out there, you might end up disappointed as all the locals have hunted all the public stuff pretty hard. Still probably better than Iowa or Minnesota, but I don't know if it would be worth making a trip all the way out there. I will ask around when I am out there this year to see...

We go stay at a local farmers place that owns thousands and thousands of acres... He bought up all the land around him, along with the houses that came with it, and he puts up out-of-state hunters for the week with a house (we bring and cook our own food). It's actually a pretty sweet deal: everyone gets their own bedroom for the week, shower everyday, they have a cleaning station set up with a big freezer, and kennels for the dogs. Last year we stayed in a brand new house that was nicer than MY house!

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

I shot my 1st Pheasant last year...

It all started with a slow day of duck hunting haha. We were hunting about 300yds from one of the fields where they do controlled pheasant hunts. (I hunt Pyramid State Park in Southern Illinois. They let a bunch of birds go every year for people to come out and run their dogs.) Anyways, they duck hunting was slow so we picked everything up around 9am. On our way out we noticed 8-10 roosters run off into this field. A game warden was coming down the road towards us so we stopped him and asked him if pheasant season was in...it was. So we asked him about hunting them and he said go for it. 2 of the guys that were with us had to leave so me and my other buddy grabbed our guns and took his lab (yes I said lab haha) and headed out into the field. I got about 20yds into the field and jumped one up. 2 shots later and the lab was after it! Surprisingly he brought it right back to us at the truck.

I wish I had the money to have it mounted...extremely beautiful bird.

Illinois Pheasant opens Nov 6th

 

[WhiteMoose]

Wow, sounds like you've got it made out there. 8)

I live next to a 5,000 acre prairie preserve that I drive through about once a week, and I haven't seen a bird all summer. I'm still going to get a license and go out to get my dog some exercise, but I have zero expectations this year.

 

[breachless]

Wow, sounds like you've got it made out there. 8)

I live next to a 5,000 acre prairie preserve that I drive through about once a week, and I haven't seen a bird all summer. I'm still going to get a license and go out to get my dog some exercise, but I have zero expectations this year.

Do you guys at least have grouse down there? We don't have a ton of great Pheasant hunting, but I almost always scratch out at least a couple of grouse when I head out around Minnesota. They aren't quite as delicious as Pheasant, but they are still fun to hunt. It seems no matter how many times I have hunted grouse, they never cease to scare the crap out of me when they take off. If you have ever hunted them, you know what I mean: it sounds like someone is pounding a drum super fast! Always gets my heart going... :lol:

 

[WhiteMoose]

Yeah, we have some grouse but not a lot. Whenever I see one, I usually have pheasants on my mind so by the time it registers with me that its a grouse and not a hen pheasant, its usually out of range.
I would say we have more quail then grouse.

 

[breachless]

Holy crap holy crap holy crap. We leave tomorrow! I have the dog all ready to rock and roll (I think he is going to do even better this year than he did last year since he was still in his puppy stage last year). My only worry is that he is still not perfect on the recall if he gets on something... Last year he took off after a jack rabbit and must have chased that thing for a mile before he snapped out of it and came back. I was so pissed! I worry about him chasing a deer across the road and getting hit by a car. Got the e-collar all ready to go: I don't plan on using it, but it will come in handy if he does that again... Those German Shorthairs can have one hell of a prey drive...

Anyway, hopefully I can get a bunch of pics to share next week. It should be phenomenal.

 

[breachless]

Well, it's back to the real world today, but we had a hell of a time. First day was a bit slow with a misunderstanding with another party of hunters about who could hunt this particular field and who couldn't... Kind of frustrating, but whatever. The second day we whacked 'em good! Limited out by 4:00, back to camp in time to catch the second half of the vikings game and grill some ribeye steaks. The 3rd day was pretty good as well! All in all, we knocked down 56 roosters between 7 of us in 3 days, and my dog was a hunting machine. It's always cool to see the lightbulb light up as they start to figure out how to work WITH you rather than against you. Loved seeing the sun set across the plains of South Dakota. I will post some pictures when I get ahold of them...