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T-Bird
PostPosted: Tue Nov 07, 2017 6:44 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 27 Sep 2015
Posts: 177
Location: Alabama

Just got back from Chamberlain hunting private land with a guide (1st time with a guide). Got a limit daily with my Citori Superlite and Golden Pheasant #5. I was the talk of the hunt because, of course I was the only one with a 16ga. Cool
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cowdoc87
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:15 am  Reply with quote
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Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 749
Location: Kelso, Tennessee

Good deal! Glad you had a good trip. What was the general opinion of the locals on bird numbers?

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i reckon so. I guess we all died a little in that damn war.
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T-Bird
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 7:29 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 27 Sep 2015
Posts: 177
Location: Alabama

Bird numbers down on public land and "in the ditch". We didn't see near the number of birds flying across the roads as we usually do. I haven't hunted around chamberlain before tho, usually farther north. We limited by lunch 2 of the three days on private land. The rooster/hen ratio was prob 10/1. That doesn't sound good if it is statewide.
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sneem
PostPosted: Wed Nov 08, 2017 3:17 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 19 Apr 2008
Posts: 477

I was up in SD last week. The Sweet 16, vintage 1959, was hitting well. Had to be the gun because I normally don't do that well. Bird numbers seemed about as last year. But that's no big deal as last year was no great shakes. Still SD is still the Mecca for pheasants even in a down year.

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Many places remain undiscovered. Some because no one has ever been there. Others because no one has ever come back.
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Soggy socks
PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 1:25 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 26 Apr 2016
Posts: 369
Location: Vermont

t bird we hunted the opener there in Chamberlain with guide first three days. 4 of us shot limits every day we worked hard for them but were done in 4 hours usually . i did not use my 16 but a win 101 pigeon Grade FWT in 12 Ga. Next year the 16's
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tramroad28
PostPosted: Sun Nov 12, 2017 2:52 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 20 Jul 2011
Posts: 625
Location: Ohio..where ruffed grouse were

For pheasants to return, in SD or other portions of the upper plains, they must first get thru the winter. That is looking to be a problem in many areas...not speaking of private business stocking efforts.
Fingers crossed for all the plains birds in the coming months. Idea
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Dakotazeb
PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 2:15 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Dec 2009
Posts: 196
Location: South Dakota

No doubt that weather is a factor for pheasants but more important is habitat. Thousands and thousands of acres of land coming out of CRP in the past 10 years has been a bigger factor. Now with grain prices down I'm hearing of farmers that are wanting to get land back into CRP. Hopefully the new farm bill will provide the financing for that.

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My 16's:
Browning A5 Sweet Sixteen
Browning Citori White Lightning
Browning BPS Upland Special
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tramroad28
PostPosted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 3:00 pm  Reply with quote



Joined: 20 Jul 2011
Posts: 625
Location: Ohio..where ruffed grouse were

I was under the impression that in much of MT and ND, SD as well, “weather” reduced habitat this year as surely as have decisions re set-aside programs like CRP and CREP.
Perhaps not?

There reaches a point where which negative factor affecting game and non-game birds is greater or more important is of little importance....especially so in the Appalachians today but that truth holds elsewhere.
In that vein, I wish the idea of “build it and they will come” never saw the light of day as it has distracted too many people for far too long.

That said, pheasants especially, can return in a comparable instant.
Good luck to them and all the plains critters in the coming days.
It ain’t all about us hunters.
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T-Bird
PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 9:23 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 27 Sep 2015
Posts: 177
Location: Alabama

My brother and 2 friends are there now and have been walking ditches since Mon. They had 20 roosters between them as of last night. They are in the middle of the state.
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CitoriFeather16
PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 5:28 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 09 Dec 2005
Posts: 989
Location: Las Vegas

T-Bird, a Citori Super Light and Golden Pheasants #5's may require a trip to the dentist to get your teeth re-adjusted! Very Happy

Matt
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IDcut
PostPosted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 7:57 pm  Reply with quote
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Joined: 26 Jun 2005
Posts: 376
Location: North ID.

I've been in daily contact with a good friend who's been hunting central to north central SD this week. He finished up with his limit of 15 birds yesterday. According to him, the numbers in the area hunted is down this year, but he was able to find some pockets with decent bird numbers. He said he covered more ground than normal to find roosters, hunting a combination of private ground and some walk in areas.

I'm usually back there with him, but had a hip replacement about 2 weeks ago so had to hunt this year vicariously through his adventures.
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fourtrax
PostPosted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 7:48 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 04 Jun 2009
Posts: 827
Location: N. Shore, mn

The drought hit hard in Western SoDak, Eastern MT. & Western Nodak. Bird numbers there aren't pretty. After spending ten days in N Central South Dakota there are birds to be found. Numbers up NO. Bird numbers returning NO. There are enough birds to keep a guy going but you will be burning extra boot leather unless you are hunting private land either stocked or "Managed" with proper cover / habitat for Phez for them to be plentiful.
Despite the doom & gloom the trip was fun anyway. Got some birds & had some laughs.

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16gaDavis
PostPosted: Sun Nov 26, 2017 8:46 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 24 Jun 2013
Posts: 2062
Location: canandaigua - western n.y. (formerly deerhunter)

4T - exactly correct . Standing Rock seems to be on 4 yr cycles . !st the ice , then the floods , then the drought - every time it starts to settle , the next problem occurs . Last yr , bird numbers doing well and lots of hens , then this yrs drought . No brood and few hens . Next yr will be down and hopefully the yr after will be back !!

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Wolfchief
PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 6:14 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 15 Oct 2004
Posts: 782
Location: Indiana

My son and I have hunted several places in South Dakota over the last 15 years--from the mostly "preserve" birds found at clubs around Gregory and Winner (only 1 year of that nonsense) to the Crow Creek Reservation at Ft. Thompson (sharptails and prairie chickens as well as wild roosters) to the grassland, corn and sunflower fields found around Onida north of Pierre, again, formerly lots of wild birds. We had limited out on pheasants every day of every year we hunted....until late October 2017. To say this fall in SoDak was a disappointment would be a drastic understatement. We can shoot and we can walk, and we had a veteran Chocolate Lab weed/swamp buster who can find birds, but you can't find them if they just aren't there.
There were some crops still in the field, granted, and the screaming wind had to make the birds jumpy, but bird numbers were WAY DOWN from previous seasons.

We will certainly continue to come West and hunt birds...but next year it'll be Montana, Kansas or Nebraska--very unfortunately, not South Dakota.

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S.davis
PostPosted: Mon Nov 27, 2017 6:55 am  Reply with quote



Joined: 14 Sep 2016
Posts: 68
Location: KC,MO

Wolfchief wrote:
We will certainly continue to come West and hunt birds...but next year it'll be Montana, Kansas or Nebraska--very unfortunately, not South Dakota.


If you are disappointed in the bird numbers you are finding in South Dakota...Kansas and especially Nebraska and Montana will really take the wind out of your sales.
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