SD Pheasant numbers looking up

[jetjockey]

2012 and 2013 saw dramatic drops in SD pheasant numbers, with 2013 being the first time in years that the harvest was below 1 million birds.  After a 76% increase in numbers in 2014, and harvest rates bouncing back to over 1.2 million birds, it looks like 2015 will see another decent increase in bird numbers.  2014/2015 was a  mild winter and spring precipitation has been good as well.  I've taked to several people on the ground in SD and they have said they haven't seen this many young birds this early in years.  If you haven't hunted SD pheasants before, this may be a great year for a first time trip.  For those of you with hunts planned or booked, have fun, the hunting looks like it should be pretty good.

[shootem]

Great news.Can't wait.

[Old Dog]

That's really good news.    I've been going every year since '08, and even those lean years were pretty good.    BTW I'm hunting mostly public land.

[shootem]

Let's all post how things went. It may be a pretty good year.

[jetjockey]

Just got to summer camp in SD and I can say there are a ton of young birds running around.  Looks like it should be a pretty good year...... Lots of bugs as well, which is great for birds, but otherwise sucks! 

[JODakota]

Just remember this is South Dakota....not North, there are NO birds in da nort....

[jetjockey]

There all sizes of young birds this year.  I've seen roosters that we're starting to get color, and the I've seen birds that can barely fly......  Gotta love a place where you can take a picture of pheasants AND whitetail crossing the road at the same time. In the last picture, you can see the last chick of the clutch crossing the road.  You can see momma off to the left.

[ribka]

Nice

A few months be out there

Thanks for posting

[jetjockey]

Pheasant numbers up 42% across the board!  It's going to be a good year in SD.