Any info on public land South Dakota pheasant hunts?

[bornhunter]

Hit 71 this year so if I dont get to the Dakotas before long I never will. I waa hoping for some public land hunting but I lost my bird dog in Novermber so unless my buddy can go with his dog I may have to pay to hunt some private ground. I would prefer wild birds but getting to the point not sure how picky I can be. Has anyone done any public land hunts in North or South Dakota and if so is it worth the effort? Wondering too about pressure. I am thinking later in the season. Any info will be appreciated.

[EnglishSetter]

I've hunted SD a few times and my hunting buddy does every year.  Mix of public and private.  Used to be more private, but the farmer quit farming so doesn't lease farm land anymore.  Just family land.  This is around the Wolsey area.  We camp (RV's, tents) at the farmer's house.  We kick him $200 each for the access.

Waterfowl Production Areas and Game Production Areas are what you're looking for.  The maps with the regs show 'em.  HuntX helps quite a bit though.

Allen's South Dakota Fishing and Hunting Lodge in Chamberlain is another option.  Quality planted birds in good habitat and can provide dogs.  There's public land in the area as well, so you could do both.  Another friend lodges there, but just hunts the public land.  He does pretty well, though he's a good bird hunter with 2 good dogs, hunts hard and knows the area.

Also you can "road hunt" the section roads in SD.  Not shooting from the vehicle, but driving/hunting the fence lines.  You can retrieve on private so long as you don't trespass with the gun. 

Do know that even though SD had a lot of pheasants, it's hardly "easy".  Even knowing the land we struggled the first few days (non-resident opener) to find boys.  Girls were prevalent. 

Pressure isn't a big issue IME.  A lot of the public we had to ourselves.  Yes there were boot prints, but we weren't dodging other hunters.  Gotta watch out for weather later in the season.  You could get snowed in or snowed out.

FWIW, I hunted (in order) Western WA (planters), Eastern OR, South Dakota and California (wild birds) this year.  Got birds in each state.

[follow maggie]

The last couple years people & businesses around Aberdeen have been making a big effort to open access around Aberdeen. There’s some good hunting around there.

https://huntfishsd.com/hunt/pheasant-hunts/aberdeen-pheasant-coalition/

[bornhunter]

I've hunted SD a few times and my hunting buddy does every year.  Mix of public and private.  Used to be more private, but the farmer quit farming so doesn't lease farm land anymore.  Just family land.  This is around the Wolsey area.  We camp (RV's, tents) at the farmer's house.  We kick him $200 each for the access.

Waterfowl Production Areas and Game Production Areas are what you're looking for.  The maps with the regs show 'em.  HuntX helps quite a bit though.

Allen's South Dakota Fishing and Hunting Lodge in Chamberlain is another option.  Quality planted birds in good habitat and can provide dogs.  There's public land in the area as well, so you could do both.  Another friend lodges there, but just hunts the public land.  He does pretty well, though he's a good bird hunter with 2 good dogs, hunts hard and knows the area.

Also you can "road hunt" the section roads in SD.  Not shooting from the vehicle, but driving/hunting the fence lines.  You can retrieve on private so long as you don't trespass with the gun. 

Do know that even though SD had a lot of pheasants, it's hardly "easy".  Even knowing the land we struggled the first few days (non-resident opener) to find boys.  Girls were prevalent. 

Pressure isn't a big issue IME.  A lot of the public we had to ourselves.  Yes there were boot prints, but we weren't dodging other hunters.  Gotta watch out for weather later in the season.  You could get snowed in or snowed out.

FWIW, I hunted (in order) Western WA (planters), Eastern OR, South Dakota and California (wild birds) this year.  Got birds in each state.

Thank you very much. A lot of good info here I can work with.

[bornhunter]

The last couple years people & businesses around Aberdeen have been making a big effort to open access around Aberdeen. There’s some good hunting around there.

https://huntfishsd.com/hunt/pheasant-hunts/aberdeen-pheasant-coalition/

Ok great. Thank you

[Nmarth88]

Hunted there near the Woonsocket area before. We were mostly road hunting and had a blast. All of us would limit out every day. The sides of the road usually have much wider(like 15-30’) on both sides. As said before as long as the bird originates on public land you can retrieve on private land. I will say make sure you know how to do pythagorean theory though as you must be 220yds from a persons abode to legal shoot and if a warden thinks it close he will check!! Have fun and if you hunt that style you don’t necessarily need a dog.

[bornhunter]

Hunted there near the Woonsocket area before. We were mostly road hunting and had a blast. All of us would limit out every day. The sides of the road usually have much wider(like 15-30’) on both sides. As said before as long as the bird originates on public land you can retrieve on private land. I will say make sure you know how to do pythagorean theory though as you must be 220yds from a persons abode to legal shoot and if a warden thinks it close he will check!! Have fun and if you hunt that style you don’t necessarily need a dog.

Ok thanks for the info.  I am heading to the Dakotas on monday to look around the country. I will check it out.

[GWP]

I will say if you get permission to hunt someones property get it in writing. We had an issue with that when we were there. Squabbling neighbors using us to mess with each other as it were.

[Dan-o]

Hunted there near the Woonsocket area before. We were mostly road hunting and had a blast. All of us would limit out every day. The sides of the road usually have much wider(like 15-30’) on both sides. As said before as long as the bird originates on public land you can retrieve on private land. I will say make sure you know how to do pythagorean theory though as you must be 220yds from a persons abode to legal shoot and if a warden thinks it close he will check!! Have fun and if you hunt that style you don’t necessarily need a dog.

I know a couple guys who do it this way.
Seems like a good way to go.

[EnglishSetter]

Hunted there near the Woonsocket area before. We were mostly road hunting and had a blast. All of us would limit out every day. The sides of the road usually have much wider(like 15-30’) on both sides. As said before as long as the bird originates on public land you can retrieve on private land. I will say make sure you know how to do pythagorean theory though as you must be 220yds from a persons abode to legal shoot and if a warden thinks it close he will check!! Have fun and if you hunt that style you don’t necessarily need a dog.

Most every time my buddy would make a store run, he'd come back with a bird.  We'd kill birds en route to the planned destination property. Helps to be the passenger (riding shotgun).  A different kind of sport. 

Another buddy (the one who hunts Chamberlain) used to primarily hunt the train tracks, but says the track owners have curtailed that practice.

Your license is good for 2 ea. 5 day periods which can be concurrent or not.  A mix of club birds and chasing wild roosters may be a good mix depending on dog, buddy, etc. 

[GeoSwan]

I'm from ND and spent my formative years hunting there. Mainly birds, though I have shot a few deer there before I switched residency to MT, and then WA.

A few things here. Some good and some bad mainly about ND, as that is the state I have the most experience with.

1. ND might be the best migratory waterfowl hunting state in the country given the fact that it is the most northern state of the central and/or Missouri flyway.
2. The pheasant hunting is absolutely stellar. SD gets all the credit, but ND, particularly the southern half is world class.
3. ND is only 9% public. SD is even less. To put it into perspective, WA is 42% public and sits at #11 out of 50.
4. ND private land laws USED TO benefit hunters. In WA, you need some form of consent from a landowner. In ND, if a landowner posted a field, there were rules about the clarity/maintenence and posting frequency (one sign every 1/2 mile or something) If it was posted correctly then you had to get permission. If private ISN'T posted correctly or is not posted at all, you WERE allowed to hunt that private land.
Recently, ND adopted an E-sign posting system, which cut hunting access drastically. That combined with the fact that there is scarce public land opportunities is not good for us hunters. Fortunately I grew up hunting ND in it's access hayday, but I can't say the same for it now, and so I don't hunt there anymore.
I don't reccommend this, but you may need to link up with an outfitter with a private lease. This is bad for the sport, but may be the only way to ensure you can get private access.

[bornhunter]

I'm from ND and spent my formative years hunting there. Mainly birds, though I have shot a few deer there before I switched residency to MT, and then WA.

A few things here. Some good and some bad mainly about ND, as that is the state I have the most experience with.

1. ND might be the best migratory waterfowl hunting state in the country given the fact that it is the most northern state of the central and/or Missouri flyway.
2. The pheasant hunting is absolutely stellar. SD gets all the credit, but ND, particularly the southern half is world class.
3. ND is only 9% public. SD is even less. To put it into perspective, WA is 42% public and sits at #11 out of 50.
4. ND private land laws USED TO benefit hunters. In WA, you need some form of consent from a landowner. In ND, if a landowner posted a field, there were rules about the clarity/maintenence and posting frequency (one sign every 1/2 mile or something) If it was posted correctly then you had to get permission. If private ISN'T posted correctly or is not posted at all, you WERE allowed to hunt that private land.
Recently, ND adopted an E-sign posting system, which cut hunting access drastically. That combined with the fact that there is scarce public land opportunities is not good for us hunters. Fortunately I grew up hunting ND in it's access hayday, but I can't say the same for it now, and so I don't hunt there anymore.
I don't reccommend this, but you may need to link up with an outfitter with a private lease. This is bad for the sport, but may be the only way to ensure you can get private access.

Good to know. Thank you.

[follow maggie]

I would change a couple things about bird hunting in North Dakota, from someone who lives here. Pheasant hunting is still good in the western half of the state, roughly west of a vertical line drawn through Bismarck. Maybe as far east as Jamestown, but definitely no further east than that. Pheasant hunting in the east half of North Dakota is not good and it’s getting worse because of habitat loss.

Another thing I’ll add is both Dakotas have had huge rains the last couple weeks which aren’t good for the hatches. The counts this summer will give an indication how bad it’s going to be. You might look into doing at least part of your trip at a lodge that does 2-3 day hunts. All of these places plant birds from a hatchery so you’ll get better shooting opportunities.

[87Ford]

Why would anyone go to the Dakotas to shoot pen-raised, released birds?  You can do that in Wa.   

[follow maggie]

Thousands of people do it every year. They just don’t know it. I didn’t know it until I moved here. There’s a guy near where I usually hunt that raises & sells pheasants. I get a couple here & there from him in the late season to put out for my lab Haley. I’d say he has a little better than five acres of pens & he sells tens of thousands pheasants to these places. If you think about it though, they have to plant birds. There’s no way the wild population would survive that kind of commercial hunting pressure.