Post by: bornhunter on April 18, 2025, 06:05:34 PM
Post by: EnglishSetter on April 18, 2025, 06:59:49 PM
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.
Post by: follow maggie on April 18, 2025, 07:20:32 PM
https://huntfishsd.com/hunt/pheasant-hunts/aberdeen-pheasant-coalition/
Post by: bornhunter on April 18, 2025, 10:01:14 PM
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.
Post by: bornhunter on April 18, 2025, 10:01:51 PM
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
Post by: Nmarth88 on April 18, 2025, 10:43:23 PM
Post by: bornhunter on April 19, 2025, 08:28:55 AM
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.
Post by: GWP on April 19, 2025, 10:17:15 AM
Post by: Dan-o on April 19, 2025, 10:49:04 AM
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.
Post by: EnglishSetter on April 19, 2025, 11:55:15 AM
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.
Post by: GeoSwan on May 11, 2025, 08:48:14 PM
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.
Post by: bornhunter on May 11, 2025, 09:45:46 PM
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.
Post by: follow maggie on May 24, 2025, 04:56:53 PM
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.
Post by: 87Ford on May 24, 2025, 05:05:59 PM
Post by: follow maggie on May 24, 2025, 05:27:14 PM
Post by: Birddown on June 24, 2025, 07:09:27 AM
Post by: bornhunter on June 24, 2025, 07:19:46 AM
North Dakota and South Dakota have pheasants on about every piece of public. South Dakota around Aberdeen has some really nice public land and lots of birds but also gets a ton of pressure. Farther from the big cities you can find public the less pressure it gets.
Ok sounds good. Thank you.