Dakota Pheasant

[JABIII]

The Old Man is interested in taking a trip to shoot pheasant this fall. He would like to go somewhere really good and, if possible, take his big black hound along with us. Anyone been to one of the really good lodges? How does it shake down?

[Fish]

Cocks Unlimited, Inc.
Bruce & Alice Shaffer
911 E Hwy 18, Gregory, SD 57533
(605) 835-8479
coxunl@gwtc.net
Well known for excellent bird population, fine food & comfortable lodging.

Johnny, I've done A LOT of cool shit in my time and without exageration, this was at the top of the list. Bruce has the birds.

[CWPINST]

I have been up there 3 times. In the past few years you didn't really need a guide. Pheasants were EVERYWHERE, but it changes from year to year. All of our trips were self guided. Of course, hooking up with a lodge makes it more of a sure thing albeit much more expensive. May be a good thing for your first trip though.

Here are a few tips for consideration:
(1) Get a pair of lightweight (kangaroo leather) boots and make sure they are WELL BROKEN-IN. A good ankle fit is important because you will step in a few badger holes.

(2) Get in shape before you go. Pheasant hunting involves a lot of walking. No briars or vines to deal with but the CRP grass and the areas around the pot holes are real thick. Walking involves a lot of high stepping instead of shuffling along.

(3)Practice Trap and especially Scrap a fair bit before you go.

(4) Don't use #6 shot. Go with #5's or 4's. Full or IM choke. Pheasants are not real hard to hit, but they are the toughest bird for their size that I have ever seen (wild birds not pen raised).

(5) An aggressive flushing dog is important. They need to be willing to dive into the thick stuff to get wounded birds. Leave the pointers at home, they will just get frustrated. Pheasants would much rather run than fly.

(6) If you plan to self guide, start your homework now. During the first couple of days in country, spend a good bit of time scouting. You will learn the type of terrain that is productive in short order. The thicker the grass the better.....to a point. If you can find a lot of cattails/thick grass around a pot hole that is right beside a harvested field of sunflowers (preferably) or corn, you are in luck.

[JABIII]

Thanks for the info guys! [img]graemlins/thumb2.gif[/img]

[midlleridgequacker]

We also went to ND this year after ducks but timed it so we could shoot pheasants as well. Thank goodness we did because that was about all that we shot. We found them in dried up potholes alot. Defin. need a good dog or you will not ever jump them up.

[c.ducky]

One more piece of advice. Draw down on those suckers quick. If they ever get to flying downwind you can shoot'em in the BEhind three times and they'll keep on truckin'. The first time I hunted them I shot the a** feathers out of at least 2 limits before I got one down. Once I started drawing down quicker they started dropping.

Another thing is getting to the downed bird quickly. Especially if you have multiple people and one dog that may be occupied elsewhere. You would be amazed at how quickly a downed bird will cover 200 yards on foot.

Have fun.

[clemsonqwacker]

I'll add one more piece of advice. Two years in a row my lab ran the pads off of his feetwhile upland hunting. The ground up there can be very abrasive on dogs feet, especially when phesant hunting. I had to almost cut out hunting him on the last trip towards the end of the week because he was cut up pretty good. I know some trainers that have had trouble with bird dog (pointers) pads when they would go up training during the summer. They either used boots or some stuff called tuff pads or something like that to help their feet. Middleridge took his little spaniel with us and he seemed to fair better than my big lab. Some times you would loose him in the tall grass, but it was funny as heck to see the brown head of the boykin popping up through the grass every now and then, spinning his head around to see where we were. Either way I wont go back with out doing something to help protect my dogs feet. Soemthing to consider if you are going to be hunting hard covering a lot of ground.

[Sportin' Woodies]

might as well hunt for sharptails and hungarian pottages too.
all near sunflower fields in cover.

[Quack Wacker]

Jab, if ya'll are going for just phesants, don't over look Kansas.

[Carolina Counsel]

I've got a great place in S. Dakota we hunt every year. It's not one of the fancy lodges, but great people with unbelievable numbers of birds. We have never not limited. I hear this area (winner, SD) is up 37% this year. There's also some great toothless, naked women to go look at in Dallas, SD in the evening.

I'm not saying Kansas doesn't have good hunting, but my 5 trips to SD were a lot better than my two trips to Kansas. Hell, the SD hunting is so good that for the past two times, I just carry my over-and-under 20.