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What about hunting on the reservations in South Dakota? Good land there to hunt?

Cheyenne?
Standing Rock?

Especially Pine Ridge?

When planning a pheasant hunt in South Dakota, you must first determine if your goal is to hunt on a pheasant farm or if you prefer to hunt wild birds and their native habitat for a more challenging experience. I prefer a wild bird hunt on public or private land. If this is your goal, there is more total acreage and overall better habitat outside the Indian reservations in my opinion. You are generally obligated to purchase a tribal license went hunting on the reservation. A South Dakota State small game license is insufficient.

If you are tech savvy, there is a fantastic iPhone app available for download from the Department of Fish and wildlife. It has a map keyed to your phone GPS . You can easily navigate from one public hunting area to another. Hunt around the Missouri River and you will generally have much better success than the far western area of the state.

The last time I was there I hunted between the dirt road and the cornfields. It was sometimes rewarding.

The farmers were just way to expensive. I was told the cheapest would be a hundred dollars a day per gun.

I'm trying to get around that and find good hunting and especially unposted land.

Our group of 10 hunts south of Pierre every year. We pay the rancher $300/day for room, meals, dogs, & guiding. All wild birds, and we usually limit every day. There is a heated barn for our crated dogs; and bird cleaning. Rancher has a big freezer for temporary cleaned-bird storage.

It is a "group hunt" and we stop when there are 30 birds in the back of the pickup. Everyone gets shots as we rotate between pushing, blocking, and flanking.

Been happily doing it for 15 years..."The Group" has a waiting list.

I have hunted South Dakota a few times on "wild" bird hunts, however the birds were obviously pen raised. The definition of wild gets stretched, it appears. Some may say that after a pen raised bird is released, "its wild."

This coming October will be the 15th year for our group of 8-12 (depending on the year!!) hunting in Hand County. Private and public land. $100 per day per gun for access to over 5000 acres of private land and much other public/government land and this includes room and board. I don't much think you can beat that anywhere up there. You most assuredly will NOT beat it or even match it on the pheasant farms and the lodges. Of course, if you want planted birds, guaranteed limit and fine wine and cigars after dinner, there are several very excellent lodges in that area between Chamberlain and Mitchell and parts north of the interstate in that corridor. No knowledge of anything west of the river to speak of.

Well, it wouldn't make much sense to drive all the way to South Dakota to hunt pen raised birds.


Nothing good on the Indian Reservations? Anyone hit them at all? To restrictive?

Not sure if question is for SD in general, or the Indian Reservation near Chamberlain.

For SD in general I hunted wild birds in the Northeast Corner of the state vicinity Aberdeen.

I saw plenty of birds more than last year, but not as many as ten years ago.

Our party average 2 a day

Aberdeen? That's all the way up by North Dakota, right?

What's it look like up there Colonel? Pretty much the same topography as Chamberlain?

Yes its anywhere in SD in general and as close to Deadwood as possible. Wild birds.

South Dakota has some Walk In areas administered by the State. I am not sure of the exact program name, but maps are available through the state. National Grasslands are open to hunting for various upland birds. Indian reservations can furnish guides and usually require a Reservation License. The Black Hills may have a few grouse, mostly spruce grouse as I remember. The Black Hills are probably not worth one's time as bird populations are tiny. Access can be found on Forest Service maps. West of the Missouri, some pheasants can be found in areas with waterways and creeks, but the bird density is nowhere near that of the East River areas. Ranches in the West River area tend to be quite large as the land is relatively dry compared to the East River.