doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com South Dakota!!!

Thanks Daryl, that's what I was afraid of.

That was my one big disappointment in South Dakota. All the posted land. Lots of birds though just couldn't get at them.

In years of good bird numbers statewide, pheasant hunting was very good as far west as Presho and a bit farther. My groups of 3 or 4 hunted private land in mid-November, unguided for a reasonable access fee, and did well until the owner began turning a lot of his CRP ground into corn production.

I don't have any experience with reservation hunting.

Thank you, Charlie. Presho puts me further west. That's encouraging.

The reason I ask is the last time I went I read all the literature the state sent me before going however it was the motel owner in Chamberlain that set me straight on what you can and can't do.

As the CRP goes, so go the birds....We are losing so much of it..Once there is no funding the farmer has to put it back into production..not much choice...

Well there is a choice but with low grain prices farmers often plant even more marginal acres trying to replace lost profits. With the high prices for a unit of seed corn, all other input cost most marginal lands would be better left fallow. But farmers are not paid to not plant even when they know a dry year will cost them more than they invested. Hope springs eternal in planting season. Heck I bet most new combines are ordered then.

On my farms the farmer who tends it is not allowed to mow both sides of every ditch every year. I allow it to grow two to three years for cover for birds. Not the great hedge rows of my youth but not a farm with zero cover from end to end. You'd think I was asking him to go around with his fly open. He hates my silly rules but I have center pivot irrigation over 90 % of my land and that gives me a lot of leverage. Dry years kill farmers around there. Several corners and two small fields are set aside for cover crops each year. I found rotating the set aside fields works best. It was nicer when I could get CPR money but am still doing a little without it. If I was deeply in debt my views would be the same but ability to follow them would be weak.

You can hunt the reservations, but I believe you have to buy tribal licenses and hunt with a guide from a tribal member service. I do know a guy that guides on the Pine Ridge near Mission. That would be 200 or so miles southeast of Deadwood. Incredible prairie chicken and sharptail hunting with some wild pheasants as bonus birds. PM me if you have interest in that.

Steve

Dave, that looks like the motel sitting right off of Interstate 90 at the Chamberlain exit. Right?

Thank you Steve, but just recently someone else offered a guide on a reservation hunt and I turned it down. I have to think this through but one thing I do know is I don't want to go back to the Chamberlain area again. To much posted land. But it seems I going to run into this problem everywhere in SD.

I remember the draat in that picture! He once appeared here in a pic with a muzzle loader shotgun (flintlock, I think) , some grouse and a pine tree for the gun to lean up against. Most impressive game/gun pic I've ever seen. Hardcore!...Geo