South Dakota

[Harold Pickens]

Stan, pics are deceiving. It was originally 28 in, but someone had cut it to 26.5 in. Has a nice replacement stock k also with pad. A Utica Fox so chambers are 2 3/4.
Sitting here in the truck waiting for the 10 o'clock start time. Weather now up to 28 degrees but windy. Have seen at least half a dozen roosters flying into the grass from the cut corn, oh boy, but as they say roasted
ain't roasted.

[Harold Pickens]

Sorry wrong picture

[Wes Stueber]

Harold,
I just talked to the landowner and he said they have literally no snow on the ground in n/c SD and he's still seeing a LOT of roosters..!
The dogs and I are ready to head West shortly.
Good luck to you the remainder of the late SD season..!
Good looking bird dogs you have there.

[sparky]

Harold -You and your hunting friend are tsb]s that do the walk &the talk living the dream .

[Harold Pickens]

Nope, no snow. Wind has been 20-40mph every day, so be prepared . Seeing lots of birds, they are just getting up out of range, often over 100 yds or more. A bird getting up heading south with a 25 mph north wind is quickly gone. We don't talk, no beepers or bells on dogs. Have my buddy's lab and my setters. Hunting good grass and heavy cattails, hunting a lot of WPAs.

[mikeschneider]

Heading back out there Saturday, forecast is for 30’s Sunday followed by 5+ days of 40 or better…even if the highs are 10 degrees under what’s being forecasted, that’ll be a nice way to end the season. Was there as recently as 1/14, birds are pretty plentiful and behaving fairly well…I’m 30 miles from Manolis’s, may have to
get a sandwich!

[Double Lab]

What area are you hunting Mike?

[mikeschneider]

Forestburg to Fedora, both sides of hwy 34….lots of public land in the area…this is my 32nd season hunting there…I own a 1/4 of WRP in that area, and mostly hunt private ground owned by 3-5 different farmers…an old farmer enrolled 9120 acres in CREP last year, all within a few miles of my ground. Gonna take another year for the prairie grasses to blossom, but a fair amount of sloughs and low ground on that land, hence the appeal of enrolling it into the program…been surprised all season at the bird #’s given the fact we got over a foot of rain in about 3 days around June 19-21st, and it was very cool at night…couldn’t have helped matters…but these birds are pretty determined critters!

[mikeschneider]

I use the SD 511 website to look at current conditions…there’s several hundred camera’s throughout the state giving nice views of the adjacent ground…ND as well…gives a decent amount of intel, including if the wheat is being harvested, what amount of water is sitting in ditches and fields, and also, if there’s snow on the ground…pics are updated every 15 minutes, I believe…

[mikeschneider]

I wrote about this a few months ago, but the highlight of this season thus far occurred opening week in SD…I parked on one of the corners of my ground and walked west with my older lab, knowing she wouldn’t get too far ahead…took my repro 28 with some #5 lead loads, 1 oz, and started walking, figuring I’d flush a bird or two in the fuzzy ditches that were bordered by corn…nuttin doin after a mile, where some of that CREP began…small cattail slough awaited me in the corner of that CREP, so I drifted north of it, given the south wind…I turned into the wind, and as we got near the slough, Lena told me that there were birds in the slough…birds started flushing, mostly roosters…finally, one in range, think I took 2 shots, and down it went…Lena delivered it promptly…I was pumped! Started walking west, and soon I crested a mild rise in the field, and saw more cattail sloughs…small…perfect! We did the same thing, drifted north by 80 yards, and turned into the breeze…I watched Lena, and could tell she was excited…soon after, a few roosters flushed, the first went down and the second I missed; I knew the first wasn’t a dead bird, but luckily the slough was the size of a 2 stall garage, with little vegetation surrounding it. About 5 seconds after reloading, a cock flushed and headed west, which fell about 30 yards from us, and was dead…Lena went to that bird, so I watched where the first rooster had fallen; sure enough, he attempted to escape on foot to the East, and with Lena to my West, returning with that other bird, I promptly finished the cripple off. It was barely 10:30, I had my limit…much fun! I hadn’t hunted pheasants with that Repro yet, just prairie grouse and huns…it was a real highlight of this season, and my entire hunting career!