SD Opener report

Well, I’ve been meaning to get this out all week. Headed back home last night Thursday night to help my dad catch/release birds before the big opener. He raised 12,000 roosters this summer, all of which have been sold to local game farms. If you’ve never caught and cut blinders on pheasants, it’s an experience. At least it sure got me mad at them. I couldn’t wait for Saturday to get a little revenge.

I brought my neighbor back hunting with me, this was his first trip to the state for roosters. Needless to say, he was impressed, heck I was impressed with the numbers of birds on my cousin’s ranch/farm. Our primary areas were anything with any water and some cover. The country in central SD is very dry. When I hear dry over here, it doesn’t even come close to dry back home. It always amazes me how the farmers survive from year to year on the moisture they receive.

On our second drive, I was able to witness the second most impressive flush of my lifetime. I’m guessing we easily pushed over 250 birds out of a food plot. It was so cool to watch bird after bird coming out in every direction. I was even lucky enough to connect with two solo roosters, killed the first two that flew over, then my shooting skills disappeared. However, I’m not shy when it comes to putting lead down range.

Over the course of two days, I know I saw over a 1000 birds flushed, with right at 120 roosters killed. All birds were wild, natural born birds. We had a large group, 20, which happens to be the max in SD. The ranch we hunted had a large amount of hens, probably 7 or 8 to 1 ratio. Obviously this makes next year’s outlook much better yet.

If you’ve never experienced pheasant hunting like this, it’s worth the $104.00 for the license. The biggest problem with SD is the commercialization. It’s harder and harder to find private ground to hunt without paying out the rear. If your ever headed that way, let me know. I’ll be glad to share areas that have decent public access.

Here is a picture of Matt and Cody with his three pheasants on Sunday:

Netted them, cut the blinders, and had the #$#!@$*’s beat me up in the process!! I guess this is one reason that I like fishing better.

Netted them, cut the blinders, and had the #$#!@$*’s beat me up in the process!! I guess this is one reason that I like fishing better.

Anyone who has ever been in a catch pen with 150 roosters knows to keep your eyes open since they can’t see straight with those blinders on. I watched one knock my mother down one day. After determining she was OK, just madder than heck, we had a good laugh. All is fair in the pheasant pen. We had some hissing at like you wouldn’t believe. I just laughed, knowing his demise was less than 24 hours away. If the coyotes didn’t get him that night.

Anyone who has ever been in a catch pen with 150 roosters knows to keep your eyes open since they can’t see straight with those blinders on. I watched one knock my mother down one day. After determining she was OK, just madder than heck, we had a good laugh. All is fair in the pheasant pen. We had some hissing at like you wouldn’t believe. I just laughed, knowing his demise was less than 24 hours away. If the coyotes didn’t get him that night.