South Dakota Rooster Opener 10.18.08

Well this past weekend South Dakota was celebrating the 100 year anniversary of releasing the Chinese bird we know as the Ring Necked Pheasant in the state. I was happy to be able to make it out to Stacie’s Families Farms in Hoven, SD for my third year of Hunting the pheasant capitol of the world. We arrived in Hoven late Friday night to enjoy the tale end of the Hunters Stag party to talk to friends, relatives and enjoy a few .

None of the corn has started to be harvested and there was still some beans in out there. So there was quite a few places for those wiley birds to hide. The farmers we talked to, said it would be about 2 more weeks before they started on the corn. For the second week in a row my old boy Rufus would have to hunt in some extreme heat as it again reached 80 degrees on Saturday. That is tough on the ol’ guy as he is now 9 years old, but you could tell he didn’t care, as he was just happy to be out chasing birds again. Just befor ethe start time we had 7 hunters getting ready and one rev’d up dog squealing like a lil girl in the truck. So on cue, Saturday at noon the town siren sounded signaling the start of the season and the day. Our first spot was a small corn food plot with CRP located on each side and a huge area of CRP adjacent to it. We devise a plan with walkers and blockers and it did not take long as Rufus got birdy and just about 2/3rds of the way down the small corn plot I heard that sweet sound of “ROOSTER” being yelled. That was soon followed by gun shots and we had our first bird hitting the ground. I walked towards the edge of the corn to get a lil bearing and watched as a Rooster flush and saw my wife take aim and dump her first bird of the year. Rufus soon started finding me often in the corn each time having another prized bird in his mouth as I heard shot after shot ringing in my ears. We then made a few walks in the CRP, dumping a few more of those South Dakota ring necks. With a few birds left for our limit we decided to call it quits for awhile as we wanted to road hunt in the evening and share time in the truck with Stacie, her Dad and 2 brothers.

It did not take long on our road hunt to get into our first birds as we turned off the paved highway within a ¼ mile of hitting gravel we saw our first Rooster in the ditch. Travis stepped out and dumps our first road hunt rooster. Having permission on one side of the ditch made it nice. We soon see a few more out in the field on our side of the road. They get up and fly down over the hill and into the tall grassy ditch in front of us. This time Tyler and I get Rufus out and we hit the ditch as Rufus gets birdy and starts to track down this bird. It soon flushes and we get a surprise as another rooster and a hen also jump up as Tyler and I each down a rooster as Rufus starts his retrieval duties. We just need three more birds to achieve our limit and it quickly comes as we see birds piling and I mean piling out of the corn into a short CRP field. We get to the corner and we see that the field is Public Hunting. We all look at each other in amazement and disbelief as we jump out of my truck and scurry across the field jumping birds up the whole time waiting for that familiar cackle before pulling the trigger. Rufus is going crazy with birds flushing everywhere. Soon we have our 3 birds needed for our limit and we are done. Rufus retrieves our last bird to me and caps off the best day I have had hunting birds in South Dakota.

Sunday’s hunt was a quick one as you can not hunt until noon and we had a 8 hour trip home. We got out for a few quick walks and called it good. It the end we harvested 31 birds for the 7 hunters we had. What makes this really special for me is sharing the time with Stacie’s family on a farm that is special to them. We had 7 hunters this past weekend but quite a few others that walked with us on Saturday. Others included nephews, sons, daughters, grand sons & daughters, cousins, friends, etc. Making this a true family event and handing this great pastime down of hunting onto other people. I could see the happiness in my wife’s eye of sharing this time with her brothers and her Dad, along with myself and her lil boy Rufus. For me it just don’t get any better then that. I’m looking forward to next year already, but I think I need to slow down and concentrate on this year first. This week, I will be chasing Walleyes, Bucks and Pheasants all over the State of MN. I hope to post reports on each of my adventures so stay tuned right here @ In-Depth Outdoors. Remember we as Sportsmen do have a big influence on kids, so make sure we take the time and introduce as many youngsters as possible to this great sport of Hunting!

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