SD 2010 trip...

tod osier

tod osier

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Pete and I just got back from a trip to SD with an old friend. We hunted a National Grassland in South Dakota for Pheasants, Greater Prairie Chickens and Sharptails. This was really the perfect venue, since Tom wanted good wild pheasants and I needed some chickens after my serious whiff on Lesser Prairie Chickens last year.

Tom brought his GSP Conan who makes his living as a Woodcock, Ruffed Grouse and stocked Pheasant dog, he adapted well to the prairies and did well with hard hunted chickens and running roosters (well for a non-black dog, anyway). Tom and Conan on the hunt…

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I just love the prairies…

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I usually shun the activity associated with the active agriculture harvest, but pressure was light and man o’ man there were birds. We hit the timing well and there was a lot of cut and being cut corn adjacent to the grassland…

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Cut corn sure can be beautiful in the right light…

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The deer appeared after everything got cut locally…

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We camped along a slough with some cover from the wind and had the added bonus of duck music in camp…

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Some nights got a bit below freezing - brrrr…

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At least the dogs were well taken care of….

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Pete doing what I think is his favorite thing in the world, running the grasslands rousting game birds.

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Reward…

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We had a great time with chickens and sharptails on the grasslands, but being able to do some pass shooting to rest the dog was really nice. Not my favorite way, but it sure was a nice break.

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Pete pretty worn towards the end of the trip...

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We had plenty of birds to keep me happy….

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One of those really quick limits where it all works out right…

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Now, Conan lives up to his name as a groundhog destroyer at home and I knew porcupines would be a problem. It took until almost the last day before he found one that wanted to play…

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After all, it is all about the scenery and sunsets, right???

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Tom and Conan on the last evening looking for a rooster to hold for them.

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Wow that's a neat trip.
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Thanks Pete, it is an amazing country that we have. I'm so glad I've been able to get out and explore a bit of it with gun in hand.

T
 
Looks like you had a great time. Pete obviously had a blast as well
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Hey Gregg, good to see you around. I hope all is well with you and yours in your bit o' heaven.

T
 
Coincidence? :) http://www.keloland.com/...il6162.cfm?Id=106408

Nice looking country out there. Don't have to worry about trees getting in the way of a good view.
I've never seen a porky in SD. They say they can show up anywhere here but I never see them. Bummer for Conan, hope it wasn't too bad on him.

Tim
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Nah, not a coincidence - there are dumbasses everywhere if I'm around or not :).

The porky was Conan's "minor" accident on trip. He "Alpo dogged" through a wire fence on the second day giving him a pretty serious gash that wasn't found until evening. It ended up being a PITA to keep it covered, clean and dry, it is healing up well now, but ugly from what I hear. The picture was after we removed about 75% of the quills, it wasn't a bad episode at all with only a few inside the mouth, but bad enough for me. I'm hoping that the incident covers Pete for his porky allotment in the Skunk-Snake-Porcupine trifecta.

T
 
Todd,
great pictures and looks like you had very good weather for the camping part.

Any duck hunting or is it not open yet?


Did you give up on the trailer that you had before as a viable way to do it?

What do you guys do about permission to camp. Is this all public access land?

How do the possession rules apply to a group hunting in state for multiple days. Do you have any issues with being in your truck as a camp and hunting on multiple days?


Again, thanks for the pictures. Corn or grassland, it is a national treasure to my eye. Looks like a rolling ocean of land. To have birds to hunt on it is just one more bonus.
 
Todd,
great pictures and looks like you had very good weather for the camping part.

Any duck hunting or is it not open yet?


Did you give up on the trailer that you had before as a viable way to do it?

What do you guys do about permission to camp. Is this all public access land?

How do the possession rules apply to a group hunting in state for multiple days. Do you have any issues with being in your truck as a camp and hunting on multiple days?


Again, thanks for the pictures. Corn or grassland, it is a national treasure to my eye. Looks like a rolling ocean of land. To have birds to hunt on it is just one more bonus.
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Thanks Bobbb, it was a fun time.

Trailer was more of a headache than it was worth for us, we sold it after our 2009 trip. A small hardside is where we will end up when we are too old to tent, but I don't really have a problem with tenting (other than no shower). I prefer a tent over the pop-up by 1000X.

Ducks were open, but SD has a restrictive lottery for non residents. There were ducks, but not all that many where we were.

All the land we hunted was public and camping is allowed. Camping is allowed on most Federal lands in the west (BLM, national forest and grassland, etc...), you may be limited to a certain distance from the roads, but it is wide open pretty much.

T
 
Wow, that looked like a super trip, just curious, how many chickens did ya'll see? great pics also.
John
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Thanks John it was a lot of fun. As far as chicken numbers, I saw a whole lot more than I did in KS last year!!!
 
That was neat Tod, thanks for posting your trip. I've driven across the prairies at least 3 dozen times now and often wondered what hunting them would be like. I managed my first sharptail a couple of weeks ago, but in a VERY different habitat. A very unique bird for me, being used to ruffies and spruce grouse in my area.

I reckon I'll have to get a couple friends together and do something similar on the Canadian prairie next year, looks super fun.
 
I always enjoy great posts like this one to get me psyched up for my season. Posts like this one are why I enjoy this site.
 
Hey Tod, why exactly was it that you didn't like the pop-up? Your photos from that trip you took with it inspired me to look at doing something like that down the road? With the pop-up, it seems you were able to take along a lot more of your toys. Trip.
 
Looks like a great hunt! Too bad about the porky those quills sure are a pain in the a@# to get out of a dog. Thanks Tod for sharing.
 
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