South Dakota Wild Pheasant Hunt II

 

 

       This was my second trip to Mitchell, South Dakota, and it was just much fun as the first one. We booked this trip way back in April of this year just to make sure that we (my hunting partner and I) would get a prime weekend to hunt for the fast flushing wild pheasant that South Dakota is famous for.

       Our trip was scheduled for the first weekend in November, and it couldn’t have been better except for the wind on the last day of our thee day hunt for the beautiful ring neck, wild pheasant.  I set my GPS for Mitchell S.D. and we were off. The drive there was also just very pleasurable; as there was no construction and the miles flew buy. It took about ten hours to drive I 90 all the way from our home near Chicago. We stayed at one of the many hotels in Mitchell, as it was only a short drive to our guide’s place. One word to the wise, if you are bringing your dog, be sure your hotel of choice knows this. Some have only a limited number of rooms that allow dogs.

       The first day was my best day hunting for wild pheasant as I was right on with my shots and went three for three. I wondered if I really needed the case of shells that I purchased at the nearby Cabelas. After that first day, I was brought back down to earth the rest of the trip though and realized that I was no Tom Knapp. Although I used up many more shotgun shells the second day I still managed to down three wild pheasant and my partner did the same.

      We walked row upon row of corn and the wild pheasant were flushing everywhere, some to far off to shoot at, but at least we knew that they were there. The smart ones were the ones that flushed early, as they were already wary of hunters. The ones that held tight were no easy pickings by all means but they gave us half of chance. We then moved into the high grasses and found that there were just as many wild pheasant hiding there as the corn but we were able to get a little closer to them before the thundering flush of a rooster surprised even our guide at times.

    On the last day we cut our hunt short to a half-a-day as we wanted to be back home that evening. We hunted a new area, on a new farm that our guide leases and we did not see as many birds flush early because it was very windy and they held tight and gave the dogs a chance to point them. During our walk through the field we startled a snoozing ten-point buck that nearly ran me over. He sounded like freight train crashing through the corn and I did not see him until he was about thirty feet from me. I am glad that he did see me and made a right turn out of the field. We both were able to get two wild pheasants that day and called it quits.

     We both were excited to think about coming again next year to try again for the fast flying, thunderous flushing, gorgeous colored wild pheasant.

               Thanks for your interest.      T.Smola    www.turkeyfinder.info 

               E-mail at   turkeyfinder@comcast.net

     P.S. check out these other websites...www.roosterpheasants.com ..........     www.worldrecordwhitetaildeer.com………….www.shootwhitetaildeer.com .........www.gunbroker.com