South Dakota rocks!

Had a blast in South Dakota a couple of weeks ago with Bucket and other buddies. It was my first time back there, and all the stories are true. I've been hunting pheasants since I was 5 years old (with a BB gun of course!) in Ea. WA, and I literally saw more birds the first day than I've ever seen in 37 years combined!

The first day we were done in 45 minutes:



We got into some awesome Honker shooting too out of Final Approach blinds....Here's Bucket with a couple of them bad boyz:


Best part of the whole deal was getting to take a 14-month old Lab back there and seeing him hunt and retieve and improve everyday:



Total for the trip was 100 ringnecks and 38 geese and memories that'll last a lifetime!

Nice post, bud.

Glad you had a good time SIR FEAR! Maybe next year we can do it again, and add in the river trip! By the way that "5-7" to you.
Ya what Sol said also.

Sol's got it right though "a shotgun is a fishermen's worst enemy".....it's damn tough to shoot birds AND fish. Sure wish we could take sabbaticals every October through January....

I'm workin on it!!! (at least that what my partner say's)

Right on man. Sounds like you had a good time.

I bet your dog got spoiled with all those birds though. He's gonna be begging to go back every year. From the looks of it, I'm sure you'll be more than happy to oblige.

BennyBlack: There's so dang many birds back there, I think you could teach a Saint Bernard to hunt!

Definitely hope to go back, but that 22-1/2 hour drive is killer!

Looks like someone hasn't hunted behind a field bread cocker before.

Check out the pictures at the site below. There are at least 2 FB cockers there. See if you can pick them out. By the way there is a pic of me and one of my dogs there also (couldn't get out of the way of the camera fast enough).

http://wwessc.org/

BW spanked ya there NOFISH.
I had a springer once that hunted ducks!

I know a guy in the club that hunts ducks with his. Have not tried it with mine yet.

BW: My bad, edited the post, hope you don't know of any Saint Bernards that pheasant hunt!

Bucket: Bugger off, dude, Sol's got all kinds of topics going on the other Board, go bug him! At least *I* posted a report of the trip!!!

Wow, we were just having fun. No offence intended.

However it is sad that so many of these dogs have been bread for show in stead of what they had originally been intended. They are truly great hunting dogs.

But then I had hoped the smilly faces would have let you know there was at least a little humor involved.

No offence taken BW, if I wasn't so lazy I would have clicked on the "full reply" so I could add the icons I should have thought out my statement better....I almost said "poodles", but I saw a guy about 10 years ago hunting with one of those!

I was just ticked off at my buddy Bucket since he is going fishing tomorrow and I can't

BTW, that is a cool group to belong to, looks like a lot of fun! Nice Website!

NOFISH, your true loyalty show though in your avatar.

I had a springer trained to duck hunt about 6 years ago, unfortunately she was gunshy..

We thought about trying to break her of the shyness, but she was getting fairly old anyways and decided to let her retire.. Oh well, the lab works just dandy.

Very nice report

That must be doggie heaven!!!

You'd be a welcome addition next year Stam!!!

You got a problem with that??

Man, I need more money...and less kids....

Nice hunting, gentlemen!

Just give up a few fishin days Michael and you too can join us!!

We're gonna have to rent a Greyhound Bus and a Holiday Inn next year Bucket at the rate you're going

Did you guys book with an outfiter or just drive over and ask permission? I keep thinking a SD trip needs to occur and have the gear and guys to do it.

I would just love to hear that some other folks can make the "ask permission" thing happen.

We went with a guy who has been doing the trip for 10 years.....from what I gathered, a buddy of his took him 10 years ago, he got introduced to a local farmer who lines up the private properties to hunt.

I was suprised to see how much "walk-in" land there was: SD Game Dept. pays farmers so much an acre to open it up to the Public. I really didn't see that much pressure on these lands (mostly CRP grass), and I'm sure a guy could find a map of these lands and maximize his hunting.

If I was doing it solo, I could see where it would take a couple of years to get to know an area and maximize the opportunity, but damn it's a long haul to drive back there just to figure it out....I really lucked out this year having good friends that do it and invited me along

So whats up with you NOFISH, I'm a good friend now?