Time to start thinking about Phesant Hunting

P

Patrick Graham

Moderator
I go Pheasant hunting every year in South Dakota. I've been doing it since I was 14, I'm now 52. I usually wait until November to go and avoid the initial rush of hunters in October. I usually just hunt Hand county, Hyde county and the Crow Creek Indian Reservation. This year I'll be using a plain old Mossberg 500 with a modified choke. I'll be using 2 3/4 inch #4 shot, non-magnum. It's a light gun and I'm getting old.

I'll be hunting with Stanley Wellner He'll be guiding and driving. He's local, he knows everybody and Pheasant hunting is his "thing". He has good dogs and that helps a lot later in the season. We'll be hunting private, public and Tribal land.

If you would like to schedule a hunt and a place to stay call Stanley Wellner at 605-245-2230. Leave a message and he'll call you back on his dime.

If you go there the 2nd and 3rd week of November we'll be hunting together.

[This message has been edited by Patrick Graham (edited August 25, 2000).]
 
Patrick, just out of curiousity what is the cost for a hunt out there ? How many days and what are the accomidations like ?
 
Give Stan a call. The price depends on where you hunt, where you stay and how long you stay. If you hunt Tribal land you'll need a Tribal License along with an SD license.
 
START THINKING ABOUT IT??? Heck, I never stop!
I don't know if you've heard of some of the controversy currently surrounding this years season in SoDak. There has been a petition drive to reduce nonresident hunting, and currently the state Game, Fish and Parks Commission is working on a plan to open the season early for residents only. Petition organizers say that proposal is inadequate, and that the huge numbers of nonresidents need to be cut back.
I don't get up into SD too much anymore, do most of my hunting here in northeast NE. The hunting is pretty good here too, and I usually end up playing guide for some relatives.
The Pheasants Forever chapter that I belong to is once again planning a youth mentor hunt, in cooperation with Nebraska Game & Parks, to be held prior to the regular season. The day last year was a lot of fun and we had about 15 kids we took out. All had to have taken the hunter ed. course, and we had a couple of other short educational programs for them as well.

bergie
 
This is only the second time I've heard about it. Out of state hunters and class reunions are about the only income those small towns have. Towns like Miller, Highmore and Redfield would lynch the Game, Fish and Parks Commission if they did that.

Out of state hunters are the life's blood of that state.

The Tribes would never tolerate it. Out of state hunting (and the associated gambling) on the reservations is a big deal.

I never see anyone activley promoting any reduction in out of state hunters. In fact Cabellas has just build a mulit-million dollar store on I90 for out of state hunters and fisherman.
 
Bergie is correct about the proposal/petition being under consideration. The following is taken off the SD Game, Fish & Parks web page. In talking with all my relatives, there is a strong undercurrent growing for this, but it likely won't get passed, especially in an election year.

Snake
_________________________________________
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

DEPARTMENT OF GAME, FISH AND PARKS

A public Hearing will be held at the Cedar Shores Resort, Oacoma, South Dakota on September 11, 2000 at 2:00 PM to consider adoption, amendment and repeal of Rules pertaining to the following:

Amend ARSD 41:06:02:01; License forms.
Effect: Revises the location, manner, method, time, and cost (fee) for replacing certain hunting licenses and tags which have been lost, destroyed, or lost in the mail; and adds a new sub-section prescribing the method and circumstances in which certain persons will be authorized to issue a permit in lieu of a nonresident small game license to certain nonresidents by permitting them to change the 5 day periods of hunt specified on their license without cost except for payment of the appropriate license agent’s fee.

Reason: The present procedures for issuing a replacement license for lost and destroyed licenses and changing the hunting dates for nonresidents hunting small game does not adequately address or accommodate affected persons.

The proposed rules may be modified or amended after the Hearing to include or exclude matters that are described in this Notice of Hearing. The Hearing may be continued from time to time until its business has been completed and may be rescheduled.

Interested persons will be given reasonable opportunity to submit data, opinions, arguments and their views, either orally or in writing, or both, at the Hearing. Any person unable to attend the Hearing may mail data, opinions, and arguments to the office of the undersigned in the Foss Building, 523 East Capitol, Pierre, South Dakota 57501, to be received prior to hearing date. Comments may also be sent by E-mail to scott.Carbonneau@state.sd.us. E-mail comments must include the commenter's name and address.

Copies of the proposed rules are available at the office of the undersigned in the Foss Building, 523 East Capitol, Pierre, South Dakota 57501. Handicapped persons may contact the undersigned for assistance.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

DEPARTMENT OF GAME, FISH AND PARKS

A public Hearing will be conducted at the Ramkota River Centre in Pierre, South Dakota on September 14, 2000 at 10:15 AM to consider adoption, amendment and repeal of Rules pertaining to the following:

1. Provide a NEW CHAPTER as ARSD 41:06:57; Resident Pheasant Hunting Season.

Effect: Creates a pheasant season in certain prescribed areas prior to the regular pheasant season open only to residents of the state. The NEW CHAPTER prescribes the opening and closing of the season, the areas open to hunting, shooting hours, daily bag and possession limits, license requirements, and eligibility of hunters.

Reason: Provide a resident only pheasant hunting season on certain public lands in advance of the regular pheasant season.

2. Amend ARSD 41:06; Youth Pheasant Hunting Season.

Effect: Modifies the length of the season, modifies those areas where hunting is permitted, and modifies the shooting hours and the daily bag and possession limit during the Youth pheasant hunting season.

Reason: Provides additional hunting opportunity. If the Resident pheasant hunting season is adopted by the Commission, differences may exist in the length of the season, areas permitted to be hunted, and the shooting hours and daily bag and possession limits between the Resident pheasant hunting season and the Youth pheasant hunting season which are open during similar periods of time. The proposed rule changes are an attempt to provide consistency between the seasons.

The proposed rules may be modified or amended after the Hearing to include or exclude matters that are described in this Notice of Hearing. The Hearing may be continued from time to time until its business has been completed and may be rescheduled.

Interested persons will be given reasonable opportunity to submit data, opinions, arguments and their views, either orally or in writing, or both, at the Hearing. Any person unable to attend the Hearing may mail data, opinions, and arguments to the office of the undersigned in the Foss Building, 523 East Capitol, Pierre, South Dakota 57501, to be received prior to hearing date. Comments may also be sent by E-mail to jeanette.gourneau@state.sd.us. E-mail comments must include the commenter's name and address.

Copies of the proposed rules are available at the office of the undersigned in the Foss Building, 523 East Capitol, Pierre, South Dakota 57501. Handicapped persons may contact the undersigned for assistance.

The above proposals are available in greater detail by writing to:

South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks
Attention: Jeanette
523 East Capitol Ave.
Pierre, SD 57501
 
Here is a copy of my email to the state.
_________________________________________

To start off, I am a former resident in the state, having grown up on a farm in Spink County. I have had the opportunity in the past to return for pheasant season, willingly paying the non-resident fee. However, if this proposal goes through and residents are given opportunity to harvest birds prior to non-residents, the state will have some real damage control to do.

Consider for a moment, you are an out of state hunter like myself from Virginia. After paying for airfare, rental vehicles, lodging and meals, not to mention the license fees, I have the opportunity to shoot at fewer birds that have already been hunted. Does the state plan to release birds between the resident and non resident season on these lands?? If success rates start to drop, or if the impression is that they are dropping, how long will it take for word to spread within the hunting community, influencing hunters to consider NE or IA as alternatives.

The real long term losers are the birds and the local businesses. First, the birds are stressed by the longer season and second if non residents don't come, revenues drop, meaning habitat development drops and Pittman funds drop as well. The businesses lose money if/when the non residents stay away. I'm sure a company like Cabela's must be concerned that they just invested in opening a store in Mitchell and now the number of visitors may be impacted.

The state is already losing out on potential revenue from non resident east river deer hunters, since non residents aren't allowed a shot at a license until the residents have had 2 opportunities. I don't think the state can afford to lose out on any revenue.

Thank you for your time.

Brad D. Mason
9825 Kingsrock Lane
Mechanicsville, VA 23116
(804) 569-9385
 
Nobody in Hand county would support it. Unfortunatly, of all the people I know out there only two are registered to vote (my parents). Let's hope this sturs some voter registration activity in those little towns.

Well, I'm off to compose an e-mail to the SD Game fish and parks.

Brad, your e-mail message is great. Can I use it as a template for mine?
 
Here's mine
......................
RE: ARSD 41:06:57; Resident Pheasant Hunting Season

Any changes in the quantity and quality of pheasants available to non-residents will reduce the number of out of state hunters.

I was born and raised in Miller, I return every year as a non-resident hunter for Pheasant season. If this proposal goes through and residents are given the opportunity to harvest birds prior to non-residents there will be fewer birds for non-residents to hunt. Those birds that are left for non-residents will be spooked and harder to get. If non-resident success rates start to drop, or if the impression is that they are dropping, it won’t take long for word to spread within the hunting community, influencing hunters to consider Minnesota, Nebraska or Iowa as alternatives.

Right now South Dakota has the best Pheasant hunting in the world, I hope that you will continue to let non-resident hunters take advantage of it.

Patrick Graham
1301 Council Court
Kokomo IN 46902
(765) 453-9481
 
Patrick, good email. Hopefully enough people will get their attention. Not sure where Gov. Janklow stands on this issue, but it's a political land mine back there. Most guys already charge trespass fees back there, so more and more people may be driven to these public lands to hunt.

Good luck with your hunt. You'll have to let everyone know how it went.

Brad
 
Thought I'd pass on the final outcome of the early season opening proposal. Patrick, hopefully this should be good news to you on your upcoming hunt!
________________________________________

EARLY RESIDENT PHEASANT SEASON FAILS TO PASS

PIERRE – Proposals for an early, resident-only three-day pheasant season and for youth pheasant season modifications were recently rejected by South Dakota’s Game, Fish and Parks Commission.

Department Game Management Specialist Ron Fowler said a 4-2 vote in favor of the early season killed the proposal, as five favorable votes were needed to pass it. Modifications for the youth season were also rejected. Thus, the 2000 youth and regular pheasant seasons will stay as originally set.

"South Dakota’s youth pheasant season will be open Oct. 14-15, one week before the regular season," Fowler said. "The daily limit will still be two rooster pheasants with a possession limit of four. Shooting hours will be noon to sunset, Central Time, statewide."

Resident and nonresident youths must be 12 (must turn 12 by December 31) through 15 years of age, possess a valid Hunter Safety Certificate and be properly licensed to hunt small game. Additionally, each hunter must be accompanied by an adult who is not carrying a firearm.

The regular pheasant season will open Oct. 21 as originally set. Hunters can begin at noon, Central Time, and hunt till sunset until Oct. 29, when hunters may start at 10 a.m. for the remainder of the pheasant season.

Three rooster pheasants are allowed daily with a possession limit of 15. Hunters are also reminded to wear at least one item of blaze-orange clothing for safety reasons.

For help, hunters can find the 2000 Hunting Handbook and Walk-In Area atlases at local Game, Fish and Parks offices. As well, pheasant information packets can be requested from the GFP website at www.state.sd.us/gfp/hunting/Applications/Gfpform.htm. Agents selling small game licenses can also be found online at www.state.sd.us/gfp/hunting/Agents/Index.htm.

-GFP-
 
You can't hunt till noon??? a daily limit of two?? Please tell me that the whole state isn't like that in regular season..In idaho you can get 10 a day and hunt dusk till dawn. But with three of us hunting, we never got close to our liit of 30. We dont have (hunting)dogs, so a four bird morning was rare.
 
BadMed - The 2 bird limit is only for the youth season which opens the week before the general season does. The limit is 3 birds per day per hunter for the entire general season.

As for the time the hunt starts, it only opens at noon for the first 8 days, after which it opens at 10:00 am. There are a couple reasons for this. One it allows the hunters to sleep in after a night of frequenting the local drinking hole(s), thereby helping the businesses. The second reason is that farmers really hate being interupted while they are doing their chores by guys asking for permission to hunt. The third reason is that it allows farmers to finish their chores and then take part in the hunt too. Besides, it's not hard to limit out in the right area in just a few hours, especially if you have dogs. A group of 18 of us had our 48 birds by just after 5:00 during the opener a couple years ago.
 
Cool
I hope our E-Mails has something to do with the outcome. I'm getting ready to go pheasant hunting as we speak. I'll be out there from Nov 3rd to Nov 18th. I'll be using a Remington 11-48 for most of the shots. I found this gun lying in a field out there in 1964, someone had appearently ditched it when the game warden came along. We tried to find the owner but no one ever clamed it. In the areas where birds are really spooked I'll be using a Mossberg 500 with the first round a #6 the second round a #4 the 3rd round a #2 mag and the 4th round a #2 three inch mag. :)
 
:D I can't thank you enough for finding my, uhh, 11-48. Geeze, it's been years since I've seen that gun, must've been about, uh 1963, yeah, I uh, misplaced it. Just send it, postage paid, to:
3369 yeah right dr.
........
....... :D
 
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