[cy912]

mr. cy912,
as a kid (late 1960's) hunting near waterloo, ia--literally--the new (then) john deere engine plant loomed the next field over..
three of us plus two excellent german short-haired pointers stepped into a small slough and as the air filled with roosters, i remember my dad saying..."bob, watch this very closely, you will never see anything like it again".

dad and his buddy estimated over a thousand wild ringnecks darkened the sky that morning.

dad was right, i have never seen anything like it since.

but i have friends who hunt sd every season who regularly tell me of seeing mass flights of pheasant.

bob

That would be a sight to see. Heck I grew up hunting released birds in PA and saw 3 flush at the same time & thought that was a rare sight to see with the amount of hunting pressure they get up there. I can't imagine what a hundred would sound like when they took off.

 

[Brush Bux]

It was a big slough with nothing but cut corn all around. Every day we would take turns posting a spot we thought they might try to get out of and others would walk through. The number of birds getting up was just amazing to someone who only hunted them in Michigan where 2 in the same field was reason for excitement.
Bird numbers are definitely down, but hopefully a good spring and you will have some to chase around. Still the best place to go for a quality Ringneck hunt from what I can tell. Spots in ND, KS & IA may be close, but they seem to be isolated.
Temper expectations and enjoy the adventure, bad day hunting is still better than a good day at work!

Hunted Sioux Falls in late October. Not a lot of birds per square mile but we hunted all private land and killed birds. My best advice to you would be to call UGUIDE services up there next year to ask about the corn. If there is still standing corn, you're going to have a hard time killing birds. They will hide in the corn all day. Best to hunt SD when 80% or more of the corn is taken out before you go.