Havelockspartacus

I am going to go pheasant hunting the weekend after Halloween. I am from Wisconsin and I need to decide where. I am under the impression that Iowa has little public hunting grounds, therefore, I thought I would head out to Mitchell SD. Any information would certainly be appreciated.

Jon

gselkhunter

I looked at all the possibilities, and came to the conclusion that North Dakota is the best deal. Lots of walk-in properties, lots of birds and you can hunt all day for Pheasants. They also have Sharptails and huns. The place that I hunted was around Dickinson, great time. I would go back without question, but I can't go this year.
Gselkhunter

Roost em 1st

I've never hunted either state but have hunted around its border states. The license system in SD i'm not a fan of. I like to hunt maybe only 10-15 days but usually in 3 day spurts over long weekends. From the way I read it you can't do that in SD or ND it seems after checking about it this year. Iowa doesn't seem to have the public grounds as you've stated. Both Nebraska & Kansas have lots of public access but may be further than you would travel. If you're only going once this year I'd say SD or ND would be nice. I hear you can get permission on private land in ND by knocking on the door. Flying through ND this week most of the hunters I met hunted private grounds by simply asking. I hear its tougher in SD. I would rather hunt he whole day which limits you to ND when deciding between the two dakotas. Lots of ducks in ND right now, maybe you could do a combo hunt. I wouldn't want to travel all that way to SD and have my limit after walking one field. I've got too many dogs to work and enjoy walking the whole day for my limit. Iowa may work but the crops may still be in the field. Of course South Iowa has quail and that can be a lot of fun when you find em.

young_gun

gselkhunter, where abouts by dickinson did you hunt? i have alot of family land up there that my dad and brothers try and hunt atleast once a year. theres a ton of birds up there.

gselkhunter

We hunted south and west of town. All walk-in, they call it plots program. Go to HD fish & game home page, go to general info, go to maps, go to plots guide and pull up map #5&11. South of Dickinson about 13 miles on 22, then head west. There is a good cluster of properties in that area. I had a real good time in there. Also we came in on 85, 5 miles up from the start of Stark county[south end] is the first plots land, west side of road, don't over look it. When you hit the north end of that property turn east and look for the church. Make sure you hunt the souh side of that quarter section. It doesn't look like much from the road, but I killed a limit of pheasants in that field in about an hour. And two Sharptails also. Good luck if you get up that way. Let me know how you do.
Gselkhunter P.S. it was a12 hour drive from Colorado Springs, CO and it was worth it.

young_gun

yah, my family has alot of land up there, south of dickinson by new england i do believe. its 8 hours from here or so, but its a blast evertime we go. my brother went with my dad 3 yrs ago and came back and told me that there were some fields that so many birds got up that it practically blocked out the sun. i figured he was full of poo, but when we all went up i found out for my self. its crazy that you can hunt from sun up till sun down up there though.

gselkhunter

Like I said, I can't go this year, BIG BUMMER. But the plan is for opener for out of staters next year. The good part is Kansas opens in 3 weeks and the bird counts are up. I will be there with my 9yr old for his first pheasant hunt. Life is good, my dogs are ready, can't ask for much more.
Gselkhunter

Viking_hunter

Havelock: I live and hunt in Iowa. Today was our opener and it was rainy and windy. Not much luck, and the crops are still in. However there are both lots of birds and lots of public land to hunt. The area around Spirit Lake Iowa has over 10,000 acres of public land. It's all clearly marked with signs designating which areas are state owned land open to public hunting. Be advised however, that most of the areas are designated as waterfowl production areas and require the use of steel or non toxic shot. There is decent duck and goose hunting as well since it's part of the prarie pothole region. The migration hasn't gotten started yet, but any week now and things will be going strong. This area is also shown by the Iowa DNR to have the highest pheasant population in the state. There is acres and acres of upland cover as well as small potholes and several lakes. Go to Iowa DNR and check it out. It may not be the "Holy Grail" for pheasant hunting like South Dakota, but you can hunt the whole year on your non-resident license, unlike South Dakota.

drgildy

Being from SD I can tell you that if you ask enough places you may find a place to hunt here. Like one out of twenty places. The big money boys have bought or leased most of the worthwhile places to hunt in SD and at $100 bucks a day and up I have given up hunting pheasants except on public land. The public land in some areas here does have pheasants but they get hunted hard so a lot of them get pushed onto the private land.