South Dakota Pheasant Hunting 12-01-2024

[@brianve7jyd943]

Nice job - ive been in sum pretty thick brambles and devils club but them cat tails look like a tangle mess to git thru thanks

[@lilbrowhydaw]

They sure can be. But they're thicker/denser/taller in a lot of places this year than I've ever seen them. We had tons & tons of rain in spring & early summer that really seemed to like.

[@southdakotacoyotehunter8553]

Awesome video!

[@UplandOhio]

Nice hunt & GREAT long retrieve by Ace! I like how you describe your tactics and what habitat you’re looking for. Very helpful. Thanks.

[@jnlnds]

Great hunt! Thanks for taking us along!

[@timwagenmanuplandadventure8270]

Great hunt Brent, I enjoyed seeing the strategy you put into it, it’s a big part of it in my opinion, what a beautiful day too!

[@fidiusjwhoopie]

ACE IS NUMBER 1,wow,great hunt

[@samsmith7150]

Nice work!

[@sun99149]

wow, the rooster was flushed so close. good job!

[@lilbrowhydaw]

@@sun99149 thanks for watching bro,,, that was a close one

[@sun99149]

@@lilbrowhydaw no problem, i enjoy watching your video.

[@gettinbirdy]

You may have missed the first bird hit on camera, but we got a beautiful slow motion eject of that purple shell. 😊 Beautiful hunt!

[@dougB4454]

How long does a pheasant live? I assume a 2nd year is fully mature and what tips you as a 2nd year?

[@lilbrowhydaw]

@@dougB4454 I think in general, most wild pheasants don't live through 2 winters. On private land that is rarely hunted & has perfect habitat, I suppose those odds increase somewhat. On public land around here, I think maybe 60-75% of the roosters I shoot are less than 7-8 months old, even at the tail end of January. The rest are less than 19-20 months old. It would be extremely rare for me to think a rooster where I hunt is in his 3rd hunting season. The first couple months of the season, it's relatively easy to tell the 1st year from 2nd year birds. 2nd year birds are bigger, 100% adult colored, have longer, sharper spurs, & generally longer tails. There's a more scientific method of comparing the outermost 4 wing feathers, but after the first couple months of the season, that method is moot. Come mid December or so, it gets increasingly difficult to tell 1st & 2nd year birds apart. Some people claim a 2nd year bird's beak is stiffer, but I don't bother testing that.

[@dougB4454]

@@lilbrowhydaw I like to hunt on sunny days with little wind. I was in SD about a month ago and was walking a ditch. One rooster flushed hard and I got a clean shot. Clearly a wild bird. Then another rooster popped out and just stood on the road looking at me. Clearly a pen raised bird and it looked very haggard. I pounded on the ground because I knew it would not fly and wanted one less pen raised. When I cleaned this bird it was disgusting. Very small breast, poor muscle, and grayer feathers. In human terms, an 80 year old pheasant. I knew the meat just didn’t look right, may have made me sick, and I left for the coyotes. The pen raised pheasants could potentially run from hunters for multiple years and never fly. This rooster was coyote bait and never would have survived the winter. Thoughts? Any similar experience?

[@lilbrowhydaw]

@@dougB4454 yuck. Yeah, they don't act anything like truly wild birds. Not even close. But no, I've never had a weird meat experience like that. Of the many, many public land birds I've shot, a grand total of 4 have been flare nares. 1 was an escapee from a nearby private operation. 3 had been released by a Pro Pheasants group for a youth hunt previously. When cleaned, they all seemed fine. Considerably more fat on them.

[@kenroos7263]

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF YOU BY A FEDERAL DUCK STAMP

[@lilbrowhydaw]

@@kenroos7263 I do. I rarely, rarely hunt waterfowl anymore (used to avidly), but I always want the option. But mostly it's one more way I can support wildlife.

[@chrismacdonald3568]

Stay right there, white cow 😂

[@lilbrowhydaw]

@@chrismacdonald3568 #cowwhisperer. Hey, you do what you can do in order to recover a pheasant. 🤷‍♂️ Somehow, as he often does, Ace knew exactly where it'd fallen. How an 18" tall dog can sense where a bird has fallen over 6' tall cattails 30 yds away always mystifies me. I wish I knew.