AAA Pheasant Heaven - Presho SD Warning

[Maz]

AAA Pheasant Heaven in Presho SD double booked our date. We HAD been going there for over 10 years. The owner said WE had to leave. We had email sand texts proving our reservation which was made in February 2023. The owner did nothing to help us. he did refund our deposit but not our expenses. we had folks come from WV, FL, IA, SD and OH. The owner waited until we were in the field the first day of our hunt to text us and tell us we had to leave, didn't have the balls to tell us face to face or apologize, complete P___y!


We reached out to Allen's Hillside in Chamberlain, Gary was able to salvage our trip and we had two days of awesome hunting, limiting out in 2 hours each day. Gary, Mike their staff and his guides are awesome. From now on we will always book with Allen's Hillside and Gary.

 

[Donjuan]

Were they planted or wild birds?

 

[KurtR]

Were they planted or wild birds?

Coming from as far as they did I bet they don’t care

 

[Maz]

Wild birds.

 

[LongWayAround]

Glad you were able to salvage your trip. I was just around there and we shot a bunch too.

Lots of those places "supplement" their wild birds. Pretty hard to run guys through the same food plots every day and shoot tons of wild ones.

We ate dinner at a fancy spot one night where they boasted of an absurd number taken by their hunters this season.

 

[Donjuan]

Wild birds.

Awesome. Thanks

 

[roosterdown]

Our annual SD group is from eight US states plus two other countries...average 'distance to pheasant camp' is almost 1500 miles.

We'd be pretty steamed if that happened. Sorry you had to deal with crappy humans.

 

[jmez]

In Presho they would have been released birds. They don't have many wild pheasants left. A lot of grouse.



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[Sam Colt]

Don’t know about these places, but many places are using Surrogators now. Technically not wild birds, but they behave and fly differently than pen raised birds.

Chicks are placed in the Surrogator in the field at 1 day old. They grow up outside. Sadly, only 1-3% survive the year, but a healthy surrogates population makes for good hunting.

 

[yfarm]

Marketing of the surrogator by WMT differs from published research on the device, https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1391&context=nqsp. While I agree that earlier his birds seemed to be midway between wild and pen raised, more recently the birds on his hunting operation are much less dispersed leading me to think he had abandoned using the surrogator on his own properties. 4 years ago he told me he was releasing 15k chicks on 12k acres in 3 separate releases over the summer. Do the numbers if you have 8 hunters shooting limits once or twice a week on each parcel, let alone if hunting frequency increases.
From a practical standpoint, a commercial hunting operation harvesting 30 birds every fourth day off the same land has no option but to use pen raised birds.
OSU did a controlled study on 200 acre plots with quail, one with predator access and one without which dovetails with the San Marcos study. Chick survival is most dependent on predator control, rattlesnakes for eggs, coyotes for birds. If you enjoy bird hunting, winter coyote hunting should be a hobby you take up.

 

[KurtR]

I dont know of any one using the surrogators up here. I know in the mid 2000's during the hay day we never had to use pen birds and we were running groups 5 days a week also had 10000 acres that we hunted so could leave stuff to rest and load back up. As numbers dropped birds had to be planted to supplement. I can tell you this over 15 years of guiding never once did a client complain and say this is a pen raised bird. Hell very few could even tell the difference. This want a fancy high brow operation most of the groups have been coming for years and its there once a year vacation to have a good time hang out with family and friends and getting to shoot birds and watch the dogs work was a bonus.

As for predators coons are our biggest problem. I have been putting out nesting boxes for ducks and trapping the hell out of the coons around a piece of water and for this small little sample size we have seen both an increase of duck and pheasant hatches

 

[yfarm]

Son hunted a commercial operation near Sublette Ks where you had to kick at the bird to get it to fly, worst example I have seen. We hunt further east now, aside from birds being aggregated in one part of the parcel, they seem to hold better before flushing than the wild pheasants I’ve hunted in Iowa for 60 years.

 

[twodogs]

AAA Pheasant Heaven in Presho SD double booked our date. We HAD been going there for over 10 years. The owner said WE had to leave. We had email sand texts proving our reservation which was made in February 2023. The owner did nothing to help us. he did refund our deposit but not our expenses. we had folks come from WV, FL, IA, SD and OH. The owner waited until we were in the field the first day of our hunt to text us and tell us we had to leave, didn't have the balls to tell us face to face or apologize, complete P___y!


We reached out to Allen's Hillside in Chamberlain, Gary was able to salvage our trip and we had two days of awesome hunting, limiting out in 2 hours each day. Gary, Mike their staff and his guides are awesome. From now on we will always book with Allen's Hillside and Gary.

That had to be a huge hassle, to say the least. Out of curiosity, did he say why you had to leave? Was he saying you didn't have reservations? Stinks regardless.

 

[dtrkyman]

I was guiding deer in SD two years ago, saw several loads of birds being hauled down the road, was surprised but after seeing all the hunters in the area I guess it became necessary.

 

[jmez]

Very few commercial operations aren't releasing birds.

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[bradyhunt]

Very few commercial operations aren't releasing birds.

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This x1000.

Ignorance is bliss for most guys going on guided bird hunts in SD. They just assume birds thrive in bare dirt rowed corn and Milo with more spent shotgun shells than weeds on the ground! Oh and 95% of the birds are roosters

 

[KurtR]

Every pheasant any one shoots is released it’s how they got here from china.

 

[2ski]

Oh look guys. Another newbie hear to complain about am outfitter. I sooooo believe them when then do that. (Sarcasm font)

Weird how he's been going there for 10 years and got kicked off the place. Must've not been that great of client I guess? Valuable client you would think they'd be accommodating. I'm wondering if these guys weren't being safe or something. And being double booked was the excuse.

Edit to say I looked at your 6 posts and I'll give you that the first one was in 2016. But since you're infrequent I look forward to your indignation in 2 years when you come back!

 

[spur60]

Were they planted or wild birds?

Allen's Hillside hunters have shot around 1500 roosters already this season. You decide.

 

[ladogg411]

Most guys don't register as a preserve.

They sell you a hunt and tell you they are wild birds. VERY few operations are NOT supplementing their wild birds with $20 birds.

The operator goes to the preserve and buys $20 birds to release in his tree line right by his house. Where he knows the local kids are less likely to ditch hunt his investment.