2008 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Outlook Forecast - December

December 04, 2008 by Chris Hitzeman

If early season reports were less than stellar due to the crop harvest being severely hampered by fall rains and moisture, then the late season reports will reflect the true bird numbers now that better than 90% of crops across the state are out of the field. As of the opening weekend in SD only 14% of the corn crop was out of the field. Every week thereafter the harvest has been at least 50% behind the 5 year average. Every week now we see the hunting improve, the success rate go up and some of the early optimistic bird numbers are showing themselves in the remaining huntable acres. The strongest areas for high bird numbers are Aberdeen, Timberlake and Presho with Presho being the highest. Even the old,old,old-timers are stating that they have never seen hunting like this.