The Chviruk's Pheasant Safari

After having watched a number of bird hunting shows on the Outdoor Live Network, Kevin and I along with our dog Cocoa took off for a week of travel, hunting, and overall a great time. It seems as though that a lot of folks in South Dakota are guides or outfitters so after searching the web we found one and made arrangements.

We drove out there and it was 1600 miles from Worcester and took us 2 days. A brief stop at Cabela’s in Mitchell and we headed South to Chamberlain where we met our guide and got settled in at the cedar lodge resort.

The resort was very nice and on the shore of the mighty Missouri River. We were going to be hunting for 3 days which is what most hunters do when they got out there.

The population of the pheasants there is unreal and the terrain is mostly flat with large fields of corn, milo, sunflower, and a lot of wild grasses that provide food for the birds year round. It is not unusual to flush a dozen birds at a time and as the season progresses they bunch up in greater numbers.

These are wild birds in every sense of the word. They would rather run on the ground than flush. Having said that, when you hunt them you use number 4 or 6 shot ammo to bring them down.

Even then at times when you hit them and they tumble to the ground, you don’t find them as even wounded they will run. I can speak from experience.

Hens are protected so the legal limit is three roosters per day per hunter. Hunting hours are from Noon to sunset. We had access to 10,000 acres and never saw another hunter in the three days we were in the fields. Mid-October is a great time to be out there and the afternoons were comfortable. Our birds were cleaned and frozen for us to bring home. We had a great time and look forward to returning this year!

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