Posted: 7/30/2007 5:41:18 PM EDT
| Hey, first of all, yes i am from minnesota but i thought i would get more help here. My father and i love to hunt prairie dogs. We just took a trip about a month ago and had a great time, however it was only for a day. Now my dad has heard that the state is helping farmers to poison them. If anybody has any information or would like to help me out to try to find a good spot to go hunting in south Dakota it would be much appreciated. |
| If you go just a little further, I read that the .gov is going to start poisoning p'dogs in Thunder Basin Grassland in Wyoming. It's public land too. It's a shame and a waste of tax payer money to poison when there are so many hunters wanting to do some shooting. |
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SD has a bunch of land they lease out to ranchers and they use the proceeds for schools, henceforth the lands are called school sectionals. Mostly they're west-river, alot by New Underwood. It's a bit of hit and miss, but I found some decent prairie dog sites out there. The state has a page for it the land. South Dakota School Land The ranchers can be a bit shitty. They try to tell you it's their land (it's not, and is open to walk-in recreation which inlcudes shooting any time). If they give you any trouble tell them to fuck off, have them call a GF&P officer, and go about what you were doing. They know damn well they have to let people walk on, they just don't like it. |
+1 And then the rancher bitches about all the prairie dogs he has on his lease. If he would let shooters know, he could control the problem for free. 
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The real kicker is these greedy ranchers charging $100 a hunter per day to be on their land. They make MONEY off of you helping them out (so to speak). We used to pack up some Iowa Chops (1in thick pork shops) and take them along to say "thanks" to the ranchers that allowed us to shoot. Now,... and it has been a few years due to the plague, personal schedules, and lack of public places to shoot, we walk away as soon as the ranchers start talking about "charging us" to shoot. Fug'um. The problem with Thunder Basin Nat Grassland is they got raped by the plague about 6 years ago and they cant seem to get rid of it. The story goes (according to the website) that they are ttrying to rid the area of the plague and THEN leave them alone.We'll see, I guess. |
I think you need to take a new approach. I grew up ranching in SD so I have seen the other side of this argument. Granted, there are more than a few ranchers that are assholes but telling one to fuck off only makes it worse for the next guy. The land that a rancher leases/rents might not belong to him but he is the one who takes care of it and invests his money into it. Some of the problems "responsible hunters" have caused for my dad include; cutting fences, destroying crops, littering, burning hay bales, and shooting cattle. A lot of the problems that you and I run into have been caused by irresponsible idiots. Always ask permission, be polite, be respectful and you may just find a rancher that will give you access to private land. FWIW We have had the same group of deer hunters on our land for 20 years. Edited for spelling and clarification |
Yes, and I have found that if you are respectful of the land, gates, etc., stop back after hunting and talk with the farmer/rancher .... they talk to thier neighbors and it's then very easy to get more places to hunt. I've gotten calls from landowners where they said they were talking to so and so and would like me to come out and call predators on thier farm/ranch as well. It's a little hard to get your foot in the door but once it's in, if you do a good job and show respect you're golden for pretty much that whole area |