My buddy and I flew from CT to SD to do just what you are going to do in November two years ago. I've traveled many times with both handguns and rifles/shotguns, even into Canada. I've decided that the best way to deal with that is to ship them to my outfitter. I assume you've contracted with someone out there like we did. Contact them and ask if you can ship 'em to him. Guys do that all the time. The last thing you need to experience is the loss of your luggage. Don't think it can happen? It's happened to me twice; once when going hunting and once for a Camp Perry competition. I was never so pissed and, while I did them them finally, it was a struggle. So, ship your shotguns out there. When you arrive at the airport, plan on stopping at the huge Cabela's out there and pick up your shot shells and also get your permits. There will be people designated just for that purpose waiting for you in the hunting department. There are a LOT of guys hunting there, believe me. The Cabela's will be on your way, I believe.
Now, regarding the spectacular hunting that we were supposed to experience, we were sorely disappointed.
We got there really expecting to limit out every morning and even made arrangements with a local fella to have the birds cleaned and made ready to ship in coolers that we would purchase locally. Everything we’ve ever seen or heard about pheasant hunting in SD was almost surreal so we had high hopes. We could not have been more wrong.
What happened two years ago is that they had a very wet Summer and the simply humungous, titanic sized harvesters that they use there could not get into the fields. I’m talking machines that look for all the world the size of small battle ships on the horizon. So, the fields went late into the winter to dry out or freeze before they could be picked. Gigantic slews of corn and some type of bean were in the fields, then, and the pheasants didn’t feel like foraging for food where they normally go because they had a buffet right there. Typically this is NOT the case and before the season starts, the crops are down. The birds are in the grass foraging, not the surrounding fields. We hunted over 50 private acres, too. There were thousands of them hidden in those crops that we could not go into. We could hear them clucking in there and once and a while one would fly out but right back in.
In total, honest to God, we got two shots off in five full hunting days. We were devastated but our experience wasn’t unique. The wet weather also affected the population of chicks and they didn’t do well, either. We heard through the grapevine that the locals were keeping this info under their hats because pheasant hunting is a gigantic tourism market for them and without it, the place would dry up.
I would call your outfitter and ask him when they harvested their crops last fall. Did it go into November? As him is they’ve had a wet year again. We never thought to ask out outfitter how the shooting was because it was always advertised as spectacular. So don't be afraid to ask him honestly if they had a good shoot because we wasted a couple thousand dollars just to traipse around the tall grass, avoiding prairie dog (VERY dangerous as you can break your leg) holes and enduring the very, very cold weather working up a sweat for many hours hauling my shootin iron around like an anchor. We would typically walk at least three miles without kicking up one bird…….and we had dogs with us, too!
I sure hope you’ll have better luck than we did or everyone else who was there that time. One group of about 9 guys we met ended up “pushing” the birds with a skirmish line technique. They would walk within arms-length of eachother and push any birds forward to a shooter on the other side. We didn’t have enough people for that and we both feel that that’s unsportsmanlike anyway. Even then they said they only got a few birds. It was a very tough year!
Good luck! Email me if you need any other info. I’d be happy to share.
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