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megasupermagnum
10-25-2019, 08:46 PM
I have an up coming duck hunting trip, first ever to SD, and thought I was all set. That is until talking with another hunter about camping. In his view, SD doesn't allow ANY camping unless it's a campground with a reserved campsite. This is obviously impossible for a hunting trip. Prior to this, reading from the hunting regulations, it states that camping is generally allowed on most public land types unless posted prohibited. I sent an email, and quickly got a response that camping is NOT allowed on public lands, with no farther information. I then called the information phone number, and talking with the person there said just like the rule book that camping is allowed on most public land. In his words "there is no law prohibiting it".

So I'm at a crossroads. I planned motel stays in the budget just incase, but fully intended on camping all 6 nights near wherever I find the birds. Now, I am not going to show up to a slough and set up my huge 5th wheel and blare music. That isn't good anywhere. All I'm looking for is a place to sleep, either in the truck, or the tent/hammock. I can live without a fire, although I prefer it, I'm really just looking for a place to park overnight.

In MN we cannot camp in WMA, WPA, or WIA (maybe with permission from the owner?). The only other type of public land we really have is state forest, and there is a ton of it, you can camp as you please within reason. If nothing else there is always a trail head or parking area somewhere.

SD on the other hand has barely any state forest, but a million little bits of state land of many types. WPA, WIA, GPA, CREP, SPL, and quite a few other types. I'm betting I cannot camp in WIA, CREP, lands, and WPA is iffy. What about GPA, SPL, grasslands, or any other types?

GhostHawk
10-25-2019, 09:23 PM
First off whereabouts in SD?

There are some very good state parks.

We have when traveling more than once slept 4-6 hours parked in a back corner of a Walmart.

megasupermagnum
10-25-2019, 09:37 PM
I have no way to know exactly where, but I'll probably be in the north east 1/4 of the state. I was drawn for a tundra swan permit, and the area for that is east of the Missouri river, and north of a straight east west line of Sioux Falls. In particular, I'm looking at an area around Webster. The plan is to drive to Lake City, and head south, scouting along the way.

The parking lot gig really only works if you have a van, RV or camper. With state parks I'm sure you need a state window sticker, plus you are at the mercy of camp site availability.

I'm hoping to get away from people for a week, so I'd much rather camp old school, or rent a room if I really have to.

GhostHawk
10-26-2019, 08:10 AM
I hear you about camping old school. But I think it is a little harder to get away with than it was back when I was doing it.

Tail end of the 70's I did it in Zipple Bay State park opening weekend. Shinin times.

waksupi
10-26-2019, 10:53 AM
https://freecampsites.net/#!South%20Dakota&query=region

cheese1566
10-26-2019, 07:45 PM
Yep. Mostly federal lands (Black Hills and National Grasslands) west of the Missouri River are open to camp. But it’s still restricted in areas so check up first.

Most “public” hunting areas in SD are really private lands that the owner had given special restrictions to the State GFP Dept for game reproduction areas and designated walk in areas. If it’s posted “public xyz use” it probably has restrictions on use and especially where you can park, let alone drive. Best option is find your spot, and become friends with a private land owner,,,but chances are, he has already leased out the hunting rights years ago.
SD residents themselves have a hard time finding private places to hunt.

If I recall, the SD GFP website has a mobile app you can download giving the current open areas of hunting on a Google map. They also list the Conservation Officers and contact info in the printed hunting regulation booklets. 99% of the conservation officers here are friendly and will easily answer questions beforehand, rather than see someone get in trouble. Best to call the officer in the County or area you will hunt.

megasupermagnum
10-27-2019, 07:36 AM
Right. And after talking to two, one says a flat no, and the other says no problem go ahead.

waksupi
10-27-2019, 10:25 AM
I was hunting eastern Montana some years ago, and went to an area I was unfamiliar with. I went into the local courthouse to look over land ownership at the plat room. I kind of got the lay of the land and was outside the courthouse, when a woman came trotting out. She asked if I was looking for somewhere to hunt? I said yes, and she said she had a little place I could camp and hunt. It turned out her "little place" was 6000 acres.
It never hurts to talk to the locals.

megasupermagnum
10-27-2019, 01:54 PM
Absolutely, but I'm not banking on a kind person letting me stay. I simply want to know which types of public land or areas I am allowed to camp on, as that is my plan A.

garandsrus
10-27-2019, 07:11 PM
I have been duck and pheasant hunting in SD several times. Did you get their public lands book? They have one that is printed and shows the areas by county and is a wonderful resource. There is also an online map you can add to a GPS. I know it worked with my Garmin but don’t know what else works.

Link to public duck hunting areas: https://sdgfp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=eeb002e74a3246bd8c1306c963e80b1e
Here is a link to camping: https://gfp.sd.gov/camp/

In all the times we were there, the only place we saw other duck hunters was up near Watertown. We hunted a lot near Woonsocket and did well. Some years it is great and some years there aren’t many ducks around. The ponds can go from open to frozen over night. Timing the migration is really important to success there.

I love camping but not when duck hunting! It’s really nice to be able to start the day with all your stuff dry and warm. It will also get dark around 5pm so there is a whole lot of time that it will be dark. Temps could be in the 20’s when you wake up.

Most places won’t have much in the way of boat ramps so a canoe works well. Depending on the water level, a lot of ponds will be ringed with mud. We have seen the same pond go from bone dry to 5’ of water in a year.

Gewehr-Guy
10-28-2019, 06:50 AM
Not sure when you are coming to hunt, but temp is 18 this morning and going to stay in the mid 30's for highs for the next few days, so it might freeze up fast.

megasupermagnum
10-28-2019, 12:59 PM
I'll be leaving saturday morning. I'm not too worried about the temps. It's cold, but I'm not seeing anything that is going to leave the entire state iced up. We all know how it goes, I could be hunting in 60's next week, or maybe the 20's.

I do have the public land atlas, as well as an app for land owner plot maps.

I'm still not seeing anything definitive on camping in South Dakota. I read the hunting regulations again front to back. The best I found was "Camping is only permitted in designated areas". I could find no definition on what a designated area is, or what land has designated areas. The camping section of the SD GFP is even less helpful. Ignoring the leased private land, CREP, WIA, and CHAP, there is a huge list of public lands owned by the state. I am not seeing camping as being permitted or prohibited. Many of them say you can target shoot at them, which we can't do here in MN.

Maybe this is one of those cover your rear end instances? We have that here in MN plenty. Some places even say no overnight camping so they can't be sued, yet are used constantly at a camp area.

Maybe a better question is what is the penalty for camping on state owned public land if it's not specifically prohibited?

garandsrus
10-28-2019, 02:05 PM
Good luck! Please report how you did.

megasupermagnum
10-28-2019, 08:39 PM
I still have not got anywhere on specifics. To add on to the previously listed public lands, I've now found another type called public shooting areas, and they seem to be separate from the listed SD public shooting ranges. I cannot find any info on these areas online, yet there are many shooting areas in the eastern half of the state. I also cannot find anything allowing or prohibiting camping in public shooting areas or public shooting ranges.

It seems odd that SD would be so vague about camping when they are such a hunting and travel state. I sent another email to SD GFD, this time to the camping email, and asked about specifics on each type of public land.

The other option is to hunt the western half, which is covered in national grassland and BLM land, both of which clearly state camping is allowed. I don't see much water, and I'm not set up for field hunting though.

I could always go with Plan B, and sleep in a motel/hotel too. I'd much rather not spend that money, but it is there just for this circumstance.

garandsrus
10-28-2019, 08:55 PM
You would probably do well near Webster, which is in the North East. There is a lot of public hunting areas with water. Here’s a better map showing the various public hunting areas: https://sdgfp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=946eccdaadf84df6aa2bcf08e9fb1aaf

GhostHawk
10-28-2019, 08:58 PM
That Webster Britton area is very good, lots of little potholes, some larger lakes, lots of farmland, rolling hills.

megasupermagnum
10-28-2019, 09:06 PM
You would probably do well near Webster, which is in the North East. There is a lot of public hunting areas with water. Here’s a better map showing the various public hunting areas: https://sdgfp.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=946eccdaadf84df6aa2bcf08e9fb1aaf

That's my planned starting point, beyond that, I don't know where I'll end up. I have everything set except I am not finding clear answers on which public land I'm allowed to camp on around that area.

megasupermagnum
11-23-2019, 04:47 PM
It took me a long time to write this, as it was a lot to take in. It was a blast. I spent the whole week in SD from November 2nd-8th. The first day out I drove to Bristol, and turned south. I was seeing ducks everywhere! That next morning I went out on a slough parallel to a lake with a bunch of ducks on it. I had my limit in no time at all. And that's how it went for the next 3 days. Scout the evening, and limit the next morning in an hour or so. I tried a different spot every time.

I had high expectations for this trip. I was trying to keep things in perspective as everyone kept telling me it's not like it used to be. Even with high expectations, I was in awe at just how many ducks and geese there were. Everyone in MN always talks about the "old days" with duck hunting. Minnesota has NEVER at any point in my lifetime had as many ducks as South Dakota has now. I'm not kidding, every single bit of open water, no matter if it was a 200' wide pot hole, or a whole lake had at least some ducks. In Minnesota you can drive 30 miles and not see a single duck.

Beyond just ducks, I knew about snow geese, but had no comprehension of just how many there are. My first day there, I heard a constant roar, and decided to see what it was. It did not take me long to find a large field loaded from end to end with snow geese. A constant companion on this trip was the OnX app, which is a map of all public hunting lands, as well as private land owners and tax info, etc. Well this field was private land, and I couldn't find the owner. I would eventually find out that there was a field like this full of geese every 10 miles or so in any direction.

On the third day, after another limit of ducks, I found another field of snow geese. As I was checking them out, trying to get to some public land adjacent to the field they were in, I noticed another hunter was already doing the same. We got to talking, and I asked if he had seen any tundra swan, which is what I was really after. He pointed me to the Sand Lake game refuge. I stopped at the info center, and talked with a game warden. He was a very nice guy, and pointed me just north to Hecla. I had been eating ducks non stop, but still only managed to eat 4, so I did not duck hunt that morning. I was seeing swans all over Hecla, but all on the same guys, and his brother/relative's land. While looking for them, I came across a flooded CRP field full of mallards, and it was public land. I crawled out to the edge and quickly shot 4. I never did find the land owner, but hours later I did find a public field to hunt swan on. Ducks were so easy I didn't even look for them after the second day. I had been in swan hunt mode for 2 days, plus hours of trying to find a land owner all day. I came across another field full of swan, but noticed the other side of the road was public hunting land. And more, there was a harvested bean field that was also public! Before I even got out of the truck, there were swans flying both directions from the private land, over the public field, probably to the next private field I had been seeing them. I quickly set up my cardboard cut out decoys I had made, laid down flat in the grass, and not 10 minutes later a big swan came in low to check them out. One shot from my Ithaca Mag10 and it fliped over in the air, and really made a THUD when it hit the ground. All that work for a 10 minute hunt, but I was happy as could be. Definitely the highlight of the year for me.

I ate more ducks, and spent the next day after geese. I never did find that many canadian geese, about what MN had this year, which has not been many. I managed to pick off a few snow geese that came over a road, but those things seem like they can find the best private land to hide on. The last day out there was very cold with strong winds. I had 5 ducks I could kill, and went out on a lake. Since it was so windy, I didn't want to chance getting blown across the lake, I had to shoot them no farther than 15 yards out so that they landed in the calm spot. I only managed 3 this way. While loading up the boat, ducks were flying over the road. I got the shotgun out, and managed to get two. That's hunting in South Dakota, ducks everywhere!

I ended up covering most of the NE corner, and stayed in a different place every night. I never did figure out the whole camping situation, but went with the no harm no foul approach. The first night I slept in my hammock just off a road way back in somewhere. The next night I camped at the Amsden campground, that's a cool place to stay. The next night I camped in a GFP area, again I'm not sure if it is specifically allowed or not. Fourth night I camped at the Houghton city park. The Fifth I stayed at the Sunset Motel in Britton. By then I had to do laundry and shower. The final night I camped just off of a road again. Camping in a road right of way is legal, it's just a bit tricky to find a good area without farming.

You can bet I'll be back next year, and with snow goose gear. I may even try the spring season.

megasupermagnum
11-23-2019, 04:55 PM
This was a normal sight. In this case it was a flooded field full of mallards. Ducks were everywhere you looked.
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The normal haul, I shot a mix of ducks. The only ones I stopped shooting were ruddy ducks. Boy those are hard to pluck. We don't get those in MN.
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This is not the best picture, but fields like this were everywhere you looked. Filled from end to end with snow geese, with a tornado of them coming down. When they get up the roar is unbelievable. They block out the sun in the morning there are so many.
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And the highlight of my year, the tundra swan. Mine even had a yellow spot. I'm 6'5" about 320 pounds. That boat is a light, but average width 14' boat. It is definitely a big bird. Not as heavy as a turkey, but close in size.
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This is the simple spread I used. Just white cardboard. I cut them out by hand without any template, and painted the beaks. The stakes were just a stick with black duct tape to hold to the cardboard.
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megasupermagnum
11-23-2019, 05:03 PM
One of the most amazing revelations to me is that I've spent a large portion of my life in Alexandria, MN. At no point was I ever 3 hours away from there. It's like a light switch once you get about 20 minutes into South Dakota. It's like Minnesota has covered the entire state in duck repellent.

Hogtamer
11-23-2019, 06:21 PM
Outstanding and like your M.O.

Plate plinker
11-23-2019, 11:10 PM
Nice! SoDak is a great place for sportsmen.

garandsrus
11-24-2019, 01:49 AM
South Dakota is feast or famine when it comes to ducks. You had a feast! Congratulations. I have seen it both ways on my trips there.