Diamond A Ranch Pheasants By Gary Howey
Looking out of the window at the buttes above the ranch, I found it hard to believe that we were in the heart of pheasant country in south central South Dakota.
The scenery was breathtaking as were the facilities and the pheasant hunting that we were about to experience.
Diamond A Ranch is located just down the road from Gregory and the habitat on the ranch is ideal not only pheasants, but also deer and turkey.
On this hunt Gary Kubicek and Bill McPherson from Consumer Supply, Sioux City, IA, joined us.
Consumer Supply is the manufacturers of the Country Vet Dog food a balanced nutritional dog food that we’ve been using for years.
Also joining us on this hunt would be my brother-in-law Tom Janssen and Dr. Ken Bird from Omaha.
Our first walk would be a milo field just down the road from the ranch and any one who’s ever hunted knows: milo is an excellent food source for pheasants.
Since it’s a short crop it’s easy to hunt, work dogs and since it produces such thick heavy over head cover it’s a great place for birds to feed and loaf while and not have to be concerned with the eagles and hawks flying over head searching for an easy meal.
Both my Lab Mo and Tom’s Lab Gus worked the fields helping us locate and retrieve the birds, these along with the dogs the guide had, gave us excellent coverage of all types of areas that we’d be hunting.
No matter where we went, there was an abundance of birds; both hens and roosters indicating that there would be plenty of birds down the road.
On both days, we worked our way through milo, corn, grass and tree plantings, bagging our limits.
There were some really great shots made, like the long distance one that the Tom and several of the other guys made as well as several of those “in your face” shots where the pheasant, not realizing it was or should have been dead flew away unscathed!
After a day of fantastic pheasant hunting we had some fantastic meals, this along with the relaxing atmosphere and great accommodations made this trip one that we’ll all remember.
If you’re looking for a great place to hunt and relax, give Jim and Andrea Olson a call at 712-281-0968 or look them up on the web at DiamondAPheasants.com