So I was invited on a trip to Pierre SD for four night stay and three days of pheasant hunting at the Scattergun Lodge. This was a bucket list hunt for me and a buddy and I will be back as soon as funds replenish. An incredible 5 star lodge with a daily 7 bird limit ( they release hundreds of awesome flight pen raised birds before the season to supplement the wild bird population). The lodge sits on it's own 3000 acres of rowed milo fields, just a few minutes to drive to the killing grounds. They hunt Labs (28 of them) all trained by Tom Dokken and they were outstanding in the field. The lodge is all inclusive and provides proffesional chef produced meals three times daily, an open fully stocked bar, wobble trap range, 10 station sporting clays, all the ammo you can shoot and they even clean your gun. The rooms are immaculate and the lodge cozy with spotting scopes in the sitting room to view the massive whitetail deer roaming the prairie.
We arrived at the lodge on Wednsday and were immediately fed lunch of pork ribs and homemade mac n cheese. Four more hunters arrived later that evening and we were treated with a Prime rib dinner with all the fixings. After making a dent in the bar, it was hit the sack for the first days hunt.
Waking up on Thursday, it was in the low 20's and light snow. Awesome, as this is what we wanted to hunt in. We were fed a nice hot breakfast then hit the trap range at 9:00am for a warm up, then into the shuttle for a ride to the fields. Two dogs, two guides, five hunter/walkers and one blocker. The birds jumped up and flew great proving to be quite a challenge to shoot while bundled up with layers. The 6 of us knocked down 42 Roosters and were back in the lodge in time for another amazing lunch followed by more wobble trap and cocktails until another incredible dinner was served.
Day two (Friday) was very cold, in the teens and still snow on the ground from the day before. A repeat of the day before had us back in the lodge at lunch time with another 42 birds down. After lunch, we were all humbled on the sporting clays course of course this was followed by more cocktails and glassing deer. A couple of us drove around the 3000 acres and glassed many trophy 10 + point bucks. The deer opener would be Saturday morning and the lodge owners wife was to take one of these beast as she has every season for the last 15 years. (she took all the animals mounted in the lodge herself)
Day three (Saturday) was warmer, snow melted and ground dry, but the wind came up, blowing 20-30 mph. Made working the birds a bit harder and took us an extra hour to limit as the birds held tight in the rows of cedar trees along the fields seeking shelter from the wind. We still managed our limits, then went back to the lodge for more food and beverage. The lodge owners wife Sheila had been in her blind most of the day, but did not see the buck she wanted. We made arrangements with the lodge to ship our cleaned birds via fed ex and settled in for stories and major league cocktails as we would be leaving in the morning.
This was not a cheap trip, but for what we were treated to, I would say the price reflects what you get. The whole experience was like nothing I have ever done and I will be back.
We arrived at the lodge on Wednsday and were immediately fed lunch of pork ribs and homemade mac n cheese. Four more hunters arrived later that evening and we were treated with a Prime rib dinner with all the fixings. After making a dent in the bar, it was hit the sack for the first days hunt.
Waking up on Thursday, it was in the low 20's and light snow. Awesome, as this is what we wanted to hunt in. We were fed a nice hot breakfast then hit the trap range at 9:00am for a warm up, then into the shuttle for a ride to the fields. Two dogs, two guides, five hunter/walkers and one blocker. The birds jumped up and flew great proving to be quite a challenge to shoot while bundled up with layers. The 6 of us knocked down 42 Roosters and were back in the lodge in time for another amazing lunch followed by more wobble trap and cocktails until another incredible dinner was served.
Day two (Friday) was very cold, in the teens and still snow on the ground from the day before. A repeat of the day before had us back in the lodge at lunch time with another 42 birds down. After lunch, we were all humbled on the sporting clays course of course this was followed by more cocktails and glassing deer. A couple of us drove around the 3000 acres and glassed many trophy 10 + point bucks. The deer opener would be Saturday morning and the lodge owners wife was to take one of these beast as she has every season for the last 15 years. (she took all the animals mounted in the lodge herself)
Day three (Saturday) was warmer, snow melted and ground dry, but the wind came up, blowing 20-30 mph. Made working the birds a bit harder and took us an extra hour to limit as the birds held tight in the rows of cedar trees along the fields seeking shelter from the wind. We still managed our limits, then went back to the lodge for more food and beverage. The lodge owners wife Sheila had been in her blind most of the day, but did not see the buck she wanted. We made arrangements with the lodge to ship our cleaned birds via fed ex and settled in for stories and major league cocktails as we would be leaving in the morning.
This was not a cheap trip, but for what we were treated to, I would say the price reflects what you get. The whole experience was like nothing I have ever done and I will be back.
