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Road Hunting Law Upheld In South Dakota

S

Southdakotahunter

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Joined
Dec 8, 2005
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496
Location
Southeast rural South Dakota
Wow.....This should really get LB's dander up!!! :D

Anyway...The supreme court just upheld a law here in SD that allows road hunting. This is how it goes (pheasant country anyway, its ILLEGAL for biggame)

The hunter drives down the road and sees a rooster pheasant in the ditch and jumps out of the car/truck and the bird gets up and shoots it. The bird lands on private property and the hunter has to leave the gun and retrieve the bird unarmed. THe landowners were saying the AIRSPACE above their land was theirs and therefore they are trespassing. Keep in mind the bird legaly has to get up from the ditch right of way. If the bird gets up from their land, it is an illegal bird.

Now i am not a big backer of bailing out of a car with loaded weapons and shooting a bird but i have done it. What I really like about it is my dog and i can walk a ditch and shoot pheasants, especially in pheasant country where it is most all pay to hunt, and still have a good hunt. It is hard to find a place to hunt without forking out $$ and one or 2 guys and a dog can not cover big areas but ditches are perfect. THis has been common and actually a tradition since pheasnt hunting began here in SD and i am really happy it was upheld. My old man has done it for years and for the old people who cant get around much it still gives them the oppertunity for a hunt and it gets family and friends togather at times which is what hunting really is all about. :wink:

i am sure LB will get in on this as i am sure she feels the air about her pastures is hers also but she may not have much say on this either because she does not live in pheasant country, however you could also shoot a coyote, bunny, skunk, and such from the road without permission and that i think will still get her blood a boiling :mad: Ok LB...YOUR UP!
 
It is hard to find a place to hunt without forking out $$ and one or 2 guys and a dog can not cover big areas

I beg to differ. This is the only way my dad hunts and the only way he ever has... Northeast NE.

In Nebraska, road hunting is okay with a special permit. Ie, handicapped or old age. (Dad had one last fall after he had a motorcycle wreck)
 
I HATE road hunting. The people you talk about that actually get out and walk the ditches are few and far between. It seems road hunters are either hunting too close to buildings or livestock. The jump out and shoot mentality is terrible. I have seen it time and again where a car is parked in the middle of the road with the doors open on both sides. Next time I see that someone is going to be going home without a door. Also people are nororious for having their dogs cross onto private property and shooting everything that they flush up. For some things a few bad eggs spoil it for everyone. With road hunting I would say about 90% of the road hunters are "bad eggs".
 
Funny story on road hunting:

When we lived in SD, one of the guys on the ranch was driving down a county road one afternoon, popped over a little hill and saw a pickup parked in the middle of the road with both doors open. He only had time to swerve. Took the passenger door clean off the parked pickup. :lol:

When the road hunter tried to get damages from him, the judge just laughed.
 
Ya know, i do agree with most of your post BUT......the law says you must pull over as far a possible and the doors on the road side must be closed. Otherwise it is against the law and i would suggest you call the law. It is also illegal to be shooting from the road within 660 ft of any cattle or occupied dwelling/church/school and if that is happening the law should be called. i know its a pain in the butt but unless the law is called the perp will do it again somewhere else.

Its hard to keep a dog from going on the other side of the fence most of the time especially if it gets on a scent but the hunter must refrain from shooting if the dog flushes a bird on private ground.

Bad thing is the only way one can really get busted on that is if the landowner has it on video.

I dont know if i would say 90 percent are bad but i know there are a number that are.

I do know the state puts out reports of hunting accidents and very few are from road hunting. most are from hunting in large partys and getting in line with a shooter and the bird and the hunter takes some pellets. I have often wondered why i had to go thru an 8hr archery course and all im gonna hurt is myself if i fall out the tree compaired to any yahoo can come to SD, never ever held a shotgun in hand and get a license and start pheasant hunting. To me thats ash backwards. Oh well.
 
I know what I described is illegal but I see it all the time. I can only remember two times in my life where I have witnessed legal road hunting. Meaning people actually out walking a ditch. As far as it being an opportunity to hunt for older or disabled hunters I would say that if they hunt with a group and get to be a blocker they will see ten times the shoooting without ever having to walk a bit.
I live next door to a hunting lodge. All their pen raised pheasants walk over to my yard and people are always shooting in front of my yard. Dang pen raised birds won't even fly so they have to ground pound them. Thats real hunting there. They might as well shoot someones chickens.
 
how come you dont call the law SDSTEVE? Turn them in! thats all that it will take. The legal ones will appreciate it. It is still legal to "bail and wail" on the the bird if you see one in the car, its just you have to do it in a way in which you pull over and shut door on road side, which many dont. Turn them in! Us law abiding hunters will appreciate it!
 
Used to take a pheasant head with the feathers attached and stick a wire through and place it in the ground just to see how many would shoot at it. Hunters would wail away at it right by a farmstead they didn't care.
 
call the law! any way.....a good buddy of mine farms by Lake Andes and after the hunt on opening weekend we would do that but put in an area they could legally road hunt and it was fun to watch them bail out. Most times they wouldnt shoot tho......sometimes they would. We would watch from a good distance, usually hid,drinkin beer, laughin our butts off!
 

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