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Last weekend, my son Matt and I, along with good friend Dave Henneman and his son Brandon, took a long awaited trip to Cronkhite Farm in Draper, South Dakota. I say long awaited, because my college roommate and buddy Greg Cronkhite had called me to invite me on this trip last year as I was traveling home from an FLW tournament out east. It was his second attempt to get me to come out and see his farm and do a little pheasant hunting like we used to when we went to school at NIU in DeKalb, Illinois. Let me clarify a couple of things. First, if I knew what was in store for me I never would have needed to be asked twice; and secondly the hunting was nothing like what I remembered back in my college days when Greg and I would ditch 8:00am classes to go hunt the old train tracks south of DeKalb. 

The four of us arrived at the farm after dark on Saturday and were greeted by Greg and his friend and guide Gary Truitt. We spent a relaxed evening enjoying Greg’s own recipe for pheasant poppers and venison sausage while having some cocktails and reminiscing about old times and hearing stories about the 2800 acre farm and the multitude of pheasants that called Cronkhite farm home. After retiring to the Farm House, which is a misleading term for anyone who doesn’t consider a fully modern house with a 60 inch HD TV and leather couches and recliners a Farm House. We awoke the next morning and had time for breakfast and a round of clay targets to get warmed up for the hunt that was scheduled to start at 10:00am due to South Dakota hunting regulations. It was easy to see just waking up and stepping out from the house that the stories we heard the night before were not exaggerations. Opening up the back door brought pheasant cackles and flushes from birds that were feeding in the nearby field. The daylight also revealed a vast property that was ideal for pheasant habitat and I hadn’t even left the back porch!

After a quick briefing and getting the dogs together, we loaded up the trucks and took a short drive to the first milo crop that we were to hunt. Greg has taken amazing care to manage his property to provide perfect hunting sections that are a blend of cover, food sources, and nesting grounds for birds while making them convenient to hunt and then double back and hunt a new stretch back to the vehicles. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but the thing to remember as I’m recounting this trip is that these are all 100% wild birds! This is not a game preserve. The flushes were unpredictable, there were birds running, flushing far, flushing at our feet and flushing in groups and individually. We hunted for a little over two hours hitting three sections (there and back) and had filled our limit of three birds apiece while seeing literally hundreds of birds in the process. The dogs were fantastic in all the chaos. Trained to retrieve at the sound of a gunshot they would break off a scent and make a bee line for the downed bird. Saving me at least once when I knocked a bird down but not hard enough to kill it. The bird started running and Gilly, Greg’s yellow lab, was right there. When the bird flushed a second time I waited for it to gain altitude clear of the dog and shot again. The bird wobbled but glided down a second time into some tall grass, Gilly stayed on that bird back into the thick stuff but my heart sank thinking she would not be able to retrieve that bird. Moments later here comes that spunky little yellow lab with Mr. Pheasant in her mouth! What a day!

Back at the farm, Greg’s got a processing room complete with stainless steel counters, running water, sinks and freezers to clean, prep and dry seal your game to bring home after your stay. We actually had time to visit the Badlands and Wall Drug on the second day of our hunt after finishing a second limit early on Monday.

Now my trip with my son and good friends was highlighted by getting the opportunity to hunt again with a good friend from my college days. But knowing Greg the way I do, I have no doubt any visitor to Cronkhite Farm is going to have the pheasant hunting trip of a life time. Truly excellent pheasant hunting, high quality accommodations, great guides and dogs and spectacular South Dakota scenery make Cronkhite Farm a “must experience” for any upland game hunter.

 I know I won’t have to be asked twice to make a return trip.

Cronkhite Farm Website
http://www.cronkhitefarm.com/testimonials/