My Brother and I are trying to plan an out of state pheasant hunt for early January. We’re having a hard time deciding where to go. Any input would be greatly appreciated. We’ve heard Tripp county South Dakota or finney county in Kansas. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

some years pheasants are thick and some years scarce. I havn't been out there this year.

https://ksdot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=a6467b7c4f714053ab63003607674413

I'm near Dodge City but travel most of southwest Kansas regularly. Pretty tough outlook in all of western Kansas this year, With the drought and lack of cover, including haying and grazing of most of the CRP that is left, birds are pretty scarce.

Thanks for the info guys it’s a 24+ hour drive to either spot for us so it may be better to wait for a better year if that’s the case

Assuming youre hunting public. You will run into very little competition in SD when the weather is crappy that time of year. You may be the only out of state hunters for three counties. Even most of the locals hang it up if its nasty and cold with 2 feet of snow and Are ice fishing by then. Of course, you may have to skip a bunch of the spots because the cover is all blown in with snow. If we have the snow this year, you might wanna look at the NE part of the state. TONS of public. Im not nearly as versed in SD geography ad a lot if guys, but I believe there is a lot more slough grass up in the NE part than out by Winner, which is pretty much the only thing you can hunt when the drifts are 5 feet tall. Another area to look is from Salem/Humbolt down toward Menno. More local pressure, but less from out of state hunters than the other areas of SD.

With all that said, Kansas stands to be a bunch warmer with far less snow. Snow hunting is by far my favorite though, especially fresh. As long as The dog’s acting ok, ill hunt in near blizzard conditions. Good luck on your trip.

January can be kind of rough in South Dakota, east or west of the Missouri river. Might keep that in mind. Is beautiful but can get mean weather wise.
Hope you have a good trip where ever you go.

I was told north of Garden is decent. In January it will be tough without snow. South of 50/54 from Pratt to Meade and north to Cimarron is a waste land of drought. Jetmore to Wakeeny is just as bad even with crops and gushers present. Lincoln to Beloit and east on 24 HWY is just as barren of Pheasants. Some pockets of quail.

Birds seem up in central SD I have been seeing some nice broods over the summer months. Plan a trip and watch the weather if your coming that late you won’t be crowded if your away from the bigger towns. Don’t forget about sharp tail and prairie chickens also.

Thankyou for all for the replies after all the information posted along with private messages we are definitely leaning hard towards South Dakota. Obviously at the time of purchasing our non residents licenses I will study up on the regs but, is there any special or odd regs to be aware of? Roosters only 3/day. I believe I remember seeing on here no hunting till 10 am? Other than whitetail in TX and quail in NM I haven’t hunted out of NY. I know every state varies and some have some interesting laws. The desert in NM everything you touch is sharp. The stickers and thorns are tough on dogs feet and they did benefit from boots. Would anybody recommend boots for the dogs in SD?

2022 Kansas upland bird hunting forecast:

https://ksoutdoors.com/Hunting/Upland-Birds/Upland-Bird-Forecast

Kansas drought map:

https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?KS

Finney County is in the worst drought part, and has been that way all year, so you probably don't want to waste your time here this year.