OUR STORY

Four Generations of the best hunting in South Dakota

Wild Wings Hunting Service operates in Gregory County, South Dakota.  The family-owned and operated business has been group-hunting pheasants since the 1950’s.   The facilities can sleep up to 20 hunters and our services are all inclusive.  The Farmhouse offers extra privacy with room for 8 and all the comforts of home, while the Big Barn has 6 bedrooms, each with two beds a full private bathroom.

The facilities include fully equipped kitchens, dining and meeting areas, game room, sauna, bar/beverage center, lighted trap shooting range, satellite TV, internet, dog kennels, and more:

• Experienced and safety-driven hunting guides

• Safety glasses and vests

• Three great meals a day from an experienced chef

• Trap shooting at our lodge (day or night)

• Travel between the thousands of acres of hunting and, if requested, travel to and from the bars and restaurants in the area.

Four generations of Johnsons have been trying to figure out how to generate solid and consistent pheasant hunting.  The Grandfather, the original, George Fielding Johnson, won federal awards for planting thousands of trees during the 50’s and 60’s.  Those tree groves planted decades ago created solid hunting spots and they help keep pheasants alive during South Dakota’s bitterly cold and windy winters.  Charles “Rick” Johnson inherited his father’s passion and spent his entire adult life planting about 10,000 trees every Spring.   As a hunter and a tree planter, Rick learned over the years which crops and which trees needed to be planted together to attract and maintain a solid pheasant population.  He learned the importance of placing tree groves and food plots near ponds or streams, and he learned how to legally and significantly manage the populations of the main pheasant predators (including skunks, feral cats, raccoons, opossums, red fox and coyotes). 

More importantly, he learned not to harvest his food plots until Spring, unlike most farmers, so that more pheasants could survive on the property during the freezing, snow-packed winters.  It is a formula developed and handed down through the family after decades of trial and error: when more pheasants survive the Winter, Spring, and Summer, the more pheasants will be hatched resulting in the most consistent pheasant hunting in the Fall.   

We can’t wait to show you around.