Snow Geese in the South Dakota Sky

South Dakota's sprawling fields—largely of corn—provide more than enough food to entice snow geese during the reverse migration. We set up in a series of corn fields throughout the week, hoping to catch a few younger birds off guard as they stopped for a bite to eat.

The trip was booked in late March, in hopes of avoiding winter-esque conditions. Mother Nature, though, is rarely one to cooperate. Temperatures stayed below or at freezing for much of our stay, and heavy wind was a constant companion. Things were so cold during the trip's first few days that most standing water was frozen solid.

Our guides were provided by Waterfowl Junkie Outdoors, which offers its services in South Dakota, Missouri and Arkansas. The outfitter set us up at the Double P Ranch, a lodge owned by a friend of his. Both groups provided fantastic service.

Though we did spend one afternoon in a pit of sorts, layout blinds were each hunter's own little home-away-from-home during the trip. Heavily concealed in leftover corn stalks, the "Hitman" model blinds from Hunter's Specialties kept us out of sight—and out of the wind—throughout the week.

For most of the trip I was armed with the new Waterfowl Pro version of Remington's popular Versa Max design. The shotgun, which is decked out inMossy Oak's new Shadow Grass Blades camo, is designed exclusively with the waterfowler in mind. I experienced no malfunctions during my stay in South Dakota.

My ammunition of choice for this particular trip was Federal Premium's Black Cloud FS Steel. The brand's FlightControl wads helped me reach out and touch a few extra snow geese—which aren't typically known for making things easy on hunters, to begin with.

We didn't tag many birds over the course of the week, but it certainly wasn't because they weren't there. Below average temperatures and strong, gusting winds kept the geese from cooperating as often as we liked. There were countless birds in the area, though. Clouds of geese would move from dawn to dusk, but rarely settled upon the field we setup in.

Snow geese weren't the only birds in the sky. We saw thousands of ducks (though only two are pictured here), and plenty of Canada geese and specklebellies. They were all well out of season—so, naturally, they often made even closer passes than the snows.

Snow geese weren't the only birds in the sky. We saw thousands of ducks (though only two are pictured here), and plenty of Canada geese and specklebellies. They were all well out of season—so, naturally, they often made even closer passes than the snows.

Sometimes, it's just fun to sit back and watch a dedicated gundog go to work. Tank was more than happy to dive right into the standing water for a bird. After the ice had finally thawed, anyway.

The "first light to last light" nature of a spring snow goose hunt meant long days afield. We'd be setting up by 5 a.m. and not packing up until close to 7 p.m. It made for some fantastic views, though.

We didn't quite clean up, but we did manage to get into the birds from time to time. Pictured here (from left to right) are Justin Skipper, Patrick Skipper and myself, Shawn Skipper. Oh, and, of course, that's Tank front and center.