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If the number of guns filling the baggage cart coming off the SkyWest jet at the airport on Friday is any indication of hunters' firepower, pheasants are in trouble.
Hunters have been arriving at Aberdeen Regional Airport since Thursday and Friday in anticipation of the pheasant hunting opener today.
Charles Wells, a real estate developer from Atlanta, arrived on the 2:30 p.m. Friday flight. A first-time hunter in South Dakota, he grabbed his gun case as it came off the baggage cart.
"I bought myself a new shotgun and am looking forward to putting some shells through it," he said.
Wells was invited to South Dakota by a contractor who has done work for his company. He will stay in a hotel in Aberdeen and hunt in the outlying areas, he said.
Although he has hunted quail, he is looking forward to trying his luck with pheasants.
"In Georgia, the quail are raised on a farm and then released," he said. "It is not the same as hunting out here. I have heard a lot of good things about this area and am looking forward to the experience."
Mike Kollar, a retired police officer from Vallejo, Calif., arrived on a Thursday flight and was at the airport Friday to pick up another member of his hunting party. Kollar has been hunting with his friend Bob Olson of Ipswich for 30 years at Olson's hunting lodge, Homestead Hunting.
"It is a great way to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city," Kollar said. "It is fun to be with Bob and with the people that come from all over the U.S."
Olson and Kollar met in the 1960s, when Olson was a police officer in Vallejo. Olson had been discharged from the military and stayed in California 14 years before moving back to Ipswich. Hunting has helped the two friends stay in touch all these years.
They used to hunt with their friend and fellow police officer, a man named Tweedy. He died two years ago and now his son, William Tweedy, hunts with them.
William Tweedy arrived from California on the 2:30 p.m. Friday flight.
"I have kind of taken my dad's place," he said. "It is great to be here. These are lifelong friends."
A city dweller, he said it is great to be out in the country.
"The people are so generous and kind here," he said. "It is a lot different than in the Bay area."
Bob Bruno, a retired executive from Dallas, Texas, arrived on the Friday 2:30 p.m. flight. He will be hunting near Mina with about 20 men he used to work with at Pacific Life Insurance in Dallas. They are members of the management team for the annuities and mutual funds division.
"We just will be having a boys' time out — guns, booze and dogs," he said. "You noticed I didn't say ‘women.’ ”
Bruno, who was born in Mitchell, has been back to hunt pheasants in South Dakota for 14 years. This time he and his group will hunt three days.
It is always a lot of fun, he said.
Mike Wilson, airport manager, said the flights have been full Thursday and Friday. Normally there are two, 50-passenger flights to Aberdeen, but during the first part of hunting season a third flight is added.
