The Best Snacks for Pheasant Hunting in South Dakota

You've got the license. You've got the shells. The dog has been unbearable for two weeks. Your orange is laid out and you've checked the forecast about forty times.

So what are you eating?

It's the part nobody plans, and it's the part that decides whether you push through one more field at two in the afternoon or head back to the truck. A full day of walking cover burns more than people expect, and the cold takes its own cut.

Here's what works, and what doesn't.

Why the sandwich always loses

Everybody has packed a sandwich. Nobody has ever been glad about it by noon.

It gets crushed in the first hour. The bread goes soggy, or it goes hard, and there's no in between. It needs two hands and no gloves. And on a cold day it turns into something you have to work at.

Candy bars have their own problem: they freeze solid, and the sugar crash shows up right when you've still got two fields left.

What you actually need is food that doesn't care how it's treated.

• Survives being sat on, knelt on, and stuffed in a pocket
• Doesn't need a cooler, and doesn't freeze into a rock
• Eats one-handed, with gloves on
• Protein and fat, not sugar — so the energy lasts

That's a short list, and jerky checks every box on it.

What goes in the vest

Keep it simple. You're carrying birds, shells, water, and a dog's worth of gear already.

Jerky. The workhorse. A bag in a vest pocket gets you through a morning without thinking about it. Pick a flavor with some punch — when you're cold and tired, bland food is easy to skip, and food you skip doesn't help you.

Snack sticks. Easier than jerky if you're wearing heavy gloves. One hand, one motion, no tearing at a bag in the wind.

Water, more than you planned. Cold weather hides how much you're sweating under all those layers. This is the one most people get wrong.

Something for the dog. They're working harder than you are.

What to leave behind: anything that needs a cooler, anything in a crushable wrapper, and anything that's mostly sugar.

For the long days, pemmican

If you're the kind who hunts until legal light and forgets to eat lunch, this is the one.

Pemmican is beef and rendered beef fat, pressed dense, with fruit and nuts worked in. It was the original cold-weather fuel on this continent — Plains tribes carried it, fur traders lived on it, and it kept men moving through winters that didn't forgive mistakes.

Fat carries more than twice the calories of protein by weight, which is the whole point. A small piece goes a long way when you're burning through a November day.

It also keeps for months without refrigeration, so a package can live in your gear bag all season.

There's a reason almost nobody makes it anymore. It's slow and it's fussy. We make it anyway, in small batches, right here.

Coming to South Dakota for the opener?

We're in Chamberlain, right on the Missouri, which puts us in the middle of some of the best pheasant country in the world and directly on I-90 for most of you driving in.

If you're staying at a lodge or heading out with a group, order ahead and pick it up on your way through. It beats a gas station, and it's one less thing to figure out at 5 a.m.

A lot of hunters also take a few bags home — it's the kind of thing you can hand somebody and say this is what South Dakota tastes like. Which, honestly, is the nicest compliment we get.

Good luck out there

Opener is Saturday. Shoot straight, watch your dog, and don't be the guy who runs out of food at one o'clock.

Order at badriverjerky.com, or call 605-730-8430 if you want to arrange a pickup in Chamberlain.

Made by hand, USDA inspected, in the middle of pheasant country.