Riva Sharples | Editor
After a tremendous season in 2024 where hunters bagged an average of nine birds each, experts say this year’s pheasant hunting season in South Dakota is expected to be just as great.
The 2025 pheasant hunting season kicks off this Saturday, Oct. 18, and runs until January 31, 2026.
South Dakota’s 2024 season saw 1.3 million pheasants harvested across the state. An additional 380,000 pheasants were harvested on defined shooting preserves. This was the highest harvest in 13 years.
“The 2024 South Dakota pheasant season was absolutely spectacular,” South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden said in a press release last spring. “South Dakota is truly the greatest state to pheasant hunt.”
In fact, South Dakota saw more roosters harvested in two weeks last October than any other state saw during their entire season, statistics show.
Pheasant hunting season is an important economic driver for South Dakota’s economy. Pheasants Forever, a private conservation organization, reported that the financial impact of the 2023 pheasant season in South Dakota was $281 million.
The state’s hunting season brings many out-of-state guests to the state. Last year, of the 140,000 pheasant hunters that hit the fields in South Dakota, about 58,000 of them were South Dakota residents, while 82,000 came from out of state.
Officials have high expectations for this year’s season, saying it should be as good or better than last year, thanks to last year’s mild winter.
Factors that make for a plentiful hunting season, according to experts, are a mild winter during the prior season, ideal precipitation and temperatures during the spring as birds are breeding, and the availability of plenty of habitat for birds to hide and nest in. The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish, and Parks has been working in recent years on increasing habitat across the state.
“Habitat and access have been a top priority for the department, and that has played a key role in both abundant bird numbers and ample locations for hunters to target them,” Kevin Robling, an official with the SD Dept. of Game, Fish, & Parks, said last spring in a press release when 2024 hunting harvest numbers were announced.
Pheasants, like prairie grouse, are a short-lived species that can have low annual survival numbers. Young birds are the pheasants that hunters mostly target in the fall. Survival of some of these birds and their nesting and brooding over the winter is critical to the success of the next season. Last year’s mild winter and the ideal amount of precipitation and temperatures in the spring for the birds, means there should be an abundance of birds on the landscape this hunting season.
If you are heading out to hunt this season, remember the following regulations:
Both hunters who are residents or are non-residents need a valid Small Game License to hunt in South Dakota. If 18 or older, you also need a Habitat Stamp.
Hunter education is required for those born after December 31, 1966, especially if under 16.
The daily bag limit for pheasants is three rooster pheasants, with a possession limit of 12 rooster pheasants.
South Dakota offers a mix of public hunting lands and private land with permission. Road rights-of-way are open for hunting small game and waterfowl, excluding the Interstate highway system.
For more tips and information, visit https://gfp.sd.gov