USA: South Dakota Pheasants

Recently back from hunting pheasants in central South Dakota. It was my 5th consecutive year as a member of a group whose core have hunted annually for the last 42.

It was a good year.. our group shot 163 roosters out of a 198 bird, four day limit. I’m not sure South Dakota ever has “bad pheasant years” as compared to any other state but we did hunt harder than the banner years of ‘24 and ‘25.

For any upland game hunter who has considered South Dakota but not “puller the trigger” on going - just do it. Travel can be a pain, but once you arrive you’ll find a hugely supportive hunting community and an abundance of birds.

Well done, I absolutely love pheasant hunting. A big midwestern rooster busting out of the cover literally at your feet is so much fun. My apologies as it's perhaps a bit forward, but maybe I could join your group in coming years if you don't mind someone new? Plan to retire sometime in the next year and move back to Idaho, not exactly close to SD, but not terribly far either.

This has been a hunt I’ve considered doing several times. Can’t decide if I want to go early season or late season though

PHOENIX PHIL said:

Well done, I absolutely love pheasant hunting. A big midwestern rooster busting out of the cover literally at your feet is so much fun. My apologies as it's perhaps a bit forward, but maybe I could join your group in coming years if you don't mind someone new? Plan to retire sometime in the next year and move back to Idaho, not exactly close to SD, but not terribly far either.

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Will keep your interest in mind. I can certainly appreciate the challenge of finding a group big enough to do this type of hunt. We are at max capacity now with a few on a waiting list.

Mtn_Infantry said:

This has been a hunt I’ve considered doing several times. Can’t decide if I want to go early season or late season though

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You should go. We went in October the week after the season opening. The weather was great. We hunted near Watertown at a place called Hazel. They were harvesting corn but still found time to invite us in for cake and coffee. Super nice people. All of us came home with limits.

Just got back from Bowdle SD… I got invited to join a group last week! It was great hunting and we limited each day by lunch! Great shooting!

I have two uncles that live in S.D. We used to travel for pheasant camp every year.

$50 per person for a week for room and board and the hunting.

Unfortunately that camp aged out. everyone of the original SD members either died or are now too old.

I miss that annual trip. And should go again.

I'll be heading to Montana shortly. Been hunting pheasants every fall since 2006. This will be my Fr Britt's fifteenth season. Amazing little bugger. And twice a cancer survivor. My Lab is still deadly at age eleven but it will obviously be a short tour for both of them this year. Probably our last. I just turned 74. We had incredible hunting the last two seasons. Finally. It had been a long time since the little dog experienced that kind of action. Ellie had never seen it. Hope it's as good this year. They won't be able to work very hard. Hearts are willing but arthritis is not.

PHOENIX PHIL said:

Well done, I absolutely love pheasant hunting. A big midwestern rooster busting out of the cover literally at your feet is so much fun. My apologies as it's perhaps a bit forward, but maybe I could join your group in coming years if you don't mind someone new? Plan to retire sometime in the next year and move back to Idaho, not exactly close to SD, but not terribly far either.

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I would be interested if we can put together a group hunt????

Comanche 6 said:

Recently back from hunting pheasants in central South Dakota. It was my 5th consecutive year as a member of a group whose core have hunted annually for the last 42.

It was a good year.. our group shot 163 roosters out of a 198 bird, four day limit. I’m not sure South Dakota ever has “bad pheasant years” as compared to any other state but we did hunt harder than the banner years of ‘24 and ‘25.

For any upland game hunter who has considered South Dakota but not “puller the trigger” on going - just do it. Travel can be a pain, but once you arrive you’ll find a hugely supportive hunting community and an abundance of birds.


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Awesome thanks for sharing!!!

Mtn_Infantry said:

This has been a hunt I’ve considered doing several times. Can’t decide if I want to go early season or late season though

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Late season roosters are some of the most fun things to hunt. Seeing them boil out of cattails or shelterbelts is awesome.

That said, if you’ve never done opening weekend I’d start there. Pretty much the entire state is a big celebration. If you fly into Aberdeen, the visitors bureau meets you at the airport with pheasant sandwiches. That’s a throwback to WWII when locals would give pheasant sandwiches to troops traveling through on trains.

South Dakota is a throw back to a better time period in this country.

We were bird hunting there in the 90s and an ice storm/blizzard shut everything down. Power outages etc.

So we tried to get out of town. We got stranded along the freeway and pulled off. While holed up a restaurant that closed at 9:00 Pm our waitress said we could stay at her boyfriend’s in town. He owned the local Ace hardware store. He could stay at her house.

She gave us the address. And said to make ourselves at home. He would swing by on his way from work to her house for the night.

We walk into a nice Victorian home that is wall to wall firearms. Antiques and modern guns leaning against every square inch of vertical surface.
Guns laying on every horizontal surface. They were even in the bathroom. Thousands of guns piled everywhere. He never locked his doors.

So there we sit not wanting to move or touch anything until he finally walked in.

We sat and talked quite a while. My dad ended up buying five guns and he gave me a very nice KT Duryee yew longbow.

We spent the night and when the roads were clear we made our way east.

We stayed in touch for years until my dad died and we quit hunting SD every year.

But yeah, the Native SD people are the Salt of the Earth.