This year’s pheasant season has some big shoes to fill, and the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Department says it just might.
The pheasant season, which runs from Oct. 18 to Jan. 31, depends largely on the brooding season for the birds, which happens in spring and early summer, Nick Harrington, spokesman for GFP, told News Watch.
Last year’s season saw the most birds harvested in a decade, according to GFP’s Upland Outlook. Other popular small game, like prairie grouse, had their highest numbers in 25 years. More birds were harvested in South Dakota over two weeks of October 2024 than in any other state’s entire season.
Numbers have been steadily increasing since 2017, Harrington said.
“We had that mild winter, so we know there were a lot of birds left on the landscape. When you have those tough winters, that’s when we aren’t set up just as perfectly,” Harrington said.
“Now, pheasants can rebound really well. You get yourself an ideal spring and ideal summer, you’ll still have a great fall that year, but with that mild winter we enjoyed last year and the perfect spring and summer this year, that’s why that optimism is so high with us.”
Hunting season may defy low 2025 tourism numbers
Across the state, where relatively low summer tourism numbers have some business owners and community members concerned, hunting season may be a hopeful reprieve for some rural counties. Last year, spending from hunters totaled over $100 million across the state, with Brown and Beadle counties as the highest earners.
Marshall Springer from Buffalo Butte Ranch in Gregory County said that numbers are already promising for the 2025-26 season. Buffalo Butte Ranch is a hunting preserve, which means that hunters have been out since early September when their season began.
Bart Pfankuch
“Our season is booked full. It has been for a while. We have all of our deposits in and we do probably 95% repeat business. It’s a good season for hunting this year. I was a little skeptical with the economy, what it’s going to be like. But it’s strong,” Springer told News Watch.
Harrington said that while there’s never any guarantee that a season will be successful, the economical nature of hunting trips can encourage travelers from neighboring states to visit for an inexpensive vacation option.
“When it comes to prioritization of travel, many hunting trips and fishing trips do make the top of the list,” Harrington said. “Hunting can be a pretty inexpensive trip. If you’re within driving distance and you see good bird numbers, you want to come up for a weekend, you’re willing to stay at some of these local hotels that are probably a little bit more budget friendly. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a tremendous expenditure.”
Last year more than 140,000 hunters spent time in South Dakota and averaged about nine birds per hunter, which Harrington said is a good sign that visitors are still getting a good yield year after year.
“That number itself has held pretty true the last handful of years, too, so it’s been nice to see the hunter numbers increase, but the bird numbers increase, too,” Harrington said.
Spending benefits rural counties and small towns
The vast majority of pheasant hunting takes place east of the Missouri River in less-populated counties. Far from major population centers like Sioux Falls and Rapid City, rural corners of the state experience tourism that rivals that of its urban neighbors.
Bart Pfankuch
In Redfield, pheasant season is nearly a five month-long guarantee that the county will see millions of dollars in spending and that hotels and restaurants will fill up. In Spink County, where Redfield is located, hunters spent $11 million during the 2024-25 season, with $7.5 million of that from non-residents.
“It trickles down to every aspect of the community. When you think about the sporting goods stores, when you think about the restaurants, the convenience stores. Literally everybody opens their arms to the hunters that want to come to South Dakota and hunt,” said Kim Leonhardt, director of the Redfield Chamber of Commerce.
The town has fully embraced its hunting identity, recently installing a mural, photo opportunities and digital signs that welcome hunters to the area.
“(Opening weekend) is like a hunter’s homecoming and everybody’s just excited. It’s like Christmas morning,” Leonhardt said. “As it gets closer, every dash on every truck that drives by, you see orange.”
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When the hunters fade from the fields, the pheasant endures, she said.
“Not only is it big during pheasant season, but our school mascot is the pheasant, it’s on our water tower. It’s so important in our community. The pheasant ties everything together,” Leonhardt said.
This story was produced by South Dakota News Watch, an independent, nonprofit organization. Read more stories and donate at sdnewswatch.org and sign up for an email for statewide stories. Investigative reporter Molly Wetsch is a Report for America corps member covering rural and Indigenous issues. Contact her at molly.wetsch@sdnewswatch.org.
Read the full story at South Dakota News Watch