Hunting in North America Hunting in South America Hunting in Africa Hunting in Europe Hunting in Asia Hunting in the South Pacific

South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Trivia

  • The first pheasant hunting season was in 1919.
  • South Dakota first implemented a 12 noon starting time for shooting hours in 1931.
  • The 1944-45 pheasant hunting season set records for:
    • The largest bag limit of 10 pheasants. Five of the 10 could be hens.
    • The longest pheasant season when it opened on September 20, 1944 and closed 163 days later on March 1, 1945.
    • The highest observed hunter success rate when hunters shot an average of 54 pheasants each during the season. Currently, the average is 10-12 pheasants per hunter per year.
  • The total pheasant harvest peaked a year later during the 1945-46 season when hunters shot an estimated 7.5 million pheasants.
  • Pheasant hunter numbers peaked in 1963 at 212,000. Pheasant hunters currently number around 175,000.
  • The pheasant season has opened on the third Saturday of October every year since 1961.
  • Currently, 95% of all pheasants harvested are shot in the eastern half of South Dakota.
  • An average of 1.5 million pheasants have been harvested in each of the past 88 pheasant seasons in South Dakota. Current annual harvests are slightly above this average.