South Dakota’s resident-only pheasant season opens this Saturday, giving thousands of South Dakota hunters their first opportunity of the fall to pursue ring-necked roosters.

The resident-only season runs Saturday through Monday, and is only available on public owned land. 

Wildlife officials are entering the season with an optimistic outlook.

South Dakota hunters harvested more than 1.35 million pheasants during the 2025 season, the highest total in recent history. Nearly 140-thousand hunters participated, averaging 9.7 birds per hunter — the highest average since 2011.

South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks Wildlife Director Tom Kirschenmann says field observations from department employees and landowners indicate strong pheasant numbers across much of the state.

Weather conditions also have been favorable. South Dakota experienced below-average snowfall last winter, followed by relatively normal spring precipitation and temperatures. Those conditions can improve adult survival and help pheasants with nesting and chick survival.

GFP’s latest county-level harvest information shows hunters harvested about 16-thousand pheasants in Lake County during the 2025 season. That included approximately 11-thousand-200 birds harvested by resident hunters and about 4-thousand-700 by nonresidents.

One caution when looking at this year’s bird numbers is that South Dakota discontinued its annual scientific pheasant brood survey in 2019. GFP now relies on hunter harvest surveys, observations from landowners and wildlife staff, habitat conditions and weather information when developing its preseason outlook.

The traditional South Dakota pheasant season, which includes hunting on private land, opens October 17th and runs through January 31st.