Correction, 28 August 2026: an earlier version of this piece labelled these figures the 2024 season. They are the 2025 season. SD GFP names its “Pheasant Economics” table by the season year, not the survey year — confirmed against GFP’s own Pheasant Statistics table, where the 2024 season totals 1,311,323 roosters and these county figures sum to 1,351,081. The URL still ends in “2024”; it has been left unchanged so existing links keep working.
In 2025, out-of-state hunters took more than half of every rooster shot in South Dakota — and in a handful of counties, close to four out of five. If you're planning a trip in from another state, that split is the number worth knowing. It's the clearest signal we have of where hunters like you have actually gone, and where you'd be sharing the grass mostly with locals.
South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks publishes the county-by-county harvest every year — but it lives in a spreadsheet and a map dashboard, not in anything written for a hunter planning a trip. So we read it that way. Here's what it shows.
What the 2025 harvest survey shows
These are 2025 season figures from SD GFP's pheasant harvest survey — estimates GFP builds from hunter surveys, not an exact count.
A quick note on the year: GFP names this table by the season year, not the survey year. The “2025 Pheasant Economics” table on GFP's site describes the 2025 season — the birds shot between October 2025 and January 2026. Everywhere in this piece, “2025” means the season the birds were actually shot.
Two different GFP figures get quoted for South Dakota, and they describe two different seasons — which is exactly how they get mixed up. GFP's Pheasant Statistics table gives 1,311,323 roosters for the 2024 season; the county-by-county Pheasant Economics table this piece is built on sums to 1,351,081 for the 2025 season. The ~40,000 gap is not a survey discrepancy, it is a year. We use the 2025 county figures throughout, so every number below ties back to that one table.
From the county figures: residents took 583,028 roosters; nonresidents took 768,053 — about 57% of the harvest. GFP's survey also counted hunters by residency, and about 59% of them were nonresidents (82,574 of 139,650). (Our data stores the county harvest split; the statewide hunter counts come straight from GFP's table.)
That's the state as a whole. The county numbers are where a trip actually gets planned.
Where nonresidents took the most birds
Among counties with a meaningful harvest — at least 10,000 birds — these are the ones where nonresidents took 65% or more of the 2025 rooster harvest, ranked by that share:
- Gregory — 82% (30,642 birds)
- Day — 79% (17,192) · Campbell — 79% (10,659)
- Tripp — 78% (52,776) · Lyman — 78% (47,407) · McPherson — 78% (19,969)
- Walworth — 77% (18,327) · Jerauld — 77% (16,880)
- Faulk — 74% (39,905)
- Potter — 71% (26,052)
- Jones — 70% (11,621)
- Spink — 67% (66,283) · Douglas — 67% (16,369)
- Brule — 66% (68,785)
- Hughes — 65% (44,154)
Why the 10,000-bird cutoff: in very small counties, a share can look extreme on almost no birds. Lawrence County, out in the Black Hills, shows 100% nonresident — but that's 431 birds total, not a pheasant destination. A handful of west-river counties do the same thing. Ranking by percentage alone would point you at the wrong places, so this list only includes counties where enough birds were taken for the share to mean something. The full table below shows every county, with the small-sample ones marked so you can see for yourself.
Geographically, these nonresident-heavy counties cluster in the central and north-central part of the state — the James River valley and the Missouri River counties.
Where residents keep it close to home
The other end of the range is just as clear. In the eastern-tier counties near South Dakota's population centers, residents took the large majority of the birds: Minnehaha 90% resident (Sioux Falls), Lincoln 90%, Moody 90%, and Brookings 72%. These are counties where locals hunt close to home and relatively few travelers show up.
Our read — interpretation, not GFP data
Everything above is straight from GFP's survey. The next part is our take on what it means — useful, we think, but our interpretation, not established fact.
A high nonresident share tells you where travelers go — not where the most birds are. Those are different things, and it's the easiest number on this page to misread. A county can be 78% nonresident because it sits along a well-known route with lots of walk-in access and outfitters, not because it holds more roosters than the county next to it. If anything, a heavily-nonresident county means more pressure from hunters like you — busier access points, especially on opener week — not a guarantee of better shooting. A resident-dominated county can simply be quieter.
The central band is where out-of-state hunters have historically concentrated — our read is that's a mix of where the habitat and public access line up and where the lodging and guiding built up over the years. If you're building a trip from scratch, that band is the well-worn path. Whether you want the well-worn path or a quieter county off it is a real choice, and this data lets you make it on purpose instead of by accident.
One last bit of arithmetic on GFP's own numbers: nonresidents were about 59% of the hunters but took about 57% of the birds. Read it how you like — our take is that you're not going to out-hunt the locals, and you don't need to. In a state that put up 1.35 million roosters, the birds are there for anyone willing to put in the miles.
Look up your county
Every South Dakota county with a 2025 pheasant harvest, and the share taken by nonresident hunters. Counties marked † had fewer than 10,000 birds harvested — small samples where the share swings on a few hundred birds, and generally not primary destinations.
| County | 2025 harvest | NR share of 2025 harvest |
|---|---|---|
| Aurora | 51,748 | 60% |
| Beadle | 75,131 | 57% |
| Bennett † | 4,878 | 53% |
| Bon Homme | 12,180 | 26% |
| Brookings | 37,731 | 28% |
| Brown | 80,859 | 61% |
| Brule | 68,785 | 66% |
| Buffalo † | 5,890 | 52% |
| Butte † | 1,471 | 87% |
| Campbell | 10,659 | 79% |
| Charles Mix | 37,528 | 58% |
| Clark | 29,368 | 48% |
| Clay † | 6,254 | 22% |
| Codington | 17,371 | 35% |
| Corson † | 6,822 | 83% |
| Custer † | 1,824 | 37% |
| Davison | 30,126 | 61% |
| Day | 17,192 | 79% |
| Deuel † | 5,892 | 44% |
| Dewey † | 8,788 | 82% |
| Douglas | 16,369 | 67% |
| Edmunds | 37,644 | 56% |
| Fall River † | 1,712 | 19% |
| Faulk | 39,905 | 74% |
| Grant † | 4,583 | 54% |
| Gregory | 30,642 | 82% |
| Haakon † | 5,411 | 43% |
| Hamlin | 19,580 | 33% |
| Hand | 29,017 | 58% |
| Hanson | 16,093 | 40% |
| Harding † | 3,347 | 72% |
| Hughes | 44,154 | 65% |
| Hutchinson | 21,391 | 54% |
| Hyde † | 8,723 | 76% |
| Jackson † | 1,009 | 19% |
| Jerauld | 16,880 | 77% |
| Jones | 11,621 | 70% |
| Kingsbury | 34,229 | 41% |
| Lake | 16,797 | 28% |
| Lawrence † | 431 | 100% |
| Lincoln | 10,319 | 10% |
| Lyman | 47,407 | 78% |
| Marshall † | 7,873 | 55% |
| McCook | 23,725 | 23% |
| McPherson | 19,969 | 78% |
| Meade † | 2,734 | 67% |
| Mellette † | 1,530 | 81% |
| Miner | 45,945 | 42% |
| Minnehaha | 19,054 | 10% |
| Moody † | 8,089 | 10% |
| Pennington † | 1,339 | 19% |
| Perkins | 17,946 | 60% |
| Potter | 26,052 | 71% |
| Roberts † | 7,980 | 35% |
| Sanborn | 32,077 | 52% |
| Spink | 66,283 | 67% |
| Stanley | 16,845 | 29% |
| Sully | 27,012 | 63% |
| Todd † | 1,295 | 77% |
| Tripp | 52,776 | 78% |
| Turner † | 6,970 | 15% |
| Union † | 3,568 | 16% |
| Walworth | 18,327 | 77% |
| Yankton | 10,209 | 31% |
| Ziebach † | 5,726 | 43% |
Source: SD GFP county pheasant harvest survey, 2025 season (published by GFP as the “2025 Pheasant Economics” table). Oglala Lakota County recorded no pheasant harvest and is not listed.
The 2026 season ahead
That harvest data is the 2025 season looking back. Here's the season coming up, so you can put a trip on the calendar. All of this is straight from SD GFP:
- Youth season: September 26 – October 4, 2026
- Resident-only period: October 10 – 12, 2026
- Traditional opener (everyone): October 17, 2026 – January 31, 2027 — that's the third Saturday in October, the date most out-of-state hunters plan around.
The rules that catch newcomers: three roosters a day, fifteen in possession, roosters only, and shooting hours don't start until 10:00 a.m. Central Time — statewide, all season. There's no dawn hunt for pheasants in South Dakota. A nonresident small game license covers two five-day periods, sold over the counter with no draw or lottery. Full license and walk-in-access detail is in our 2026 South Dakota pheasant opener guide.
See the habitat behind the harvest
Harvest tells you where hunters went. Habitat tells you why. Our interactive South Dakota grassland map breaks down grassland cover and pheasant density by county — the land side of the same story.
Create a free account to open the full map — free, no card. Planning around South Dakota specifically? Set South Dakota as your primary state and switch on season reminders when you sign up — you'll get free alerts before SD's hunting seasons open and before its license and application deadlines.
One honest caveat: the harvest figures here are GFP survey estimates for the 2025 season, and the season dates and rules are as published by South Dakota Game, Fish & Parks for 2026. Some land types and walk-in areas carry their own dates and restrictions, and rules can change. Before you hunt, confirm the current details on the SD GFP pheasant page — a five-minute check beats a citation.