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Stay up to date with the latest news, hunting reports, and events from UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting.

July 21, 2026

2026 South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Season Forecast

The 2026 South Dakota Pheasant Season should go down as one of the top ranking hunts. If you can stack good post season numbers from the previous year, along with a mild winter and some moisture and warm spring temps you are staged for a good pheasant hatch in South Dakota. Based on all reports from local neighbors and farmer friends, this is what we believe has happened. Once you get to the mid-point of summer the bulk of your hatch will be complete and well on their way to maturity. I encountered good flyer chicks in the first week of June so that means they hatched in mid May. It's not unusual to see newly hatched chicks around May 20th each year. Brood sizes have been reported as large in the 10-12 range at various UGUIDE Pheasant Camps. Early morning drives on dewy mornings and the amount of road kill pheasants also supports strong pheasant numbers abroad. The current heat wave has sent corn skyrocketing to maturity and it would not surprise me to enjoy an early corn harvest. Possibly ahead of beans which usually lends itself to better early season pheasant hunting. We currently have 3 open camps available for booking in 2026. Week 5 & 6 at Meadow Creek and Week 6 at West River Adventures. These can be hunts of a lifetime. We have had hunters at our camps in the same week for up to 20 years and our average repeat customer group is 7.7 years across all UGUIDE Pheasant Camps.

May 23, 2026

2025 Pheasant Season End Conclusions - Final Report

2025 will go down as a great year but off the highs of last year. We saw really cold spring weather in the northern camps that hampered grouse and partridge numbers more so than pheasants but were a great indicator of the hatch overall. Our measure of success, this year, is a 2.0 pheasant per person per day average across the season and all UGUIDE camps. The previous high mark was 2.4 which we hit in 2024. The all-time low was 1.3 in 2017. Some Camps hit new records while other were down a bit. Our Average Harvest Per Group Per Camp Per Week was 67 Roosters per Group per Week average. Our total rooster harvest for the season was 2,285. A lot of memories were made this year and the hero of it all was mother nature because we have learned she is a majority share partner in our endeavor. Check 2026 Availability of all UGUIDE South Dakota Pheasant Hunting Camps Faulkton Gunner's Haven Meadow Creek Pheasant Camp Lodge West River Adventures -