If you haven’t hunted many pheasants, then some of the suggestions below may be helpful in making your South Dakota Pheasant Hunt work for you.

• First and foremost, know the South Dakota rules and regulations regarding pheasant hunting. Game wardens do show up and ignorance will not get you off the hook!

• You can only shoot roosters when wild bird hunting in South Dakota. However, you will find at times you can’t identify a rooster or hen, due to lighting, direction, etc. Therefore, always call out, hen or rooster if you can see what it is for the benefit of your pheasant hunting party and to ensure you don’t let a rooster get by or that you end up shooting a hen.

• Give the pheasant a chance to get out a bit. Shooting a bird at close range gets counted as part of your limit, but most of the time it ends up being unusable/inedible.

• Decide before you start the day if each hunter will shoot their own limit or each hunter will work to get the groups limit or do a combination of both during the day. The limit is 3 pheasants a day.

• Remember to carry water for you and your dog in the field.

• We started to carry with us wire cutters after one of our dogs got caught in a snare trap.

• Take care of yourself! This is your “day in the field”! If you are tired, rest. Cold, warm up. Hot, cool down. Hungry, eat. Thirsty, drink.

• Maintain control of your dog. Pheasant Hunting Dogs are brought on the hunt to find, point or flush and retrieve our birds. Out of control or aggressive dogs can ruin the hunt, a great dog can make the hunt!

• Even great hunting dogs can make mistakes. Correction is expected, but excessive punishment is never acceptable.

• Even the best hunters may not shoot so well some days. It’s easy to blame the dog, others in your party, your gun or whatever. If this is truly the case, try to resolve the problem. Otherwise, let it go!!! There are always other opportunities to shoot your limit in South Dakota. Always remember that a tough day in the field is still better than a good day at work!!