Big Game Hunting in the Black Hills
– Available Game

We offer hunting trips for pheasant, sharptail grouse, prairie chicken, duck, goose, prairie dog, and coyote. Big game hunting trips consist of turkey, whitetail deer, mule deer, antelope, elk, and buffalo.

Pheasant

Although pheasants are found statewide, the main pheasant range encompasses the eastern two-thirds of the state. Pheasants prefer agricultural fields, wooded draws, tree strips, wetlands and set-aside acres.

Most of South Dakota is privately owned and permission is required to hunt, but public lands such as Game Production Areas and Walk-In Areas offer choice habitat for pheasants. Early in the season, pheasants are scattered in small flocks, but winter’s fury pushes birds into heavy cover and concentrates them. Tree strips, cattail sloughs and dense weed patches hold pheasants at this
time of year.

Sharptail Grouse & Prairie Chicken

Sharp-tailed grouse can be found in the western two-thirds of the state overlapping with pheasants in the central part of the state.

Prairie chickens are most abundant in counties that border the Missouri River near the central part of the state and south to the Nebraska border. Combination hunts for sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens exist in this region. Sharp-tailed grouse and prairie chickens prefer mature stands of native prairie grass.

Grasslands adjacent to crop lands, brushy draws and river breaks are ideal habitat situations for prairie grouse. Hot weather forces birds into the shade of draws, trees and bushes. In cool, wet and windy conditions, birds will sit high on the downwind side of ridge tops where they have good visibility.

Duck

South Dakota’s prairie pothole country, located in the heart of the Central Flyway, consistently leads the nation in duck production. More than 15 million ducks migrate annually through South Dakota.

They include mallards, gadwall, pintails and teal. Ducks can be found and hunted statewide, with varying numbers of birds depending on the fall migration.

In the northeastern half of the state, numerous potholes, marshes and lakes, many state or federally owned, provide ideal early season hunting areas. Along the Missouri River, the migration peaks in mid November with 600,000 ducks, primarily mallards. Western reaches of the state also hold ducks on stock dams, rivers and small lakes.

Goose

Geese can be found and hunted statewide. Western and eastern reaches of the state harbor locally produced giant Canada geese. The Missouri River corridor is the main route for more than 400,000 migrating Canada geese, and eastern South Dakota attracts 350,000 snow- and blue-geese migrants.

Areas in and around Sand Lake Wildlife Refuge near Aberdeen hold large concentrations of snow and blue geese. Marshes in northeastern South Dakota usually freeze over by mid-November, pushing waterfowl further South. Bonus species on waterfowl hunts include sandhill crane and tundra swan. Each require special licensing to hunt.

Turkey

Wild turkeys are found statewide in varying densities. In the eastern portion of the state, turkeys prefer the woods and brushy hillsides of rivers as well as tree belts. In the western portion of the state, cottonwood river bottoms, creeks and cedar-covered slopes provide ideal turkey habitat. The main turkey habitat is found in the Black Hills, where hunters have access to 1.2 million acres of public lands in the national forest.

Nonresident hunters may hunt the Black Hills, where licenses are unlimited during the spring season, and the west river prairie units, where licenses are limited and issued by lottery. Spring archery licenses are unlimited and hunters may hunt statewide, except for several east river counties closed for Eastern turkey reintroduction.

Deer

Extending 100 miles long by 50 miles wide, the Black Hills harbor both whitetail and mule deer among the ponderosa pine, white spruce and aspen-covered mountains which reach elevations of more than 7,000 feet. The Black Hills cover 2.3 million acres with 1.2 million acres open to public hunting. The deer herd is approximately 75 percent whitetail and 25 percent mule deer, with success averaging 30 percent for the buck-only hunt. Licenses are limited and available through a lottery basis. Unlimited archery licenses are available for a season that opens October 1.

Antelope

Antelope can be hunted throughout most of western South Dakota. The majority of the antelope population resides in the northwest corner of South Dakota. Antelope prefer sagebrush-covered country along with native prairie pastures. A limited number of firearm licenses are available to nonresidents on a lottery basis and may not be allotted if populations are low. Archery antelope licenses are unlimited.

Make your reservation to go Big Game Hunting in the Black Hills today!