This week, South Dakota released its figures for small game hunting licenses. I doubt many people are drawn there by jackrabbits, so even though it's officially a "small game license" it could just as well be considered a "pheasant license."
South Dakota sold more than 180,000 resident and nonresident small game licenses in 2010, and for the eighth year in a row, sold more nonresident licenses (102,003) than resident licenses.
How does the total compare with other states? Here's the state-by-state breakdown:
State
# of Pheasant Hunters
Idaho
20,500
Illinois
22,200
Indiana
11,000
Iowa
74,000
Kansas
108,000
Michigan
56,000
Minnesota
107,000
Missouri
6,800
Montana
27,000
Nebraska
80,000
New York
55,000
North Dakota
107,000
Oregon
6,900
South Dakota
180,000
Texas
18,600
Utah
16,800
Washington
19,500
Wisconsin
60,000
Add it up, and that's nearly 1 million. I don't have info for a few states - California, Colorado, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Wyoming - so conservatively, we could say 1.2 million people actively pheasant hunt annually. Run the numbers, and approximately 15 percent of the nation's pheasant hunters are taking to South Dakota fields in a season.