South Dakota GFP Commission Holds April Meeting

The Commission accepted a petition to align dates for both cow elk and bull elk tags in Unit 4 of the Black Hills elk season. The petition requested to open cow elk hunting two weeks earlier on October 1 to align with bull elk hunting, with the intent of increasing cow elk harvest. The petition will now become a formal proposal scheduled for a public hearing and finalization at the May meeting.

FINALIZATIONS

Antelope Hunting Seasons

The Commission voted to remove the 4th antelope draw and to allow a hunter to apply for a “Special Antelope” license as a choice in the first drawing for the antelope season. This will eliminate the separate drawing for “Special Antelope” and make it a unit choice in the Prairie antelope season drawing.

Deer Hunting Seasons

The Commission approved several changes to deer seasons for 2026, including:

• Removed the license tag type specifications for antelope, deer, and landowner-on-own-land elk. Those tag types will now be designated in administrative actions;
• Made “Free antlerless whitetail” landowner-own-land licenses available in deer units where antlerless-only East River or West River Deer Season licenses are available;
• Discussed changing archery and muzzleloader “any deer” licenses to “any buck” licenses; and
• Discussed license reductions in some East River and West River Deer Hunting units. License types and allocations will be finalized in May.

Elk Hunting Seasons

The Commission made several changes to elk hunting seasons for 2026, including:

• Modified the season structure and unit description of the Special Custer State Park Antlerless Elk hunting season and splitting that season to separate hunt dates;
• Created a new prairie elk hunting unit (PRE-ERA) to include all counties east of the Missouri River, excluding the interior boundary of the Crow Creek Reservation, with season dates from Sep. 1 – Dec. 31. This unit will have unlimited “any elk” licenses;
• Opened all prairie elk season units to landowner-own-land, resident only, antlerless elk licenses;
• Expanded season dates and license types for:

PRE-11B from Sep. 1 – Oct. 15 to Sep.1 – Dec. 31.

PRE-35A and PRE-35B from Sep. 15 – Dec. 31 to Sep. 1 – Dec. 31.

PRE – 49A from Sep. 15 – Oct. 31 and Dec. 1 – Dec. 31 to Sep. 1 – Dec. 31.

• Opened the Special Custer State Park Antlerless Elk Hunting Season, with license numbers to be set at 50 total licenses; and
• Set the Black Hill Firearm, Black Hills Archery, Custer State Park Firearm, Custer State Park Early Archery, and Prairie Elk hunting season license types and numbers.

Tag allocations for all elk hunting seasons can be found online.

Waterfowl Hunting Seasons

The Commission reduced the daily limit of Canada geese during the August Management Take and the Early Fall Canada Goose hunting seasons from 15 to 8 geese.

They also removed Brown, Edmunds, Faulk, McPherson, and Spink counties from the August Management Take unit.

Bighorn Sheep Hunting Season

The Commission voted to increase the number of bighorn sheep licenses from seven to eight.

Public Comments Being Accepted

To hear the discussion on these topics, audio from the meeting is available through South Dakota Public Broadcasting and will soon be available on the GFP website as part of the meeting archive.

To see these topics in their entirety, visit gfp.sd.gov/commission/information.

To be included in the public record and to be considered by the Commission, comments must include a full name and city of residence and be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CDT on May 3.

The next GFP Commission meeting will be held at the Custer State Park Event Barn May 7-8.