GFP Commission Holds June Meeting

Mentored, Youth Deer, and Apprentice Hunting Seasons

The Commission closed nine counties in southeast South Dakota for mentored, youth, and apprentice deer hunting. The goal of this closure is to reduce antlerless deer harvest, and to enhance deer herd population growth. Among these nine units, the female deer harvest from these seasons was 255 in 2025 and accounted for most of the total female deer harvest.

This change, in conjunction with firearm license reductions in 12 units, is aimed to further increase population growth rates and limit overall harvest. Mentored, youth, and apprentice hunters will still be able to hunt other units open across the state.

The Commission approved final antelope hunting season license allocations, including a 1% increase in buck‑only firearm licenses. While recent population surveys indicate a 12% rise in antelope numbers, overall populations remain below established management objectives.

To support continued herd recovery, no changes were made to the archery or landowner-own-land seasons, and doe antelope licenses will remain unavailable. This management approach is designed to promote population growth, with no doe harvest permitted for at least the next two hunting seasons.

PROPOSALS

Definition of a Buck Deer and Bull Elk Antler

The Commission proposed a clean-up to remove “polished antler” and replace with “antler” from the definition of a buck and bull to allow an individual to harvest a velvet antlered deer or elk.

Spring and Fall Turkey Seasons

The Commission proposed several changes to the spring and fall turkey seasons.

For the Spring Turkey Season, the Commission proposed to remove references to federal property closures and to separate the Day and Codington County combined unit into county specific units for Day (PST-22A) and Codington (PST-05A) counties.

Proposed changes to the Fall Turkey Season include a weapons restriction change allowing for the use of rifles or shotguns for hunting turkeys in the fall for all units, except for Minnehaha County. In addition, the changes to fall turkey unit boundaries will result in the same Spring and Fall turkey unit boundaries for all units, except for the Black Hills.

The Commission also proposed to close Bennett and Sanborn counties to spring firearm turkey hunting and open Hughes County and close Gregory and Mellette counties to fall turkey hunting. All spring and fall turkey hunting season unit license numbers were shared and will be considered for adoption at the July Commission meeting.

Tagging and Transportation of Shooting Preserve Harvested Pheasants

The Commission accepted a petition to allow the transportation of harvested birds from a private shooting preserve directly to a lodge or cleaning facility not located on permitted acres prior to tagging.

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 July 5.

The next GFP Commission meeting will be held in Webster July 9-10.