Pheasant Statistics 1919-2009

Dakotazeb

Dakotazeb

Well-known member
Yesterday the American News in Aberdeen published a full page showing the South Dakota pheasant statistics since 1919. It showed the following by year: the season length & bag limit, number of licensed hunters (resident & non-resident) and pheasants harvested & pheasant population. I found the information on the State GFP web site and have included it below. There are some interesting statistics from years past. 1944 had the longest season of 163 days. 1945 had the largest harvest and also largest population. 7.5 million birds harvested from a population of 16 million. The largest number of hunters was 212,000 in 1963. (144,000 Res & 68,000 NR) It's funny how the ratio of resident to non-resident hunters has flip flopped. In 2009 there were approx. 70,000 resident hunters and 167,00 non-resident. Enjoy!

http://gfp.sd.gov/hunting/small-game/pheasant-stats.aspx
 
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Hunter numbers were noticably down during WWII. Hard to imagine the average harvest per hutner in 1944 was 54 birds. During WWII when the trains came through Aberdeen, SD transporting soldiers that were headed overseas the women in town made and fed the soldiers "Pheasant Sandwiches" while they were stopped here.
 
It's just a well know fact here in Aberdeen. I think the museum in town has some old photos of the soldiers eating pheasant sandwiches. There were a lot of pheasant to be had and I suppose with rationing of food during the war pheasant was more readily available and also cheap.

Chech this out: http://browncountyredcross.org/pheasantcanteen.html
 
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