American Hunting Vs UK Shooting

South Dakota is about 1.53 times larger than England, and is a primary state for pheasant hunting in the US.

For comparison purposes — and because I am a demographer by training — the population of South Dakota is 935,000 as compared to 59 million for England.

South Dakota pheasant hunting is (for the most part) *hunting* and not merely bird *shooting*, as is far more common in the UK.

Over at Outdoor Life, Natalie Krebs notes that South Dakota pheasant hunters are now out-numbered by out of state hunters, and that public lands hunting (unheard of in the UK) involves actual work.

“DIY public-land pheasant hunting, especially during poor bird years, isn’t for the faint of heart. I’ve had to work for my limits of wild roosters over the seasons, slogging miles through nasty weather, thick cover, cattail sloughs, and rolling hills. Last weekend I hiked 9 miles over public ground with my dog (who covered 15 on his own four legs) and two buddies to fill our three limits. It was one of the best days of pheasant hunting I can remember.”

That said, in an America raised on one-minute rice and 200-channel television, more and more heavily-stocked commercial pheasant shoots are popping up.

“In the last quarter century, the number of licensed pheasant preserves across the state has grown substantially, from 157 in 2001 to a record 237 last season. Preserves must be a minimum of 160 acres (and no more than 2,560 acres). And over the past nine seasons, the harvest of released captive pheasants shot on preserves has climbed 50 percent (this excludes incidental harvest of wild birds). During the 2025-26 season, hunters shot about 400,000 pheasants on preserves — a record high.”

How do those numbers compare to pheasant shoots in the UK?

The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) and the RSPB estimate that roughly 42.5 million to 47 million pheasants are released across English estates annually, with total British releases estimated around 50 million.

So, to put a point on it, even US commercial “pheasant preserves” are not the potted chicken shoots found in the UK, where so many birds may be shot that over 50 percent are not even plucked or eaten.

The full Outdoor Life article is here >> https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/south-dakota-pheasant-hunting-traditions/

For more about proposed licensing of bird shoots in the UK, see >>  https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/aug/23/new-licensing-for-game-shoots-could-stop-poisoning-of-birds-of-prey