South Dakota Hunting License: $36*, $45 With a Tag
In South Dakota the licence is $36* and the first deer costs $45
What a season in South Dakota actually costs to start
A resident hunting licence in South Dakota is $36*, sold as the Resident Small Game. Hunting a deer on it means buying the Deer East River as well, at $45, so the first day costs $45 rather than $36*. That is 25% more than the licence price a search result would have shown. 39 of the 50 states read here work the same way. The licence itself runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar.
- Resident licence $36*, the Resident Small Game
- Nonresident licence $142*
- First deer on top of it $45, the Deer East River
- What the first morning costs $45
- The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.
Every South Dakota hunting licence, at the price South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks prints
Twelve tags and permits were read off South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks's own fee pages for South Dakota, each one priced below with the row it sits in. A tag is a second purchase, and the licence price on its own is the first half of what a season costs.
- Resident Small Game$36*
pheasant, grouse, partridge, quail, cottontail rabbit and tree squirrel, plus the predator and varmint species
licence year
Resident Small Game | Residents age 18 or older to hunt pheasant, grouse, partridge, quail, cottontail rabbit, and tree squirrel. You may also hunt all species allowed with a Predator/Varmint License including coyote, red and gray fox, skunk, raccoon, badger, prairie dog, ground squirrel (gopher), crow, jackrabbit, porcupine and marmot. | $36*
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident 1-Day Small Game$15
the same small game as the resident annual, for one day and one daily limit per species
one day
Resident 1-Day Small Game | Residents age 18 or older to hunt pheasant, grouse, partridge, quail, cottontail rabbit, and tree squirrel for a one-day period and take only one daily limit per species.
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Nonresident Small Game (10-days, 2 5-day periods)$142*
pheasant, grouse, gray partridge, quail, sandhill crane, cottontail and squirrel, with predator, varmint and shooting preserve privileges
10 days, taken as two 5 day periods
Nonresident Small Game (10-days, 2 5-day periods) | Nonresident hunting of Pheasant, Grouse, Gray Partridge, Quail, Sandhill Crane, Cottontail, Squirrel. You may also hunt all species allowed with a Predator/Varmint License including Coyote, Red and Gray Fox, Skunk, Prairie Dog, Ground Squirrel (gopher), Crow, Jackrabbit, Porcupine and Marmot. This license includes the privileges of the Predator/Varmint License and the Shooting Preserve License | $142*
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident Youth Small Game (ages 12-17)$5
small game plus the predator, varmint and furbearer species listed for the licence
licence year
Youth Small Game, ages 12-17________________________________ $5
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident Senior Combination (Ages 65+)$43*
the same small game and fishing privileges as the resident combination
licence year
Senior Combination, ages 65+ (small game and fishing)*___________ $43
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident Combination (Small game + fishing)$60*
small game hunting and fishing on one licence, without furbearer trapping privileges
licence year
Resident Combination (Small game + fishing) | Residents, 18 or over, to fish (including taking frogs and turtles) and hunt small game including pheasant, grouse, partridge, quail, cottontail rabbit, and tree squirrel. ... This license does not include furbearer (trapping) privileges. Resident seniors, age 65 or over, must buy the Senior Combination License. | $60*
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Deer Apprentice$5
a deer licence for a resident adult who has not held one for ten years
the deer season it is issued for
Deer | Apprentice | $5 | N/A
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source - Resident Reduced Fee Hunting and Fishing$10
a card for residents with total disability and certain veterans, good for four years
4 years
Resident Reduced Fee Hunting and Fishing | Card for persons with total disability and certain veterans - South Dakota residents who qualify and are approved will be issued a Disabled/Veteran Hunting and Fishing Card for a $10 fee that is good for 4 years.
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
When a South Dakota hunting license expires Licence year
South Dakota runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar. The year turns on a date the state picked, usually in the spring or early autumn, so what a licence is worth depends on where in that year it was bought. The sentence the state uses is quoted below and links to the page it came from.
South Dakota licences run on a licence year that opens in mid December and closes at the end of the following January, so a licence bought at any point in that window runs out on the same date, while State Migratory Bird Certificates run on their own July to June year.
2026 licenses are valid Dec. 15, 2025 through Jan. 31, 2027 / 2027 licenses are valid Dec. 15, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2028 (license fees subject to change) / State Migratory Bird Certificates are valid from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Hunter education in South Dakota
South Dakota requires hunter education, and it sets the requirement without a birth year cutoff, so the test is what the applicant has done rather than when they were born. 29 of the 50 states read here use a birth year instead, and those years run from 1949 to 1986.
South Dakota sets its hunter education requirement by age rather than by a birth year: hunters under 16 must show a certificate of completion from a hunter safety education course unless they are in the mentored hunter program.
Hunters under age 16 are required to provide a certificate of completion from a hunter safety education course unless participating in the mentored hunter program.South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Who counts as a South Dakota resident
South Dakota draws the resident line at 90 days, and the difference between the two sides of it is $36* against $142*. The statutory definition is quoted below.
Have a domicile within South Dakota for at least 90 consecutive days immediately preceding the date of application for, purchasing, or attempting to purchase any hunting, fishing, or trapping license/permit.South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
39 of 50 states sell the animal separately from the right to hunt it
South Dakota works the way most of the country does. Of the 50 states read here, 39 sell the tag apart from the licence and 11 print it on the licence instead. Where the tag is separate, the middle state adds 95% to the licence price before anybody has left the driveway.
Resident licences across these states run from $10 to $64.54, and nonresident licences from $50 to $410, which is the widest spread on any licence this site has read. 25 states run a licence year of their own, 9 give a full year from the day of sale, and 9 end it on 31 December whatever month it was bought.
The national table puts South Dakota beside every other state on licence price, first tag, and the two added together.
South Dakota hunting license questions
More for South Dakota
Hunting licenses in every state
South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks read 23 September 2026, with every licence price, tag price, expiry rule and hunter education cutoff above linked to the page it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and change between seasons, so the agency page beside each figure is what governs on the day. Tags on top