South Dakota Free Pheasant Hunt for Disabled Veterans and Purple Heart Recipients

Section 41-11-5.5 lets a nonprofit organisation host a special pheasant hunt in which disabled veterans and Purple Heart recipients of the armed forces may participate, and provides that no fee may be charged to participants, by the state or by the sponsoring organisation. Both halves of that matter: the state takes nothing, and the host may not charge either. The disability threshold is twenty percent, the lowest in any South Dakota recreation statute. A disabled veteran for this purpose is an individual adjudicated by VA as being twenty percent or more disabled due to a service-connected disability, or designated by VA to receive special monthly compensation level K under 38 U.S.C. 1114. A Purple Heart recipient qualifies without any disability finding at all. Residency is not required. The section has never limited participation to South Dakota residents, and Senate Bill 131 of 2026 removed the words "resident or nonresident" without replacing them with a residency condition, so a nonresident veteran remains eligible. The 2026 act moved the season, and it moved it in an unobvious direction. The hunt used to be permitted "before or during the regular pheasant season". It may now be held during the private shooting preserve season under 41-10-11, which runs for the seven month period from September 1 to March 31. That is a longer window than the regular pheasant season, so narrower words produced a wider opportunity. The same act replaced the old reference to a "K Award" with the statutory citation to special monthly compensation level K under 38 U.S.C. 1114 as of January 1, 2026. This is a hunt hosted by a private organisation under a state authorisation, not a program the state runs. Finding one means finding a sponsoring nonprofit. The Game, Fish and Parks Commission makes rules to administer the hunts.