Rapid Rooster

Rapid Rooster is a state-approved pheasant preserve located on a 3,000-acre private ranch in Piedmont, South Dakota, just ten miles north of Rapid City. Established in 2025, the operation offers private upland bird hunts in classic South Dakota cover, with its first preserve season running September 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027. The ranch borders the Pete Lien Sports Shooting Complex, giving hunters and groups the opportunity to combine a day in the field with sporting clays, skeet, bunker trap, and other shooting activities.

Pheasant hunts are guided and conducted with bird dogs, with hunters working the ranch's standing corn and other upland cover for released ring-necked pheasants. Hunters determine how many pheasants are released before their hunt, with a minimum of 15 birds, and there is no additional charge for birds harvested. The ranch also holds a naturally reproducing population of wild sharp-tailed grouse that can be hunted alongside pheasants, and its hunt information also lists partridge and chukar opportunities. Every hunt includes a guide, at least one bird dog, bird cleaning, and access to the private ranch.

What sets Rapid Rooster apart is the ability to build an entire South Dakota shooting experience around the hunt. The neighboring Pete Lien Sports Shooting Complex allows groups to spend the morning shooting skeet, bunker trap, or sporting clays before lunch and an afternoon pheasant hunt. Group and corporate events can also incorporate long-range rifle shooting, a pistol tactical course, rim-fire steel shooting, and seasonal prairie dog hunting. Located approximately 20 minutes from downtown Rapid City, Rapid Rooster combines private-land upland hunting with convenient access to lodging, dining, the airport, and an adjacent shooting complex.