HUMBOLDT, S.D. (KELO) –Pheasant Fest is returning to South Dakota next year. It’s the second time Sioux Falls will host the three day event.

The last time was back in 2018.

Organizers kicked off today’s announcement with a bang.

Dozens of hunters took aim at shooting clay pigeons this morning at Hunter’s Pointe near Humboldt.

It’s to help promote Pheasants Forever’s big three day event next year.

“We are absolutely ecstatic to have National Pheasant Fest and Quail Classic coming back to South Dakota,” Pheasants Forever Jared Wiklund said.

But today it’s about having fun.

“It’s just away to bring out all of our sponsors and donors and members and chapters,” Wiklund said.

One of those partners is Sound Gear out of Minnesota that sells electronic hearing protection to hunters.

“With our electronic products, the nice thing is you don’t have to sacrifice your ability to hear, your ability to have situational awareness, and you can get directionality where the sound is coming from while you are simultaneously protecting your ears,” Luke Maresh of Sound Gear said.

Baker Audiology and Hearing Aids is also here to promote what they do to help hunters.

“A lot of hunters will get tinnitus, the ringing of the ears, so nobody wants to have to wear hearing aids, but hearing aids do help with tinnitus, so if you do have that ringing you do have that programming in there you can put that in,” Becky Dow of Baker Audiology and Hearing Aids.

“People are seeing a lot of pheasants on the landscape despite the horrible winter weather that we just had so I think there’s a lot of reason for optimism,” Wiklund said.

And that optimism will help get hunters fired up for Pheasant Fest.

“I think Pheasant Fest is going to rule the roost in Sioux Falls when we are back here and there’ll be lots of banquets between now and then leading up to our big event,” Wiklund said.

Pheasants Forever has numerous chapters across the country, including South Dakota. The organization has about 150 thousand members.