SD Public Land

clark33

New Member
Feb 22, 2011
45
0
Central Washington
I've been curious about SD myself, granted it is a ways away from Washington. I read a few articles saying some good things about the "walk-in only" areas which would be perfect for getting away from the roads. Is it draw for non-residents or OTC for most areas?
 

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South Dakota has some big mulies if your gonna work for it. Def look at the Walk-in Areas. We have a large spread of private land we hunt in SW South Dakota. Right next to our private land one of the ranchers put all his land in the Walk-in Area program. Lots and Lots of land.
 

Rob

Member
Feb 21, 2011
50
0
Iowa
I've been thinking about going back to SD to hunt. I was a resident for 13 yrs but spent all my time hunting whitetails East River. Now I'm kicking myself for not spending more time West River!!!
 

muskiemauler22

New Member
Feb 23, 2011
33
0
Mobridge, sd
Work for it is correct. We've still encountered people 4 miles back into some land that just looks plain useless. But its that small area of 80 acres that holds them...that you got to get to. We know of 150 plus mulies in a spot that gets hunted hard...people are just too lazy or are trigger happy. Biggest tip i can give is that the mulies usually rut about 2 weeks after the whitetails where we go...at least the majority of the whitetails. There are a ton of road hunters which can really blow.

And as far as no deer in sd, i've walked draws and pushed out 100+ deer.
 

dhaffner

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
15
0
Here are some SD muleys, nothing to incredible but I couldn't pass them up! As you can tell there is still some room for improvement on the photo skills!






 

dhaffner

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
15
0
Unfortunately the first two weren't public land muleys... Here is one my brother got a piece of public ground... sorry the pics are kinda blury it was getting dark and we had a long haul to get out of there before midnight...





I would say a person's best shot a big boy on public land is with a bow, by the time the rifle season comes around there usually has been enough pressure to push them onto private refuges...
 

dhaffner

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
15
0
I upload them on my photobucket account. Then I just copy and paste the IMG code. There are several free image hosting websites.
 

NDHunter

Veteran member
Feb 25, 2011
1,166
25
North Dakota
Im building points for the blackhills any tips for a diy hunter coming from NY.
I have never hunted the black hills but I read somewhere that there are a lot of bucks in the black hills but not very many big ones. Not sure how true it is...maybe someone here could comment on that??
 

dhaffner

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
15
0
Put in for the the whitetail tag. Black hills deer are the smallest deer we hunt, it is more of a fun hunt than trophy hunt. It isn't unusual to see several bucks in a day, but a 130 deer is a nice one. If I wanted a big mule deer I would either try the West River deer season or Wyoming, Colorado, or Montana. They have the Mule Deer tags at about 10% of total tags given out, so If they get the cougers under control hopefully our Mule deer will improve.
 
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dhaffner

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
15
0
Here are some representative Whitetails from the Hills. There are bigger ones out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule. If I was looking for a fun hunt in reasonable terrain, it is a great place. Kind of like an easy to draw antelope hunt in Wyoming. If you want to find a wall hanger on public land I think there are better oppotunities out there...When you draw shoot me a PM



 
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nydeerhunter

New Member
Feb 21, 2011
3
0
Thanks for the info on what deer to put in for. A fun hunt is all im looking for as I see the hunt as the fun part and taging a buck a bonus. So when I apply I should put in for nr whitetail, are there different units in the hills? Plan on packing in and hunting out of a small tent if that make a differance as to where i should go.
 
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