My dad, friend, and I were drawn for the Black Hills whitetail hunt this year (first try!), and was wondering if anyone had any pointers. I prefer hunting away from roads, away from people. I am totally unfamiliar with South Dakota, so I'm not sure where to start. The season runs the entire month of November. I will only have two weeks to hunt. Is it better to go at the beginning or the end of the season? Sorry for all of the rookie questions. I am very experienced with hunting mule deer, blacktail, elk, bear, pronghorn, etc., but have never had the opportunity to hunt whitetails. I'm not looking for anyone's honey hole... just some pointers and general areas. Are there very many large whitetail (antler size), or are they smaller in size? I'm trying to get an idea as to whether I should hold out for a better animal, or take what I can get. I've read that the success rate is generally fairly high, so I'm thinking of trying to find a larger animal. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Ken
South of Lead, and East of Terry Peak. 44d 19' N-103d 46'W. This is about the location of the foundation of my Grandparents house in the avatar. This area has been logged in the last 5-7 years and was full of deer each time I've been back. Unfortunately it hasn't been for Whitetails in quite awhile. I've been doing trips to NoDak to see my Mom and hunt pheasants.
Google Earth and Topo this area. There are old railroad beds, power lines, and logging roads that provide access and good "edge"
Good luck. I am way jealous.
Email if you have any other questions
Former Californian here, well at least I was stationed at Camp Pen for awhile. Anyways I live here in the BlackHills, and there is alot of Whitetails, nice ones at that. Post up again so I know you are still checking in here and I will help you out!
0306 USMC
Hi there 0306!
I'm definitely checking this thread! I'd appreciate any and all pointers that you could provide! We drew the whitetail buck tag that will allow us to hunt anywhere in the Hills... but we also have a whitetail doe tag each for the very southern doe zone (BD04). We were thinking of hunting slightly west of Custer, but are open to suggestions. We've never hunted whitetail before, but are very experienced with blacktail and mulies in the steep, thick timber of Northern Ca... We prefer areas where we can get away from roads (which I hear are prevalent throughout the Hills). I like finding little honey-holes of a few square miles where I can get away from people... I'm not looking to kill a trophy, but that would be sweet! Where are you living these days?
Ken
Anything worth reporting on your hunt??? I'm dying to know!!
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (PaHaSaPa @ Dec 5 2007, 03:29 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>We hunted around Custer for close to two weeks (with side trips to see some scenery). There were 3 of us hunting - we each had a buck tag and a doe tag... We all shot our deer. My buck was the biggest of the deer that we shot, but not the biggest buck that I saw. There were a few pretty nice bucks up around Spearfish... I was REALLY impressed by the number of deer and turkeys, as well as other big game in the Black Hills! Can't wait to go back!Anything worth reporting on your hunt??? I'm dying to know!![/b]
Ken
Very nice buck, Ken! That's an impressive whitetail; congratulations.
../|. ,[____],
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Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?
Ken,
Awesome man, I am "WAY JELL-OOHHSS", andwith envy.
No snow in that picture, was there any snow at all in the Hills?
Congrats on a great trip!!
DAP
There wasn't much snow in the Hills while we were there... there were a few days that it put down an inch or two of snow... but we didn't get any nasty weather... it started to get cold (-5 degrees) the day after Thanksgiving...
Ken
looks like you had a great hunt and didn't freeze your butt off. Nice buck
AKA "GATOR"
I rule
Well... I had a great hunt! And I wasn't freezing at the moment the picture was taken... Of course, two days later it was 15 below zero! I LOVED the Black Hills... what a sweet place to hunt!
Ken
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