Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hunting the Dakota's?

Anyone ever hunt the Dakota's for mule deer? Never hear anyone talking about that. Maybe for a good reason. I was Pheasant hunting in S Dakota and we saw some nice deer, Whitetail and Mule.

Talk to Colorado.

I've hunted the Rosebud reservation on three occasions for whitetails and we saw a fair amount of mulies. Nothing spectacular but I've seen some that came from the area that were good bucks. A mule deer tag is harder to come by than a whitetail tag.

If it's size you're after I'd say there are better choices, but South Dakota is a cool place to hunt.

I saw some nice deer almost every day while pheasant hunting near Seneca, SD a couple years ago. Going back again this year. I hear predator hunting can be pretty good as well.

ND has decent muley bucks. Top end is nothing like NV, CO, AZ, UT, etc though. Rifle tags are hard to come by, and archery mule deer is also a draw for non res.

SD I've never hunted. Rifle is a draw but archery is OTC. Because of that I would assume there is a lot more pressure there and maybe slightly lower quality then ND.

Ive seen big whitetails in both states. But always on private. They really like to hang in the agriculture.

Either state would be a fun hunt. If I could only hunt one state a year though it wouldn't be either ND or SD.

Regards, Branden

I hunted them back in 89 and 91. This was the current lottery system, I was lucky back then I guess.

I don't know what you really want to know.

Anyway we hunted south of I-94, south of Medora. We hunted on private property, if you don't have access, get a National Grasslands map.

The weather was mild (relative term) back then. The country is rugged, stick to cattle trails or cow paths.

There are/were some big bucks out there. But from what I was told, back in the Seventies during the oil boom a lot of the big bucks where taken. I would think the population would be down now too, from the last boom. I mean more hunting pressure and car/deer accidents. Throw in Moutain Lions into the equation too.

I used a 300 Win mag the first year, and a 30-338 the second time with great success. The locals used 22-250's and the huge 243.😄

If anyone what's to see some huge bucks, drive through the Parks during rut with some good glass. Jaw dropping.

I've bowhunted south of Medora, ND in the National Grasslands several times. It is an any deer draw tag. We always hunted muley bucks.

Gorgeous, rugged country. Weather extremes are something else in September. One year it was 102* during the day and 17* at night. Our sleeping bags were covered with frost in the morning.

Haven't gone now for a few years. Last time we went I counted license plates from 15 different states out there. Mostly road hunters.

If you get off the beaten path, there is some great country to hunt.

The last boom was mostly all north of I94. The mule deer population took a 50% hit from severe winters in 2008-2011 but is slowly making a come back.

There are some nice mulies (by my standards anyway) in the Black Hills but odds for a non resident are long on the tag.

I used to run into dandy Muley bucks while Pronghorn hunting in SW South Dakota.

lies all lies.

we have no good deer in SD, try ND first. I bet the ones you saw were a fluke.

in all seriousness there are some good deer if you know where to look. SD has unlimited archery tags for NR hunters. we also have the opportunity to get multiple tags for firearms if you know what you're doing. This makes SD appealing to NR hunters. The problem is when folks hunt all season for a big one, then on the last day shoot the biggest they see because they have to go home with antlers to make the trip "out west" worth it. I wish they'd just take a doe and let some of these juvenile bucks get some age to them. another thing that happens is people from brown it's down areas come out and see lots of branch antlered deer and think they found deer mecca. then bring a load of guys out the next year and they all go home with 100" deer. the state of SD is looking at greatly reducing NR tags for these reasons. people have complained and the state is listening to them. *rant off*

if you're looking for nice mulies and decide on SD I'd first look into the Missouri river breaks. as was said above, black hills tags and many WR units (rifle) are tough to draw. the state has some nice ones on the larger grasslands, but hunting is tough.

here's a good idea of what you can find without too much work. not huge but has a nice frame to him


it may take years of hunting to get on a good buck, the days of drawing a tag, coming out and shooting a 160"+ mulie on your first hunt are about impossible.

Noooooo! It's already hard enough.

Contact Randy Routier at Routier Outfitting. Go to his website also. These are good folks with vast areas to hunt.

For anybody not living in or from South Dakota, by "WR", he means west river (west of the Missouri River).

Nobody is allowed to apply for the WR zone until I draw a tag. This will be year #5. If you draw before I do, with less preference points, I may burn your house down while you're in SD.

Rifle deer tags in ND are by lottery only for residents and non-residents. There are 16 hunting units S or W of the Missouri where one could reasonably expect to find Mule Deer.

From the ND G&F proclamation:



Meaning there are no Mule Deer licenses available via an outfitter.

Getting a non-resident mule deer rifle tag in either of the Dakotas is a tough proposition. You're better off looking elsewhere.

I gave up hunting deer in SD years ago. As it was then East River was archery only for NR and a West River rifle tag was a drawing with slim odds for a NR. That's not to say there isn't hauntingly beautiful country and some good deer though they are not known generally for growing big racks. See below about the reservations.

I don't know about ND.

We eventually turned our attention to NE where each region is allocated a certain number of NR rifle tags and you could BUY THEM ONLINE. We had years of good deer hunting ...then blue tongue hit and decimated the herd at least in the north central part of the state where we hunted in the Sandhills. It hit south central SD too. This was about 2011 and numbers have not yet rebounded and we haven't been back since 2012.

In SD, the Indian reservations run their own show for hunting and at least in the not far past you could buy OTC licenses in Eagle Butte for the Cheyenne River Indian res and in south central, the same was true for the Rosebud Indian res, though I don't know in what town there. But the Rosebud was hit hard by blue tongue also and has a reputation of "if white don't be out there at night" This was passed on to me by a local. My info is anecdotal and second hand but it seems to be a rougher environment than the Cheyenne.

I generally find SD handling of NR tags/licenses very much of an irritant in regard to pheasants, waterfowl, and deer hunting and that is part of my loss of interest in them. That said, they have some world class hunting for the same in various parts of the state and scenery equal to the hunting. But it's their state and demand is high enough that they have no motivation to change anything is my guess. Of course the pheasant hunting is a literal industry and mostly outstanding.

I can only speak for the Northwest part of the state but if you find the right patch of property you can do all right. I would not expect anything over 180 though. This would be both private and public land. Like said above archery licenses for nonresidents are guaranteed and rifle licenses can be tough. If you are hunting private land you can get the special buck license in one or two years but the general license well take several years. If you are looking for a solid 5 point you would have a great time and see lots of animals. Whitetail licenses are easier to get and there are plenty of them also.

My Dad and I hunted within the Black Hills Nat'l Forest for many years. We would drive out, rent a cottage near Rapid City for a week and hunt on public lands. We always came home with our deer tags filled. This dandy buck rolled down into a steep canyon at the shot and was cut in half to retrieve it. Lots of work to bring this one back to the Explorer!

Best places to hunt mulies within the Black Hills are either the meadows on the southern end of Custer County or near former forest fire sites where mountain mahogany grows thickest.

Sherwood