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tzone Offline OP
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I’m hoping to hunt there in Nov. Any tips?

I’m going in completely blind. What type of terrain am I looking for? Creek bottoms, ridges? What do they feed on that time of year?

We plan to be out in Oct to scout and maybe get the kids on a deer for the freezer. But I’ll welcome anything to help at this point.


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Do you have a whitetail or muley tag?
Doe or buck?
Which actual sub-unit, or the whole BH?
Do you enjoy woods, prairie, burns, mountains, farmland?

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No tag yet. But if it comes it will be an "Any Whitetail" (buck or doe) for the Black Hills Unit.

As far as what I enjoy, I've only ever hunted woods/clear cuts before. I'm looking for suggestions on anything at this point.


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Let's see--then you might as well try something different than sitting in the woods.

Head down the road toward Jewel Cave (Route 16). A couple miles before you get to the entrance, you will see National Forest Service land on both sides of the road with open gravel roads. One of those to the east was burned to the ground a few decades back, but is now growing back in lush grass. You could just drive that road at dawn/dusk with binoculars and you'd see a deer to shoot. Or you could hike off the road a bit during the day and find one.

For an Any Whitetail tag, unless you are being trophy-picky, you can shoot one just about anywhere in the BH units very easily. Just drive NF roads a bit to see the kind of country that interests you, then get out and walk a half mile off the road over the next ridge or ravine. At dawn/dusk you'll see whitetails everywhere. Just bring binoculars.

If you want a trophy whitetail, then try to go either second or third week of November just following peak breeding. There will be some extra movement, and you may have some snow to make seeing them easier. Take a NF road to a higher vantage point, hike out to where you can see, and just start looking with binos. You'll get the lay of the land quickly, and the whitetails act just like they do anywhere else.

Road travel will be your biggest headache, as many of those "roads" turn straight to gumbo as soon as they have moisture. But hiking is the more fun way to hunt anyway. You can always get a deer around a burn if you have to, or you may enjoy trying to hike way up in the pine forests and get one during the day. Or you can just hunt hardwood creek bottoms like anywhere else and spook one up.

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Thanks for the tips DD!

I will take them all into consideration. I’m not looking for a trophy in the B&C sense if the word but I don’t want a dink either. I do plan to drive some roads scouting. But when it gets down to game time I will get off the road. I don’t need to drive 600 miles to road hunt, I can do that from here. Lol


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Never underestimate road hunting! Deer, especially in the rut, don't care where the humans are if they want to be there.

There is at least one of the BH units that has CWD, so you probably have special regulations about bringing one home from there. It may encompass the whole BH altogether for your state, so check your regs.

There are so many vast places to hunt in the BH that it really comes down to picking your type of terrain, and then focusing on finding deer within that habitat.

There is not really a lot of cropland within the BH units, so you won't have crops to concentrate the deer as much as you're probably used to. But if you can find alfalfa or corn anywhere near NF land, then you know where to be early in the morning when they come off the field to bed uphill on benches just below the summits.

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Good luck with the tag Tom, hoping the stars align for you !


Paul.

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Originally Posted by DakotaDeer
Never underestimate road hunting! Deer, especially in the rut, don't care where the humans are if they want to be there.

There is at least one of the BH units that has CWD, so you probably have special regulations about bringing one home from there. It may encompass the whole BH altogether for your state, so check your regs.

There are so many vast places to hunt in the BH that it really comes down to picking your type of terrain, and then focusing on finding deer within that habitat.

There is not really a lot of cropland within the BH units, so you won't have crops to concentrate the deer as much as you're probably used to. But if you can find alfalfa or corn anywhere near NF land, then you know where to be early in the morning when they come off the field to bed uphill on benches just below the summits.




I usually hunt the big woods so the deer are eating buds, grasses, hell...probably some pine cones up on the Iron Range. lol. Most of the time the feed where we hunt is in clear cuts and blow down areas. New growth.

I will be there before the serious rut starts it sounds like. I'm hoping to be in the woods opening morning and be there for up to a week.


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Originally Posted by New_2_99s
Good luck with the tag Tom, hoping the stars align for you !



Thanks Paul!


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First week of November is leading up to peak-breeding. You should see deer movement, with bucks actively trolling for does. It will be better weather usually also.

An "easy" fallback plan is to find a good saddle between two distinct drainages, and sit there hoping a buck cruises back and forth between the two. I find that kind of hunting boring myself, but it is a good idea for midday and a place to eat lunch, take a nap, etc.

Are you hunting alone or with others who will be walking?

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Tom, you and I hunt similar stuff here in the Midwest and opening day here is unlike it seems to be out in the Dakota's. For one thing those are a different sub-species being prairie whitetails according to Lenard Lee Rue's whitetail book "The Deer of North America". Personally just scooting around SD on my motorcycle and car in the Deadwood - Devil's Tower area, I saw way more deer standing around out in the open than I've ever seen here or in MN.. I had a buddy that lived in Deadwood and we were coming back from elk hunting in early November and I stopped for gas out there. I mentioned the open deer season to the guy at the station and he was so laid back about maybe going out after work to look for a deer. It sure didn't seem like here where blaze orange is everywhere and everything stops for the deer season like some kind of pilgrimage into the woods.


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Originally Posted by DakotaDeer


Are you hunting alone or with others who will be walking?


I will have my 13 year old son along to scout but during the the season I'll be by myself. He'll be missing school the next week for hunting. I don't want to pull him 2 weeks in a row.


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2 weeks worth of fatherly education is worth more than the whole year stuck behind a desk. Use it as motivation to get good grades, get work done ahead of time and on the trip.

Anyway, with a second person you could still-hunt high-low around the hilltops and get some deer moving during the day.

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Originally Posted by tzone
Originally Posted by DakotaDeer


Are you hunting alone or with others who will be walking?


I will have my 13 year old son along to scout but during the the season I'll be by myself. He'll be missing school the next week for hunting. I don't want to pull him 2 weeks in a row.


Farm and ranch country deer are used to farmers and ranchers harmlessly going about their business about 340 days per year. My late FIL often said that the best blind for hunting deer would be a cardboard cutout of full size pickup truck 'cause that is deer see day in and day out.

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Put a speaker broadcast of a tractor motor purring along, and you could walk right up to them.

In fact, sometimes you have to wait for them to get out of the way of the tractor if they're feeling lazy. Coyotes are the same way.

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I've hunted the Black Hills most of my life. Unfortunately, I didn't draw a tag this year. Shooting a deer in the hills isn't difficult. I have my favorite places, but in general look for burns. It seems to be the best eating spots for Whitetail.


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Originally Posted by Bugger
I've hunted the Black Hills most of my life. Unfortunately, I didn't draw a tag this year. Shooting a deer in the hills isn't difficult. I have my favorite places, but in general look for burns. It seems to be the best eating spots for Whitetail.


WTF? application deadline is July 20th????? for paper and the 25th for online MB


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Originally Posted by DakotaDeer
Let's see--then you might as well try something different than sitting in the woods.

Head down the road toward Jewel Cave (Route 16). A couple miles before you get to the entrance, you will see National Forest Service land on both sides of the road with open gravel roads. One of those to the east was burned to the ground a few decades back, but is now growing back in lush grass. You could just drive that road at dawn/dusk with binoculars and you'd see a deer to shoot. Or you could hike off the road a bit during the day and find one.

For an Any Whitetail tag, unless you are being trophy-picky, you can shoot one just about anywhere in the BH units very easily. Just drive NF roads a bit to see the kind of country that interests you, then get out and walk a half mile off the road over the next ridge or ravine. At dawn/dusk you'll see whitetails everywhere. Just bring binoculars.

If you want a trophy whitetail, then try to go either second or third week of November just following peak breeding. There will be some extra movement, and you may have some snow to make seeing them easier. Take a NF road to a higher vantage point, hike out to where you can see, and just start looking with binos. You'll get the lay of the land quickly, and the whitetails act just like they do anywhere else.

Road travel will be your biggest headache, as many of those "roads" turn straight to gumbo as soon as they have moisture. But hiking is the more fun way to hunt anyway. You can always get a deer around a burn if you have to, or you may enjoy trying to hike way up in the pine forests and get one during the day. Or you can just hunt hardwood creek bottoms like anywhere else and spook one up.


DakotaDeer, I much appreciate this post of yours. Excellent guidance and info.


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I appreciate all the advice gentlemen.


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First time drawing in SD! Do they send NR licenses by mail?

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