Totally ready to depart my office here and head West! Seven of us headed to a ranch in Harding County for three days of spectacularlty. We are staying in a comfortable ranch house and hunting about 30,000 acres of sage, and hay, and pasture next to Forest Service.
For my part of the eatings, I went and bought a bone in ham and potatoes to put in the oven Saturday.
I have a Special Buck tag which allows me to hunt any where, any season West River but only on private land. I am taking a .264WM Westerner, using handloads with 130AB pushed by RL33.
Shaping up to be a fantastic trip. I have not been out deer hunting to speak of since 2014 and am about beside myself thinking about it.
Good luck fill us in on the results
Good luck!! That sounds like one heck of a good time.
Awesome, man, congratulations. Beautiful deer up that way. I know a guy that has a 180" Harding county mule deer on the wall
My Dad (1922-2004) and I hunted the Black Hills each November for many years. We always came home with venison. Great deer hunting within western South Dakota.
Sherwood
Back at the desk on a Monday morning after a fantastic weekend. Eight of us took five deer this weekend. Four mule deer, one whitetail, all bucks. There are lots and lots of deer on the place and there is some pressure as well from the landowner's extended family. I've hunted birds there before a number of times but this was the first time it worked out for me to hunt deer.
I had an interesting encounter with my deer. Saturday morning, we were on the way to a draw on the end of the place, when we noticed a mule deer buck and five does in the distance. I was able to get turned around, get out and used the terrain to close the gap to about 350. He was heavy, high but narrow and about what I was looking for, which was a mature representative deer. I decided to try and take him but was unable to get a solid rest and missed. He was joined by about ten more does and the group bounded away relatively unconcerned.
I moved toward where I'd last seen them and after about 30 minutes came upon him with just two does. This time he was only 80 yards away, but the terrain was such that if I used the ground as a rest (which was all I had) I could not see him and so by the time I relocated, he had as well, and that was that. While assessing my next step, I was surrounded by deer, all of which were alert, half a mile away and on the move. I returned to the pickup. By this time its midmorning.
We're now on the way to the long brushy mile and a half long draw, the way in and to the top is of course through the draw itself, about halfway up the hill. As we're in the very bottom of the draw, a narrow grassy waterway with ash trees on both sides, we note three mule deer does about 100 yards to the right. Following the rule I'd set for the younger hunters, I got out of the truck to look further. The very same buck I'd shot at 90 minutes earlier rises up out of the grass and faces me. I went prone and was able to get a shot off just as he was exiting stage right. I felt good about it but there was limited vision and a lot of motion. We retreated to the hayfield above the draw and saw two does who had apparently forgotten an urgent appointment, leaving me behind to wonder if he'd given me the slip again. I put two of the junior hunters in position to see where the buck might go, and went back to the scene of the shot. As I walked down the waterway with a little frost and no snow, I was unable to find evidence of a hit. There was a lot of territory to cover and I tried to follow the direction I saw him go for as long as I saw him. As it turned out shortly, he was very well hit and had expired in yet another somewhat hidden gully between the hayfield and where he was shot.
The 130AB from my .264 had taken him through the back of both lungs, a complete pass through and he was dead as a wedge. A heavy mature deer with three on each side, no front forks and no idea why. I had not taken a mule deer buck previously, for no real reason, I just hadn't and so I was happy with him. I did see some larger deer but at a new place and with a short time, and others also hunting, this was a great deer.
We took three lesser mule deer bucks and a nice 5pt whitetail deer. The three hunters without deer at the end had tags for whitetails only and they proved very tough to find and close the deal. From observations Friday, I felt like the rut was over. Saturday and Sunday morning proved me to be wrong in that, both of those days there was a lot of rut activity for both species. I hope to go back next year, I have a plan in mind which I want to execute.
Ill put up pictures in the image thread, I haven't figured out how to pull that all together yet.
Nice buck and good write up.
I absolutely love South Dakota.
Thanks for sharing I hope you enjoy grilling that buck!!