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.

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?

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Thanks Paul!

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I appreciate all the advice gentlemen.

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

I got the call too. I finally got drawn!

Hey, congrats Tom!

How many PP’s did you have? I have two now.

I had 4. This was my 5th year applying.

Thanks Scott!

Takes 3 anymore to draw as a resident. . Congrats on the tag. Don't plug the first nice 4pt you see. Rut usually going full swing 7 days before Thanksgiving. Custer limestone country still the best bet for width and mass. Damn nice 5 pts+ come out of that area. best of luck Zoner. MB

Thanks MB. I keep hearing not to shoot the first 4pt I see. Must be something to that.

I'd really like to get a 10, since I've not shot one. But I am a sucker for good clean 8 (4pt.) I've been close, but no cigar in that department.

I'll be out there for the first week or so of the season. I'll keep the later dates in mind for future reference though.

I had 3 points going in to the draw. Things might be changing in 2019 though. Makes it tough for a NR to plan much in advance.

Hell the resident odds aren’t much different. I don’t mind finding out this time of year. But much later and it would be hard to get rooms and such.

Congrats and good luck! I also got a tag this year. Seems to be about every other year draw for me. Feeling sparky about it. That makes three tags for me this fall. A Black Hills, a Harding County any deer and a Montana general tag. Gonna be a busy November.

I have a place near Custer, went out yesterday afternoon to mow and take care of some business. I saw two bucks together within a half mile of my property, a 2 year old four pt and a 3-4 year old. Hard to tell how old in the velvet but he had five on each side and is a mature buck. I myself am wanting to tag a Black Hills buck with split brow tines, this year. We'll see how it goes.

Limestone country is a good choice. There are lots of pockets of forest here and there and all of them will hold deer. Suggest you download the Avenza app for your smartphone and get the USFS MVUM's for Hell Canyon and Mystic ranger districts. You'll find them helpful.

Yes Dooger, you will get a license in the mail with some paperwork and a tag with an adhesive backing. Good luck!

Hey thanks BK!! Good luck on finding that split brow tiner!!

Thanks for answering!!!

Thanks, the split brow tine deer are around up there. Never seen one on the prairies. I had one on my trail cam last year and I think that deer is still around. I haven't pulled the card out of the cam lately, the last time I did was June and so the frames were still filling out. He's pretty safe, I'd rather go find a deer someplace else anyway. But its a good goal, I need to shoot three deer this fall like I need a hole in my head.

Well we actually do eat 3 deer a year. So this will be good start!

My son and I each got a nice deer for the freezer last year and I thought that would be enough...it wasn't . we ran out in early July.

That is impressive, we don't and won't. I donate a lot of deer as a result. We're still working on last falls' elk!

Oh if we had an elk we'd eat less deer!

Between my wife and I, we have 6 kiddos. Some from previous marriages...but they all eat like garbage compactors and they all like venison. And milk. Good Lord we go through the milk! lol

last year I got 2 elk, 4 deer and an antelope. my wife got 2 deer. it's probably a good thing I didn't draw anything this year! I was lucky enough to draw my CSP tag last year and Hills tag.

TZONE, yo should pull your kid out for 2 weeks. Never let your schooling interfere with your education.
ation.

He gets to miss almost 2 weeks. He's a A student so I don't mind as long as he keeps his grades up. This year he's going to miss 4 days to pheasant hunt and 4 days for WI deer hunting. So, his education will be kept intact.

I got the tag in the mail last night and the hotel is booked. So finally official. Now I'll be climbing the walls until first light on Nov. 1

Hey that is awesome. Good luck!

TZOne, is it easy to get a doe tag or something on an over the counter? I would like to go do that sometime. I would go in cold too but by the way some talk it should not be too much work seeing deer.

There's no OTC antlerless, it's draw only. that said it was 100% success for NR hunters with no preference. there is also the Muzzleloader option in December. those tags are available for purchase online or through the GFP office til the end of season. That is a fun hunt too.

I love to hunt the Black Hills! I strongly recommend finding out what mountain mahogany looks like as this plant is a magnet for mulies. Not so much for whitetails. The "Piedmont Burn" is an area that has abundant new growth after this forest fire of approx 15 years ago. You can access it with a 4WD vehicle from the fire trail past Blackhawk. I've had very good luck hunting the edges of this burn. This large bodied muley was taken near the burn site. Hoping this is helpful.

Sherwood

Tzoner, how did it go? MB

We did well Bob.

Kicked it off in late October. Doing a little scouting my son connected on a Mule deer doe with the help of another member, Colorado1135.







Then we found some whitetail areas near where I was staying. That turned out pretty well too!







The hunt was amazing. The country is obviously beautiful. The deer were plentiful. I shot the 3rd biggest buck I saw, but the size of the buck was a minor part of the hunt. That said, I'd love to go back now that I know a bit more about the area and kill a bigger one...I had my chances, no question there.

The scenery alone was worth the trip. The amount of wildlife seen just made it better!

Need to work on shooting longer distances and hiking. There are great opportunities to "spot and stalk" in some of the areas. I had the chance on one occasion and couldn't relocate the buck after I moved, so I went back to my post. I shot the buck pictured above a short time later.

Congrats on a successful hunt!

T congrats for you and the boy, great way to start him out. You both will have great memories of that hunt. Tell us what you were using guns and loads. MB

Awesome work TZone so happy to see your son successful too; Colo1135 is a top shelf dude in his generosity in such matters!

That’s a beautiful buck you shot I just love hunting an area where I can have the confidence to let good bucks pass.

Great experience!

Skeen, is that your some or you with the giant bass? Hellova fish!

MB,

The gun was a Win Model 70 featherweight XTR, in 7x57 Mauser. The load was Federal blue box 140gr bullets. Nothing too fancy. Range was 64 yards. He came through chasing 3 does that ran by me at about 50 feet!

This is a good thread. I have been buying preference points for the hills for the last 3 years and next year I am planning on putting in to go. How was the pressure? My concern when I was looking at the maps is all the roads/ being able to get away from other hunters.

There will be some pressure. From what I saw if you hunt durning the week there will be less. The pressure I saw was road hunters on the weekend. So, go early and get in the woods before the trucks start driving roads.

I also hunted the opening weekend. There really was not a lot of folks out like I am used to here. The season is long so I don’t think anyone was too crazy about it like here with a 2 week season.

Great story Tom & will be great BSin' memories for you, Jack & Ryan !

Most excellentness !!