My trip to SD for Archery mule deer

[180splitg3]

I just wanted to share my experience from my recent trip to SD. Thought it might help others trying to decide on an out of state hunt. We decided to hunt in public land in Perkins County based on some information I found on the web and some other research I had done about the area. I was hoping to stay away from other hunters but knew that was probably unlikely. I had many spots marked on my onX and we arrived Saturday afternoon and headed out glassing. The landscape was very different from what I am used to. Thousands of acres of open country with sparse cover and some wooded draws. I don't really need to go into details about every day because it would just be too long. Ultimately, we found it extremely hard to find deer of any kind. When we did find some they were running full speed away from us. A lot of this was due to our inexperience but after a couple of days we really slowed down and started spotting a few deer. My goal was to be able to stalk a buck and I wanted to shoot for something bigger than 100" just as a personal goal. After 5.5 full days of hunting we saw one deer over 100". We put a ton of miles on the truck trying out different areas if one wasn't producing. We knew it was going to be difficult to fill a tag but I really expected to have more than one stalking opportunity. My hunting partner was looking to tag any antlered deer. He was able to put one stalk on a very small basket rack buck but couldn't put it together. We had a fun trip, learned a lot and made plenty of mistakes but I definitely would not recommend this area to someone like myself who does not have experience with spot and stalk hunting. The opportunities were just so few that we didn't really get to experience much stalking. On top of that, there were trucks parked at every single access point. We weren't running into other hunters in the field but the deer were definitely pressured. I'm not trying to complain but wanted to share to provide information to others looking to do a hunt like this.

 

[Pro953]

Just curious, would you feel differently if it was a rifle hunt?


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[Fatcamp]

Good on you for getting out.

Any plans to return?

 

[180splitg3]

Just curious, would you feel differently if it was a rifle hunt?


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I think it would still be tough with a rifle but obviously much more doable. I think that West river rifle tags can be a pretty tough tag to draw though...

 

[IAMike304]

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[Stickboy]

It’s good you got out! I grew up hunting SoDak and go back every year I can draw a tag(rifle). Would love to try and get one with a bow some year, guys are successful, but it can be a tough hunt especially if you are after something with any size at all. It really is a great state with good people living there. Thanks for sharing your experience!