ND mule deer archery success?

[equinox]

I use to hunt South of Medora, pronghorn and mule deer archery when I lived in ND up until 2006. In 2014 I made a trip out there and saw plenty of decent 4x4's, and a few nice 5x5's despite the poor numbers reported that year. Every forum was basically claiming "not worth it" which was great for me! If I remember right I think I only ran into 2 other hunters for the 3 weeks I was there. I went again in 2016 when the deer numbers were reported much higher and I didn't see squat. It could of just been the area I was in, but I did notice a lot more hunters, especially guys just coming in before sunset to sit. I'm going to try again in 2022, but I have not scouted for years which is how I found all my old hunting spots.
I know of a couple guys who have hunted out there for the last two decades and had great success. They however, have the time and money to scout year round and burn a lot of gas. I'm in Florida now, so its a little difficult for me.

 

[silewski11]

Just gotta find those pockets like everyone else is saying. We have an area we go to every year. Always seems to hold deer. With 2-3 quality bucks. I see a lot of guys driving around. Maybe sitting and glassing 15-30 minutes. It takes time behind the glass to spot deer moving through an opening or barren spot. Have witnessed cattle push deer 50-100 yards other than that they don’t care about them. They just don’t like being cuddled up with them.

 

[dirtytough]

Curious what everyone considers a “quality” deer?

I didn’t hunt mule deer this year. Shoulder surgery so no archery hunting and didn’t draw rifle. I did and still do spend time coyote hunting. I also do a lot of work in western ND. Sometimes driving 4+ hours a day out there.

I saw 1 quality buck. I thought he would push 180. Could have been off of course. If he was a smaller than that, than that really says something about the quality out there. A guy I know that owns tons of property said he didn’t have a buck worth shooting on his land.

I saw a few decent bucks on SM but it has been trending down the last few years.

 

[HaydenLane]

@dirtytough that sounds very similar to what I’ve seen. Saw one ~180, nothing else that I would put over 140. Lots of nice deer on SM, but they weren’t from the Badlands.