SD Antelope Rifle Tag

[barrettm95]

After 7 years, finally drew a good Western SD antelope tag. Anyone have any SD public antelope stories they are willing to share?

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I went last year, 1st day was crowded, day 2 I was by myself. Took this buck with my 6 year old in tow

After I took my buck the boy and I took a trip over to Rushmore to fill the rest of day 2. Morning of day 3 as I was packing up a rancher pulls up and asks if I had tagged my buck. I told him I had and he said “good for you, but if you hadn’t I was gonna offer to let you hunt my place” turned out he was originally from the town where I live now in Idaho. Real nice guy, said he had seen me and the kid out tromping the public and wanted to help us out. So be prepared for opening day crowding on public, but also be prepared to meet some great people and enjoy your time out there in the prairies. Oh and make sure you zip up your tent, even on a bluebird day a storm can move in fast in all seriousness we had pretty severe thunder storms each night while we were there.


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[Wireman07]

After 7 years, finally drew a good Western SD antelope tag. Anyone have any SD public antelope stories they are willing to share?

I have shot a few. I hunt up in Corson County. Have a buddy that ranches out there. I'm from Watertown. I know, not much of a story but I figured I'd chime in!

 

[barrettm95]

I went last year, 1st day was crowded, day 2 I was by myself. Took this buck with my 6 year old in tow

After I took my buck the boy and I took a trip over to Rushmore to fill the rest of day 2. Morning of day 3 as I was packing up a rancher pulls up and asks if I had tagged my buck. I told him I had and he said “good for you, but if you hadn’t I was gonna offer to let you hunt my place” turned out he was originally from the town where I live now in Idaho. Real nice guy, said he had seen me and the kid out tromping the public and wanted to help us out. So be prepared for opening day crowding on public, but also be prepared to meet some great people and enjoy your time out there in the prairies. Oh and make sure you zip up your tent, even on a bluebird day a storm can move in fast in all seriousness we had pretty severe thunder storms each night while we were there.


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Nice buck and good memories with your child! We deer hunt out there quite a bit. I know getting private mule deer ground is tough, however I am hoping most ranchers and farmers are a little bit easier on the goats. If not our unit has a significant amount of public. Thanks for sharing!

 

[barrettm95]

I have shot a few. I hunt up in Corson County. Have a buddy that ranches out there. I'm from Watertown. I know, not much of a story but I figured I'd chime in!

There’s goats up that way?

We are hunting on the far western side of the state.

 

[Wireman07]

There’s goats up that way?

We are hunting on the far western side of the state.

There's a few, definitely not like out west farther. One year I was out there I was chasing a herd of about 100 of them, that was the most I've ever seen in that county

 

[sodaksooner]

Haven't for years but building points again. Grew up in Sturgis so hunted them a lot in Meade and Butte counties growing up. Don't even know what the herd looks like any more. Saw a few in July when I was up there, but nothing huge. Can't help you out with private and don't know what unit you are in but as you probably already know, tons of walk-in. Thankfully I still have a few private ranches to hunt. You might try and knock on a few doors as well. A lot of those folks aren't necessarily bitten by the pay to hunt bug yet and most don't really like goats in my limited experience.

 

[Lytro]

Assuming your tag is in the NW, I think you'd be wasting your time knocking on doors. There's tons of public and goats are easy to kill if you can shoot. My advice is to skip the first week of the season. I took a buddy out archery hunting second week of October last year and we probably saw 5x more pronghorn than deer on public. Didn't see a single pronghorn hunter either.

 

[barrettm95]

Haven't for years but building points again. Grew up in Sturgis so hunted them a lot in Meade and Butte counties growing up. Don't even know what the herd looks like any more. Saw a few in July when I was up there, but nothing huge. Can't help you out with private and don't know what unit you are in but as you probably already know, tons of walk-in. Thankfully I still have a few private ranches to hunt. You might try and knock on a few doors as well. A lot of those folks aren't necessarily bitten by the pay to hunt bug yet and most don't really like goats in my limited experience.

I’m down in southwest SD

 

[barrettm95]

Assuming your tag is in the NW, I think you'd be wasting your time knocking on doors. There's tons of public and goats are easy to kill if you can shoot. My advice is to skip the first week of the season. I took a buddy out archery hunting second week of October last year and we probably saw 5x more pronghorn than deer on public. Didn't see a single pronghorn hunter either.

Down in SW SD. Best available for me and my buddy is opening week. Thanks!

 

[sodaksooner]

I’m down in southwest SD

Never hunted goats there, but brother used to live in Hot Springs and we hunted deer all over that area. Really can't speak to the goat population down there, but just look at that walk in atlas and pick a spot.

 

[Maz7869]

Good luck I’m heading that way next month

 

[jmez]

Not near as much walk in in the SW as Butte/Meade. The Buffalo Gap National Grasslands is big.

From what I've seen last winter was pretty hard on the goat population .

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[Novashooter]

I drew a tag for 27A. I had a tag once before for Wyoming, but ended up not going due to injury. This will, hopefully, be my first time hunting antelope anywhere. I'm quite familiar with antelope, and I'm at least passively familiar with fall river county, having hunted it for deer and turkey.

My advice would be to just go into this year with an open mind. I think generally the NW, like areas 35 A and B are considered the best. In the past the SW has been very good. There's plenty of public land to hunt. With the extreme winterkill we've had statewide, I don't think anyone can give an accurate estimate on what areas are going to be better this year. I haven't been out there since May, but things did not look that great then. Half area is your typical flat open grassland which is typical of prime antelope area. The other half is foothill, and even including some of the black hills. The roads are usually decent, but there's not a lot of them. While I think the numbers will be low, I think you will do just fine.

 

[barrettm95]

Ended up getting it done 3 minutes into the season!

Got out there Wednesday night to begin scouting. Saw a healthy number of antelope with a lot of small bucks. We found two shooter bucks, one with 38 does and one off alone that was a tad smaller. Did not see another hunter scouting until around noon on Friday when the unit turned into a zoo of people. We knew we were going to have competition on the buck we liked so we sat on him starting around 3pm and ended up putting him to bed (had a hunter walk up to 100 yds of him scouting and bumped him hard, but luckily he stayed on public with all his does and we watched him lay down for the night).

Saturday morning we got an early start with a full moon and about 30 minutes before shooting light located the herd. I set up for a 491 yard shot, however our target buck chased off a coyote to 384. Sent a great shot on him and dropped him on the spot with a round from the 6.5-47 dasher I was shooting.

First antelope buck for me and happy to have got it done on public land. I was a little bit frustrated with the tag allotment (seems like there was way too many tags), however am thankful to have got it done on a solid antelope.

 

[Novashooter]

Yeah, they probably shouldn't have given out as many tags as they did for that unit this year, but antelope numbers were not as bad as I feared. I chose an area I could get away from people. I did hear a shot way off, but I never saw a hunter on the ground anywhere near me. Hopefully if you draw that tag again it will be on a good year. I don't think SD is known to put out trophies, but that area is sure a ton of fun with plenty of public land. And good quality public at that. The one you killed sure looks like a trophy to me. Congratulations.

 

[barrettm95]

Yeah, they probably shouldn't have given out as many tags as they did for that unit this year, but antelope numbers were not as bad as I feared. I chose an area I could get away from people. I did hear a shot way off, but I never saw a hunter on the ground anywhere near me. Hopefully if you draw that tag again it will be on a good year. I don't think SD is known to put out trophies, but that area is sure a ton of fun with plenty of public land. And good quality public at that. The one you killed sure looks like a trophy to me. Congratulations.

Thanks, haven’t scored it but it’s a trophy for me!

I think what frustrates me was the incredible difference between non resident and resident tags. I understand and agree resident tags need to outweigh resident tags but it was somewhere around 10 nonresident to over 300 resident tags I believe.

I got the feeling the unit and state is managed more for opportunity however not trophy animals and if that’s the case they are doing a solid job. Just would like to see a bit more nonresident opportunity if possible.

 

[Novashooter]

Looks like 400 R and only 8 NR. Definitely could do more NR. As a resident, I would be fine with the typical 90/10 split. 371R and 37 NR. At least in the western units. The central and eastern units should stay mostly resident. I'm not sure why a NR would want a tag in a unit that only gives out 15 tags anyway.

I'm glad the state goes for opportunity. It might be cool to see a single unit managed for trophies such as 35a. Thankfully Wyoming isn't that hard to get tags in trophy managed units.

 

[barrettm95]

Looks like 400 R and only 8 NR. Definitely could do more NR. As a resident, I would be fine with the typical 90/10 split. 371R and 37 NR. At least in the western units. The central and eastern units should stay mostly resident. I'm not sure why a NR would want a tag in a unit that only gives out 15 tags anyway.

I'm glad the state goes for opportunity. It might be cool to see a single unit managed for trophies such as 35a. Thankfully Wyoming isn't that hard to get tags in trophy managed units.

I agree with you here; had a great time, but a 90/10 split would be nice.

 

[sodaksooner]

I was talking to my brother Monday and he has a couple of rancher buddies in fall river county. They didn't think there were 400 goats in the whole unit..... I didn't look to see if they sold all the tags, but that number seems high to me even in a good year. OP, glad you got one!!! Still building points but will probably do a 15 tag eventually as we have some private ground we can hunt there (although the herd is pretty thin this year in that area from what we were told.