SD Cow Elk Tag

[SteelheadDuck]

Hello, I drew a cow elk tag for H7 in the Black Hills (near Deadwood, Nemo, etc). I'm super excited and have been trying to learn and prepare as much as possible. I've never hunted big game before, so this is quite the jump for me!

I know elk here is resident only, but wondering if anyone could give me some pointers for the Black Hills in general. I think there are some nuances to Hills hunting that may go against some of the classic advice for western hunters. Not a ton of giant open glassing spots, it's super developed, rarely more than a mile away from a logging road or trail or house, etc.

Any advice, here or over DM, would be so appreciated! Thanks!

 

[dtrkyman]

Use the trail and road system to your advantage. I know nothing of the Black Hills though, maybe find a landowner that has elk slamming his crops, he may be glad to let you access and kill a cow.

 

[Novashooter]

I've hunted elk in Bighorn mountains Wyoming and Black Hills SD (I'm an SD resident). I have never hunted the north end of the hills for anything. Comparing those two, the BH's are way better in every metric. More elk, easier access, better vision, and most importantly there's not a lot of uber giant ranches elk can become invincible on. In my opinion there is no real need to hunt ranches in the BH's, there's enough uninterrupted public land you will be ok. Even still, it may be worth looking into the state EHAP program. In my experience, there is little to none of that in the hills, it's more prevalent in the prairie units.

When it comes to hunting tactics, I don't think there's too much reason treat it much different than anywhere else. If your season is later such as December you may have snow to deal with. They don't plow most of those logging trails. They plow and salt the heck out of the main roads, and many residential dirt roads, but often they just dead end after the last house leaving a big snow pile in the way. I would definitely suggest a 4x4 truck. There's not too much reason to be hiking in many miles. I like to camp right at the truck, hunt from there. Move the whole camp as needed.

 

[cnelk]

I was driving around the SD Black Hills SW of Deadwood a couple weeks ago and there were lots of elk in the meadows right along the roads every evening.

 

[jmichaelberg]

Check out the SD Elk Hunters FB page. Fairly helpful folks on there.