South Dakota mule deer

ChasinDoes

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2016
Messages
235
Anybody ever hunt southwest South Dakota for mule deer? Drew what i thought was a good unit for mule deer but afraid I might have made a mistake.

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Joined
May 17, 2015
Messages
903
I drew a South Dakota tag for the first time this year and scored in the first hour of the opener
4909081683812381ee1618672c369cee.jpg

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In that first hour this morning I saw 3 different 4 points cruising for does. Spent the afternoon window shopping since my hunt ended so quickly. Lots of deer in the unit I have which is SW


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KurtR

WKR
Joined
Sep 11, 2015
Messages
4,032
Location
South Dakota
I drew a South Dakota tag for the first time this year and scored in the first hour of the opener
4909081683812381ee1618672c369cee.jpg

f2f25acda0722eda72fa903c4143ca03.jpg

In that first hour this morning I saw 3 different 4 points cruising for does. Spent the afternoon window shopping since my hunt ended so quickly. Lots of deer in the unit I have which is SW


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You should have been here in the 2002-2010 years. population was at a minimum 50%-75% of what it is now with better quality. Triple tags handed out like candy for every one. Then in one bad winter it went down hill and still not recovered. I would say after hunting for 5 years in Idaho it probably feels like there is alot of deer compared to what i saw out there even with our horrible population numbers right now.
 
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ChasinDoes

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2016
Messages
235
Ended up getting a nice 4pt after 3 days scouting and 2 days hunting. Saw a pile.of does, spikes and forks with a couple 3 pts. Only saw 2 4pts one of which I shot. Super fun and exciting hunt that morning

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DakotaCC

FNG
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
5
I bow hunted in the SW part of the state earlier this year and was really disappointed with the mule deer quality compared to the last few years. I was in a few miles deep, which is hard to do in SD. However, I know of a couple guys who found some really good ones on public, just off a major highway. So I guess they are still out there, just not always where you expect.
 
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ChasinDoes

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2016
Messages
235
I bow hunted in the SW part of the state earlier this year and was really disappointed with the mule deer quality compared to the last few years. I was in a few miles deep, which is hard to do in SD. However, I know of a couple guys who found some really good ones on public, just off a major highway. So I guess they are still out there, just not always where you expect.
Yea it took me a few days to find anything bigger than a small 3pt. Real happy with the deer I ended up taking tho

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ChasinDoes

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Dec 3, 2016
Messages
235
I bow hunted in the SW part of the state earlier this year and was really disappointed with the mule deer quality compared to the last few years. I was in a few miles deep, which is hard to do in SD. However, I know of a couple guys who found some really good ones on public, just off a major highway. So I guess they are still out there, just not always where you expect.
Biggest one i saw on the trip
072ff0ac405c9b08b24dcb716ead260c.jpg
2d166bb92ba4c5da9968d72560123a88.jpg


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DakotaCC

FNG
Joined
Dec 31, 2021
Messages
5
In my opinion, that's a good representation of what you can expect to find on public land in SD. No doubt there are bigger but in my experience they are very few and far between. I know some guys who pound SD public hard every year and they don't always kill deer as big as yours. Good work.
 
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