Black Hills

Got back Sunday. Lots of deep snow drifts in the north and none in the south hills. I got there the day after the blizzard and it was a mess.
 
Were you hunting out there? I will be heading out on friday to hunt whitetails. I was a little worried about the snow situation, but we will be on the south end so it shouldn't be too bad.
 
my family was out there all last week and there was tons of snow but the hunting was great, we filled 4 out of the 5 tags. Goodluck on your hunt!

I Live For This
 
Posted this on another site, but there may be some info on the Hills and surrounding area the last couple weeks.

I promise there will be some harvest pics, but I thought I would share some of the events leading to the critters.

Left Montana two weeks ago today. Weather was supposed to be crap in SD, but MT looked good. Got to Broadus late that evening and saw lots of trucks stacked up. I bought some coffee and found out the road was closed 100 miles down the road (Belle Fourche) and since the road was still in good shape, I continued on. Made it about 30 miles and hit the blizzard, Axl and I spent the night in the pick-up along the highway.:mad:

Got up early the next morning and made it as far as Spearfish to find the interstate state closed only 20 miles from my destination.:mad: He is a shot of the snow in Spearfish.
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Spent about 10 hours in Spearfish before I finally found some back roads to Sturgis. Wow, now I see what the big deal is.:eek:
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Here is what Main Street looks like in early-August.
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Here was what it looked like when I got to town.
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Opening morning found us not hunting.
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Axl has a little gov't worker in him.;) Someone had to supervise.:D
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Alright, sorry. I will move on to some hunting pics.

We found some nice bucks, but many looked pretty young with lots of potential for next season.

This is LB (Little Brother). He is similiar to one killed last year, and we hope he is bigger and better next year. Saw him several days.
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Don't think it didn't cross my mind.;)
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I saw this 5x4 a couple times. After a week he was looking very tempting, but I held off. Hopefully there will be rewards next year.
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Here is another we are hoping makes it to next season and that dropper is added to. He also had a sticker off a G-2.
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This is not a very good angle, but this guy was strong on drivers side, but busted up on the passenger. Hopefully he is a dandy next year as well.
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I screwed up on this guy. We had him at 420 yards and probably could have gotten in closer, but I decided to pass that evening. The next day my BIL hunted with us, so I hunted the other side of the river. The buck came through again the next morning and my BIL missed, but my buddy backed him up and killed this nice buck. I would have been very happy with this guy.
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One of the reasons I passed on the buck was due to hearing about a bigger one in the area. Unfortunately that buck passed my buddy instead of me two days later. Very nice buck.
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Pictures back home the next morning.
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I spent the next couple days seeing the same bucks and thought more and more about shooting 5x4. Traveling home one night we saw a decent mule deer for this area and he was finally on some land I could hunt a couple days later.

We snuck over the bank and found him bedded at 99 yards.
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He was with some does and a smaller buck still packing velvet.
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Now that my West River buck was down, I went to the Black Hills to find a buck. Spent one day in some of my old haunts, but too much know up high.

Yesterday I tried a new area with less snow. I parked the pick-up and packed in a couple miles.

I found this buck at 690 yards and tried to put the sneak on him. Finally after dodging does and a smaller buck, I found this guy in his bed at just over 70 yards. He is just a basket buck, but he had the cool factor so after about 10 seconds I decided he would due. Bang-flop.

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Pretty cool that the mains almost touched.

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Nice split G-2 for a little more character.
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The good thing about shooting little bucks...one load.:D

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Still have a doe tag for the prairie, so I might put one in the freezer tomorrow. Here is a shot of a dandy sunset just minutes after passing on the 5x4 for the last time.

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Thanks for putting up with the pics and best of luck to those still hunting.
 
Way to get 'er done! That snow is deep! Like the antler configuration of your whitey. Really cool set of antlers. Nice mulie to boot. Thanks for posting the story.



Matt
"Opportunity is missed by most people
because its dressed in overalls
and looks like work."
Thomas Edison
 
Great post! Most entertaining in a long time. Thanks for taking the time to share. I enjoyed it all including the weather pics. Felt like I was along for the hunt. Congrats on the bucks, too!
The Christian
 
Congrats on a dandy BH whitey. I was out Friday evening for a drive and saw 4 bucks, all with does. Not sure how intense they are rutting, but from what I saw out on the flats, if you find a doe you might want to sit on her for awhile. Good odds there is a buck in the area. congrats again.....
 
Came through there few weeks back. We saw tons of deer, lots of whitetails and a few big muleys. Had a neighbor just get back from there. He and his brother scored on some nice 10pt whiteys. He said the same thing lots of whitetails, and a few nice muleys.. He said the rut was pretty hot over there. I'll try and get a picture from him to post.
 
LAST EDITED ON Dec-03-08 AT 09:46PM (MST)[p]Found a couple more the last day we could hunt. It seemed like we just missed the peak of the rut by about a week and the bucks had been picked over. Fun hunt.

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I don't think you missed the rut. The rut usually is getting good around Thanksgiving. I shot my buck on thanksgiving and he was trailing a doe. I still saw good activity a few days into december. I have seen bucks chasing does around the 14th of December.
 
2008 West River. Hunting just north of the hills. A LOT of walking as the fourwheelers were useless in the snow. Should have brought the snowmobiles instead!

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Really nice bucks. I'm a Non res from Michigan. I sent for info on SD hunting last year. Didn't quit understand the difference between West river and Black hills deer hunts. Were you guys hunting public or private? Also is there public land to hunt on in those units? Great photo journalism. Always nice to see great photos, especially through the course of the hunt. My buddy was out there on a private land hunt also when thas snow hit. . I'd be interested in DIY public land info for SD if you have any tips. Thanks Brian
 
Mt-
Looks like a place I shot a few turkeys this past spring east of sturgis....Nice MD buck....I can pick that old "homestead" building out pretty quickly.....Were there many others on the property this year hunting deer? I vaccinated a couple hundred head of yearlings this year on the ranch, and I think a couple guys from town may hunt there now as well....Were there a few "shooters" on the property?...Was that the "big boy" for the year?
Crcountry
 
I was hunting in the West River and left to come home on Nov 22 and the guy's were pretty well done with the whitetails. I have never seen so many WT bucks and I mean some good ones. I was muley hunting but we had a great time.
 

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