RE: Poll: Deer Hunting Capitol?
I don't know but I saw at least 150 deer the first week of hunting in South Dakota last week. These are big mule deer and there were plenty of nice bucks. I took six big does which I just finished processing today. The deer population is at or near an all time high. There is no public land in the unit where I hunt and its all farm country. North Dakota has a hugh deer population as well but these are mostly whitetails in the easter part of the state with Muke deer out west and in the Badlands. The whitetail here in the east are much smaller that the Mule deer out west but there is an endless supply of them in the slews and shelterbelts.
Most of the racks I see in pictures on this sight are pretty small horn wise to what we see out here(Mule Deer) that is. Eastern SD has some hugh whitetails in the Glacier Lakes units. There is a lot of Bow hunting in Eastern SD. Almost none out west on the prairie as shots are usually quite long in comparison..
I have hunted a little for deer in Montana and Wyoming but it was a quite of number of years ago. There is quite a bit of public land in the west of SD and ND. This is BLM land and forest service land. Hunting in the Black Hills of western SD is really good right now as well. Thats mostly public land. Much of Western SD is tied up in leases. Hope this report helps someone out.