Planning my First DIY South Dakota Mule Deer Hunt
11-01-2018, 05:25 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 1
Planning my First DIY South Dakota Mule Deer Hunt
Hello All,
I am in the early stages of planning my first DIY rifle or muzzleloader hunt in SD for Mule Deer. I was initially planning on going next season (2019) but after some research it sounds like that may not happen for a few reasons, several of which I am hoping to get answers to on here and the primary one is that I do not have any points. I am a nonresident, who travels a lot for work and has a family, so bow hunting is not really an option right now. I live on the east coast and I am looking for the traditional prairie spot and stalk western hunt on public land. Additionally, a buck would be nice but I would absolutely travel out there for an antlerless deer. I have not called SD Game, Fish, and Parks yet so some of these questions my be easily answered by them so I apologize about that.
Questions:
1 - I maybe overthinking this but is it too late to apply for a 2019 hunt? From everything I have read the SD website says that applications are to be put in from June to August, and what I am confused on is that for this season (2018) or for next season (2019) applications?
2 - Where can a nonresident hunt with Muzzleloader? I was using the interactive map and could not locate a unit that a non-resident could hunt. There are only two unit, the LM1 and ST1 and neither showed any nonresident tags that would be issued or had been in the past, yet the website says "Nonresident are limited to one type 13 (Antlerless Whitetail)" so I am just trying to figure out what this means or where this is located. Any insight into this would be helpful.
2 - What are some of the better units to hunt in SD? Having never hunted in SD before, and just using Google Earth and the SD interactive map I have looked at several locations and based off of what I have seen I have located a few areas that I think would be good places to go.For muzzleloader (if a nonresident can hunt) I was initially looking at hunting on BLM land but after looking at their interactive map and comparing several areas, I think that the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) would enable me to get away from the crowds and road hunters. Is BHNF a good option for spot and stalk or is the tree cover to thick? I am in great shape, have all the gear needed to set up a camp site and then head out from there. For rifle (or if I can hunt muzzleloader) hunting I was looking at units 15A, 27 A&B, 49 A&B, 45D and 41. All of which are West River Deer units. Unit 41 doesn’t have a lot of public land so I don’t know how easy to get to that land will be or how good the hunting will be but it looks like it is all prairie. 45D is all national grassland which is probably pretty good but the number of tags available last year was ten so my chances are probably slim in drawing there. I didn’t see many large hunting areas in the East River Deer units but if anyone has any suggestions for those areas I am all ears.
Lastly, if anyone has any other recommendations for areas that have mulies and a higher probability of drawing a tag, would be greatly appreciated. I might be jumping the gun on this but I got the urge to go out west this year to hunt because it has been since 2011 since my last western hunt, so I am expecting not to draw but who knows.Thank you for your time,Tad
I am in the early stages of planning my first DIY rifle or muzzleloader hunt in SD for Mule Deer. I was initially planning on going next season (2019) but after some research it sounds like that may not happen for a few reasons, several of which I am hoping to get answers to on here and the primary one is that I do not have any points. I am a nonresident, who travels a lot for work and has a family, so bow hunting is not really an option right now. I live on the east coast and I am looking for the traditional prairie spot and stalk western hunt on public land. Additionally, a buck would be nice but I would absolutely travel out there for an antlerless deer. I have not called SD Game, Fish, and Parks yet so some of these questions my be easily answered by them so I apologize about that.
Questions:
1 - I maybe overthinking this but is it too late to apply for a 2019 hunt? From everything I have read the SD website says that applications are to be put in from June to August, and what I am confused on is that for this season (2018) or for next season (2019) applications?
2 - Where can a nonresident hunt with Muzzleloader? I was using the interactive map and could not locate a unit that a non-resident could hunt. There are only two unit, the LM1 and ST1 and neither showed any nonresident tags that would be issued or had been in the past, yet the website says "Nonresident are limited to one type 13 (Antlerless Whitetail)" so I am just trying to figure out what this means or where this is located. Any insight into this would be helpful.
2 - What are some of the better units to hunt in SD? Having never hunted in SD before, and just using Google Earth and the SD interactive map I have looked at several locations and based off of what I have seen I have located a few areas that I think would be good places to go.For muzzleloader (if a nonresident can hunt) I was initially looking at hunting on BLM land but after looking at their interactive map and comparing several areas, I think that the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) would enable me to get away from the crowds and road hunters. Is BHNF a good option for spot and stalk or is the tree cover to thick? I am in great shape, have all the gear needed to set up a camp site and then head out from there. For rifle (or if I can hunt muzzleloader) hunting I was looking at units 15A, 27 A&B, 49 A&B, 45D and 41. All of which are West River Deer units. Unit 41 doesn’t have a lot of public land so I don’t know how easy to get to that land will be or how good the hunting will be but it looks like it is all prairie. 45D is all national grassland which is probably pretty good but the number of tags available last year was ten so my chances are probably slim in drawing there. I didn’t see many large hunting areas in the East River Deer units but if anyone has any suggestions for those areas I am all ears.
Lastly, if anyone has any other recommendations for areas that have mulies and a higher probability of drawing a tag, would be greatly appreciated. I might be jumping the gun on this but I got the urge to go out west this year to hunt because it has been since 2011 since my last western hunt, so I am expecting not to draw but who knows.Thank you for your time,Tad
