Hello All,
I just moved to South Dakota and am now stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, SD. I drew a West River whitetail tag for Unit 49 in Meade County. Can anyone kind of point me in the right direction for places to go check out. I have been studying the 2016 Public Hunting Atlas but don't see a whole lot of places to go without having a black hills tag.
Thanks,
Jamie

Lots of good deer in SD. I've got an uncle that built a cabin on the banks of Lake Oahe and we go up that way to shoot pheasants. I've seen some real monsters. Don't know much about the area you're talking about but the people in SD are really friendly for the most part and are pretty good about letting you hunt. I'd go out to where your tag is and start knocking on doors. Let them know you are military and I'm betting someone will let you on. You could also stop and talk to the local sheriff. They know everybody and could probably direct you to the right landowners. Many of those little towns also have a VFW Hall. Drop in, have a beer and introduce yourself.

Good luck.

That's great advice Flags. Being active military should unlock plenty of doors...and justifiably so.

Thanks for the info guys. I plan on doing a little scouting in that area in the next couple of weeks. The VFW is a great idea and everyone enjoys beer.

Just got back from out there. Knocked on 20+ door's and sounds like everyone leases their land to outfitters it was i0+degrees and we didn't see many whitetails

not a lot of help maybe, but have you looked into sme reservation land hunts?
normally they have tons of land open to hunt and tags are thru the reservation and NOT the state, many reservation lands over lap state lands and then you can buy a state tag and have a shot at two bucks?
I have hunted Standing rock reservation in the past, and its a BIG place, seen 10-15 bucks a day and there was tons of state land all over by it?