ShedderKG
Active Member
Well it's been a decent bow season for me up to this point but just haven't gotten a shot off. Have seen a few really nice deer but things just haven't worked. Brings us to the 2013 SD West river rifle season. This was only my second time rifle hunting as I grew up only bow hunting. The type of hunting is just so different than what I'm used to but at the same time, it's fun to do something a little different.
Off to Butte county, SD. Opening weekend was the previous weekend and the Ranch we were going to be hunting gets hunted by an out of state group every year during opening weekend. But there is SO much ground out there, it's just impossible to see all the big deer in just a few days hunting. Also being my first trip to this ranch, I had no idea what to expect but my buddy had high expectations for us. I've seen the mulies he has shot in the past and to me, they were NICE.
I had a whitetail tag and my buddy had an any deer tag so had the option of a whitetail or mulie. We had 3 1/2 days to hunt. Started off the first night and saw a pretty good whitetail at about 100 yards and was probably 140 or so. I just couldn't do it on the first night. Don't regret the decision at all. We saw TONS of 130-135 inch whitetails and TONS of mulies in the 145-150 inch range. A few pics of the landscape we were hunting. Ridge after ridge, valley after valley, and river ground bottom forever!
The Rancher and his boys put in a new road here a couple years back that goes from the main gravel road into the "Ranch or hunting area" that goes all the way down to the river. Now, this area we hunted is not everything that this particular Rancher owns but is what they normally hunt. Anyway, back to the road they put in....I asked how far or long it was from the main gravel road down to the river and they told me it was 9.2 miles. So as you are driving down towards the river, you can look left and you can look right for as far as an eye can see and we were able to hunt it. I was just amazed at how BIG the area was.
Come to the final morning and I was off on my own and was going to work into the wind and hit a few main draws and see what happened. I had some does at about 400 yards and could tell they were working their way up to a flat. About 8 does worked their way up with no bucks. I snuck down to the valley without them seeing me and down into the next draw. Get down to the bottom of the next draw and see a decent whitetail working his way towards me in the same bottom. I went to a knee to see where he was going. He cut up towards the flat where the does were. I took off to crest the hill to get a better look at him after he was just out of sight. I get to the top of the hill and he kept working toward me. He broke off with a doe right at me. I let him get to about 125 yards or so and let him have it. Nothing huge but a nice 130 inch deer. If all those 130's make it thru the winter, that place is going to be rocking next year.
As my buddy was on his way to help me, he jumped a good mulie and I hear shots ring out through that river bottom. Man, was that a cool sound to hear out there. We had two good deer down within mins of each other. We saw probably close to a dozen mulie bucks that were similar in size to this one. Great ending to a fun trip with a great friend. Thanks for reading!
Off to Butte county, SD. Opening weekend was the previous weekend and the Ranch we were going to be hunting gets hunted by an out of state group every year during opening weekend. But there is SO much ground out there, it's just impossible to see all the big deer in just a few days hunting. Also being my first trip to this ranch, I had no idea what to expect but my buddy had high expectations for us. I've seen the mulies he has shot in the past and to me, they were NICE.
I had a whitetail tag and my buddy had an any deer tag so had the option of a whitetail or mulie. We had 3 1/2 days to hunt. Started off the first night and saw a pretty good whitetail at about 100 yards and was probably 140 or so. I just couldn't do it on the first night. Don't regret the decision at all. We saw TONS of 130-135 inch whitetails and TONS of mulies in the 145-150 inch range. A few pics of the landscape we were hunting. Ridge after ridge, valley after valley, and river ground bottom forever!
The Rancher and his boys put in a new road here a couple years back that goes from the main gravel road into the "Ranch or hunting area" that goes all the way down to the river. Now, this area we hunted is not everything that this particular Rancher owns but is what they normally hunt. Anyway, back to the road they put in....I asked how far or long it was from the main gravel road down to the river and they told me it was 9.2 miles. So as you are driving down towards the river, you can look left and you can look right for as far as an eye can see and we were able to hunt it. I was just amazed at how BIG the area was.
Come to the final morning and I was off on my own and was going to work into the wind and hit a few main draws and see what happened. I had some does at about 400 yards and could tell they were working their way up to a flat. About 8 does worked their way up with no bucks. I snuck down to the valley without them seeing me and down into the next draw. Get down to the bottom of the next draw and see a decent whitetail working his way towards me in the same bottom. I went to a knee to see where he was going. He cut up towards the flat where the does were. I took off to crest the hill to get a better look at him after he was just out of sight. I get to the top of the hill and he kept working toward me. He broke off with a doe right at me. I let him get to about 125 yards or so and let him have it. Nothing huge but a nice 130 inch deer. If all those 130's make it thru the winter, that place is going to be rocking next year.
As my buddy was on his way to help me, he jumped a good mulie and I hear shots ring out through that river bottom. Man, was that a cool sound to hear out there. We had two good deer down within mins of each other. We saw probably close to a dozen mulie bucks that were similar in size to this one. Great ending to a fun trip with a great friend. Thanks for reading!
A big congrats to both of you :way:
