South Dakota

A few of us Iowa guys are going out to Wyoming antelope for opening weekend ( October 1st) . We hope to fill our 3 tags in at most 2-3 days then go to South Dakota on an Archery only Muley hunt for the remainder of the week. We all have experience chasing antelope and whitetail . Our plan is once we fill our tags in WY to head back east in the NW corner of SD north of Bell Fourche. We are tent camping on some public and open to walking miles upon miles. Does anyone have any experience ? I have prairie dog hunted around Faith 2 years in a row and saw a FEW muleys but not like I was hoping to see. Skimmed the regs once (need to a couple more times) but didnt see anything about camping on BLM or Public ground . Is this a no go ? Camp fire probabily a no go as well ? I apologize for the lack of knowledge research on it , we kinda got into this on a last minute whim, but we are no strangers to hard work so hopefully at least one of us connect. Any experience or help is greatly appreciated.

Andy

You can camp on blm, state/ school land. I don't know about the camp fire. The rifle antelope season will be going on as well. Be on a good vantage point early.

gussyfarm said:

You can camp on blm, state/ school land. I don't know about the camp fire. The rifle antelope season will be going on as well. Be on a good vantage point early.

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Thanks for the reply . Hopefully the antelope hunters don’t get everything stirred up but if it’s anything like Wyoming it could be a war zone out there

I didn't know that you could camp on State land in SD. In WY you can not. Only BLM. My advice would be to skip the fires. The ranchers I talked to in Eastern WY last week were super scared about the fire potentials. They have had a wet summer but there is so much grass that is dead now that fires will spread insanely fast. To me the beer will still taste the same in a lawn chair beside the truck with feet on cooler. I just wouldn't want to be THAT guy that started a fire and had it get away from him.
As stated be on a good glassing point at first light and sit for the first few hours in a couple spots and hopefully watch a buck go to bed in a cut bank/washout. Best wishes, you will have a blast doing it!

Muskeez said:

I didn't know that you could camp on State land in SD. In WY you can not. Only BLM. My advice would be to skip the fires. The ranchers I talked to in Eastern WY last week were super scared about the fire potentials. They have had a wet summer but there is so much grass that is dead now that fires will spread insanely fast. To me the beer will still taste the same in a lawn chair beside the truck with feet on cooler. I just wouldn't want to be THAT guy that started a fire and had it get away from him.
As stated be on a good glassing point at first light and sit for the first few hours in a couple spots and hopefully watch a buck go to bed in a cut bank/washout. Best wishes, you will have a blast doing it!

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Kinda what I thought on the fire aspect. Harding or Butte county anyone have any experience ?

Was in harding county for the opener. I will send you a PM after my son's football game tonight.

gussyfarm said:

Was in harding county for the opener. I will send you a PM after my son's football game tonight.

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Greatly appreciated . Looking forward to it .

Anyone have any advice on what to bring as far as tent camping ? I whitetail hunt 10 minutes from my home in Iowa and Antelope hunting we have always been in a hotel. Recommendations on a sleeping bag or other things to bring ? Buddy has a 4 man tent and we were thinking about using air mattresses since we are are going to be camping right outside the truck. Thanks

I tent camped next to the truck last week on BLM in Eastern WY. It worked fine and only had 2 trucks drive by in the dark over 4 nights. The best advice I can give is to find a camping spot on BLM in the mid afternoon and then go do some evening glassing. Setting up in the dark sucks and it's harder to avoid setting your tent up on cactuses. Also it takes a few tries to find a spot that isn't rough as heck from the cattle.
I took a cot but I had plenty of room since I was solo. Blow up pads will work fine IF YOU ARE SURE you have a spot with no cactuses, just may need an extra can of sleep medicine. Maybe take an extra tarp to put under your tent, and pack the tent siti down with your feet or truck tires. (I still have cactuses in my truck tire side walls).
I used a light weight sleep bag then threw an extra one of the same over top at like 3 am when it cooled off. Take a fleece stocking hat to sleep in that helps a lot.

Muskeez said:

I tent camped next to the truck last week on BLM in Eastern WY. It worked fine and only had 2 trucks drive by in the dark over 4 nights. The best advice I can give is to find a camping spot on BLM in the mid afternoon and then go do some evening glassing. Setting up in the dark sucks and it's harder to avoid setting your tent up on cactuses. Also it takes a few tries to find a spot that isn't rough as heck from the cattle.
I took a cot but I had plenty of room since I was solo. Blow up pads will work fine IF YOU ARE SURE you have a spot with no cactuses, just may need an extra can of sleep medicine. Maybe take an extra tarp to put under your tent, and pack the tent siti down with your feet or truck tires. (I still have cactuses in my truck tire side walls).
I used a light weight sleep bag then threw an extra one of the same over top at like 3 am when it cooled off. Take a fleece stocking hat to sleep in that helps a lot.

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Thanks . Was there consistent action all day or a pretty big lull in the afternoon mid day. Was wondering how to hunt in the middle of the day 11am -3pm .

You will see antelope at any time of the day. Deer, not so much, they were bedded in the shade of cut-banks or sage brush and quite tough to find but not impossible. You will have nothing better to do so you might as well be trying to find a bedded one to sneak on.

Muskeez said:

You will see antelope at any time of the day. Deer, not so much, they were bedded in the shade of cut-banks or sage brush and quite tough to find but not impossible. You will have nothing better to do so you might as well be trying to find a bedded one to sneak on.

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Thanks for the advice ! I will keep you all posted on how it goes .

Good luck!

gussyfarm said:

You can camp on blm, state/ school land. I don't know about the camp fire. The rifle antelope season will be going on as well. Be on a good vantage point early.

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You CANNOT camp on state or school land in South Dakota, only national forest, national grassland, or blm ground. And as far as fires go I wouldn’t try it.

Wulffhunter said:

You CANNOT camp on state or school land in South Dakota, only national forest, national grassland, or blm ground. And as far as fires go I wouldn’t try it.

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Thanks , I think we found a campground ten miles from where we are hunting so we will probably reside there. Thanks for all the info . Been watching YouTube non stop .

Anyone out hunting ? Leaving sunday .

I have been out there a few times this year. Antelope numbers seem to be up and firearms season opens that weekend (29th). Be careful, as someone stated, it is a warzone in some areas and I assume you won't have orange on you. First weekend tends to drive the deer around. I have seen a few good deer this year. The fact that you are willing to walk will be very helpful in that area as what appears to be flat land may have a lot of little depressions or even dry creek beds. It is extremely difficult midday in many of the areas because when you do get to some good cutbanks, they have been blowing out first smell or sound on me this year. Especially when one cut bank area looks perfect for deer and I ignore the less obvious one only to have one blow out of an unassuming sage brush 20 yards away.

If you happen to see a red chevy crew cab pickup with a red topper with an RMEF sticker on the back window of the topper, that is me. My name is Bryan. Feel free to stop me. I am in those areas for the next 2 weekends.

Side note, this is the most archery hunters I have seen in a long time. Don't kill me on the next statement...everyone talks about hunting numbers going down, but all I see over the last 10 years is an increase in hunters for deer, antelope and birds. Young and old hunters. Just South Dakota? Less public land so it is more concentrated?

btweedy said:

Side note, this is the most archery hunters I have seen in a long time. Don't kill me on the next statement...everyone talks about hunting numbers going down, but all I see over the last 10 years is an increase in hunters for deer, antelope and birds. Young and old hunters. Just South Dakota? Less public land so it is more concentrated?

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I was wondering if season opening earlier would pull away some of the nonresidents that usually head to NoDak or Nebraska

btweedy said:

I have been out there a few times this year. Antelope numbers seem to be up and firearms season opens that weekend (29th). Be careful, as someone stated, it is a warzone in some areas and I assume you won't have orange on you. First weekend tends to drive the deer around. I have seen a few good deer this year. The fact that you are willing to walk will be very helpful in that area as what appears to be flat land may have a lot of little depressions or even dry creek beds. It is extremely difficult midday in many of the areas because when you do get to some good cutbanks, they have been blowing out first smell or sound on me this year. Especially when one cut bank area looks perfect for deer and I ignore the less obvious one only to have one blow out of an unassuming sage brush 20 yards away.

If you happen to see a red chevy crew cab pickup with a red topper with an RMEF sticker on the back window of the topper, that is me. My name is Bryan. Feel free to stop me. I am in those areas for the next 2 weekends.

Side note, this is the most archery hunters I have seen in a long time. Don't kill me on the next statement...everyone talks about hunting numbers going down, but all I see over the last 10 years is an increase in hunters for deer, antelope and birds. Young and old hunters. Just South Dakota? Less public land so it is more concentrated?

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Thanks for the response . I sent ya a PM. Id agree on the last statement. Last year was the first year ever hunting out west for Antelope in Wyoming for rifle season and I was shocked at the number of different states I saw in the parking lot of the hotel. In Iowa I counted 11 different states in one campground for bow season next to the public last year. Access to deer hunting around here has gone down is the main problem driving people to other options. So many leases and outfitters charging an outrageous fee to shoot a big buck . Then we have farmers bull dozing timbers to farm more acres has put a crunch on us average joe hunting guys. Is what it is I guess. Sad to think of what the future generations will do ....

Just got back tonight . Filled all the antelope tags and headed to SD to hunt Tuesday afternoon. Right away we hiked 3 miles in some BLM and found a 150-160 class muley all alone in some wide open grassland. One of my buddies stalked to 24 yards before the wind swirled and the buck took off and never stopped. We then continued to glass around and drive around and find numerous does not so much bucks in the rough country we called it. The next morning the wind blew and I mean blew 40-50 mph. Not much was up and moving in the morning . We hiked about 10 miles on a lead he had from a buddy which turned up 3 120-130 inch whitetails we passed and 4 muley does. Also two rattle snakes in 40 degree weather, I was laying glassy to the one snake 2 foot away.
The next day the wind blew even worse, we did spot a buck on a small chunk of public but lost him in the hike. We went up to camp crook got some awesome lunch and tried some national forrest ground but was much thicker than we expected and didnt see much . Some slammers on private though! The next day we scouted again in the morning glassing , we found one GOOD buck on public I went after. I got within 35 yards and was shaking like a tree on a leaf, lost composure and botched the shot, missing about 3 inches low. Glad it was a clean miss but still not happy he got away. The other pickup shot a doe for meat and we helped them get her out of there.

Friday rolled around and the antelope war zone started. I saw a dad and his son shoot atleast 10 times at a group of antelope 600 + yards away, they had to be just shooting in the group . Never seen anything like it lol . Some local must not appreciated the two Iowa pickups either as he jerked the wheel at me and my other buddy trying to run us off the road as we passed, Then decided to backup and act like he was tough and do a burn out and leave. So if your in the blue grand prix reading this heres a big middle finger to you, stop next time lets have a chat! This morning the fog rolled in and the antelope hunters were thick so we called it and headed out. All in all it was a good learning experience, saw a few muleys but not crazy numbers. We are from Iowa and its not uncommon for us to see 20 deer in a push during shotgun season. I think weather definitely wasn't on our side but we were also new to the game so it was a learning as we go process. 4 archery tags were donated to the state of SD , and we generated some income for the local bars and hotels. Thanks for all the locals we met and for the people here for being helpful and kind. It was greatly appreciated .