Was out in Central South Dakota for the Opening weekend. We had beautiful weather compared to the last 10 days. Fresh off my Missouri rifle hunt less than 4 days prior, I knew my rifle was on a hot streak. I rolled in late Friday night because I had to jam in 10 hours of work before I departed. So I went out in to the darkness blind, having not been out there in a Month. But I wasnt too worried, with all of the crops down , it leaves the deer on a handful of places to hold up. Well it didnt take long to realize what was going on. I took up my usual position on a rock pile. And when the lights came on, the deer were all over, and rutting hard. There were bucks almost ever where you looked. I packed a backpack full of calls and scents in case i needed to lure something out of the sloughs or trees, but quickly realized I wouldnt be needing that bag of tricks, I simply would need to wait. The morning passed and I saw 6 bucks. 5 young bucks waiting around for the big boys to slip up, and one nice mature buck running does at about 550 yds. I was fun to watch him chase off the young bucks and then book it back onto the does trail.
Well I climbed back in to the truck at about 945, and went over to another chunk of ground and saw 4 more bucks out in the crp field cruising around with the noses to the ground. I knew I was sitting pretty good with the bucks acting like this there must be a few hot does on the property.
We pheasant hunted all afternoon in another location and got our birds by 230 as we listen to the GOPHERS take down NEBRASKA. Gotta love XM radio.
For the evening I sat atop of stack of hay over by where I last saw the big buck that morning. I didnt have to wait long as a nice doe trotted out of the trees at 200 yds. Followed by another doe dashing out with a panicked look to her. Any doe with a panicked run is good news to me. And I knew what would be next, so I got ready propped my 30-06 up on the bale.
Out he came. The rifle dropped him in his tracks and he didn’t flinch. HUGE bodied deer. Great mass to him. wide and tall. Just lacks brow tines. But I was really happy to take a fully mature buck like that.
Two great bucks, two different states in 7 days. Whirlwind week for me. Its been a grind.
Last picture is the buck I helped the Landowners kid take on Sunday morning. It was fun to see the excitement in someone else.
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