Late Season Deer Hunting in the Black Hills

Well, it is all over with and not much to show for it but some good ol’ fashion memories. I spent this past New Years weekend in Hot Springs, SD celebrating Christmas with Stacie’s family. Like usual, when I visit there in the Fall/Winter, I’m "forced" to hunt with Stacie’s brothers and father. It is a tough gig, trying to keep the in laws happy by hunting so much, but I think Stacie picked the right guy for the job. It all started New Years day morning waking up before dawn and getting dressed as her brothers had some late season doe rifle tags to fill. The late season started that morning and like usual we were going to do some still hunting and some spot and stalking. Travis dropped Tyler and I off and took the truck up a few miles as we were going to walk and meet in the middle. Well it didn’t take long as Tyler and I did not make it more then 200 yards from the drop off point when we spotted some Muley’s feeding up a draw. We dropped down in an irrigation ditch to close some distance. When we popped out we noticed that the 3 or 4 deer we had seen grew to about 10 or so. We were about 300 yards away from the herd and wanted to get closer. The only trouble is the open terrain had a snow crusted cover that was awfully loud to the step. We failed in our attempt to get closer as one doe had picked up the sound of the crunching snow in the cool crisp still air. Now we were faced with a decision to shoot now or let this alert doe blow the entire herd out of the county. Being trapped in the open and Tyler had forgotten his shooting sticks in the truck. I kneeled down as Tyler steadied his rifle across my back. As I plugged my ears, Tyler squeezed off a shot and tipped over the one alert doe with his bolt action rifle. He chambered another shot and fired only to come up empty. Tyler jacked in a third shell and with all the chaos the herd did not know what was happening. He picked out a doe =hat had ran and stopped on the hill. His third and final shot also found it’s mark as a second muley doe tumbled down the draw. We ranged the shot of the farthest doe at just over 315 yards. The other was about 285 yards and just like that we were done and ready to go back to the house to celebrate Christmas on January 1st 2009. After meeting up with Travis, dressing them out, all 3 of us joked how Tyler had even made it easy on us as we just had to drag them down hill from the draw to the pick up Travis had brought back around. Unlike the last time the 3 of us dragged mine and Tyler’s deer out from the deep canyons the season before.

The next morning found Tyler and me trying to fill my archery tag. I really wanted to fill my tag via spot & stalk or still hunting whitetails. So we set out in the open country of the grassy fields by the house. We glassed two does feeding in a direction and set off to intercept them. We used a fence line to help disguise our approach. But again the snow crusted field was making it difficult to keep our approach quiet. We had made our way down the fence line and were trying to cut these two does off and get close enough to where they were going to cross the fence. We were crawling on our hands and knees for about 150 yards and made it as close as we were going to make it. The sun had rose high enough and started to shine pretty bright. The warmth of the New Year sun felt pretty good against my face. The deer still had not crossed the fence to our side but due to the still morning and snow crusted field, this was as far as we were going to make it down the fence line as the deer would look every time we tried to move. So I got settled in on the fence line, took my quiver off, put my face mask on, knocked my arrow, got my range finder ready and waited in shooting position. I knew it would be awhile, but I had to be ready to shoot in an instant if a shot opportunity would present itself. As once they crossed the fence, I would have to hold perfectly still until I drew my bow as I would have two sets of eyes scanning for danger. The wind was good as it was quartering to us in our face. As long as the deer would cross in front of us we would be ok and it appeared this would be the case. If anything it appeared the deer would cross too far down the fence line. Finally, after about 10 minutes of being pinned down on the fence line the first doe jumped the fence line in front of me. I ranged her @ 76 yards. She started to work directly away from the fence and myself. Then after a few minutes the second doe jumped the fence. This doe had different plans, as it seemed she wanted to work up the fence line directly at me. These 2 does played what seemed like tug of war for the next 15 minutes One doe wanted to go away from Tyler and I the other doe wanted to come directly at us. Tyler was running the video camera and was pinned down on top of the rise behind me about 25 yards. The two whitetail does were slowly closing the distance as now we have been pinned down in this spot for over a half hour. I sat there motionless on the fence line in shooting position with not a ton of cover kneeling with my back hunched, head cocked sideways, bow in my hand, range finder in the other hand inches from my string loop and my head to minimize movement at the moment of truth. The game of tug of war between the two does continued as it seemed now they knew something was up, but just could not figure it out. My body was really struggling being stuck in this awkward position for so long as I kept thinking about other things to keep my mind off the pain and discomfort I was feeling. The second doe finally closed the distance to about 25 yards. This long stand off was about to end as she spooked off the sound from my range finder scraping on my jacket zipper. She ran off to 36 yards and stopped as I ranged her and was just about to draw back on her as she bounds off again. This time she stopped broad side and looked back at 55 yards as I still was kneeling virtually motionless, lowered my range finder and came to full draw. I was feeling the toll of the long stalk and wait had taken on me as I tried to bare down on this doe as my whole left side of my body was asleep and tingling. Many thoughts ran through my head as I felt comfortable and confident shooting at this long range, but hunting back home I would definitely pass up this shot. But knowing when I come out West, these are the types of shots I need to make. I picked my spot a lil high behind her shoulder with my 50 yard pin and squeezed down. Watching my Carbon Express sail under the bright sun light and hitting her brisket. My body and mind feeling the same thing of what my eyes just witnessed, I felt I pulled my shot a little. After the fact my ears relayed to my brain and confirmed what my eyes saw, that I indeed hit her as my brain was recalling a thwack after the shot. The two does take off like a rocket and stop to look back only too bound off again. Now pain sets in as I try to stand up, get un-kinked and start the blood flowing to my whole body again. Tyler and I replay the shot on camera and although the footage wass not “Hollywood Qaulity”, the audio does confirm my recollection of a definite hit. We retrieve my arrow and that also confirms what I thought. My broad head has hair, meat and a very, very small amount blood on all 3 blades of my Rage and a lil on the arrow shaft itself. It appeared that only about 6 inches of the shaft penetrated or got dirty. Confirming, I just must of barley grazed/hit the front of her. We glass these two deer for as far as we can see as no blood was to be found on the ground. She seems to have no ill effect from the shot as she is over a half mile away on the next piece of property and still going strong. After discussing the evidence and what Tyler and I witnessed, we feel this doe is in great shape and will easily live through that encounter. We quickly spot and glass another deer and begin the process all over again. This time the same thing goes down only to have a nice 2.5 year old 4×4 whitetail come within 30 yards of us. We attempt one last stalk that morning on a doe and fawn and they just disappear in the tall grass. What a morning it was, great hunting and finally feeling some warm sunny air as the temps surge above 35 degrees by the time we make it back to the house.

I sat in a river bottom stand that afternoon and passed up a smaller 4×4. I saw another nicer 4×4 out of range across the river, but had no does walk by. I did witness an incredible sunset to start the New Year, which I thought I would share with you. That next morning things were a lot different then the day before as the temps had dropped, some new fresh snow on the ground, the wind was blowing a little bit harder and the snow was still coming down. Our game plan was the same, still hunting and spot and stalking the fields by the house. The noise was still an issue as the new snow had a squeaky sound to it walking on it. We had our Gamehide Naked North snow camo on and instantly saw some deer way off in the distance. We desperately tried to get down a fence line to head off some deer, but we ended up short of our spot we wanted to get to and were stuck out in the open sky lining ourselves on a little hill. With the deer coming we had to set up and try from our current spot. I went through the whole thing again, quiver off, face mask on, nock and arrow, get in shooting position, etc. This encounter again lasted for an eternity and possibly longer then the one described earlier. However this encounter would not go as planned as the deer started to veer away from us and the adjacent fence line. They would then proceed to spot something they did not like and not come any closer then 57 yards. Finally blowing and stomping off the way they came. We then proceeded on and glassed a doe and her fawn bed down. Getting real close to the time where Travis was going to start a deer drive on the other side of the property I knew I did not have much time and needed to move fast. The good thing was we had the wind in our favor. Tyler hung back and videoed as I proceeded to make my quick stalk. I used a tree behind her as my guide to her location. Due to the tall grass she was bedded in I was able to walk much of the way up to her. I kept ranging the tree behind her along my way to give me a reference if she popped up. I was quickly closing the distance ranging and glassing and spotted her ears in the grass. I dropped to my knees and proceeded my way towards her. The snow was loud and I did not think I would get this close to her. She was definitely in range now as I struggled to see the other deer. I made my way a few more yards closer and made a move to the right around a bush, but suddenly grabbed her attention and her ears popped up and started to scan. I now was facing the wrong direction and started to panic a little as she stood up. I quickly snapped my release onto my loop and ranged her through the tall grass and came to full draw. The problem was, I was at full draw facing about 110 degrees in the wrong direction. As I swung my bow probably a little to fast in her direction she took off like a rocket straight away towards the river not offering me a shot with he fawn following close behind.

I quickly made my way back to Tyler and discussed where to sit for the deer drive. We both decided on the wooded river bottom as the deer would use that to go into the wind and stay covered. Well…… we guessed wrong as the group of deer broke out from the woods and went into the open field. I tired to make a dash to intercept the deer, but did not make it and the kicker of it all is: they crossed exactly where we got busted on our first attempt that morning and where we were just standing 15 minutes before trying to decide where to go. That’s bow hunting as they crossed about 125 yards from where we were set up and were previously standing minutes before.

That ended my short but action packed hunt in SD as we later cut up the deer Tyler and Travis previously shot with their rifles. It was an AWESOME hunt with many great memories and encounters had. Not to mention some pretty good 4×4’s that will get another year to grow up and look forward to encountering next year. I’m just hoping I can draw another rifle tag out there next year to tangle with some of those Western SD Mule Deer bucks. However, I’m even more determined now to shoot a whitetail on a spot & stalk /still hunt with my bow. I came close numerous times but no cigar. Well that is it, the season is over for me. It was not a very good season overall for me, but I had some great times sharing hunts and encounters with friends, family and my wife Stacie. I’m looking forward to next year already as late season scouting, shed hunting, and food plots will be hear before we know it.

I wish everyone a Happy New Year and hope that 2009 is the year it all comes together for us all. Here is to making IDO Hunting even better then this past year.

*CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE*