2013 Black Hills Combo

[DonBo]

Most of you have followed me on this hunt for several years now. The plan was to be on the road early this morning, in camp and hunting tonight.

As only Mother Nature can do, she's caused us to change plans. There's a blizzard warning for our area today. A call to the rancher yesterday sealed the plan to wait a day. Another call today and another new plan. 16" of snow already, with more on the way.

HOPEFULLY, we'll be on the road Sunday morning, but luckily my schedule is very flexible so whenever we feel it's safe and prudent for us to head west, that's when we'll go.

I like to think we get a little smarter as we age.

[sticknstring]

Yeah, it's brutal out there right now. Good plan to wait it out! Glad you didn't get caught in that out there. Drive safe and hope you have an excellent trip!

[engfish]

You and Scoot have both pointed out how fickle fall weather can be in the West. This fall has been a doozy already with reports of snow coming in September from friends in Wyoming.

I am thankful for the technology we have now that prevents us, hopefully, from putting ourselves in situations that are potentially very dangerous.

Good luck next week, Donbo. I'm looking forward to your report as always.

With so many relatives in SD, this is on my Bucket List--if I don't kick the bucket before I get the opportunity to do it.

[Scoot]

That stinks, Don! I hope things turn around quickly and you can get out there soon, and more importantly, safely. Good luck when you get out there.

[sportfish]

I got back from the Custer area thursday, and glad I did !! My friend out there said its in lock down for a few days . We didn't shoot anything after 4.5 days of hunting . we did see a lot of deer about 20-30 a day but nothing worth droping the string . Lots of Elk hunters driving around

[DonBo]

Talked to the landowner today. 30+" of snow, 60+ mph winds. Roads still closed. Branches and trees down everywhere. No power, don't expect to for several days. Can't get feed to the cattle, heck, can't get out of the driveway. Can't help but feel bad for the locals out there dealing with this mess.

New plan? We'll probably leave late this coming week. Going to have to stay in touch with the rancher to see how things look in a few more days. Hope we'll be able to help them clean up some of the mess.

If there's a bright side for us, it's that in the past early snows have brought loads of deer down from the hills into our river bottom. I'm hoping there's still plenty of feed up in the trees for the turkeys. Not really sure how it's going to affect them....The river floods enough that we know the trout will still be around.

[DonBo]

Looks like we might FINALLY get out of town in the next couple days. Late last week there was still over a foot of snow on the ground. Most had melted before they got another 8" yesterday. The 10 day forcast looks to be pretty decent, though cool for this time of year.

Getting pretty antsy to get on the road, wish me luck.

[sticknstring]

Good luck - I bet you're pretty anxious to hit the road!

[mrklean]

good luck Don hopefully you can get out soon

[Scoot]

LOL- I saw you had posted here and I thought you were starting your write up of your hunt! Dang Mother Nature- as I was reminded of this year in MT, she can really be cold-hearted and cruel.

Go get 'em, Don! Have fun, take lots of pics, and take us along for the ride when you get back!!! Please!

[Archerysniper]

Have fun,be safe and bring LOTS of arrow

[NoWiser]

Go get umm Don! Be safe and have a blast!

[Wes Ellis]

Every trip has lost of memory's. make the most if it and take pictures. Be safe and have a good time.

Looking forward to the story!

[Coach1310]

This thread is proof of your legend DonBo. You haven't even left yet and the thread is two pages long!!! Good luck!

[DonBo]

We're back, safe and sound. Poor weather conditions, truck problems and a full moon because of our two week delay all made for a tough hunt. Still, we hunted hard, punched some tags, left some unfilled and had a great time in the best game environment I've ever had the privilege to hunt.

I'll try to start the recap of my favorite week of the year tomorrow morning.

[Scoot]

I'll try to start the recap of my favorite week of the year tomorrow morning.

Great- can't wait!!!

[DonBo]

Thursday, Oct. 17

Finally got on the road two weeks late because of the horrible blizzard they had on the day we were supposed to leave. We always plan the dates around the new moon for reasons most of you understand. It really lets us get underneith roosted birds in the morning under cover of darkness.

Was really sadened on the drive into our hunting area by all the dead cattle still out in the fields. Thousands were killed by the huge amounts of snow. It came so early that the cattle did not yet have their winter coats. Ranchers could not get out to bring any feed. The herd in the area we hunted was mostly spared because of the cover of all trees in the river bottom. They survived on oak leaves, as seemingly every tree had broken branches or were tipped over by the strong winds.

There was till some patchy snow on the ground when we arrived.

We couldn't get down into the riverbottoms to camp because of the wet conditions, so we setteled into a new spot across the road up in the pine covered hills. This would turn into a problem as it was a long way to our usuall hunting spots. We had to drive there, but there was no way to get off the road to park.

We had camp set up just before dark and were able to take a short walk to check out the surroundings. We did see a couple deer and there was turkey sign nearby.

Cold tonight, down into the 20's.

[NoWiser]

Oh yeah, I've been looking forward to this!!

[DonBo]

Friday, Oct. 18

Headed out early morning with a pop-up blind. Hiked up and over the "island" ridge and across the "porky" field. Set up along the edge and waited for first light. Did see a few deer in my headlamp on the walk in.

The only deer I saw on stand this morning was a NICE buck, easily a P&Y cadidate. Unfortunately with the swirling winds in these hills, he smelled me and headed off in another direction. It was snowing pretty hard.

This was taken along the edge of the porky field. You can get an idea of all the damage to the trees.

After stand we headed into town for a good breakfast and load up on supplies. We did see several turkey in the fields down in the bottoms, still not sure how we could even get there to hunt them.

This is a nice mixed flock with a few decent toms included.

We were going to drive down to the bottoms and try to find a spot to park when, RATS! 4WD goes out in Gary's Expedition. Great. Just what we need. We are litterly stuck on flat even ground, right in camp. After much work, we got him unstuck and he headed into Sturgis to try and find someone to fix the truck.

In the meantime, I headed down into the bottom of the draw off the east end of porky field (same spot I shot doe on the last night of the hunt last year) to fix up a new blind for the evening's hunt. There is tons of material for builing brush blinds, so that is just what I did.

Saw 15 deer tonight, not a horn in the bunch. This little one came right in, bawling the whole time, looking for Mom. I hoped a buck had just run her off.

Gary actually found a Ford dealer that could get a used transfer case in and replaced tomorrow! He got back in time to do a little walkabout near camp and saw 5 bucks, including three nice ones, but he has no deer tag, only turkey tags, in his pocket.

Here he is with the loaner they gave him for the night.

Temps never got above 40 today and was very windy.

[sticknstring]

Turkey breast or venison tenderloins... which one are we going to see on the grill first! I love hearing about this trip!

[DonBo]

Saturday, Oct 19

Headed out early this morning with the shotgun, hoping for a chance at a turkey for camp meat. Ended up walking all the way to the river bottom area. Lots of snow still, all covered with tracks, deer and turkey. Lots of hiding places and very poor visability because of all the downed trees and branches.

Jumped several deer in the thick stuff, but no birds. Was walking down to look at the river when I spotted birds out in the open near the water. There was about 8 or 10 that I could see, most were nice toms! Did a belly crawl to get close when I heard more birds farther back. We talked back and forth for a bit till I realized these new birds were going to pass quite close to me. I got ready and watched as a bunch of hens and young ones passed by at about 25 yards. No beards. I waited for the toms to follow and they eventually did. They were all going through a small opening. Hen, hen, hen, TOM! Too late. Hen, tom. Too late. Tom, too late. Finally a hed popped up, assuming it was one of the toms, I fired. None of the other birds were very frightened from the blast, so I waited till they were all out of sight to go claim my prize. Dang, young hen. Oh well, this bird is perfect for the grill.

I left the bird, gun, backpack and most of my clothes near the gate and hoofed it back to camp. We got in the truck to head back down to retrieve all my stuff when we noticed our landowner cutting brush near his fence. Now this guy is 87 years old, and in great shape, but hey he's 87. We relieved him of the chainsaw and spent a few hours helping clear all the downed trees on his fence. We got quite a large section done before he declared it lunchtime and sent us on our way. He told us it was an everyday occurance to find cattle or horses wandering the roads that had gotten out of their fencing because of all the downed trees.

We then headed back to Sturgis to pick up Gary's truck, then into the Rapid City Cabela's to get me a new backpack. The zipper on mine had broken last night.

We got back in time to hunt. The landowner told us we could park in the gate openings of the bottoms since they were not about to use those roads till they dried up considerably. We were in!

Gary set his blind in a community roost area, I set my double bull along a river crossing. Only saw one doe, but a bunch of turkeys. Heard one right behind me. Peeked out the back window to see a nice tom right there, course by the time I got the window down, he was gone.

There was lots of available brush for hiding our ground blinds.

Gary saw a couple flocks of turkeys, but no beards.

Got up to 60 today with a few hours of sunshine, but still pretty windy.

[DonBo]

Sunday, Oct. 20

Cold, 35. Windy. Spitting rain. No other place I'd rather be.

Sat same ground blind in the bottoms. Saw a handfull of does and faws across the river, then 7 bucks running together. 7! Oct 20 and still no sign of rut activity. Most of these deer were two year old forkies, 6's and small 8's. The last one in line was nice! They all crossed just downstream from me and I never did see where they headed off too.

Meanwhile to the north of me, I hear Gary shoot. Twice. Last year he was 50% on shots, wonder how this year was starting out for him? Later after we hooked up I found he had one nice tom and missed another at about 6 feet. At the shot, birds were running and flying in every direction. One, another tom from this mixed flock, ran straight towards him. He said he could have reached out and grabbed him. At any rate, at that distance the pattern is about the size of a golf ball. He missed.

Rained pretty much all day, never got above 40. Supposed to be like this for the next few days.

Whatever they did to the truck yesterday did not solve the problem. We are again without 4WD.

We both return to the river bottoms this afternoon. I moved the blind about 100 yards downstream to where the bucks crossed this morning. Saw 5 or 6 does and fawns. Two of the fawns were running all over the woods. Just running. Life is good for these guys right now. They survived the blizzard, the snow is gone, food is plentiful. Run! I always get a smile when I see wildlife having fun just for the sake of having fun.

Peeked out a back window to see a forkie feeding right behind me. Then I hear turkeys. Again I see one right outside the back window, but is gone by the time I got the window open for the shot. They roost right here. This was taken from inside my blind.

A bit later I looked out the back again and see another deer. Head down, feeding. He picks up his head and WOW! Big buck. Big beautiful 8 pointer. Wide, tall, heavy chocolate colored horns. Nice. 40 yards, no opening for shot. I grunted several times and though he definetly heard me, he did not care one bit. Feed bag time. He was inching closer and closer, but it's getting darker and darker. Finally I have to do something. I ease the zipper open and creep outside. Only need to move over about 6' in order to get a clear shot, then he winds me and game over. So close. This may have been the same deer I saw with all the other bucks this morning. Probably scored in the 140 class.

Gary saw a couple small flocks tonight, but nothing close enough.

[DonBo]

Haven't really mentioned the river yet, mostly because it is so depressing. This pretty little trout stream is now a dangerous ragging torrent. There will be no crossing it to the utopia of deer hunting that is the other side. There will be no fishing.

[bigbucks]

Sounds great so far.

[Scoot]

Uh huh, definitely interesting stuff! Bummer about the river...