South Dakota Antelope

[fireman]

Hello all. Just a quick question for all you South Dakotans. Im looking at planning a S.D archery antelope hunt for 2005 in the Harding or Butte County areas. Looking at the hunting atlas, it shows alot of public land, BLM, walk ins, etc. Just wondering if they hold good numbers of goats and if so, what is the average size of a nice buck in these areas? We are looking at using blinds over watering holes and decoying, and possibly spot and stalk hunting. Also, does the rut usually get going in sept or would aug be better?

Thanks for any info..

[JBinSD]

You should be able to find a good number of goats on public land and there should be some nice sized ones. This year the rut was a little later than usual where I hunted, seemed to peak around the 21st of Sept.

[fireman]

JBinSD, thanks for the info. This will be my first archery antelope hunt and we cant wait to get out there. Anyone had any luck with decoys during the rut?

[JBinSD]

I decdoyed this one this year we were 5 out of 7, all decoyed.

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[fireman]

Nice goat. I got to see the pic before it was edited. Thanks again for the info.

[Muskeez]

We've also talked of doing the SD antelope hunt. Two friends went out farther West last year and killed one over a water hole and one with a decoy. Wondering what would be the best 2 week period to try to decoy one. I assume during the rut but early or peak rut and what time period does that usually fall in? thanks for the advise. Also are the numbers real good in SD or should we look into going further west?

[JBinSD]

There are quite a few goats in SD, I'm sure there are more in Wyo but like I said we saw hundreds of goats on the property we hunted. The rut is the best time to decoy which generally peaks Sept 15 but if I had two weeks in 05 I'd go sept 11-24th. The earliest I've killed a goat decoying is Sept 9th and the latest is Sept 21st, not to say it wouldn't work before or after that but I see way too many people trying to decoy every buck they see any time they see it from the middle of August on.