Black Hills Deer Hunting!

[David Frank]

Anyone else getting excited to head out to the beautiful Black Hills for deer hunting? I know I sure am. I will be joined by my roommate and my father. Can't wait to create another memory hunting with my Dad and my best friend.

[percherman]

Dave, To say I am excited would be an understatement. This year my boy turned 12 and aced his hunters safety test.

We will be joining my favorite hunting partner, my father-in-law, on what I am sure will be a memorable hunt for all.

The anticipation just keeps building!!

[David Frank]

Go get em!!! Good luck to your entire hunting party... especially your son!

[Tyler Holm]

Good Luck - Dave, Craig, Joe, Dean & son,

tyler

[David Frank]

Thanks! I'll post pics as soon as we return.

[percherman]

Thanks. It will be one for record books!!

I will try to fumble my way getting pics on also.

[David Frank]

Just returned from our hunting trip in the hills. Dad filled his doe tag Wed. night. Craig, my roommate shot his first buck with the new rifle I bought him for graduation. A nice 5 x 5. Only about 11.5 inches wide, but one heck of a nice first buck! I was picky and passed on between 10 and 15 bucks waiting for one to put on the wall. Ended up filling my tag sunday morning just to have some meat in the freezer with a small fork mulie.

I will post pics once I have more time to get them uploaded.

Overall, great trip. Even managed to win a few bucks in the slot machines in Deadwood!

[Outdoors_Junkie]

Where about were you hunting? I just moved out to Spearfish in August. I have lived in MN my whole life, so I am not sure where there are good spots out here. Do you hunt on public land?

[David Frank]

We hunt all public land in the Black Hills. There is more public land out there than you could even possibly think about becoming familiar with in a lifetime. We had tags for a couple different units out there, so we were kinda all over the place.

My best advice for you would be to get out and do some scouting if you can. There are deer and turkeys everywhere. Take off driving and pick any old logging trail that leads into the hills. Once off the beaten path, take off walking and find deer sign in a likely area. During most of the year you will see an overabundance of deer right near the road as they like to feed in the clearings, but once season starts, you will have to get off of the roads to be successfull. Many places in the hills look like a race track on opening weekend with so many people driving around looking for deer.

[Outdoors_Junkie]

Thank you David.

[mpls_ham]

I to am moving out to Spearfish in the spring with my family and plan to do plenty of hunting. My advise to you is head south on Tinton rd a few miles with a topo and scout an area about a square mile and stick to it.

Good luck!

[Dan Brelje]

outdoor junkie & mpls ham, is there any chance either of you are anglers? I am currently going to school at BH. It would be cool to get out w/ some people from this site and do some fishing sometime, i miss all the fishing oppurtunities from back home (Chisago Lakes Area MN).

As for the hunting, my roomate has a doe tag also, he hunts a lot up Tinton but is not to patient to sit for even an hour. I think if you picked a spot and stuck to it you'd be in luck.

[percherman]

Just got back Sunday from the best trip a guy could ever have. We got up to our cabin at Custer Sunday early afternoon and got ready to hunt. We went to one of my favorite spots between Custer and Hill City, and it didn't take long before my father-in-law had a big doe walk by and he let the old Marlin 30-30 bark. My son saw the action unfold and the doe came running towards him and folded up on the hillside across from him. My son walked over to the doe which was not moving but still breathing and decided to do a not so smart thing he had seen my buddy do to a Antelope that was almost dead. He stood over the doe and took out his big buck knife and thrust it into the heart while the front leg was forward and the deer was on it's side. Needless to say the doe didn't care to much for that and decided it was time to get out of there, "pronto". She jumped up' and tried to get her legs and compose herself enough to get a little distance between her and my boy, but my boy was to quick. He grabbed his rifle and chambered a round, aimed and fired, all in one quick instinctive motion, and the doe lied there motionless.

Grandpa and I got to him about the same time. We had both watched all this unfold from a distance and neither of us had to say a word. The look on his face when we walked up was priceless. I couldn't tell if it was happy that he finished of the deer and it didn't get away, or that he was scared S-less that he could have gotten hurt pulling that stunt, or that he was going to get his butt chewed by his Grandpa and his Dad for pulling that stunt, or, "that was one hell of a shot, I can't believe I made it".

After some yuckin it up, we took some pictures, and did the rest of the unceremonious duties, and went on to another favorite hill.

On this hill, I passed on a lot of small yearlings, but my Son had a few nice does at around 125yds that he tried to get with his 30-30 open sights that evening. My Son and I were scoreless the first day so we decided to go back to hill #1 the next morning.

We arrived at 7:00 and got sat down. My son decided to use Grandpa's 30-30 with a scope and by 7:10 a real nice doe walked by at about 90yds. She never even new what happened. She was walking down a hillside to a meadow and he just folded her up with one shot. It was his first Deer ever taken by himself, and I was really proud of him. We shot some pictures to remember this great memerable day with Grandpa, Dad, and Son. He really surprised me how well he had been watching us while gutting because he just dug right in and commenced to making easy work out of her, even cutting around the bung-hole.

We went in and had some brunch and screwed around in Custer for a while before heading out to find me a shooter. We decided to against all odds and try a old spot that was good but is now in the burn unit west of Jewel. We didn't have to wait long, 15 minutes into our sit, a doe tried to sneek by at about 65 yds. I raised the old Winchester 30-30 just like many, many people have done before me and pulled the hammer back. The old girl senced something wasn't right, and that was just enough time for me to hold steady on her and squeez a good shot off at her. She immedietly went down. That was the end of our deer hunt.

We also had Two Turley permits to fill. Friday Night just before sundown we found a flock of turkeys about 6 miles from Custer. We put them to bed and decided to wait till morning to get them.

Sure enough at sun up we drove out to our spot and set up our ambush spot. At 7;15 we heard the familliar sound of hens coming up the hill towrds our position. Grandpa and my Son waited till the birds were in range, and I yelled, "take em". My son blasted his hen at about 30yds and grandpa and I had to do some Dukes of hazard driving to get over to the other side of the mountain so he could get let out before the turkey came and set up a little ground blind. It worked and the turkes arrived shortly after he got set up.

Now my boy had to learn how to gut a turkey for the ride home.

Have you ever wonder why farts smell like the game you have just cleaned. Ie...Turkey Farts.

Duck, Pheasant. Could be one of the mysteries for the guys at Myth Busters Don't know what made me go off on that tangent, could have had something to do with what I had to smell all day Saturday in the Truck !!!

I will post some pictures real soon.