Hunted the black hills numerous times from 2000 to 2012. Killed my turkey everytime. Seemed like everytime i went i saw fewer turkey and more hunters. I never had to much of a problem getting away from hunters and finding birds, though.
I'd look into the wyoming side of the black hills as well...
I'm 30 minutes from Eau Claire and without question, it's the biggest acorn crop i can recall.
A good friend of mine does guided bear hunts in zone C and it was his worst year, 5 out of 11 tags filled.
Definitely a slow year for bear hunting around here, most of the hunters i talked to...
My neighbor killed it, so I'm not exactly sure. I know he was 26 inches tip to tip and over 6 inch bases. I'm pretty sure they were over 20 inches long.