First Bull, South Dakota Black Hills

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Well what a year this turned out to be for me. I applied in the spring for SD elk tag like I always do, figuring that this year will be just another point until I can maybe draw in another dozen years. I didn't even research which unit to apply to, because why waste the time when my odds are so tiny? Well turns out that this is my lucky year for South Dakota draws, not for Wyoming but that's another deal there. There were 9 total tags available for 1061 applicants in my preference group. That comes out to be a 0.85% chance, and guess what? I drew. I couldn't believe it when I got the email, and to be honest I figured it was a mistake until I got my tag in the mail.

Once I got the tag I asked folks on HT for assistance if they've ever had the tag or hunted in the unit. Ended up chatting with a couple of great guys who didn't mind helping me out with locations to start looking for elk. I won't name names, but thank you all for providing at least a base line to get started with. One of the biggest issues I encountered was the size of the unit and amount of public land. I hate that I'm going to say this, but there's almost too much land. I ended up having trouble figuring out where to even start scouting. Luckily I was pointed in the right direction by HT folks and made up a game plan to go scout mid Sept. for my tag which is valid all of Oct. I figured if I could get in and scout with what should be peak rut, that will at least give me a good baseline come October.


Mid September comes around and me and a buddy head out to try and find some elk, and maybe an archery deer if its possible. The plan is to fully invest in the elk hunt, but if we see a decent buck, we have no problem chasing it for my buddy.


Ended up being a great scouting trip. First morning got up a little late and spotted three bulls on the way to the first scouting spot. Nothing massive or super impressive, but a great start to scouting and really helped the mood:

Didn't end up seeing anything moving in the day after that first hour of the morning. Nothing beyond birds and the occasional doe running from us. That evening set up on a hill top recommended by HT and we were not disappointed to say the least. Started out with two smaller 5x5 right on the private public boundary. They were fun to watch and did a little sparing:



While watching these guys, I started to hear a couple of faint bugles and a few cow calls. While searching around for the corresponding animals, I happened across this warrior high up on the hillside. The photo is hard to tell, but he's a 6 point on the one side, then a club or 2 point on the other side. Pretty unique bull, but not sure he would be a shooter for me. Easy to decide when you don't have a rifle on you or a tag in your pocket... But with this being a likely once in my lifetime hunt, I'm not sure I would want to use it on a clubbed bull:



Not long after that I spot the herd bull and the one that's been bugling and chasing the cows around. Its obvious that he's the leader of this group and he's full in rut. At one point he was almost picking up a cows hind legs trying to get a better smell of her... This is the kind of bull I would love to put my tag on. I told myself once I got the tag in my pocket that I will shoot a nice heavy 5X5 or any 6x6. That was all the expectations that I had going into the hunt. I didn't want to have regrets later in life because I used my SD tag on a rag horn. Also, I decided to not use a guide service for this tag, so that was an ever present concern in the back of my mind, Can I get a bull without help? Can I get that nice of a bull without help? Time will tell.


After watching these bulls and cows feed around into the trees, we packed it up and headed back to the truck. Once we hit the road 100 yards from the truck I start to hear cow calls and heavy footfalls. Turns out right next to the truck here come 6 cows with a bull bugling behind them. Now they're down off the side of the road, but I start to sneak in closer to see what I can see in the fading light. The cows bust when I'm about 30 yards away, but I can still hear the bull somewhere behind them. I start to let out cow calls and the bull starts to let bugles rip right next to me. Easily one of my coolest hunting experiences to date. To have a bull calling back aggressively was so fun, I can understand why archery hunters love the rut.... After awhile the bull fades down the hill without ever showing himself. But still in that small area we ran into at least 6 bulls plus double that in cows.


The next day we decided to head in a new direction to see what else we could find. First thing in the morning we pull into a location and there are two bulls standing in the middle of the clear cut at 200 yards staring at us broadside. They finally takeoff up the hillside, but aren't overly scared of us and stop to figure out what we are. Neither are massive bulls, but man would I struggle to not shoot a bull that close to the road and stopping to stare at me... Fun to watch and we chased after them for the morning cow calling while listening to them bugle back, along with two other bulls in the area. Another fun experience.


That afternoon we drive around and find out where all the archery hunters seem to be hanging out. They are all set up in a particular area of the unit which seems like bad habitat to me. Its super dry, almost no vegetation, and poor cover. Seems like terrible elk habitat to me, but its obvious that the archery hunters like something about it, but I can't seem to figure out what it is. I decide to write that area of the unit off, just doesn't seem like the right habitat to me. Spent that evening glassing a large basin, but didn't pull anything up besides a couple of does in the distance and a real small spike buck.


We leave the scouting trip feeling very optimistic, and I'm getting more and more excited for the hunt in a couple of weeks.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Now the season opens Oct. 1st which is a Tuesday. I figure I should head out the weekend before and do some additional scouting before the season opens. Heading out Friday after work means I'll have all day Saturday, Sunday, and Monday to try and get a bead on a nice bull before the season opens. My ideal world would be to put a nice bull to bed Monday night and set up on him Tuesday morning for the opener.

All great plans, but didn't come to as expected. I couldn't find a thing out scouting. Saturday not a thing, Sunday not a thing until Sunday evening. Finally setting up at a HT recommended spot, I was able to spot a couple cows, and at least one bull. The bull was pretty far across the valley I was watching so I never got a great view through the smoke, but he seemed like a small bull from what I could tell. I also had a bull bugling (First bugle I've heard in this scouting trip) on my side of the valley but never got eyes on him through the thick trees. At least I have an option of where to try and find bulls come Tuesday morning.

Valley Cow


And I forgot to mention, had beautiful fall colors on the limited number of non evergreen trees present. once nice stand:



Monday I decide to go check out the valley where I saw all the bulls last trip and see if they are still in there. Monday morning nothing shows up, and I can't find anything Monday night either. Pretty much destroyed my game plan of putting a bull to bed and getting him opener morning. But its not too often plans like that actually work out.

Monday night a fellow HT member was nice enough to come meet me at my camp and help out with the hunt. He can announce himself if he wishes, but I'll just refer to him as my hunting buddy here. Now my new buddy has gotten away from work and life responsibilities for no better reason than all my other hunting partners are busy with farming and can't help me out, what a nice fellow is an understatement. Now he will only be able to help out until Thursday morning at the absolute latest, at that point life responsibilities will have to continue. Buddy shows up around 9pm with the season opening the following morning. We've been texting so he knows what I've found and have not found. We talk trying to figure out a good game plan and end up on going back to the valley that I had seen all the bulls on during the mid September scouting trip. It's as good as spot as any and I don't have a better idea. We make the plans and decide to get up and set up before shooting light. 5am comes in a hurry and we're making our way to the spot.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Okay, now were finally at rifle opener. We get set up over the valley and are basically hoping for the best at this point. I haven't seen a bull around here since the first scouting trip and don't really expect much to happen. Shooting light comes and no bugles nor any elk. It's important to note that before Monday we were in a heatwave in the unit. Monday finally brought cooler weather, but Monday I didn't really hear much bugling either. We continue to glass, we spot a couple hunters walking into the area we are watching. Could be good or bad. Good being they might push an elk right to us, the bad being they chase them up and over or just shoot them right there.

Sun rises and we finally spot a bull working his way across the hillside. We don't get a great view of him before he goes into timber with no additional view points. Being that we are sure he was a bull we decide to make a play for him. We work around the private boundary and head up the hill trying to cut him off. We are moving at a decent pace trying to cut him off. We get to the saddle we wanted to set up on, and see nothing. We cow call, and throw out a couple of bugles, but no response. We search around slowly for awhile, but never see an elk. We call it quits and head back to the truck. At this point we head back for lunch at camp before deciding where to go for the evening hunt.

We get a hot tip on a location to check out from another HT member who had an archery tag. I already knew the rough area he recommended, and thought it was a great place to find elk, so we figured why not? Now here's where the story takes a turn that I'm not happy about.

We head off in the truck to the area and decide that there is a great looking basin that we can get to the bottom of and look up into some prime elk habitat. As good of a plan as any. As we make out way down the two track we round a bend and see elk on the hillside 50 yards away with a bull in the mix. I get out of the truck and set up on a tree and try to decide if he's a shooter bull. Buddy confirms he's branch antlered elk, but we can't see more than that with the branches and trees in the way. They start to meander away, so I set up on the only opening and wait for the bull at the back. He clears the trees and Buddy lets out a cow call to stop him. I aim for the center of the shoulder and pull the trigger. The bull runs away and Buddy is shouting to put another one in him. All I can see in the scope is elk asses running up a hill and can't figure out which one is the bull. I chase after them up the hill trying to get a better view, but never get one.


We circle back and make a plan to start tracking the bull as we can see a little blood on the ground. We spend the next couple of hours tracking the bull on our hands and knees. He's bleeding a vibrant red blood, so no lung shot. I worry right away if it was a brisket only shot. We piece together that he's bleeding out of his left side only, so a pass through is unlikely. He's only dropping blood once every 6' or so, or where he brushes up against low branches. We track him until he circles back to the road and then we lose him when he went through deadfall. We tried to pick his trail back up, but he ended up in prime elk habitat so we lost his tracks in all the other elk tracks. Putting together all the data, we figured I shot high into the dead zone above the lungs. That is very likely the case as I have my gun sighted fairly high at 100 yards, as I primarily hunt out on the prairie, so my shots are usually 200-300yards, not 50... Based on everything we've seen, we feel confident in assessing it as a non lethal hit. That being said, I feel like shit. That is not what I wanted to happen at all. I won't lie, that moment of calling off the search was one of the lowest points in my hunting career. I really haven't wounded and lost many animals at all. This would be the third one, and the other two were deer that made it on to private land that I couldn't get permission to track and retrieve.


After we call it quits on that bull, we decide to check over the same area that evening and see if we can't call a bull in while walking next to dark timber with a nice pasture. Seemed like perfect elk habitat, but never heard nor saw a thing.


Day one is done, and I'm feeling pretty down at this point. Having another hunter with helped, I don't know how many people here hunt solo, but you can get in your head pretty bad when you make a mistake like that. It's hard to break that thought process when you only have your thoughts.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Tuesday night we make a new plan. Buddy has a boss who vacations in the hills and he said they see monster bulls all over the cabin and hills around it every day. With how day one went, I figured its as good as any spot to try. And worst case scenario, its not far from the large valley where I spotted that bull and cow on Sunday night.

We get up there earlier and pass one camp right at the base of the hill we decided to hunt, and a pickup just parked on the road listening. We park halfway up the little hilltop and start to walk up in the mostly dark. We do some calling once we're up top, but not much is happening. After what happened yesterday, I'm sitting there thinking that I blew the only chance of an elk I was going to get. Now its just going to be pure silence and I'll never see a bull again. The sun rises and still we don't hear or see anything. We let out a bugle and all of a sudden we have three bugles going off around us. Now we're trying to figure out and pinpoint where they are all coming from. From what we can tell we have a bugle going off below us, towards that other camp, a bugle back towards the truck, and another bugle somewhere in the middle.

The one back towards the truck was suspicious to me right from the get go. That "bull" would bugle back within two seconds of us cow calling or bugling. Buddy convinced me to at least head back that direction while we try and figure out if its a bull or a hunter... I should add here, Buddy is basically the caller during all of this, so we have a lot of flexibility in how we call since the call isn't tied to the gun. We continue to call and 3 seconds later we are getting the "bull" to bugle back. Still super suspicious that its just a hunter, but we keep pressing on.

Finally we get to the top of the hill again and its fairly clear of trees. We can tell that the bugles are coming from maybe 200yards down into the trees that we don't have a view through. We make the decision to set up on the opening and see if we can get this bull to come into us. I set up on a shooting tree while Buddy hangs back 30 yards or so and starts cow calling. But nothing happens, so we switch back to a bugle and hear the "bull" moving away from us. Well at that point I'm finally convinced that this is a bull and not a hunter. What hunter would walk away from a bugle?

At this point I can hear he's basically back at the truck and moving away parallel to us. I can see there is a nice meadow in roughly the same direction the bugle is coming from. Buddy hangs back a bit and starts to cow call and bugle while I go set up on the meadow. The last bugle I heard was from the backside of the meadow I was watching. I connect back up with Buddy and we decide to sneak around the meadow and come up the backside where hopefully this bull is feeding or bedded. Perfect plan!


As we get about halfway across the meadow I see the lead cow come out of the trees and start to trot along with private public boundary. There is a very small window between the trees and the private boundary, so not much of a view. More cows filter by, and then comes the bull, and he is a dandy. I don't get much of a view of him before he's behind the houses solar panels, but I can tell he's a good bull. I know they are still on the public side of the fence, but there's no shot yet. I see the cows run through an opening and figure the bull is going to be right behind them. I get set up free hand, but we're easily 300 yards away so I can't take the shot based on stability, much less the fact that I would have to shoot over the solar panels to poke at the bull... I see him step through the opening and get a good view of him and know he's a good bull. They run across the private land and are headed back towards the public side.


We start jogging to cut them off on the public land. I'm no fool thinking I can out run an elk, but they are taking a long route so we are trying to cut them off. We finally get to a decent shooting area and set up and wait, along with soft cow calling. We don't see or hear anything. Finally we hear a truck moving along the road below us and we call it quits. The elk snuck past us somehow. Buddy's though is maybe they crossed the road and headed back to public on the other side. Not a bad idea I figure. We make our way back to the truck with the idea of crossing the road and seeing what's going on over there. On the way back to the truck we hear more bugles so we detour and try some sitting and calling, but we aren't getting any calls back from the bull. We start to move on, then hear a loud bugle not far below us. We move over and call back but nothing. I figure it must be that other truck and they are bugling down below us. Not long after I said that we hear a gunshot. Figured it was that same truck and they either were calling that bull in, or the bull lead them right to him. Never saw the bull or hunters, but we went back to the truck and started to head out across the road.

 

[Salmonchaser]

Rough start. Good luck.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

We pop across the road, head up until we can take a two track closer to the top of the hill. Its another partial clear cutting with private in the valley below then massive amounts of public. We get partially up the road and I figured here is as good as any spot to stop and start walking.

As soon as the doors open, Buddy hears a bugle, faint enough I don't hear it on my side. I figure fantastic, lets get after it. So I grab my gun and my pack, close my doors and head over to the passenger side. Then I hear a loud bugle, a close bugle. I know that bull has to be close, so I whisper to Buddy to get a move on and get ready. As I turn around and start walking up the road towards the bugle, I see a cow run across a small opening. I figure its the same deal as last time, there is a bull at the back pushing his harem, so I get set up on a good shooting tree and set up on the opening. This opening isn't wide, maybe 6-10' at the most, but I can see decently the 30' leading up to the opening, but its clogged with branches. So I can see when the bull following the harem is starting to move into position. I can tell he's a shooter, and Buddy lets me know they are at 275 yards. I quickly drop my pack as I can tell I have enough time before the bull will get to the opening. I don't want any stupid mistakes to ruin this chance. I set up on the opening with the crosshairs and wait for the cows to trickle through and then the bull appears.

When he first steps into the opening Buddy lets out a cow call and stops him dead. I don't have a shot however. I can see his antlers/brisket, then his hind legs. No good shot and I'm not going to try and make a bad shot. Buddy's saying he has a good shooting view from his side of the tree, but I don't want to move and risk the bull running while I'm behind the tree. After what felt like an eternity, he takes one long stride and Buddy lets out a beautiful cow call and the bull stops and stares right at us. I put the crosshairs right on the front shoulder and pull the trigger. Felt like a great shot, super stable on the tree and I'm feeling good about it. Buddy's shouting to put another round in him, but I can't find the bull with all the cows running around trying to figure out what's going on. I've seen this behavior before, when the leader is shot the females don't know what do to if the head male isn't running away, they meander around waiting for directions almost.

Then Buddy shouts that he watch him drop, and he's not moving. I can't believe it. The excitement and joy, and adrenaline was all going like crazy. We make a beeline to the opening and Buddy's asking can't I see the dead bull right in front of me? I couldn't, he dropped behind some burnt logs, so all that was visible were part of his antlers. Like I said, I lost the bull in the chaos after the shot, but Buddy was watching him through his binos. He said the bull took a couple steps forward, locked up for a bit, then stumbled backwards a couple steps before dying.


After taking photos, we quartered him out right there, and backed the truck right up to him to load him up since he dropped right next to the two track. While butchering him, we saw that other bull that bugled softly had picked up his harem and I saw him running away with them while letting out a bugle.



Ended up shooting him through the front shoulder, getting the lungs, then exiting out the ribs as he was quartering towards me slightly. All copper bullet did as designed and did not disappoint out of the 308.



Headed back to camp, set the meat into the trees to cool, and sent Buddy back to his responsibilities a little bit early. Can't thank him enough for all of his help.



Looking back on it, we figured that by bugling at the bull back by the truck he drove him away from us as he was protecting his harem from other bulls. In hindsight we may have been able to close the deal with cow calls back by the truck originally, but how can you ever tell that in the middle of the hunt? Always makes perfect sense after that fact.




Pulled the teeth for GFP, then stopped by for CWD testing in Rapid City before heading home. Going to do a euro mount for the bull and should have it back in a couple days from my euro guy (benefits of getting an animal before deer rifle season).


Green scoring (I'm no scoring expert but can get close enough) puts him at 320" gross, 297" net. But I figure if he grew them it counts on the score sheet, so 320" he'll be to me.

So there it is, the story of my two day elk hunt. It had its low points, but overall I can't believe how it all happened and turned out.


As he lay






Meat hanging. Nice not having to worry about bears, makes cooling the meat a lot easier

Camp packed up

View on the drive home

 

[Salmonchaser]

Great looking bull.

 

[JCS]

Nice. Thanks for taking us along.

 

[Forkyfinder]

Congrats

 

[CPAjeff]

Congrats on a great bull!

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

Great bull. Great story. Congratulations!

 

[perma]

The black hills grow em big. Congrats!

 

[Fred Rogers]

Nice! I have that same model camper.

 

[noharleyyet]

Looks like the perfect hunt, thx for sharing.

 

[CT_SD]

Congratulations on a great bull!

 

[jdf]

Congratulations!

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats!

 

[Pagosa]

Beautiful bull. Congratulations

 

[Flatbrimmer]

We pop across the road, head up until we can take a two track closer to the top of the hill. Its another partial clear cutting with private in the valley below then massive amounts of public. We get partially up the road and I figured here is as good as any spot to stop and start walking.

As soon as the doors open, Buddy hears a bugle, faint enough I don't hear it on my side. I figure fantastic, lets get after it. So I grab my gun and my pack, close my doors and head over to the passenger side. Then I hear a loud bugle, a close bugle. I know that bull has to be close, so I whisper to Buddy to get a move on and get ready. As I turn around and start walking up the road towards the bugle, I see a cow run across a small opening. I figure its the same deal as last time, there is a bull at the back pushing his harem, so I get set up on a good shooting tree and set up on the opening. This opening isn't wide, maybe 6-10' at the most, but I can see decently the 30' leading up to the opening, but its clogged with branches. So I can see when the bull following the harem is starting to move into position. I can tell he's a shooter, and Buddy lets me know they are at 275 yards. I quickly drop my pack as I can tell I have enough time before the bull will get to the opening. I don't want any stupid mistakes to ruin this chance. I set up on the opening with the crosshairs and wait for the cows to trickle through and then the bull appears.

When he first steps into the opening Buddy lets out a cow call and stops him dead. I don't have a shot however. I can see his antlers/brisket, then his hind legs. No good shot and I'm not going to try and make a bad shot. Buddy's saying he has a good shooting view from his side of the tree, but I don't want to move and risk the bull running while I'm behind the tree. After what felt like an eternity, he takes one long stride and Buddy lets out a beautiful cow call and the bull stops and stares right at us. I put the crosshairs right on the front shoulder and pull the trigger. Felt like a great shot, super stable on the tree and I'm feeling good about it. Buddy's shouting to put another round in him, but I can find the bull with all the cows running around trying to figure out what's going on. I've seen this behavior before, when the leader is shot the females don't know what do to if the head male isn't running away, they meander around waiting for directions almost.

Then Buddy shots that he watch him drop, and he's not moving. I can't believe it. The excitement and joy, and adrenaline was all going like crazy. We make a beeline to the opening and Buddy's asking can't I see the dead bull right in front of me? I couldn't, he dropped behind some burnt logs, so all that was visible were part of his antlers. Like I said, I lost the bull in the chaos after the shot, but Buddy was watching him through his binos. He said the bull took a couple steps forward, locked up for a bit, then stumbled backwards a couple steps before dying.


After taking photos, we quartered him out right there, and backed the truck right up to him to load him up since he dropped right next to the two track. While butchering him, we saw that other bull that bugled softly had picked up his harem and I saw him running away with them while letting out a bugle.



Ended up shooting him through the front shoulder, getting the lungs, then exiting out the ribs as he was quartering towards me slightly. All copper bullet did as designed and did not disappoint out of the 308.



Headed back to camp, set the meat into the trees to cool, and sent Buddy back to his responsibilities a little bit early. Can't thank him enough for all of his help.



Looking back on it, we figured that by bugling at the bull back by the truck he drove him away from us as he was protecting his harem from other bulls. In hindsight we may have been able to close the deal with cow calls back by the truck originally, but how can you ever tell that in the middle of the hunt? Always makes perfect sense after that fact.




Pulled the teeth for GFP, then stopped by for CWD testing in Rapid City before heading home. Going to do a euro mount for the bull and should have it back in a couple days from my euro guy (benefits of getting an animal before deer rifle season).


Green scoring (I'm no scoring expert but can get close enough) puts him at 320" gross, 297" net. But I figure if he grew them it counts on the score sheet, so 320" he'll be to me.

So there it is, the story of my two day elk hunt. It had its low points, but overall I can't believe how it all happened and turned out.


As he lay
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Meat hanging. Nice not having to worry about bears, makes cooling the meat a lot easier
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Camp packed up
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View on the drive home
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I told you!!!!! I knew it!!! That’s a GREAT bull dude! BIG congrats man!! If I saw that on day two I would not have hesitated. Being that the truck pulled right to him, I would have caped him though. He’d make a beautiful shoulder mount for your first bull elk.

 

[jvanhoy]

Heck yea. That’s awesome. Congrats!