South Dakota antelope hunt

[Beagleman]

The wife and I plan to go next fall to bow hunt. Anyone got any suggestions on the best areas ? I've look at the SD Antelope map looks like north of belle fouche or in the sw corner. Itll be diy public and blm land. Any advice is appreciated

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

Never done bow, so keep that in mind.

SW has a ton of land, but terrible terrain for spot and stalk, mainly open prairie without cover, grass gets cattle on it so it's about two inches tall normally.

Not sure around belle fouche, been a while since I was up there, but I remember it having a touch more terrain but still poor cover.

 

[wihunter12]

I was through North of Belle Fourche this week. Saw Antelope, but looked like it could be challenging getting in range with a rifle. Seemed all the cover was a foot high.

 

[Doehldrich30]

Looking to hunt SD pronghorn last week of August for my first western hunt. Wondering if anyone can give any advice/willing to share a camp with a new western hunter.

 

[T Bone]

I archery hunted the SW corner of the state a lot. Open country, but enough contours and relief to get close.

Use a decoy. It is a lot of fun.

 

[cwormet]

I went last year for bow and am going again this year. Overall very difficult as the grass very rarely more than a few inches and the terrain mostly is flat. We had close to 30 stalls on our trip but only a few did we have a big terrain advantage.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I went last year for bow and am going again this year. Overall very difficult as the grass very rarely more than a few inches and the terrain mostly is flat. We had close to 30 stalls on our trip but only a few did we have a big terrain advantage.

Did you use a decoy at all to try and hide better?

 

[cwormet]

Did you use a decoy at all to try and hide better?

We did try, but it only worked on one occasion in tall grass.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

We did try, but it only worked on one occasion in tall grass.

Just got a cow decoy for this upcoming season, see if that helps any. I figure it can't hurt since I usually hunt on public ground that has cattle already on it

 

[Gila]

If you are going to use a decoy get a buck decoy...they challenge each other that time of year. Hay bales and water tanks in the afternoon are productive. I am a rifle man myself, just do spot and stalk. I only archery hunt deer. As soon as you pull out of Belle Fouche and go North on 85 you are in pronghorm country all the way to the North Dakota border. No problem finding public land to hunt up there. I believe the pronghorn research area East of 85 is still open to hunting.

There is an RV park in Buffalo that fills up during the rifle season. I don’t know what it is like during the archery season. I used to hunt private land mostly but there is plenty of public hunting. You used to be able to camp in the National Forest up there but I don’t know what it is like. I stayed at a ranch when I hunted there.

 

[Gila]

I went last year for bow and am going again this year. Overall very difficult as the grass very rarely more than a few inches and the terrain mostly is flat. We had close to 30 stalls on our trip but only a few did we have a big terrain advantage.

That’s pronghorn country for ya!