Early fall Dakota Fun

[seeth07]

Wife and I arrived in the Dakotas early this morning before light.

We have the only two NR tags for buck antelope in this unit.

The goldens would like to chase after some sharpies and pheasants. Maybe a duck morning as well.

Keep you posted.

 

[wihunter12]

Good luck! Does that area require a draw for ducks?

 

[seeth07]

O no, my tag is notched already

 

[seeth07]

Good luck! Does that area require a draw for ducks?

Yes, however we would be duck hunting in North, not South where we are lope hunting. We are literally on the border

 

[Dakota79]

Are you antelope hunting in 35A by chance?

 

[seeth07]

Are you antelope hunting in 35A by chance?

No further east

 

[seeth07]

My neighbor who grew up out here said they don't typically get Wyoming big so don't pass up anything mature.

Our first stalk had a bunch of small bucks and it didn't work out anyways as the wind swirled and we got busted.

Then we found him over a mile in and I went running to cut him off. I succeeded.

 

[seeth07]

Erica had a really good chance on a huge buck tonight, I guess they do exist here. The group at 600 yards was coming perfect and then took a 45 degree turn and it didn't work out. Hopefully we can refind him tomorrow

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Are you in North Dakota or South Dakota? Great buck by the way.

 

[seeth07]

Are you in North Dakota or South Dakota? Great buck by the way.

South for the lope tag.

We spotted the buck again this morning but on private. Took all day to turn up anything else and it was a whole herd of 50.

Largest buck in the group is no longer alive.

 

[seeth07]

First shot and he just stands there after running just a little bit away. Second shot a bit lower and he didn't even flinch. Not accounting for wind enough at this range. Tell her to aim 8 more inches to left. This one dropped him.

Pretty proud of her to remain calm the entire time and at 400 yards put one in him each time. He just wouldn't go down!

Shot 1 was back and middle body. Shot two was just below that from him being 25 yards further away. Then the finisher to the left.

 

[seeth07]

First walk with the dogs put up two grouse. Wife missed the one. Onto the next spot.

 

[seeth07]

We suck, three good flushes and no dead grouse on this one. Dogs getting worn out and giving us disappointed looks

 

[seeth07]

Hey got one

 

[kiwi hunter]

First shot and he just stands there after running just a little bit away. Second shot a bit lower and he didn't even flinch. Not accounting for wind enough at this range. Tell her to aim 8 more inches to left. This one dropped him.

Pretty proud of her to remain calm the entire time and at 400 yards put one in him each time. He just wouldn't go down!

Shot 1 was back and middle body. Shot two was just below that from him being 25 yards further away. Then the finisher to the left.

View attachment 389159

Was the finisher quatering into the heart?
Very interested as the couple ive shot low down by the heart work awesome, way better than a lungshot.

 

[seeth07]

Was the finisher quatering into the heart?
Very interested as the couple ive shot low down by the heart work awesome, way better than a lungshot.

Yes it took out rhe back of the heart. The first two were basically just gut although there was some much internal damage it was really hard to tell. Almost zero wasted meat though as they were all pass thru shots center body.

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff seath

 

[seeth07]

Anyone from out here doing the huge peasant opener tomorrow? We found some birds and hopefully can have some fun tomorrow with them

 

[seeth07]

So we are now back home. Yesterday we got into a lot of pheasants but they were all hens but one. Had 9 birds flush and the only rooster my wife didn't have a shot.

Some recap thoughts about this trip:

1) A decade of building points for an antelope tag is overrated in general and for those of you still doing it for SD, my recommendation would be to just stop. We had one of the "best tags" in the state. The densities are extremely low which we knew going into this but we didn't realize it would such amazing habitat with water and lush green prairie across the entire landscape. We also new that trophy potential was low and matches up with what we saw. In total we saw around 20 bucks or so across 4 days and we ended up with 2 of the larger ones. There was one buck that my wife tried to get in on that probably was 65" and he was definitely the largest. Both our bucks are 55". With all that said, it wasn't our intention to necessarily "save up" a decade of points and it just finally fit into our fall schedule. The antelope hunting was still a blast and contained everything you would expect in one except the "window shopping part". It was a nice close drive for us and made for a great long weekend trip.

2) I know nothing about prairie grouse and it showed. We logged a lot of miles walking and we couldn't figure out any consistency in where we found them. We would be walking an area to get to the "next good looking area" and all of a sudden one would flush. Much more practice and experience is required to be effective or maybe that is just how it goes.

3) Dogs are amazing. Both our goldens had the time of their life hunting birds out here. The terrain is easy, cover is light, NO BURRS, no seeds getting in their eyes and very few cactus. We did about 10 miles on Friday before the dogs told us they had enough in the late afternoon. Saturday we did about 4 miles and they were still fresh and ready for more especially because their was pheasant scent everywhere for them to be excited about. If you are a genuine lover of watching your dog be the happiest they can be, go here. Our dogs are home and extremely tired and sore (well the almost 11yo one is) but I'm sure they have no regrets and want to go back.

4) Small game license price is shocking. We didn't look at the cost of small game/waterfowl licenses before we left. After we had both antelope down and 2+ days left out there we knew we would for sure be doing some bird hunting. We went in to buy licenses and after seeing the crazy $150 cost to hunt birds for 2 days, we had my wife just buy one. We almost didn't even do that and just run the dogs for fun. She got one grouse (although no real excuse why she didn't actually have her limit of 3) and that is a very expensive grouse especially since she shot 5 heavy shot shells. It was worth it still but money also doesn't really matter much to us when we make decisions yet in this occasion the state of SD actually did price us out. We really wanted to move north into ND and hunt all birds but that price was going to be over $600 for both of us!!! That is so crazy. Its a good thing we have dogs to push us as without them and the enjoyment of them hunting there is no way I'd make a trip out here to bird hunt. Sad

 

[seeth07]

See, dead! That's even after a 12 hour drive home with lots of sleeping.