Mule deer move when a storm subsides, and it’s a prime time to hunt. Conditions in the storm’s wake, however, can make for slow going. (Shutterstock)
November 28, 2024
By Mark Kayser
Mr. Around Him was definitely going around him via the road ditch! Our hunting guide, Milton Around Him, a proud Native American from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, took a sliding detour off the road and around a stranded motorist on the ice-covered highway.
For the past couple of days, winter’s first attempt had brought a downpour of rain instead of snow, resulting in sheets of ice everywhere. Despite the road of ice before us, I had convinced Milton to show me a new deer hunting location on the opposite side of the reservation. As we sped down the highway at a gripping 15 mph, the car ahead of us started sliding backward down a slight hill, forcing Milton to take the ditch.
Luckily, the ice-covered grass provided better traction, and we avoided hitting the car. Milton exhaled and said he knew another way via a gravel road. I nodded with sweat on my brow.
OVERLAPPING OPPORTUNITIES The way that I had ended up on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation mirrored the surprise ice storm. It began several weeks earlier with an unexpected call from Neil Davies, marketing director for Hornady .
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“Can you drop everything in early November and meet me in South Dakota for a deer hunt?” he asked. Sitting on a high peak in Wyoming while scanning for elk, I only took a few seconds before answering yes.
The hunt would take place during the pre-rut, typically a period of cool but settled weather in the Rushmore State. As a native of the state, I appreciated the opportunity to return and chase deer on my home turf. Plus, the tribal tag was good for either whitetail or mule deer. In western South Dakota, that opens a myriad of opportunities as the two species routinely overlap in the same habitat.
The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation offered plenty of area to glass up a buck, but icy slopes and wind made finding one difficult. (Mark Kayser) While I was living on a ranch outside the capital of Pierre one fall, two ranchers down the road from my house discovered a pair of locked-up bucks. That was not unusual, but the fact one was a mule deer and the other a whitetail said much about their intermingling behavior. More than once when I held an any-deer tag in western South Dakota, I switched from mule deer to whitetail hunting, and vice versa, at the snap of a finger. One fall I left a whitetail river bottom and hiked a couple of miles deeper into the prairie breaks for a change of scenery. It led to me almost tagging the 30-inch mule deer dream. Although I later measured that buck’s spread at 28 inches, it was good enough for me.
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There was one negative about hunting the reservation: I could not use a suppressor there, so I would have to unscrew the Silencer Central Banish from my rifle’s muzzle. South Dakota, like 40 other states, allows suppressors while hunting, but the reservation is a nation within a state and laws differ. It was a good reminder to be aware of the details regarding regs before going on any hunt.
WHERE BUFFALO ROAM Our first day of hunting started out with a bit of a delay due to miscommunication about who would be taking Neil and I afield. Despite the slow start, we soon found ourselves in the outback of the reservation about to embark on a surprise hunt in the bison pasture. At first, the mention of a high fence brought questions to my mind about a canned hunt. That was quickly erased as everyone confirmed deer moved freely into and out of the tens of thousands of acres surrounded by fence, not to mention elk and even the bison understanding where points of egress existed.
The rugged Badlands area of the reservation became even more treacherous with ice, but the deer navigated the landscape with ease. (Mark Kayser) Neil and I split up on a high pine bluff with Mackenzie Pelo, who was filming the hunt, following me down to watch a creek for signs of rutting whitetails. More than 20 years my junior, Mackenzie was upbeat, eager and ready for a deer hunt in the rugged terrain. We kept our fingers crossed for an encounter as the forecast for the next day predicted the first phase of a winter storm with the possibility of winds reaching speeds within 10 mph of a category 1 hurricane.
As the sun settled in the west, we were treated to a chance encounter few hunters experience. A herd of approximately 100 bison, tatanka in the Lakota language, ambled down the hill and past us in a synchronized move to another section of the pasture. Once populating the plains in herds totaling an estimated 60 million animals, the bison reminded me of the importance of wildlife and ecosystem management in continuing to enjoy their presence on the landscape.
Unfortunately, the next day’s forecast nailed it. Winds swept across the prairie with gusts of more than 60 mph. Visibility due to the dusty conditions deteriorated, and any deer with common sense dove into the thickest cover available. Instead of retreating like every other living thing, we continued scouting in hopes of finding country to hunt the following day during the waning hours of the storm.
Guide Milton Around Him narrowly avoided a morning crash on the ice-covered route to the hunting area. (Mark Kayser) Two locations stood out: a remote creek miles from any well-maintained road and the infamous Badlands country that dominated the northern border of the reservation. A hastily made plan would have us visit the remote creek first and then head to the Badlands if the creek bombed. Back at our motel deer camp, the winds rattled the windows all night long.
SLIPPERY SITUATION Taking gear to the truck the next morning was almost as harrowing as playing in the National Hockey League without pads. A thin layer of ice coated everything, making walking on the cement outside the motel nearly impossible. Driving over 40 mph was downright dangerous. Taking it slow, we met Milton without incident, but the sight of several vehicles that had slid into the ditch reminded us every 10 minutes of the precarious situation.
Immediately after meeting up with Milton, our guide’s superior wanted us to join him at another location. That would require another hour of driving in the opposite direction, again on a hazardous sheet of ice, and losing the morning window for hunting. With no sense in both of us going, Neil volunteered to check out the superior’s recommendation while Mackenzie and I stayed with Milton. Our remote creek spot held good numbers of both whitetails and mule deer, plus a massive herd of nearly 100 elk that slowly disappeared in a dense fog.
Sometimes you make a good decision and sometimes you do not. While we scrutinized deer after deer through my 80-power spotting scope, Neil’s decision to try the other location paid off in antler inches. Upon arriving to meet up with Milton’s boss, Neil was immediately placed in the front row of a show performed by a group of rutting whitetails running in and out of a series of thickets. Preparing for a possible shot, Neil was shocked to see a brute of a buck step from the dense cover to pursue an obvious doe in estrus. At less than 100 yards, Neil did not spend time ranging and instead sent a 175-grain ELD-X bullet on its way from his 7 mm PRC. He soon texted me a photo of his 150-inch whitetail surrounded in all the glimmering glory of an Olympic ice-skating rink.
With a thick layer of ice coating the grass, the author slid into position for a shot at a bedded buck. (Mark Kayser) Still struggling to find a mature buck to stalk, Milton suggested we head to the more rugged section of the reservation to hunt the moonlike terrain referred to as the Badlands. Growing up in South Dakota and working in state promotions in an earlier life, I recalled times when Hollywood utilized the eerie landscape for movie cameos in cult favorites such as “Starship Troopers” and “Armageddon.”
Of course, another intense drive was involved and by the time we reached the unusual topography, the sun was setting among screaming winds. Despite the lack of time to pull off a stalk, we saw a solid number of animals and realized the potential for a mature buck to show up. After shooting light ended, we slowly slid home on the icy roads while planning for a morning assault. It was the last scheduled day of the hunt.
The ice demons returned overnight. We awoke to nearly an inch of ice coating everything, including the highways that had been almost drivable the previous evening. Ice and miscommunication again led to a late start, but eventually we took off with Milton performing his ditch detour to avoid the hapless driver just outside the town of Kyle. We did not reach the Badlands area until nearly noon. Even with winds still at an unpleasant 40 mph, deer were up and moving in the intermittent sunshine. Mackenzie and I bailed from the truck, leaving Milton to remain ready for extraction if we succeeded in a stalk or broke a leg on an icy slope.
Our first target buck was bedded a mile away under a lone cedar, and we ducked out of sight into an adjacent canyon to stalk closer. Alas, the canyon was brimming with deer and by the time we reached another vantage point to peek at our designated shooter, the flurry of surrounding deer movement had caused him to move. Nevertheless, I soon had my SIG Sauer ZULU 10-power binoncular on another group of deer in an even better location. Regrettably, though, reaching them meant a long crawl for us. I unveiled the plan to Mackenzie, and we were soon slithering over an ice-glazed prairie.
One benefit of the wind was that it covered noise from the author’s movement while he stalked toward the buck for a 200-yard shot. (Mark Kayser) Winds erased any reason to be quiet, and my next peek revealed the group had bedded straight across another canyon from our position. Three bucks were bedded together, and a band of does rested nearby. All females were on high alert in the wind while the bucks catnapped from rut rigors. I dropped back into the grass and belly-crawled ahead to find the perfect rise for the shot. After another 100 yards of sliding, I found a slight hump that put my barrel above the grass and straight across from the bedded bucks. A zap of the SIG Sauer BDX rangefinder confirmed my 200-yard target.
“Stay low,” I hissed to Mackenzie and described how I hoped the shot would unfold. I would steady the reticle on the largest buck, bedded perfectly broadside, and then signal Mackenzie to rise with the camera. The bucks should first look with scrutinization before leaving, giving me the needed seconds to launch a shot.
Not wanting to squander the opportunity, I quickly settled the reticle with steadiness provided by the bipod on my Bergara MgLite chassis-style rifle. Once on the buck, I motioned Mackenzie to make his move, and he soon whispered, “Got him.” The bucks did not even notice his smooth maneuver, and I waited a few more seconds to enable Mackenzie to get good footage before giving the launch code, “sending.”
Although conditions were far from ideal, perseverance led to a truck bed full of South Dakota mule deer. (Mark Kayser) Like Hollywood movies filmed in the vicinity prior, the script was perfect. The Hornady 200-grain ELD-X bullet steered right into the vitals, and the buck never rose from his bed. The muley slid a few feet down the frozen slope before catching on a large yucca plant. Still high enough for cellular service, I texted Milton our location and within 30 minutes he found a ranch trail nearby for a sweat-free extraction.
The sunset drive home was enjoyable with the side-mirror sight of mule deer antlers protruding from the truck bed. I had plenty of time to gaze upon them, as we never topped 25 mph in the ice.
DO-IT-ALL PACK The ALPS OutdoorZ Elite is made for hauling.
(Photo courtesy of Alps Outdoorz) For me, older does mean wiser, especially when it comes to the gear that I take on rugged hunts and how I haul it. I spend the first part of the fall chasing public-land elk in backcountry settings. That style of calorie-robbing hunting, like trekking the Badlands in search of mule deer, requires a trimmed equipment list plus efficiency in packing it along.
Years ago I ditched daypacks forever in favor of larger, more adaptable pack systems. My latest is the ALPS OutdoorZ Elite frame and pack. It incorporates a thermoplastic composite frame to reduce weight by 30 percent and increase strength by 30 percent. The pack and frame lashing system are constructed of 500-denier Nylon Cordura, offering incredible wear. A water-resistant coating aided by an easily deployable rain cover protects gear inside, particularly survival items. A padded, mesh waist belt that is wide enough to distribute loads comfortably, along with adjustable load lifters and anti-sway belt straps, promote ergonomics.
To help customize the pack to your needs, the Elite system features an internal meat-hauling frame along with two pack options to attach to the frame, each sold separately. My top choice is the 3800 model (3,800 cubic inches) that with frame tops out at 5 pounds, 13 ounces. ALPS also offers an 1800 model. I have packed out four bull elk, deer and coyotes using this system, not to mention hundreds of pounds of shed antlers. Pack bags are hydration compatible and include a bow/rifle carrier. You can swap pack bags easily via a speedy aluminum hook system. ($449.99, frame and 3800 pack; alpsoutdoorz.com)
This article was featured in the November 2024 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
