The wife and I friends with a couple in Souix Falls who've been inviting us out there for years. The guy says I should hunt while there but he's not a hunter so he's probably not a great source of info. I know squat about SD hunting techniques. Maybe a local ARBB member answer a couple of q.s.

Mostly I've hunted Va and Md, mostly from a tree stands (.270, 7mmm08,7mmMag,12 ga. slug, crossbow): When is SD deer season? When's rut. What kind of deer are nearby? Mulies? Antelope? Elk? Any good hunting on open public land? Is a treestand worth transporting?

I only have hunted pheasant out there. I belive the deer are on a drawing by area. If one can get a tag I think one could score by hunting public ground we see lots of deer chaseing pheasants. I know of a couple of spots I think a tree stand would be useful in getting on up to improve th view. Not a whole lot of trees out there.

check out the SD fish and game site you well get a lot of info.

I also have only hunted pheasant in SD. The deer will be whitetails, at least in Sioux Falls which is in the eastern part, no antelope, elk, etc. The country is open, lots of corn, with fencerows and shelterbelts for the deer to travel down and they should be easy to pattern since the cover is sparce at least by Missouri standards. I hunted pheasant last year near Huron-Mitchell and saw lots of deer, they are moved easily while pushing pheasants, I would assume most is private farmland.

I know people in north eastern SD, and as far as deer hunting there goes, find a farmer who has a large heard of cows. The deer will in the winter clime up on top of the hay and pee and poop on it and the cows will not eat it. They are just hammered with people looking to hunt birds. Most will love it if you take out some deer. A tree stand will work, but that is farm land. Mostly open and the trees unless near a river, will be tree rows planted by the farmers as windbreaks. There is a little roll to the land in that area, but best advise is find water with trees or some other cover that leads to food. So far this year, water looks like it will be the biggest factor as it is very dry. Hunting areas are east river and west river. From what I know you could hunt most places in the eastern half of the state. I have seen some monster deer south of Aberdeen and Redfield. And just a side note, if you take some deer, likely they will say you can take some birds as well. Just a hint to those who love to hunt deer and birds, kill a hay peeing deer, and they will invite you back.

What do you want to know? I live 30 miles from SF and drive to work there everyday. I have hunted everything this state has to offer. I've lived here all my life, and I'd be willing to share the benefit of my experience with you. Let me know if you are still interested.

Thanks guys for the info. I haven't shot birds since I was a kid and never developed a taste for it. In highschool my buds and I never had dogs so we just tramped up and down mt.s for hours trying to jump a covey of quail or a grouse. We didn't kill many. I shot at many doves but hit few and found fewer.

Murftj, Thanks for the offer. I'm in no rush to hunt this year but I'm gathering information. Today I picked up a SD highway map. Killing deer is the passion. Most of my life I've hunted by scouting until I find a good spot and hunting it by sitting very still until one comes along. Then I shoot it. When I hunt 'with' somebody we wish one another luck before daylight, go our ways and only meet later at an appointed time to see is someone needs help dragging one. Cooperative hunting tachtics are rare. So how do SD guys hunt them? Alone? In groups? Drives? Dogs? Stands? Describe a typical hunt.

Grew up in SD and have family throughout SD. It's a great state to be a resident in regarding hunting - ability to hunt lots of different game, and also good fishing throughout.

Regarding deer, you won't be able to hunt deer in Eastern SD (where Sioux Falls is) with a rifle - the out of state hunters don't get a chance at tags until the residents have had three shots at drawing. I've had lengthy email and telephone conversations with the folks in Pierre in charge, but they won't set aside licenses. Thus, if you want to hunt deer, bring your bow. You can hunt from stands, still hunt, etc..

Dogs are not used, that's a VA thing - which I still don't get. They also don't use shotguns, except on birds. There are some walk in areas to hunt around Sioux Falls, but mostly it's all private land.

If you wanted to hunt mule deer, non residents can draw tags for them, but that requires you to go west and not be around Sioux Falls.

For a tag, snakelover was partially right. You can generally get leftover doe tags, but if you are set on a buck, the only chance you have is for a county to go through 3 draws and hope that one is leftover. Hyde County, which is a fair distance from SF, generally has leftover buck tags. I hunt in a small group, and after extensive preseason scouting, we develop a gameplan and hope for the best. During non peak times (midday) we start to push shelter belts and sloughs, hoping to jump deer that have bedded. We use rifles, ranging from 22-250 to 30-378 weatherby. I use a 7mm STW, but I would guess that the most common would be 270 and 30.06. Lots of wide open country here, and running shots are common. So judging distance and making a hit on a moving target are essential. Lots of does to shoot here. Landowners will, for the most part, let you on to fill a doe tag. Buck tags are tougher to find land for, because the landowners are, for the most part, hunters as well, and have their own agenda for shooting a big buck. Hope this helps and if you have any other questions, let me know.

If I decide to hunt out there a doe would be fine. I've killed a few big bucks but don't see any particular virture in killing them. We are so over run with deer on the east coast that I'd just as soon kill a young doe. It does more to limit the herd and they're more tender. My wife and I eat about three a year and I give the rest to Hunters for the Hungry. I don't get the dog hunting thing either. It's an eastern VA and Md thing and isn't allowed west of the Blue Ridge where I'm from. I don't judge anyone who does it but I always felt it made things too random and it looks dangerous to me in flat county. I've never done it. It would probably be a good way to cut back the herd if the hunters were safe and the dogs found the cripples ahead of the coyotes and foxes. I can almost always avoid running shots here. I'm heavily into the bang flop thing and that works better if they're standing still or walking. Could I use a sabot slug around Sioux Falls? I've taken deer with my 870 with a Hastings brl. to about 125 yrds. It easily shoots under and inch at 50 yrds and easily inside 4" to 150. Shooting OOO copper clad shot I'm only effective to maybe 45 yrds. Pretty limiting in flat country. I've got a good range finder I bought for hunting soy bean fields. I wouldn't hunt the wide open spaces without it.

There are parts of Minnehaha county where you can only use slugs or blackpowder. I don't see you having any trouble getting and filling a doe tag. Good luck!