Ten years ago, I got my first opportunity to travel to South Dakota for a new experience chasing mule deer near the Badlands of the Dakotas. Just thirty miles or so east of the Badlands National Park and Wall, there is a ranch of over twenty thousand acres of leased prime deer hunting opportunity. The price is right, and the mule deer were plentiful, and the “by invitation only” was accepted. Bow hunting only gave a greater challenge to the pursuit. With a stick bow in hand and wind in my face, that first time provided me with three opportunities for a shot but unfortunately, nothing connected for success. The excitement of spot and stalk with traditional archery equipment gave me a less than optimum advantage over the far-shooting compound hunters who were practicing 70-yard shots. I had a great time, learned a lot, and was proud that I was light-footed enough to get within 15 yards of a nice bedded down buck. The cedar tree between us was the only problem with the potential for getting a quality shot. When I repositioned and popped up over the hill, he had vanished like a ghost.
Ten years later, this year, I was excited to get an invitation to venture once again to the Badlands Region, but this time it was with my son. Both of us were practicing proficient traditional archery shots up to thirty yards and were ready. However, as a backup, I will admit that a compound bow was taken along for emergencies as well as a crossbow due to my recent back issues. The crossbow required a permit, which is free to apply. We heard stories of the hundreds of mule deer seen last year and years past. We were told we could take our pick of some big 140-160 class mule deer is what we kept hearing. They even talked about seeing some 180-190 class mule deer. Things were sounding too good to be true and the anticipation started to feel like a fairy tale hunt and if we were patient, we might harvest a “Giant”!
Every hunter knows why it is called hunting. For the first few days, there seemed to be a mysterious absence of deer. We were seeing some but unfortunately for us, not on the ranch we could hunt. Things with this hunt kept getting slowly worse as the days proceeded. The rancher finally admitted that the deer just are not there. They suspected that a lot had died over the winter during a few prolonged bad snowstorms. Secondly, found out the rancher had not planted any crops which would attract them as the other surrounding ranches had. Thirdly, we kept hearing a lot of hype about what it used to be like from years past. Finally, it was extremely dry with no wind forecasted. If you have looked closely at a picture of a mule deer, their ears are larger than our whitetail around here and act like monstrous radars. Any deer in the area knew we were there long before we could get close enough to get a glimpse of them. This put me in a very frustrating situation of having the option to sit in a ground blind over a water hole or a well-worn trail. As for me, I did not plan to travel for 18 hours and sit in a beautiful countryside and stare at the inside of a blind and look out a couple little windows. That is just not appealing to me personally. I did however take that option for as long as I could stand it for a few sits. I did see some deer but to not have a quality opportunity. Of course, the hunting was hard, and we made the best of it. We got a lot of needed exercise, we did finally see some deer, especially the one of the biggest deer we saw literally smelling where we had been sitting. Nothing is as poetic as deciding to move then look back and see one standing where you were from across the valley. After making the best of it, my son did get two nice stalks on quality mule deer and missed, TWICE. He also performed a similar stalk on a bedded buck like I had previously done on my first trip. When he repositioned just as I had, it was gone as well.
All in all, you make out of a trip what you want. Whether it is fishing, hunting, backpacking, or just a family vacation, we all can remember that if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Do not always get caught up in the hype of what was because you are in the now. You can always create the glass either full, half full or totally empty. We decided to make the best of it. We created some great memories and a new adventure together as father and son. We saw prairie dog towns and golden eagles. We found dinosaur bones. We had some unexplained rocks thrown on top of the cabin during the night. This happened more than once! Was it Sasquatch? We also had an unusually sounding growl in very close proximity to us on the edge of some dark timber and rock ledge. Was it a mountain lion? We thankfully made it back in one piece with not accidents or mishaps but without any deer meat. I am not sure if I can honestly say the stress level was better than we left though.
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