Years ago I read an article referring to our Black Hills as a poor man’s mountain hunt. While the quarry isn’t mountain goats or sheep, it doesn’t cost a minimum $10,000 for goats or $25,000 to $50,000 for sheep. Deer can be just as challenging. It’s what you make of it.

Our Black Hills National Forest contains well over 8000 square miles of public land, and camp grounds punctuate the length and width. If I could assemble a dream hunt, and I’ve been on some great worldwide hunts, I’d begin by having friends and I make Black Hills Deer our first choice on next summer’s application. We would all receive tags as we applied as a group. We would then choose a hunting area and campsite. Perhaps we’d choose to hunt near the Wyoming border and camp at the 301-117 junction near Redbird Canyon as I like desolation and rugged country.

We’d bunk in sleeping bags on cots, sleep in a big canvas wall tent, cook over a Coleman camp stove, and swap yarns about the old days well into the night. I’d certainly volunteer to be camp cook. I call this a dream hunt as most of my partners have either passed on or quit hunting. Perhaps we would have an ATV in camp for us old-timers who can’t drag a deer very far anymore. You certainly have to admit that the picture I’ve painted is affordable and readily attainable if you have the desire.

There was a time in my life when I was deer-hunt crazy, and the Hills were a part of it. Black Hills Deer has always opened on November 1st. OTC (over the counter) tags were available well into the ‘80’s, and I rifle hunted Hills, West-River, and East-River deer for a number of years. My family lived on venison.

Back in the later sixties I was as green as a neophyte deer hunter can be. I had parked the car alongside the road and planned to walk south in a straight line, turn around after trekking a few miles, and then return to the car. Within the hour I realized I was lost. I decided to head on to the next road, flag down a vehicle, and get some directions. When I came to that next road by supposedly walking a straight line, I saw a vehicle a quarter mile up the road. It was mine.

Another time I was walking Rapid Creek east of Pactola Reservoir when I jumped an absolutely huge mule deer doe. I couldn’t wait to tell the guys about it. Years passed before I realized that I had encountered a cow elk.

Then there was the time on my very first deer hunt when Ralph McGregor and I were perched on a ledge above Rapid Creek. We were watching the trout below when two whitetail does came up to drink directly beneath us. At the time I was torn between using a scope or open sites. Although I was deadly with that 6X scope on running jack rabbits, I had read about using open sites on close shots in dark, heavy cover. I should have gone with the scope I was familiar with. I put the bead on the doe and fired. I completely missed as I had failed to bring the rear site up to the front site bead! It was dark and Ralph did the same thing.

I hunted Hills deer a number of years before seeing my first buck, and I promised myself that if I ever did bag a Hills buck, he’d go on the wall. I took until 1982 when I finally dropped a five-pointer in the Spearfish area Higgins Gulch.

I have also hunted Black Hills elk on three occasions – twice in Custer State Park. After the Wagner school board consented to my taking up to a week if necessary to elk hunt, I applied for a CSP elk tag in 1987 and drew it on my fist application!

During the third evening of that hunt I was on Fisherman’s Flat. I had heard an elk bugle, and I was watching a flock of turkeys through my rifle scope when something out of place materialized at the forest’s edge. They were light-colored and symmetrical. Elk antlers! A 200 yard shot with my Ruger Model 77 in .300 Winchester Magnum toppled my elk, and I hastily field-dressed it and headed to the game lodge for help in my Ford pickup. At that time hunters weren’t permitted to drive off of the game trails, but GF&P conservation officers would assist in getting one’s elk out. In 2007 I was allowed to drive off of a trail so long as it was to recover a downed elk. SDGF&P no longer assisted.

If you’re thinking Black Hills deer camp, give me a call. See you next week.