I am doing a diy bowhunt in mid October , heading to NW S.Dakota.  Have my non resident archery tag.

I understand there is a 50/50 mix of whitetail – mule deer

Hunted whitetails my whole life so chance at any decent Muley is my goal

Can anybody that has done this in Custer National or Grand River Grasslands Forrests give me some tips on starting location?

I talked with conservation officer for Harding Co. and he mentioned some guys prefer a spot  n stalk in the Grasslands over Custer National.

Appreciate any help to get us going in right direction

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Hello all,

I have been modern rifle hunting my entire life  and I want to get into archery. Unfortunately, I have no idea what a good bow is good fit for me. I have been looking around at Hoyt bows specifically, the carbon element and I am still unsure. I have no specific budget as I just want a bow that is quality and will last me for some years. Can anyone make a few recommendations or explain the basics when looking for bows for hunting large game? Thank you

UPDATE ON MAKING TEXAS AMERICA’S #1 BOWHUNTING STATE
by Ted Nugent

A top hunting TV show hostess had the gorgeous trophy buck dead to rights, broadside looking away at 15 yards. She couldn’t draw back her bow.
The #1 gal at the NRA had the big buck in the perfect position for the dumpshot of a lifetime. Couldn’t draw her bow.
Another big bad TV host had put in the hours for the ultimate ambush on a monster whitetail he had been after for years. Grunting and groaning and yanking maniacally with all his might, the bowstring simply wouldn’t come back.
Again this year while rocking across America on tour, more than twenty big strong guys with whom I met backstage to talk hunting and guns and stuff, winced as they struggled to lift their right arms over their heads, complaining how they probably wouldn’t be able to bowhunt this year due to shoulder pain and complications. All of them shoot 70# bows or thereabouts.
Are you kidding me? In 2012 the denial rages on as the vast majority of archery stores in America still have racks full of 70# bows that are much too heavy for 90% of archers, and too heavy and downright worthless for upwards of 99% of wanna be archer/bowhunters to even attempt to draw properly or gracefully or without causing serious shoulder, arm, muscle problems.
Are you kidding me?
I will not give up on fixing this self-inflicted, suicidal policy in my beloved sport of the mystical flight of the arrow.
I am well aware of the army of dedicated bowhunters who are more than happy with their heavy weight bows, and for those who can truly handle them, Godspeed to ya.
But know that amongst you there are many who would be way better off with a drastically reduced draw weight. I have witnessed it time and time again. To the man and woman, they instantly became better archers and much less susceptible to shoulder problems and the curse of quitting.
Again, for the record, Mrs. Nugent, and many, many other successful and pain free bowhunters, kill big deer, hogs, elk, antelope, caribou, bear, moose and all kinds of African planes game including big tough zebra, eland, gemsbok, oryx, waterbuck, wildebeest, kudu, hartebeest and more with bows pulling 35 to 40#.
We have youngsters every year at Sunrize Safaris who cleanly kill hogs and deer with ultra-lightweight bows in the 20# range.
Why this proven fact is so resisted and denied remains one of life’s great mysteries. Meanwhile, the world’s greatest sport fails to grow and the attrition rate goes unabated due to the insanity of the heavy draw bow myth.
Please help me fix this curse, won’t you?
The huge, hard, muscled African Scimitar horn oryx bull turned broadside at twenty yards after a long, patience testing wait. My svelte, dainty, 105 pound wife Shemane effortlessly pulled back the bowstring on her 35# pink Martin bow and sent a 400 grain arrow tipped with a razor sharp two blade broadhead dead square behind its shoulder.
The tenacious beast galloped and bucked madly for forty yards, stopped, turned around once and tipped over stone cold dead about seven seconds later, its lungs sliced to smithereens. Done. It’s over rover. Terminus Eldorado. Goodnight Ellouise. Bye bye baby. The beast is dead, long live the beast.
The big antelope did not have a chronograph in its possession, no kinetic energy meter, and no status quo bureaucrat on call with presumptions to spare.
We celebrated perfect, simple bowhunting by dining on the best dead venison on earth, thank you.
Fact is, no one on earth hears all the horror stories about not being able to find a bow they can shoot gracefully from as many bowhunters or wanna be bowhunters nonstop throughout the year for so many years than I do. Nobody.
I kid you not, for every new bowhunter that survives being sold a too powerful bow and remains a bowhunter there are hundreds and hundreds who give up because they simply don’t enjoy struggling with a heavy bow. Nationally, I am certain that number is in the tens of thousands.
Nah, the archery industry doesn’t want/need any of you wimps who can’t draw 60-70 pound bows. Buy golf clubs.
Are you kidding me?
And horror of horrors, planet earth’s #1 hunting state, Texas, rates dead last in the nation for bowhunters per hunting license sold, and it is all because of the curse described above.
The good news is that Texas is increasing bowhunter numbers at its fastest rate of growth ever, and I am so very glad to report that it is because more and more bowhunting shops are getting better and better at properly setting up bows and also offering slightly reduced draw weight bows. The word is getting out there.
Bottom line is, that I am convinced, that setup correctly with a smooth, graceful weight bow, 90+% of Texas deer hunters will fall in love with bowhunting if they just take their time, demand stealthy gear and put in the necessary practice, which is at least ten times the effort it takes to become proficient with a rifle.
So all you bowhunters out there that get it, please help me spread the goodword. Politely request your favorite bow shop stock lighter weight bows, and encourage the bow humpers out there to reduce their draw weight, and encourage newcomers to go smooth and graceful.
I’m shooting a deadly 48# these days, and the Nugent tribe ain’t eating chicken, I promise you that. Though if I see one, I will shoot it.

Recently I came up with a brilliant idea to make a little extra cash and give back to the bow world. I decided to start my own bowshop. I’ve always had a great passion for shooting bow and working on my own bow. I figured why not extend this passion into a way of giving back. It’s been about two months now since I’ve done some minor advertising as well as putting my name out there via word of mouth. I’ve had a total of two clients so far and have been brainstorming more ideas of how to spread the word. My second and most recent client has promised me more business in the future. He recently purchased a bow on eBay and is waiting to get. He wants me to set it up for his brother in law. With each passing day at a job I truly do love (bridge construction), I day dream about someday owning a successful bowshop where I can quit my back breaking job for my first true love. Please wish me luck as I continue a day to day adventure.I promise I’ll keep you posted and someday hopefully will be able to tell you about my interactions with a national champion archer. Here’s to big hopes and dreams.

During duck season my dad and I had traveled 30 minutes to our blind. We got our shotguns set up and waited. Soon enough ducks came. Then when we started to pack up I spotted more ducks. I ended up with 2 mallards and I was very happy. Thank you I know this was short, but I only duck hunted once. I plan to do more this year. Thanks for reading and I promise I’ll make longer blogs in the future.

(If you have the time please check out my youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/multianimalhunter)

I sat in the cold, dark room. They were playing a hunting safety video. I had just begun my life as a hunter, this was the first step. 3 days had gone by and I waited, anxious to take the test of what I had learned in the past 3 days. The test was handed to me and I ZIPPED by! I went through the test so fast that I skipped  an entire 2 pages. But of course I finished it.

Anyways, my dad had said, “Let’s see who got the highest test score.”

We both got a 100% so that was pointless. Moving on, we moved along in our Lexus excited and relieved to start our careers as hunters (and yes a Lexus). Now, the real story begins with our first hunt, doves. And just so we’re clear my dad bought me a Remington 870 pump action 20 gauge. So we were both set with our shotguns and traveled 2 hours to the sunflower fields.

On September 15, 2012 a long day had passed and I settled with one dove. We didn’t have much luck that day, but it was loads of fun.

* * * * *

After about a month, I started my first deer hunt on the same property as the dove. It was the youth hunt and I was lucky to be selected to get a tag. I was using my Remington 870 pump action with slug barrel, Remington Optics Scope, and 2 3/4 in. slugs. The first two days we were set up in a blind and there was no activity. So the last day of the youth hunt we decided to go to a different property. We quickly set up and got into the blind with no activity so far. I started to lose hope, but with 30 minutes ’til sundown I looked up and out to field and saw a doe then more and more came. Unfortunately, none came into range so I left shorthanded and with a leftover tag.

I decided to start my bowhunting career by slowly working my way up to the legal draw limit for whitetail. I was shooting and still are shooting a Youth Mathew’s Mission Menace. By the time I reached my goal it was late October. The night before my first bow hunt I sighted in my bow well at 20 yards , and would set off in the morning. Little did I know what lied ahead that morning, I sat patiently but anxiously during the 30 minute car ride. As we pulled in I got my gear ready to go. I said goodbye to my dad and started treking down the hill with my fellow hunting partner. It took me a bit, but I got situated into my treestand. I have a youtube account so I decided to do a First Person Shooter (FPS) video with my iKAM extreme. The man in the other stand had a doe walk by his stand and took a shot. He was high so he hit the spine. This was my first deer hunt where some action came into hand so I was sitting there wondering what was going on. Turns out I did get some of it on video, but it took him a while to get another good shot, but eventually I looked over and there was a doe lying on the ground. This was the first deer hunt with a kill in it, so I was a satisfied camper even if it wasn’t my harvest.

That same night I was invited to go over to a neighbor of the man I hunted with in the morning. Little did I know that that evening would start a great relationship. At around 2:30 in the afternoon we arrived at the neighbor’s house. We gathered our things together, and headed out for the woods. By the time I was at my treestand and all set up the sun started going down slowly but surely. No activity that night for me atleast. Now I could tell you about all my hunts, but I’m not going to bore you to death. Most of them were the same anyways maybe one or two deer. So with that said let’s move on.

It was the second to last day of bowhunting season, mildly cold temperatures, bits of snow on the ground, it seemed like a good night. I was totally right in the last sentence because it was the best night yet. We treked down to the elevated blind located just outside the perimeter of the major food plot. With an hour and a half left of time, we’d seen some does chased by bucks. They obviously scrammed off, but to our surprised were just drinking in the creek only about 30 yards away. Eventually, they started their way back, but they were not alone. More and more came by the numbers! I looked outside the camoflagued covered window, and I didn’t even get a chance to count to 5 seconds before the next deer came. We counted about 24-26 deer all at the same place at once. It was such a rare sighting that even the man I was hunting with was shocked! He’d been hunting that property for who knows how many years, and rarely has he EVER seen that. Back to the story, there were some nice 8-10 pointers. Old fellas too, they had nice browtines, and even had a droptine or two. So he had taken a shot at one (but rarely would do such a thing because of the lack of bucks on his property, but they were old so that’s why). It was about a 30-35 yard shot so it was a tough one. He obviously missed because rarely do you get a deer from 30-35 yards away,and the deer scrammed so I thought that this season was over and I wouldn’t fill my tag. Anyways, we were joking about how I’d bumped him when he took his shot. During the joking I asked if we could switch seats because I didn’t have much of a clear shot on–well nothing.

With about 45 minutes left a small fork buck came trotting in behind it, a doe. Now the doe was a little skeptical unlike the buck, but the doe was right to be that way. When the little buck closed in at about 17 yards I took a shot but was about an inch high (I know I said he doesn’t like dead bucks, but I think he really wanted me to get a deer). Luckily, I didn’t hit the spine, but unfortunately I didn’t hit the vitals. My excuse was that the kisser on my bow wasn’t lined up against the side of my lips right. But I was still a happy guy for now. Overall, I had met lots of great people. And I am excited to start a new season. Hopefully I’ll do better this year.

CURIOUS ON THESE ARROWS AND IF THERE WORTH THE MONEY.HEARD THE OUTSERTS BEND.ANYONE HAVE ANY ADVICE ON THESE THANKS FOR YOUR ADVICE

Archery World – October 1987

My “Dream” Buck by – Michael Henson

Well concealed and silent, the westerner stalked his trophy steadily for more than three hours; like a magnet, it attracted more and more deer. Suddenly, his bowhunting partner appeared and spotted the deer, pulled his bow out of the truck and loosed the perfect arrow.

I refocused my rangefinder and looked at  the yardage indicator once again.   “Sixty-two yards. I don’t dare move any closer,” I said to myself. Glancing at my watch, I realized that three hours had gone by since I first spotted this record book mulie. My thoughts quickly faded though as my eyes again were drawn to the bedded-buck’s wide 5×5 rack, still in velvet. It moved periodically as he nibbled at the grass around him and methodically chewed his cud.

“He’s gotta be Pope and Young material ,” I thought. Feeding below this buck was a respectable 4×4, approximately 40 to 50 yards away. He was nice, but definitely not the quality of the bedded, larger one. Occasionally, I would also catch glimpses of a 3×3 and a doe who were also browsing a little further downhill. No matter what else was going on, my attention went quickly back to the big 5×5. What a nice animal! In 20 years of hunting deer, with both rifle and bow, I had never been this close to such a fine buck. This truly was a deer hunter’s “dream come true.” But could it come true for me?

Fallen Log?

This whole dream began in the fall of 1985 after I had moved to Aztec, New Mexico, which is located in the northwestern corner of the state. I relocated there on a job transfer from Minnesota, knowing full well I was leaving excellent whitetail country. However, I knew that I was headed for superb mule deer and elk hunting just north of Aztec, in the San Juan National Forest of southern Colorado. After moving there, it didn’t take long for me to meet the person responsible for my being on this particular mountain — his name — Peter Akins. It seems like the good Lord planned our introduction, so when Peter and I met we found out we talked the same language: archery hunting, specifically, the deer and elk dialect.

Peter himself, has never shot a big-game animal with a rifle. I don’t think he even owns one. However, with bow and arrow it’s a different story. He rarely fails to fill his elk and deer tags. I think he felt sorry for this Minnesota boy, subsequently inviting me to join him and his brothers, Russell and Mark, for the 1986 hunting season in Colorado. I was able to squeeze in my brother Jim, from back in Silver Bay, Minnesota, who ultimately plays a major role in this story. So now here I am, a little over 30 yards from a bedded-down, big 5×5 mulie.

Every time he moves a muscle or turns his head, my pulse quickens. Who would ever think a deer chewing it’s cud could get you so excited! I thought to myself, “Couldn’t I sneak my arrow by those broken trees, partially obscuring his body? This might be my best chance. The wind might change, or simply quit due to an approaching thunderstorm.” But a wee small voice said, “Patience. Just wait — let’s don’t blow it .” So I again relaxed, resting my 65 pound Golden Eagle compound in a small loop on my camouflaged pant leg.

Blow it?

I almost had already. Earlier, around 11:00 a.m. I was still hunting back toward camp, where I was to meet Jim for lunch at noon. It was a perfect day. A slight breeze in my face from below, and the aspen leaves overhead making a slight rustling noise in the background. During the preceding night a much needed rain shower made the walking almost noiseless. I had just moved out of some dense, dark spruce and pine trees into an area of open, mature aspen. I was slowly working my way down to a gravel road, where I would quickly walk back to camp. So far, this morning had been unproductive. I had seen neither elk nor deer, so when I looked downhill and saw a horizontal form approximately 100 yards away, I didn’t think too much about it. My first impression was that it was just another fallen log, but was it? There he was. Moving ever so slightly as he browsed on the lush green foliage. What a magnificent rack! My first thought was, “How in the world am I gonna get close enough in this open aspen for a decent shot?”