South Dakota has localized problems with CWD in the southwest corner of the state, in Fall River County, and another spot in the Black Hills area. “We still have a real low incident rate,” reported Hansen, “but we’ve been finding it every year. It’s nothing that we feel is of great concern at this time.” (For more information on CWD, check www.cwd-info.org.)

In summing up the potential of a good hunt in South Dakota, Hansen said, “The abundance of deer is as good now as it’s ever been. There are a lot of opportunities.”

NEBRASKA
The Cornhusker State’s deer herd is populous and slightly increasing, says Kit Hams, big-game program coordinator for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. “We had a record harvest last year for all seasons,” he reported.

It’s hard, Hams admitted, to estimate total herd numbers -- but, he added, the agency’s not overly concerned about that. “We’ve got roughly 300,000 deer, with about 50,000 to 60,000 being mule deer,” he stated. “Mule deer are in the western half of the state, and the percentage of mule deer in a county -- compared to the total number of deer in a county -- increases as you go west. Whitetails are found statewide, but some counties have very few.”

Hams says that archers in Nebraska can get two permits allowing the harvest of a buck. Non-residents pay $178 for each of these permits, residents $28. Archery deer hunters also need a habitat stamp, which costs $13.

“Our archery permits are statewide, and those are unlimited,” Hams stated. “You can buy them over the counter, but there are only about 10 locations where you can do that. Probably 60 percent of our permits are sold on the Internet, and probably 35 percent are sold by mail-in applications. The other 5 percent go over the counter.”

Additional antlerless permits are available at the same prices as the other permits for residents. “For the first time this year,” Hams noted, “we reduced the price of non-resident antlerless permits; they will be $56.” He added that the number of antlerless permits a person can buy is unrestricted: “We have a couple of people that have bought large quantities. Most people buy one or two, but there’s a handful that get 10, and some more that get 20.”

The Nebraska archery season runs from Sept. 15 through Dec. 31, but is closed during the nine-day firearms season, Nov. 11-19.

Most of the deer killed by archery hunters in Nebraska are killed the two weeks prior to the firearms deer season, and most of that hunting takes place on private ground.

Getting permission to hunt can be a challenge. “Like everywhere, it’s getting a little bit harder,” Hams observed. “For archery it’s relatively easy, but if you’re by Lincoln or Omaha, it’s not going to be easy, because there are so many archers there.”

Public lands that might prove profitable include those around southwest reservoirs, Hams suggested. He pointed to Harland, Swanson, Enders and Red Willow as likely prospects. “There’s a couple hundred thousand acres of public land in the northwest corner of the state with both whitetails and mule deer,” he added, “and very few archery hunters.”