MORE DEER COVERAGE • 2004 Deer Outlook, Part 1 • 2004 Rut Report in North American Whitetail Forums

By Gene Hornbeck

If you're a Great Plains deer hunter who'd like to tag a really impressive buck, this might be your year. All across our region, big-antlered bucks abound amid healthy herds. The deer - and those who pursue them - have never had it so good!

As we do each year, let's take a closer look at our trophy deer hunting prospects on a state-by-state basis. We'll start at the north end of the region and work our way south.

The permits to hunt these two counties are popular. McKenzie County deer management units include all or parts of Units 4A, 4B, 4C and 3B1. Last fall 283 hunters had permits to take an antlered mule deer in Unit 4A. They took 205 adult bucks for 72 percent success. In addition, there were 103 adult whitetail bucks taken in the unit by 143 permit holders for 72 percent success.

North Dakota permits are issued by sex and species. Gratis permits are issued to landowners. The others include antlered whitetail, antlerless whitetail, antlered mule deer, antlerless mule deer, any antlerless deer and any antlered deer. In 4D, for example, the 922 permits issued included 121 gratis, 129 antlered whitetail, 131 antlerless whitetail, 344 antlered mule deer and 256 antlerless mule deer. Given 473 antlered permits and 314 bucks taken, permit success would come to 66 percent; however, the 121 gratis permits must be figured in. The hunter success survey shows 697 mule deer hunters in the unit, which indicates that 97 of the 121 landowner permit holders took mule deer.

In Unit 3F2, 382 permits to take antlered whitetails were issued. In total, 313 were taken for 82 percent success. In 3F1, the permit total was 618; those hunters took 424 bucks for 68 percent success. Unit 3A3's 1,133 permits resulted in 994 whitetail bucks for 87 percent success.

Unit 4B accounted for 386 adult mule deer bucks and 101 whitetail bucks. Hunter success with bucks was 41 percent; for all deer, 82.6

In Unit 4D in Billings County the mule deer kill goes up in comparison to whitetail. A total of 922 permit holders took 765 deer, of which 305 were adult mule deer bucks, while 109 were adult whitetail bucks. Hunter success with bucks was 45 percent.

Photo by BillKinney.com

Big-game biologist Bill Jensen described how the North Dakota Game and Fish Department's deer management program works. "All of our deer management units are managed the same," he explained. "Thus, age and sex composition should be uniform across the state. There are more deer in the eastern third and northern portions of the state; thus, it would follow that there would be a better chance of taking a trophy by hunting those units."

In the eastern units such as 2B there was an early and late season last year to accommodate more hunters. Antlered whitetail permit holders totaled 2,045 in the early season; they took 1,485 bucks. In the late season there were 2,024 hunters, who took 1,497 bucks.

In Unit 2I, for which 1,156 any-antlered deer permits were issued, hunters took 954 adult bucks - that's 82 percent success for the buck hunters. Unit 2C served up 72 percent success on bucks; 2F2, 78 percent; 2F1, 63 percent; 2G, 81; 2J2, 82; 2J1 87; 2H, 75; 2K2, 87; and 2K1 came in with the highest - 88 percent success.

A review of the North Dakota record book reveals that counties such as Dunn, McKenzie, McHenry, McLean, Barnes, Burleigh, Pembina, Emmons, Morton, Sargent and Grand Forks are remarked on as sources of trophy whitetails. Most of the big mulies were taken in Slope, Billings and McKenzie counties. However, a few came from Dunn, Morton and Golden Valley counties.

The NDGFD doesn't keep records of big game taken in the state. Those records are compiled by Lyle Hanson, a retired teacher, coach and member of the state Legislature. Anyone interested in entering a trophy in the book or getting a copy of the book can contact Hansen at (701) 252-4129 or 251-1654. The record book is funded by the NDGFD.

"I really enjoy hunting the ranch country in western South Dakota," Young said. "In 2002 I hunted with John, and I got a really nice whitetail. It was a heavy-beamed typical 8-pointer that scored 159 7/8 under Boone and Crockett rules.

"Last fall I was really lucky and got a trophy mule deer. John told me there had been some big mulies taken already when we began our hunt on Nov. 18. He said he had heard of a couple that would score in the 180s.

"The first morning we went out to a hunting area John had picked out to scout it for big bucks and saw a lot of mule deer. We did spot one a long way off that really looked good. The buck looked to be a 6x6, and plenty big enough to take back to North Carolina with me.

"That afternoon we set up on a ridge overlooking a winter wheat field. We saw deer, but not the 6x6 we were hoping for. We were back on the same spot the next morning and we saw a nice 5x5, but I decided to hold off and hope for the bigger one later.

"The second afternoon we did see the big guy. However, he was too far away for a shot. We got a good look at him through the spotting scope, and he was carrying 6 on each side, plus brow tines.

"The third morning we were back in the same spot and saw the big one again. He moving toward us, but then, at about 400 yards, he went down into a bottom, and the next time we saw him he was moving away from us on another ridge. John came up with a battle plan.

"John's idea was to let the buck bed down and then come in downwind from him and check out several draws," Young explained. "We checked out several of them with no luck and had one more we wanted to look at before lunch. When we approached the draw I was on the ridge and John headed for the bottom.

"About halfway down he picked up a rock and pitched it into a patch of brush. The buck popped up like a jack-in-the-box and ran out on the opposite ridge. I wasn't sure he was my buck, but fortunately, he stopped at about 125 yards to check out what had spooked him, and I saw it was the 6x6. I put the cross hairs on his shoulder and pulled the trigger; he went down, and I had my trophy."

The 6x6 mulie scored out at a net 202 7/8 as a non-typical.

The South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks' game harvest survey coordinator, Corey Huxoll, reports that last year set another record for the deer harvest in South Dakota. Looking at the buck kill, some of the top units included 203A (East River), where 1,000 resident, any-deer licenses were sold. Of the total of 602 whitetail deer taken by those permit holders, 449 were bucks. In the same unit, 1,002 two-tag and any-deer-plus-any-antlerless-deer licenses were sold. Those hunters killed 506 bucks.

In 210A there were 175 of the two-tag whitetail permits sold, and 146 deer taken on them - 95 of those bucks. In 226A there were 901 permits issued in total, and 479 whitetail bucks taken.

In Unit 233A, there were 606 permits issued for any deer or any whitetail. Hunters took 415 whitetail bucks on those permits, giving them 68 percent success. In Unit 228A, 600 hunters had a permit to take any deer, and 346 bucks were taken.

In the West River season, Unit 315B offered good hunting for bucks. There were 615 licenses sold that allowed the taking of any deer, and those gunners took 406 bucks - 318 whitetails and 88 mule deer for 66 percent success. Unit 339A served up 126 mulie and 72 whitetail bucks for 399 resident license holders.

In Unit 315A there were 902 permits issued to take antlered deer - mulies and whitetails split 50-50. The hunters took 557 bucks - 261 whitetails and 296 mule deer. Hunter success on bucks was 61 percent. In 321A, 107 whitetail and 50 mule deer bucks were by 275 license holders for 57 percent success.

Bruce Walbrecht of Malcolm is a 53-year-old remolding contractor who did his hunting on weekends last year in Hayes County in the Frenchman Unit. He had a rather bizarre hunt that ended in his bringing down a big mulie.

"I had hunted the first weekend and saw a big mule deer a long way off and never did get to him," Walbrecht recalled. "The second weekend I was driving in to my hunting area on the last day of the season when I saw a herd of deer maybe a half-mile away. It was snowing lightly, and there was about 4 inches of snow on the ground with a strong wind. I started driving toward the deer and hit a drift of snow that was a foot or so deep, and got stuck. It took me about a half-hour to get out, and I continued toward the area I had seen the deer in.

"Once I got within about 500 yards of the area, I saw them again, and there were six mule deer does and a big buck. They were moving, and went out of sight into a shelterbelt. When I got up to the area I couldn't see anything at first, and then looked out into a snow-covered corn stubble - and I saw a brown spot. I put the glasses on it; I saw it was a big buck. And he was lying down with his head and neck stretched out, like he was trying to hide. I also saw some blood on the snow. I was pretty sure it was the same buck I had seen with the does as his rack stuck up well over the stubble.

"I got out of the truck and started toward him," Walbrecht continued. "I was ready to shoot, and the buck stayed put until I got within about 50 yards of him. I thought that was kind of strange, but decided he must have been hit by another hunter. He finally got up and started away from me. I put the cross hairs on him as he quartered away and shot; he went down.

"When I got up to him and looked him over I couldn't see where he had been hit before. My shot hit him in the hip and came out his rib cage. He carried a 5x6 rack and scored out at 172 as a typical. He had a 29 3/8 inch spread, and I estimated his weight at about 200 pounds. The buck was the largest I have taken."

Included in last season's kill stats was a total of 5,000 statewide buck-only permits. Those hunters took 470 mule deer bucks and 1,571 whitetails for a total of 2,041 bucks and 40.8 percent hunter success. The Wahoo Unit accounted for 323 of those bucks, the Blue units 312, and Elkhorn 203.

"The harvest of bucks was also good," Fox said. "Really big bucks can well be taken just about anywhere in Kansas. The age structure of the herd is heavy with older age-classes, and they are generally in excellent condition. The estimated statewide kill on antlered whitetails last year was 28,491; 24,365 were taken by resident hunters, 4,126 by non-residents. Our mule deer kill is low. Last year there were 1,901 antlered bucks taken by residents and 118 by visiting hunters."

Reviewing some of the bucks entered in the record book shows Unit 14 as a good one. The totals for the 2003 season were not complete when this story was being written, but the unit, which includes a number of counties in east-central Kansas, has a history of producing nice heads.

Others that show up repeatedly on the whitetail trophy list include DMUs 11, 13, 8, 12, 15, 14 and 6. Rooks (Units 17 and 18), Gray (Unit 3), Cheyenne and Decatur (Unit 1) counties appear to dominate the mule deer trophies.

Abilene archer Brad Anderson took a whitetail in Unit 8 last fall that scored 177 4/8. Mike Irvin of Cleveland, Missouri, got one in Anderson County (Unit 11) that scored 169; he also took his by bow. Chris Elinski of Eldorado also used a bow for his hunt in Butler County (Units 14 and 15) to take a whitetail that scored 173 3/8. All three were typical heads.

Basehor's Mark Heinen used a rifle to take his trophy last fall, downing a whitetail in Unit 9 that scored 188 1/8 as a typical head. Jeremy Kraus of Harveyville bagged a typical in Unit 14 that scored 145 4/8. Kent Marr of Coyville dropped a Unit 12 non-typical that scored 222 3/8, and Mark Dewitt of Burlingame got a non-typical that scored 185 2/8 in Lyon County (Unit 14).

Last fall Jason Hodge of Parker arrowed a non-typical whitetail giant in Linn County (Unit 11). That buck scored 215 5/8. You may have read his story in the July issue of Great Plains Game & Fish.

Using a muzzleloader, Kent Marr of Coyville scored a little better on a non-typical whitetail in Wilson County (Unit 12). That rack scored 222 3/8. The story appeared in our September issue.