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SD whitetail rut

Hello, I am new to out of state hunting and am planning to try South Dakota archery deer as my first real out of state DIY hunt (whitetail preferred, but not opposed to a mule deer). I will be making this trip solo from Michigan and am doing all the research I can to shorten the learning curve of hunting out west.

Is this a good time to go? Are there areas to avoid that are generally more pressured than others?

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I will only have from Nov 3-10 this year to hunt and will likely not be back for at least a couple years.

Thank you in advance and good luck to everyone this season.

It will always very slightly but a couple days either side of November 10 there should be some rutting action so I would say your dates are good.

I think you picked some pretty good dates, The whitetails in the east will be running pretty good looking for that first receptive doe and the mulies out west will start covering ground checking things out. Good luck on your hunt. Was there any certain areas that you were thinking of looking at ?

Thanks for the confidence boost Dakota.

Grizzly, I am looking around the Missouri River on the west side and also at the badlands areas (I sent a couple more details in a PM). My hunting experience is all from Michigan standard Midwest ag land so this is all new, but looks like it could be a great experience. Any suggestions on narrowing my search would be invaluable and greatly appreciated.

Best tip I can give you is to throw out everything you know about hunting whitetails in the big woods of Michigan. Start over and watch as many you tube vids. Hint: Shelter belts and fence lines will be your new best friend! ;)

Thanks SD BuckBuster. I’ve noticed that a lot in the videos I’ve been watching already. That will definitely be my focus.

Kicked off in the NE a couple days ago with small guys chasing,then wednesday a couple big guys.Shot a nice wide ol boy last nite-the 4th buck after the same doe.maybe she was the first 'hottie' around???

East side of state bucks tend to live in dry slough beds and any kinda of cover thats out of the norm. Brushy fence lines, filter strips extra. Does and such will always live in shelter belts or groves behind farmers yards but bucks tend to stay away except during the rut time frame. Dont be afraid to hunt off the ground. If you are looking at the west side of the state like the badlands or missouri you will find more mule deer than whitetails. Whitetails WR tend to hang out near brushy creek bottoms and anythign that has trees close by. Good luck

I’ve seen a handful of white tails and muleys in the last couple days out west. Only the mule deer seem to be chasing right now. Saw 28 does last night and only a couple young whitetail bucks that didn’t seem interested in the does yet.

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