South Dakota Whitetail...

[TSS Caddis]

Just a couple of the deer we shot in S.D. this year. 130" 4x4 and a 140-150" 5x4. I don't know if the picture does it justice but the mass on the 5x4 was unreal. The great thing about it was I was sitting with my dad when we called in the 5x4 from about 500 yds away! He had to come through a creek bottom and cover quite a few obstacles to get to us. It's amazing the memory deer have. We initially saw him at 500yds+ and grunted with just our mouths a couple times and 10 minutes later he showed up 200yds away walking at us looking for the source of the grunts.

We also shot a 150"+ 11pt. One person in the party didn't score but had plenty of chances.

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/553/3159deer02sd5-med.jpg

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/500/3159deer02sd2-med.jpg

[dongiese]

Great Job, Those are some nice looking deer. are you a guide or if not what guide service did you go with? and pm me the guide info if they don't advertise here.

[mechanical head]

TSS~ nice deer. How loud do you have to grunt to get a bucks attention at 500+ yards ? Just wondering...

[Swamp Monster]

Beautiful Bucks, Congratulations!

[Handlining Rules]

BIG deer! How much did they dress at?

[TSS Caddis]

We didn't have a scale, but they definetly were brutes compared to MI deer. My buddy's neighbor is a dairy farmer and had a scale so they weighed his at 220lbs. I'd guess the other two at 20-30lbs lighter.

As far as grunting, I don't have a clue how to put how loud I grunted in writing. I guess suffice it to say the voice I use to correct the dog. It is amazing how quickly they can zero in on it though.

I have never seen grunting be this successful. On the first day the guide vocalized a grunt to a 3x3 at 200yds or so. You could not tell the deer even heard him except for the change in it's direction, manerisms stayed the same. He didn't make another sound and the deer ended up 20 yds from us.

Before I shot my deer I used my voice to grunt at a 3x4 at around 150yds. Again, no change in his mannerisms except he changed direction and ended up 50yds away before a doe caught his attention and he started running her. Same day, after I shot my 4x4 I was standing next to him and over a hill came a doe being run by that 3x4. I grunted 2 twice, she stopped in her tracks, jumped the fence and ran to less then 10 yds of me. The buck could care less, but the combination of the smell of my deer and me grunting kept her around for a good 20 seconds circling me and trying to make sense of everything.

The buck my dad shot acted the same as the first 2 bucks. From talking to the guide though he said that as well as grunting works in his area it is strange that rattling doesn't work.

Another strange note, all does that we saw being run were being run by smaller bucks. Big boys were on the move looking for does, but for some reason they we didn't see any running does.

It ended up being a great learning experience in whitetail behavior.

Swamp Monster, I couldn't remember the thread where someone was asking about ballistic tips otherwise I would have posted this there. In caping out the deer Sat. morning I was amazed at the damage the Ballistic Tips cause. I took a quartering shot at 300yds tucking the bullet behind the last rib and it pretty much exploded once it got under the skin. I was happily suprised to find half of the bullet just under the skin at the front of the shoulder. Definetly not a round for the meat hunter to use, or anyone shooting a deer under 200yds since that bullet really needs to slow down a bit before impact. Even at 300 yds there was almost to much damage. Excellent round for accuracy, I just wish the X-bullets were that accurate in my gun at over 300yds.