Zooming In 6 (Season 2)
Show 6 – Jake in South Dakota
Jake’s South Dakota gun hunt took place in the western part of the state, near the Badlands area. As this satellite imagery shows, this is open, hilly country—which means visibility is virtually limitless. However, as Jake mentioned during his hunt, just because you can see big bucks for great distances by no means makes this a slam dunk deal—even with a high powered rifle!
Now while Jake and cameraman, Brach Pulver, spent time on several different ranches during the hunt, this is the ranch they were hunting when they had the encounter with the 10-pointer. As you can see from this overhead view, there are a couple distinct reasons why they decided to return to this particular spot.
To begin with, a major river system winds through the ranch, which supplies the resident whitetails with both water and an abundance of cover. Just as importantly, however, is the presence of this huge, extremely lush alfalfa field. Large numbers of both whitetails and mule deer utilize the field as a primary food source, especially during bouts of harsh weather.
Just before daylight on day five of their hunt, Jake and Brach made their way to the top of this high hill. From their position at this vantage point the two would be able to use their Nikon optics to watch for buck activity in the alfalfa field and the river bottom. And as guide Brandon West had instructed them earlier, they also needed to keep an eye on these scattered chunks of cover found along the bottom of the breaks.
The typical routine displayed by rutting bucks in this area sees them cruising through this cover along the river, using their noses to scent check bedding thickets for the presence of hot does. Since the area sees rather light hunting pressure, this cruising activity goes on pretty much throughout the day.
Not long after getting settled Jake spotted a doe trotting through this thick cover here. She was followed just moments later by a shooter buck. While the buck was already well within range, Jake had to wait several long agonizing minutes as the chase went on in this thick cover. The buck finally stepped into an opening here, and Jake made a good shot. The 10-pointer made it only about 50 yards before tipping over.
This was Jake’s first South Dakota whitetail hunt with our good friend, Pat West. But judging by the amount of big buck footage that he and Brach returned with, I seriously doubt it will be his last. And I can’t say that I blame him. This is breathtaking country!!
Hey, make sure you join us again next week. I don’t know where on earth we’ll be Zooming In, but I do know that you’ll find it interesting. See you here!!
