Anyone ever hunt west river units? Looking for a DIY river bottom hunt.

A percent of West River rifle tags goes to NR, bow tags you just send in for one and it's good statewide. last I heard.

what is nr

Nonresidents

Most of the river bottom land of the 5 "big" West River Missouri tributaries; (north to south) Grand, Moreau Cheyenne, Bad, and the White are privately or tribally owned. Unless you're already tight with someone or get really lucky, the chances on getting on West River bottom land areas to hunt deer is slim without opening your wallet wide. hunting along the Missouri itself may be more of an option if don't mind going by boat or do a river hill climbing to reach spots Others may have more recent knowledge and a more optimistic outlook.

I got a quote of $500 to hunt Merrian turkeys in the White River bottom out by the Badlands and I was with a guy that was tight with at least part of that family. Why don't you get a NR archery tag and join the other 500 or so out-of-staters mulie hunting the first few weekends of late Sept or Oct up in the little parcels of Custer NF in Harding County or down in the Buffalo Gap Nat'l Grasslands around the Badlands? I've never hunted deer on the Grand River or Ft. Pierre National Grasslands, Grand River NG is more access limited by looking at the map. The number of people hunting deer on the NG spreads out pretty fast. Good luck...

Thanks for info.

the cheyenne river is loaded with BLM, school and public grounds, and walk-in areas. like another person said the entire shorline for anywhere from 400 yards to 3 miles off the river is public ground from pierre to the north dakota boarder on both sides of the river excluding the cheyenne river reservation. none of it is really the bottoms though.. i assume you mean the cottonwood and ash stands on the banks, none of that is public and is pricey to hunt. just whitetail in there anyway. the cedar breaks are what you want for mules. be ready to cover alot of rough rough miles.

I'm way more interested in whitetails.

Til you see a fully mature muley! But to each their own.

Most of the public land out here will be for mule deer, you can definitely find some excellent whitetails but there will be a lot fewer than mule deer. Just look for BLM or School ground next a river and be prepared for walking and angry neighboring landowners that think they own the land.

What is school land?

Just a other public hunting option

Get a GFP public land atlas it lists public land in each county.

If you go rifle you’ve got to pick one specific county to apply for. Archery is statewide. Tough to draw rifle in most counties

I think you have to buy your NR permit in or before April 2020 to hunt public ground fall of 2020.

X2

I don't know about SD but in most of the western States, sections 16 and 36 are, or were at one time, school lands usually administered by the State DNR.

I just realized that some people might not know what a "section" is; one mile by one mile square, 640 acres.

You have whitetails in your own State, why not take a mule deer if the opportunity presents itself? You might not have the opportunity to do that in the future.

Yeah, school lands are open to public hunting BUT they are often not marked very well and/or if they are in the middle of no road access and there's no improved section line, getting there may be tough without permission from the private land owners surrounding it. If you have a way to tie the digital version of the hunting atlas to the gps in your smart phone and know where you are at all times, go for it. If you're trying to do the old fashioned way by just looking a paper map and think you know where you are at any given time, good luck. Remember, a map is an abstraction of reality. I've played the map game in lots of different parts of SD. Sometimes it works out ok, sometimes you spend a lot of time just chasing your tail.

Check the special buck tag spendy but not restricted to just 1 county. Here is a mulie that cam off the river breaks not bad for a archery deer.

I think the special buck tag is private land only.