2026 Hunting Report

[Shran]

It's that time of year again!!!! Post up your stories!!!

I had a slow start to the season, only have gone bird hunting once (shot nothing) and we have two deer tags. One of my kids has a mentored antlerless whitetail tag that started back in September but it's been way too warm to hunt deer. Went out with him last weekend, saw a lot, no opportunities for good shots. He's shooting a youth Marlin 30-30 lever action with open sights but that is OK, almost all the deer we've shot in the Black Hills have been 50 yards or less.

My season opened on Nov 1st. I used my preference points for a buck tag. I am just a grocery hunter, my wife has 3 deer mounted and I have none, lol but I figured I'd see if I can change that this year. Went out last night after work and shot a really nice 5x7 whitetail almost immediately. He ran up a hill and died about 300 yards off the road. Took me a while to find him and then by the time I had all my gear put away and knives out, it was getting dark and it was really dark by the time I got him gutted, then had to drag him back down the hill and across a field. Just about had a heart attack doing that but it was worth it. Not a huge deer by any means but by far the biggest buck I've shot and I'm gonna have him mounted.

We're going out Friday afternoon this week to see if my kid can fill his tag, then back to bird hunting. My wife & FIL didn't get deer tags this year but two whitetails should be plenty to fill the freezer.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Congrats on the buck!

I haven’t been out hunting yet this season. Small game has been in for awhile but I don’t really like small game hunting by myself and don’t currently have anyone to go with. Turkey started Saturday but there’s no room in the fridge currently to brine one.

I think archery is in, I should check on when muzzleloader starts. Really I don’t have a good place to go or a good truck to go in for anything currently, so it’s going to be what it is this year.

I almost collected a buck with the Choptop recently. Damn thing ran right into the side of the truck and wiped a fender flare off. I didn’t stop to see the end result, it was like 1:30 in the morning, I was absolutely exhausted, and there was a zero percent chance that I would have been capable of gutting and wrestling a full grown deer into the back of the Choptop over the tailgate and on top of all the tools by myself in the condition I was in. No dents or hair or blood on the truck and I didn’t run it over so hopefully it wasn’t seriously hurt and that’s what I’m going with.

 

[Shran]

I cut the cape too short according to the taxidermist. Sigh... he said he can fix it though. Amateur problems. So my wife had one mounted and I did that right but messed up my own. I should have Googled it before I started cutting. Oh well.

Hear ya about getting deer loaded up, bucks are way easier since you can grab the antlers and pull but man they can be heavy.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

If I would have been in something with a working tailgate, I would have gone looking to see what happened. But the tailgate is broken on the Choptop which means everything has to go over the top, which is pretty close to armpit height. Between that and a blinking red light on brain function at the time, I just wanted home.

 

[Sharky]

with my age & back issues there is no more deer hunting for me unless someone drags it out and loads it into my truck.
however due to my interest in bird hunting I still pheasant hunt with my 2 dogs. so far we ( my dogs & I ) have been having a blast (pun not intended). I have taken 10 birds so far since opening day (Oct 24th) as my shooting is not the best. the boys have flushed or pointed a bird almost every day. 2 days were to warm to stay out running my boys.
I dont duck hunt much any longer as the crowds at the local public areas are to much to handle & I cannot lug a bag of decoys around like I used to. woodcock hunting is hit or miss in this area & grouse are non existant here