South Dakota Whitetail Deer Hunting
Whitetail Deer Hunting in South Dakota 2010
South Dakota features a variety of deer hunting opportunities centered on the East River, West River, and Black Hills deer seasons.
Take a look around at the tools and information on the left to find Season Dates, License and Application Requirements and much more.
South Dakota Whitetail Deer Hunting
The white-tailed deer is a medium-sized deer native to all but five states in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and northern portions of South America as far south as Peru.
The deer's coat is a reddish-brown in the spring and summer and turns to a grey-brown throughout the fall and winter. The deer can be recognized by the characteristic white underside to its tail, which it shows as a signal of alarm by raising the tail during escape.
North American male deer (also known as a buck) usually weighs from 130 to 300 pounds but, in rare cases, bucks in excess of 375 pounds have been recorded. The record-sized White-tailed Deer weighed just over 500 pounds and was found in Minnesota. Males re-grow their antlers every year. Antlers begin to grow in late spring, covered with a highly vascularised tissue known as velvet. Bucks either have a typical or non-typical antler arrangement. Typical antlers are symmetrical and the points grow straight up off the main beam. Non-typical antlers are asymmetrical and the points may project at any angle from the main beam. These descriptions are not the only limitations for typical and a typical antler arrangement.
The Boone and Crockett or Pope & Young scoring systems also define relative degrees of typicality and atypicality by procedures to measure what proportion of the antlers are asymmetrical. Therefore, bucks with only slight asymmetry will often be scored as "typical". A buck's inside spread can be anywhere from 3 - 25 in. Bucks shed their antlers when all females have been bred, from late December to February.
If you are ready to hunt Whitetail deer in South Dakota, or need more information, stop by our Galleries, Forums or Blog to get the latest scoop on the the 2010 South Dakota Whitetail Hunting Season.
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South Dakota Hunting provides information on Pheasant Hunting, big game hunting, small game hunting, waterfowl hunting, and predator hunting. If you are looking for a professional outfitter to guide you on your hunt, South Daktoa Outfitters is where you will find it.
