Badlands bucks: Teddy Roosevelt's old stomping grounds still offers modern-day adventurers plenty of big game action.

AFTER CLOSING THE WIRE gate I climbed back into the warmth of my truck and continued up the hill. Snow drove past the headlights like a herd of stampeding cattle as the weather came over the radio: current temperature 28, winds gusting over 30 miles an hour, snow throughout the day, I seriously doubted my scanty for leaving a warm sleeping bag and heading for a frozen treestand.

The thick pines around my stand blocked much of the wind, and the layers of clothing held my body heat in. A fur hat pulled over my neck and ears, warm pac boots, and hands grasping heat packs deep in my pockets would make 2 hours on stand bearable. With the whitetail rut winding down and the mule deer rut building up, my stand in a saddle of the ridge would be a good place to catch a wandering buck.

The first rays of sunlight were just poking through the trees when I spotted a mule deer buck 30 yards to my right and closing fast. The wind moaning in the pines covered any slight sound as I turned and drew my bow on the unsuspecting buck, now less than 20 yards away. As he paused in a shooting lane, my sight settled low on his chest, my fingers relaxed, and the arrow was gone.

Twenty minutes later I stood in the buck's tracks, looking over my clean arrow and a handful of black, brisket hair lying in the snow. My arrow had flown low--maybe a misjudgment of range or a cold-induced muscle twitch. Following the buck through valleys and over hills for a half-mile convinced me he was unharmed, and I decided to return to the lodge to warm up.

However, cresting a low rise on my way to the truck I spotted movement in a brushy draw 100 yards away. A whitetail buck was looking for does along the edge of a thicket like a beagle searching for a cottontail. I crouched beside a small pine tree, slipped an arrow on the string, and gave a couple of loud voice grunts. The buck snapped his head up and headed my way--I like a beagle chasing a cottontail.

At 30 yards he turned to skirt a squatty pine. When he stepped clear of the pine my 30-yard pin was solid on his side. For the second time that frigid morning I released the string on a buck. A couple minutes later I pulled my arrow from the snow beyond where the buck had stood, and this time it was covered with bubbly pink blood. And 100 yards down the hill I approached my buck piled up in the snow and pine needles.

THE BADLANDS OF the Little Missouri River in western North Dakota are like a tear in an otherwise smooth blanket. Rolling prairie and wheat fields give way to rugged canyons and steep hills, game-rich lands traveled by Custer and Theodore Roosevelt, lands that are harsh yet beautiful.

Rolling hills and valleys, deep draws, badlands, ponderosa pine, cedar, ash, cottonwood, willow, wild plum, sage, and buffalo brush provide cover for a variety of wildlife, while scattered agriculture supplements the native foods. Roaming this area are whitetail and mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep, antelope, coyotes, bobcats, turkeys, as well as a variety of small game and game birds. Similar to other areas scattered across the plains of the Dakotas, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and Colorado, I consider this land a hunter's paradise.

Ever since traveling west on my first hunting trip at the age of nine, I've managed to return at least once every year, often to bowhunt the whitetails and mule deer in the badlands. I've hunted from early September through December, and while the weather has varied from the extremely brutal weather mentioned above, to temperatures in the 90s, the hunting has always been a blast. I've glassed and stalked, still-hunted, and sat in treestands and ground blinds over waterholes, scrapes, feeding areas, and travel routes. I've used scents, decoys, calling, and other tactics. As anywhere else, the deer are not pushovers. Over the years I've learned a few tactics for hunting mid-American deer that will work for you, too.

Habitat

If you come from east of the Dakotas, you will instantly notice the lack of trees. Gone, for the most part, are expanses of thick timber and oak ridges. Many areas of the West have few concentrated feeding areas like fields of soybeans, corn, and lush alfalfa, and water can be in short supply.

While all of this requires adaptation, many basic hunting skills remain the same, and as always feed, water, and cover are the keys. Look for deer to use the terrain and scant cover to their advantage. A bedding area may be a patch of weeds or brush no bigger than your pickup, or it could be a shallow draw in an otherwise flat prairie.

Any obvious food source, such as a pasture or alfalfa field, merits close scrutiny. Remember, badlands deer--both whitetails and muleys--may travel 3 or more miles to a good food source.

In areas of limited water, a spring, creek, or stock tank may attract every deer for miles. Keep in mind, though, that extreme cold can freeze many of the regular watering areas solid, making any remaining sources of water much more attractive.

Scent and Sound

"When first hunting western deer, I expected them to be less cautious than the heavily hunted whitetails in my native Wisconsin. My mind was quickly changed! On a hunt in eastern Montana back in the '80s, I watched a mule deer doe sort out our tracks and vacate an area where we had hung a treestand 30 hours earlier! I've had bucks circle downwind of my rattling and calling to pick up my scent and spook from a quarter mile away. I've had deer spook from a faint squeak of a rubber boot against a treestand and a sleeve rubbing against tree bark.

I take full advantage of scent reducing soaps and sprays as well as carbon suits when hunting badlands deer. I also crush native plants like sage leaves and juniper needles into my clothes. Stepping in cow pies is another western version of cover scent.

Of course, wind direction is your only 100 percent-guaranteed scent control. Thermals, crooked canyons, steep hills, and patches of trees make the wind very unpredictable. To compound the problem, the travel patterns of western deer can be erratic at best. Try to find places where wind currents will work for you.

For example, one of our best stands has produced two whitetails over 145 inches P&Y, two just shy of P&Y, and numerous other passed shots or close calls. The stand sits at the edge of a brushy draw with a steep, open hillside behind it. A wind from the right direction blows the scent of anyone in the stand up onto the open prairie behind the stand while deer travel through the brush in front of the stand.

Another of our favorite sites is a saddle on a ridge above a wide valley. A draw leading to the saddle from the west is fairly steep and narrow, which helps to pull any winds from the west up through the saddle and high across the open valley behind. On calm, sunny mornings, thermals rising up the draw carry scent away from the trails used by deer.

Many of the best wind locations have no trees in exactly the right place for a stand. If that's the case, a ground blind in the right spot is a better choice than setting a treestand in a less-than-perfect location.

Wherever possible I place a treestand at least 20 feet above the ground and use any available cover to hide the stand. If natural cover in a tree is sparse, I often tie pine or cedar branches around my stand for concealment. Also, a strategically placed branch on a deer trail can help block a deer's view long enough for you to draw your bow undetected. Of course, not all areas have trees tall enough for stands 20 feet above the ground. I've hung stands in bushy cedar trees that required guy lines to other trees to stabilize the stands. However, a thick cedar does give great Cove--both sight and scent.

Keep one other thing in mind: On a calm day in the West, a slight creak of a treestand or click of an arrow against a bow riser will carry a long way, and deer will hear it several hundred yards away. A daydreaming bowhunter might get surprised by the sudden, silent approach of a buck, then have a hard time getting into a shooting position without making a sound. I know from experience! You must be vigilant always. And you must achieve silence by wearing soft clothes, eliminating all squeaks and groans from your stands, and silencing your bow completely. Time spent removing loose bark from the tree and any twigs that could rub against you or your equipment is time well spent.

Travel Routes

The real key to hunting western deer is locating favored travel routes. Many areas of the West have relatively low densities of deer, and the deer often travel great distances between feed, water, and cover.

These wide-ranging habits can work to your advantage in finding stand sites. Predictable travel routes include thickets along rivers, draws, or fencelines; flat benches on steep hillsides; saddles in ridges; shallow river crossings; easy passageways through cliffs or steep-sided washes; and easy fence crossings. In short, any feature that restricts deer travel to a bow-shotwide area is a great place for a stand. While all deer use terrain features to theft" advantage, whitetails tend to use cover more than mule deer do. This isn't to say that a whitetail buck won't walk out across 2 miles of prairie, or that mule deer won't stick to brushy draws, but generally whitetails stick to the heavier cover while mule deer often use open space for protection.

In scouting any new area I first look for the terrain features mentioned. Then I walk the areas to search for tracks and other sign, and I glass these potential stand spots early and late in the day to see where deer regularly travel. Keep in mind, though, that because western deer are scattered tar and wide, you might not find super-concentrated sign. And often sign doesn't show up well on the hard ground. Snow is always a great scouting aid.

Calling All Bucks

Maybe it's because sound carries so well; because the deer are sometimes scattered over a wide area; or because the buck/doe ratio is generally pretty high, but whatever the reason, western deer often respond well to rattling and grunt-calling. A few years back I missed a 135-class whitetail that was "rattled" in by a herd of cows walking around in some dry cottonwood branches lying near my stand.

Late November generally marks the late stages of the whitetail rut and the early stages of the mule deer rut in western North Dakota, so you never know what will come in when you call. In my experience whitetails respond more to aggressive rattling while mule deer prefer lighter rattling. Both respond well to grunt calls.

At first glance, the big country of the prairies and badlands might be intimidating, but using these tips you will quickly adjust and have deer within bow range. As you sit in a stand watching a whitetail buck feeding among scattered cedar trees or a muley buck pogo-sticking up the side of a steep wash, you can easily see why Teddy Roosevelt was so attracted to the badlands--and why modern bowhunters are too.

Dan Brockman travels from his home in Wisconsin to hunt the badlands. His daughter, Kristine, was a co-winner in Bowhunter's 2001 Youth Hunter Essay Contest.

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Much of North Dakota--and other prairie states--is a patchwork of public and private lands. You can get land ownership information from local ranchers, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For general information, contact the USFS at www.fs.fed.us. For information on western North Dakota, contact: Custer National Forest, [phone]; or Medora Ranger Station, [phone].

North Dakota offers two types of archery deer licenses that give you options for mule deer and whitetails. Check the regulations for details. North Dakota has one of the longest archery seasons of any western state, running from about September 1 into January. For complete information, contact: North Dakota Game and Fish Department, [phone]; www.state.nd.us/gnf.

You can hunt on your own or go with an outfitter. I've enjoyed some excellent hunts at the Logging Camp Ranch, an active cattle ranch that also raises bison and quarter horses, and offers a variety of hunting and vacation plans. Contact: Logging Camp Ranch, HC-1, Box 27, Bowman, ND 58623; [phone]; [e-mail]; www.loggingcampranch.com.