Nebraska sandhills muley hunt

[Hornhunter]

Anyone here ever hunted muleys down there? Any info, how long to draw a tag as a nonresident, decent amount of public ground or is most of it locked up?

 

[dean nelson]

Been in them allot but never hunted deer in them. Know a few guys from down there that went with outfitters and had decent hunts. It's really easy ground to hunt since as mule deer ground goes it's pretty flat with just a never ending series of grass-covered sand dunes. The area is almost exclusively privet with very little walk on stuff similar to our plots program. If you really want to hunt them i would look into ranches that have self guided setups. Heres what little public access there is. There is a pretty good chunk of national forest ground that the Sandhills come up to in the far north west corner of the state. The two black areas in this shot are also national forest ground. The north one is Samuel R but not sure about the south one. The blue is national wildlife refuges.

 

[SDMF]

Been in them allot but never hunted deer in them. Know a few guys from down there that went with outfitters and had decent hunts. It's really easy ground to hunt since as mule deer ground goes it's pretty flat with just a never ending series of grass-covered sand dunes. The area is almost exclusively privet with very little walk on stuff similar to our plots program. If you really want to hunt them i would look into ranches that have self guided setups. Heres what little public access there is. There is a pretty good chunk of national forest ground that the Sandhills come up to in the far north west corner of the state. The two black areas in this shot are also national forest ground. The north one is Samuel R but not sure about the south one. The blue is national wildlife refuges.

I think it was the NE Nat'l Forest just out of Chadron that had a big fire ~2yrs ago. It was either that or the big refuge outside of Valentine, can't remember which.

The fire was 2012 from Pine Ridge SD through Chadron/Crawford. 75K acres. Was hard on the deer numbers so I'm told. Never hunted there, drove through that country a fair bit though.

 

[dean nelson]

Interesting. For some reason I don't remember that one but with a very quick look it was easy to find several burned out areas. Still allot of ground in those hills but they definitely took a big hit. Unfortunately would guess fire isn't as good of a thing there that it is in the mountains out west with grassy areas much more prevalent there. In the mountains up until the huge beetle kill I used to mark where fires were and head for them a year or two later when the flood of new growth hit.



- - - Updated - - -

Oh and found several more burn areas and by the looks of it the stuff that didn't burn has been decimated by the beetles like where I lived in CO. Probably a big part of why the fire was so big. Beetle kill out west is an over all good thing for herd numbers because it allows in the sun and you get a huge flush ofor new growth on the forest floor where only rotting pine needles were found before.

Here is classic beetle kill.




- - - Updated - - -

 

[snow]

I fished and hunted upland on the refuge for years,large herds of muleys throughout the refuge,nice bait shop in valentine can point you in the right direction for big game,really a great area to explore,fishing on the refuge lakes is 2nd to none for giant gills,jumbo perch and big pike.

 

[SDMF]

Niobrara country reminds me of a miniature version of the Bighorn River @ I94 or the Yellowstone W of Billings.

 

[5575]

Take your kids with, Nonresident youth and resident youth tags are the same price. Like $12! :;:thumbsup

 

[hoythunter]

My brother and I did a muzzleloader hunt there this year around Chadron. We hunted the national forest to the south really awesome country lots of deer not much for good bucks. wound up getting permission to hunt a ranch in the sandhills and he shot a dandy muley. I would do the hunt again I think the forest land would be good with horses.

 

[Hornhunter]

Is it an either species tag or just mule deer?

 

[Flatrock]

Tags aren't that hard to get. Can't remember exactly how hard for rifle but I think muzzy tags are unlimited but you still have to apply for them. Pretty sure they aren't pure otc tags.

The Valentine and Niobrara refuges are about 20,000 acres each. Not sure if deer hunting is allowed on all of it but I think you can hunt on most if not all of it. Then there is the McKelvie National Forest at over 100,000 acres.

I think a guy can go down there and have a pretty good hunt. Probably won't shoot a 160 whitey or 180 mulie but you could probably do ok. I know of some guys who've shot some 130 whitetails. I wouldn't mind getting the muzzy tag some year and trying it.

 

[Trapper62]

We hunted Nebraska for a number of year, haven't now for the past three after EHD went through. The Sandhills by Valentine? I would stay away at least the first week, looks like a pumpkin patch! Atv's literally going where they please! If you do go to the sandhills there are lots of trails and everything looks the same so bring a gps.
Here is the McKelvie Forest Area.

We did end up getting a couple mulie but nothing great!

This was our only year there, hunted SE and NW of Chadron after than, great area, but yes the burn took a LOT of acreage but I would think it should be coming back pretty good by now. The people are great and most will tell you that if you are there the last few days of season you can hunt their land, but most have people the first weekend.

When I went you just purchased your tag on the computer and printed it on a sheet of paper. Cost $200 and was good for a deer, mule/whitetail, buck/doe!

Good Luck if you go!