Unit 35A

Several buttes serve as navigation anchors and glassing stations: Chimney Butte, Saddle Butte, and Pointed Butte are prominent visual references across the plains. The Jumpoff cliff and Jumpoff Divide mark notable terrain breaks. The Flint Hills and Short Pine Hills ranges—subdivided into East and West Short Pine Hills—provide the primary topographic relief and concentrate deer movement.

Named drainages like Grandma Schang Draw, Big Dam Draw, and Fuller Canyon funnel water and wildlife. Buffalo Springs, Craig Pass Spring, and Finlander Spring are known water sources in the breaks. These features are spread across open country, making long-range glassing rewarding.

The unit stays uniformly low, spanning from just under 2,800 feet in valleys to roughly 4,000 feet on butte summits. This elevation band supports mixed-grass prairie throughout, with sparse ponderosa and lodgepole stands on north-facing slopes and creek bottoms. Juniper appears scattered across ridges and breaks.

The habitat is predominantly open—over 98 percent grassland and non-forested terrain—making glassing and spotting viable. Deer concentrate in the broken country: drainages with cover, butte pockets, and scattered timber where they can bed and feed without exposure. The short grass prairie is fair summer range; water becomes the limiting factor.

Road density is light at 0.47 miles per square mile, meaning access is limited and pressure is scattered. Major roads connect towns but most interior travel requires county or ranch roads. Much of the good country requires permission; roughly 80 percent is private land.

Public land is checkerboarded and small, making hunter density low but requiring detailed planning before arrival. Most pressure comes from opening weekends; mid-week hunting sees minimal competition. Early scout trips are essential to identify accessible public land and understand private-land patterns.

The sparse road network means many hunters can't reach interior country, leaving opportunity for those willing to ask permission or hike.

Unit 35A sprawls across roughly 1,300 square miles of northwestern South Dakota butte-and-prairie country. The terrain sits entirely below 4,000 feet, making this a true high-plains unit without alpine complexity. The landscape is defined by isolated buttes, shallow valleys, and prairie grassland broken by occasional cottonwood draws and small timber patches.

Roads are sparse but usable, connecting scattered towns like Camp Crook, Buffalo, and Harding. This is working ranch country—most land is private, so public-land access is limited and requires prior scouting and landowner respect.

Water is the critical limiting factor. Small reservoirs scattered across the unit—Leger Dam, Gilbert Number One and Two, Peterson, Kemp, Cundy, and Lake Gardner—are reliable but often private. Springs including Buffalo Springs, Craig Pass Spring, Split Pine Spring, and Rock Pile Spring provide secondary water in draws.

Perennial streams are limited; Little Grand River, Dogie Creek, and Kimble Creek are the main drainages. Most water flows intermittently after rain or exists in stock ponds. Late-season hunting requires knowledge of which springs and ponds hold water; early season is less water-dependent.

Dry conditions in summer and fall make water proximity central to deer location strategy.

Unit 35A holds mule deer and white-tailed deer, with mule deer dominant in the breaks and buttes, white-tails in creek bottoms and timber pockets. Early season (September-October) finds deer in open parks and draws before heat drives them to shade; glass from butte tops and ridges with good optics. The rut (November) concentrates bucks; hunt the breaks and sparse timber patches aggressively—deer move between bedding and feeding regardless of visibility.

Late season shifts pressure to water sources and protected draws. The sparse forest limits cover; hunt trails in drainages and bet on bucks moving between butte pockets at dawn and dusk. Pressure is minimal, so thorough ground work and glassing discipline outweigh tactics.

Success requires water knowledge and willingness to hike away from roads.