Last week my buddy and I headed to SD for a little turkey hunting trip. I was apprehensive about going to try a new area. We've gone deer hunting there the past few years. We loaded up in the SUV and drove the 12 hours or so to arrive at a too early/late time of 3 am. It was crazy that the casino did a 'welfare check' and wanted to know if we're hanging out in the parking lot drinking. Actually, we were waiting for sun up to get to a spot. Before the trip I looked at Google Earth and found some areas that had creek/trees. Well, we head into the direction, find a small driveway, and while I get out of the truck to try out my Owl Hooter I heard a gobble in the creek directly in front of us. Long story short, they flew down the opposite side of the creek.
I tagged my first bird by dropping down in a ridge in front of the birds, circling around in a creek bottom, and popping out of the brush. I look up at the ridge because I thought they dupped me and my friend is waving to the left. So I pop out of the brush and there is a hen and Tom about 40 yards away on the brush line. I see the hen's head pop up, I sight in the Tom, and pull the trigger. . . .click. Are you kidding me? A 12 hour ride for a click. Well, luckily I was able to load my gun and drop the Tom at about 40 yards.
The last morning, my buddy called er and said he was done. I head out the morning by myself to the opposite side of the creek we set up on the first morning. I get close to the woods and sure enough gobbling. I watch 8 hens pitch down over my head and land to my right in an opening. Then, I hear leaves like something is running toward me and a Tom pops out at about 7 yards to my right. I figured I'd let it walk away because those hens would bust me. As it starts to walk away and I turn to my right one last hen pops out and alarm puts. One shot peppers the Tom and the follow up is off as the whole crew runs up a giant hill. I tried to circle around but my foot and leg was numb from an hour of awkward sitting and I literally dropped to one leg.
Well I head further down the creek and get on a Tom but mess up. So I head back to the first spot and watched 5 hens with one Tom working their way up a hill. I waited until the went over the crest of the hill and closed the distance. They dropped down into a draw and I basically hands and kneed it and belly crawled to close the distance and drop the Tom at about 35 yards.
For my first time turkey hunting in SD I thought I did well. It would have been nice to have called in a giant group of turkeys and had my pick of Toms. I don't fancy myself and expert caller and by no means do I think I am a crap caller. Most of the Toms I encountered were henned up pretty good. Don't get me wrong, we got them gobbling but they just didn't want to come in with those hens leading the way. I don't know if they were pressured already for a solid month. Some of them were real skiddish and once they saw a vehicle they either dropped down a ridge, flew down the ridge, or ran like heck up a giant ridge only to pitch down 2 draws over. This lead me to believe they were probably pressured pretty good and probably even road hunted. But, I'll take them as I can get them and figured the spot and stalk is better then tag soup
Our hunting dates were May 5th through the 8th. I'm just looking for advice on timing. It was nice 60 to 70 degrees. They were henned up pretty good. Did we go too late? Too early? Were the hens nesting? Was the best yet to come? I think one thing is for sure, the birds were hard to find and looked pretty pressured in certain aress.
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My first Tom had a 7 inch beard, 5/8 inch spurs. The second Tom had a 8 1/2 inch beard and inch spurs. Weight, I wasn't able to weigh them. Definitely a good experience and a different type of hunt then my Wisconsin hunts. Ever since I spotted one of those white tip Merriams I wanted to get one. I was able to get that one last day last morning hunt to make the miss more bearable. Well, one thing is for sure is this 'Sconsin boy has never had to deal with picking cactus spines out of his belly and knee before until that belly crawl. It was worth it!
Congrats! Sometimes stalking is the only way to kill 'em. That's turkey hunting!
Nice gobblers! Congrats.
Congrats on the nice birds. Great story as well..Mike :you_rock:
Awesome. Way to go.
I had to laugh when I read about pulling out the cactus spines! Went thru that back a couple years ago while on a deer hunt out in the prairie of NW SD. Was crawling around like a snake trying to get the drop on a large whitetail buck. :smiley-patriotic-flagwaver-an