Chadron Nebraska

[Louisiana Longbeard]

Is Chadron hunted out as bad as everyone says it is? I'm looking at booking a trip with a guide next spring. Should I look elsewhere for a Merriams or would I still be okay with a guide?

[jrinny]

I was there this spring to hunt. If you are with a guide with enough private ground- you would be fine. We hunted the first few days of season and birds were still in big flocks. I was unsure if we made the right choice going - but everything worked out and we saw plenty of birds. But- we were told by the locals and guide.... It is declining. We had some good hunts and got our birds.

[Yoder409]

There's no doubt there's been a pretty steep decline since my first trip in 2013.

An outfitter SHOULD have ample private leases to give you a good chance at success.

[GobbleNut]

Mid-May of this year is the only time I have been to the Pine Ridge area.  Although we (two of us) only hunted a couple of days, here are my thoughts/observations, as well as what we were told by other locals there:

1)  The turkey population has apparently decreased significantly,...at least on the public areas.
2)  From what we saw, there is a big difference in the number of birds on private relative to the public.  We saw quite a number of turkeys on private ground that acted like they had never been hunted,...gobblers would stand next to the road unconcerned by our presence in the truck,...and this happened numerous times in different places. 
3)  Even late in the season, there was still significant pressure on the public areas, and the behavior of the birds clearly indicated they had been hammered pretty hard. 
4)  Lots of that country has been burned in recent years.
5)  The country is a lot more rugged than what one might think and vehicular access is limited.  Be in shape to hunt it and expect to have to cover some country to get to areas that have had less hunting pressure. 
5)  If hunting public and you don't have "insider info", allow yourself plenty of time to look over the country and explore all the possibilities of where to hunt.  Without knowing where to start, it could take several days of hunting/scouting just to figure out where to focus your efforts. 

[Yoder409]

5)  The country is a lot more rugged than what one might think and vehicular access is limited.  Be in shape to hunt it and expect to have to cover some country to get to areas that have had less hunting pressure. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

This !!!!!

There are bighorn sheep in there...........if that tells you anything.

That country can hand you your hind end if you're not ready for it.

[dirtnap]

I hunted there 8 years in a row with a buddy of mine.  It was real good the first years we went.  The last time we went,, we both decided it was time to move on.  We always went late May. 

Took my 14 year old son out there one year for youth season and he killed 3 nice gobblers pretty quick in early April.  Tags for him were around $7.00  That was a real good time.

The internet has really beat that place up.  Last time I went, the Woodhaven crew was hunting it.  Ate lunch with them at Arby's in Chadron.

[nebgoosehunter]

I went to college in Chadron, lived there for several years, even worked for the Game and Parks for a few years before moving on to the job I have now, which is still only two hours away, but everything has pretty much been covered.  Obviously pressure has increased substantially.  10 years ago, while working for the G&P, I would show up to work at the Ponderosa WMA office and would hear gobblers almost every morning in the canyon behind the office during prime time hunting season.  I even killed a gobbler after work out of a pair right across the road from the office on April 20th.  Nowadays you would never find a gobbler anywhere near a public road that time of year.  I saw trucks from a lot of states, but it was nothing like rifle deer season was and still is.  The terrain can be brutal, most of the public land especially.  If you are coming from low elevation, your lungs are going to feel it also with elevation ranging from 3500 ft on the eastern end to 5000 ft on the western end.  If I was coming from a long ways away and only hunting public, I would seriously look elsewhere.  With an outfitter, who manages their turkey populations well, I think you will be fine.  I do think the proposed restrictions will help in time.