Nebraska Hunt

[HawkeyeGobbler]

Looking to hunt Merriams without traveling crazy far (I'm in southeastern Iowa). I have kicked this idea around to a few fellow Iowa sportsmen and  Nebraska keeps being brought up. Reason being it is close (for Iowans), affordable and reasonable tag situation, and number of birds is decent.

Anyone hunt Nebraska that can verify? I've not hunted NE before but have always heard there is a decent amount of actual decent public ground. Usually if there's a lot of public a lot of it sucks haha. But I've not heard that about Nebraska.

[hobbes]

Yes Nebraska has public ground that has a fair population of birds on it.  They aren't hiding behind every tree and are typical public land birds.  You'll have to go NW Nebraska to shoot a Merriam's

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[fallhnt]

Get west of Valentine and you will be into Merriams country. Check out SD too. Recommend later in season for a time to hunt. Good luck

[bchilde]

I hunted in Arnold Nebraska with Hidden Valley Outfitters semi guided. We went opening weekend which was opening weekend here in Kentucky. Bad choice because all the birds were in flocks of 100 or more and they flew off the roost and were gone. They covered a lot of ground fast and it was hard hunting. I ended up killing a hybrid on the last day. Like others has said, go more west for true merriums.

[MK M GOBL]

Have hunted both Nebraska and South Dakota, hunted public land did some scouting and found our birds. The SD trip was to the Black Hills and killed some white tipped beauties there, We hit a few spots in Nebraska and had great results as well.

My first bird that was not an Eastern, (Black Hills) Merriam's!!

MK M GOBL

[DTGobble]

Thats a beautiful bird!  Headed out to the hills this season myself.  Thinking on trying Nebraska also, if I'm fortunate enough to score in the Black Hills.  We'll see how it goes.  Good luck on info for Nebraska, I'm curious too.

[NorfolkHunter]

A group of us from Ontario, Canada have been making the trip into Holt County, NE. over the past 5 years. We have all killed birds there and go during the early archery season. Bird population is strong. The only challenge we have is we never know what kind of weather we will have. Some years flocks have already started to break up which is great for us. Other years not so much and very high numbers of birds are located in and around cattle feed lots.

This year we are heading further to North Western Nebraska to try our luck. We're not really sure what we'll encounter when we get there but that has been the exciting part about the adventure. If we are successful I will post a report when we get back.   

[HawkeyeGobbler]

Thanks all for the replies, lots to think about. For those who have done both Nebraska and South Dakota, which would you do again and why? Which state is easier and a better value for out of staters? Also I am on another forum where a guy went to the black hills to hunt. He said it was a lot of walking and not a lot of birds, but some of that could have been due to weather, I don't remember the specifics of his trip, but he pretty much said he went for the scenery and the trip and that there were far easier areas to kill birds. I enjoy a good hunt and nice scenery as much as the next guy but I would prefer to not eat tag soup if I am driving 7+ hours.

[MK M GOBL]

Part of our trip to the Black Hills was about it being in the Black Hills and wanting to kill a Merriam's from there. It was our first trip out of state for a different sub-species and wanted to make that part of the memory. I can't say we really had any problem finding birds in SD (or NE), we did our scouting as usual and Dad and I each had a bird in 2 days, our total trip was 5 days (a day to drive out from Southwest WI, a day to scout, 2 days of hunting and a days drive back) We did this from a Monday - Friday just too keep off the weekend when others might be out. Still do the same on the trips we make but will leave/scout on a Sat/Sun Hunt Mon-Fri and return Sat/Sun.

MK M GOBL

[turkeyfoot]

weather is always a factor in success out that way either getting the roads to sloppy to get around to find birds or slowing them down if you get decent winter type weather they will about flock back up and get real hard to hunt. SD is on my list to get back to some prettiest country to hunt for me killing always takes a back seat I'm all about the trip if you get to hung up on having to fill that tag your cheating yourself