Late season Black Hills turkey hunt?'s

[mnbirdbuster]

Upon talking to biologists for both WY/SD Black Hills regions and assessing our time we can hunt...we have decided on May 18-26 for our hunt. It'll be latest I've ever hunted the 'hills. I do know the earlier hunts always had fickle weather looming more often than bit later hunts, but still plenty of hens around messing up our hunts frequently. Hoping the May 10-15 I was quoted by both biologists as window when 90% of hems should be on nest reigns true? Always had a blast hunting out there, and managed to scratch alot of birds through the years. Any info or experiences anybody has regarding later season hunting out there would be greatly appreciated...thx

[GobbleNut]

Hunted about that same timeframe last year (a week earlier) in SD.  Had never been there before, but had heard there were lots of birds and figured we would find a good number of gobblers to hunt.  I was extremely surprised at how few birds we were able to find in several days hunting.  Perhaps we just, by unfortunate poor luck, focused on the wrong areas, but gobblers (and hens) were few and far between,...and we covered a LOT of miles trying to find them.  Now, the ones we did find were vocal, but there just were not many of them,...and all of them were associated closely with private property and nearby houses. 

We were told by multiple sources that the turkey numbers were way down in the areas we ended up hunting.  However, if you have hunted there in the past, I would assume you would know where to start and will likely find birds to hunt.

...On a brighter note, we saw very few other hunters...   

[mnbirdbuster]

Yes certain areas do seem to hold a few more birds than others out there? I have some WY locals that will be hunting earlier in May in some areas I like to hunt that will help me by divulging their findings. I'm confident from what I've been told by the biologists, but a tad reserved on the late time frame. Not surprised you saw very few hunters at all. Late season "should" be less snow/hens/hunters is what I was told? It can snow until June out there however and the birds I've played with werent phased by it nearly as much as I was on a couple occasions

[Old Gobbler]

I've done black hills ..it's hard to predict weather patterns in the dakotas ...plan too early and you'll have snow on the ground

Mother's day is about an the right time IMO

[RLAG]

Keep in mind the roads there open for ATV trail riding the 15th I believe it is. Birds were on gated roads when we were there and as soon as that opened up, they disappeared off the roads

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[mnbirdbuster]

Sounds like not all roads get opened at once? Warden I spoke with said Memorial Weekend is when atv traffic ramps up bigtime. We will only be hunting one weekend and it's the one prior to the holiday weekend. Weekdays im told, especially prior to the holiday and when kids and such are still in school are pretty dead out there. Planning on heading home that Sat am of Memorial Weekend before the zoo arrives. On paper I'm happy with this hunt after doing the legwork I have, but I've seen best laid plans go in the tank also???

[GobbleNut]

Last year we were told that the earliest the closed roads would be opened would be May 15th.  It could be later than that if the Forest Service felt like the conditions warranted a later opening.  Anybody hunting in the Black Hills NF (or any other National Forest) should obtain the "Motor Vehicle Travel Maps" that are available for free at the Forest Service offices.  Those maps will tell you exactly what the road system is, where you can drive, and when the roads are opened. 

There are also roads that are open ONLY by purchasing a "special use" permit for those specific roads.  Anybody that is traveling there to hunt and is not familiar with the various regulations would be wise to research them and be prepared prior to hunting there. 

One additional thing we found is that after the roads open, there are ATV's running around everywhere.  ATV recreation is apparently a big deal in the Black Hills.  There were rental places everywhere and the "touristas" were making good use of them.  We ran into groups of ATV-ers riding on the back roads on several occasions in places we were looking for turkeys.  I suspect it did not have a positive affect on the turkey hunting...   

[eggshell]

I have friends and Family in the Hills and South Dakota,  they were hearing and seeing both hens and gobblers up till memorial day last year. Gobblenut already explained how our hunt went last spring. My local connections told me that turkey were a hard find last year. I know betwen the group we covered an area with a radius of at least 50 miles in all directions of our camp and it was the same everywhere. I probably got on the best pocket of birds and they were on my friends ranch on private land. I think everyone feeds the wildlife there and Gobblenut was right almost all the birds we found were close to homes. My daughter lives there and they have had a brutal winter with multiple blizzards. I decided not to hunt it this year and just make our annual trip out there this fall. If you were asking me I'd say, "find somewhere else to hunt".

[mnbirdbuster]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm expecting it to be a grind for sure? My WY side of the area Intel is solid, so if the birds aren't close by on SD side it'll be tough I'm sure? Definitely risking it going late and such. NFS office I called did say deep snow up at higher elevation and delays to atv road opening was a possibility? It's happened numerous times before I guess? Love to see em move it back several days or more.

[blake_08]

Upon talking to biologists for both WY/SD Black Hills regions and assessing our time we can hunt...we have decided on May 18-26 for our hunt. It'll be latest I've ever hunted the 'hills. I do know the earlier hunts always had fickle weather looming more often than bit later hunts, but still plenty of hens around messing up our hunts frequently. Hoping the May 10-15 I was quoted by both biologists as window when 90% of hems should be on nest reigns true? Always had a blast hunting out there, and managed to scratch alot of birds through the years. Any info or experiences anybody has regarding later season hunting out there would be greatly appreciated...thx

My dad and me are going to be out there the same time period for our first Black Hills trip. I have to say, I'm concerned with all of the negative things I've been reading as far as turkey populations go. Oh well, we'll do what we can and have fun either way. Good luck to y'all on your trip and be safe.

[Louisiana Longbeard]

I'm heading that direction May 14-19. I will let you know how it looks. Our guide said the birds are plentiful and lots of gobbling right now.

[Ryanmc]

I was there last week of April last year and didn't get to where I wanted to hunt until 9:30 and killed one at 10:30. Watched a gobbler breed a bunch of hens in the road and heard a distant gobble and moved down the ridge and got 4 birds working their way to the flock. I got real lucky because bad weather moved in. I hunt close to private where they go in and out of fields. Just be patient.

[eggshell]

My daughter said It was snowing pretty heavy yesterday 4/4/2024.