Black Hills Virgin

[Southernson13]

This year will be my first attempt at a Merriams. I'll be up there the first week of May. Any tips, suggestions, or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[GobbleNut]

As I have stated many times before to people from other parts of the country who are coming out west to hunt turkeys on public land, your first object is to find turkeys to hunt.  You do that by covering LOTS of country looking for them,...and most importantly, using methods to entice them to gobble. 

The generally accepted concept used "back east" of going to a high spot and listening may not be the worst thing you can do here,...but it is pretty darn close to it.  Turkey flocks on public land in the west may be MILES apart.  Use good locating tactics, cover as much country as you can, and find those turkey flocks before you start hunting.

Also, because it is public land, you want to try to find the more isolated gobblers to maximize your chances of eliminating competition from other hunters and maximizing your chances of finding a bird that hasn't been messed with too much,...especially if you are hunting later on in the season.  Look around a little bit for those birds before putting your effort into hunting a single location where the gobblers may have been hammered by hunters.

[Ctrize]

Gobblenut lives out there so listen to what he has to say. As far as listening from high spots if you are in good shape no problem. If not, try to pinpoint the ridge birds are on before making a move. Gobbles have a way of echoing and bouncing, so save your legs whenever possible.

[Hobbes]

As gobblenut said...cover ground, cover ground, cover ground if you aren't finding/hearing birds.  A typical Western hunt can be hours of hiking and calling for seemingly nothing and the next spot you stop and call from finds you scrambling to set up and a bird flopping the next minute. You can be lucky too and have birds gobbling all around on day one within spitting distance of the truck.  Just don't rely on that.

Good luck and have fun.

[Tomfoolery]

When I went I noticed if you are up high on a ridge to try to locate birds, and you don't hear anything the ridge comes to a point, and ends. Then its either down of back to the truck to regroup. There are many roads that cut through the valleys and go for miles through the hills. This was an easier way for us to navigate on foot. Not a whole lot of elevation change and could cover a lot more ground in the evenings while roosting. Once you find the ridge they're roosted on then you can switch to hunting tactics.

[ddturkeyhunter]

Just go back through the past post there has been a few post on Black Hills in the past month and a lot of information. And if have any specific question just ask on web or in a PM a lot of good guys here with a lot of information.

[GobbleNut]

Expanding on this a bit more....

One important thing to know is that you can hear a bird gobble (under the right conditions) for over a mile in much of the western habitat types.  Because of that, unless the roads are over two miles apart, you are wasting your time walking rather than just driving the roads trying to locate gobblers. 

Point being:  Choose your strategy wisely.  Walking to get to a point to listen for gobbling when you can hear (or see) that same bird from a road is counter-productive.  Always evaluate the road system where you intend to hunt and start your search for birds by efficiently using it to your advantage.

Here's a dilemma that comes into play in areas where there is not an adequate road system such that you can't hear all of the country without walking.  In those roadless areas, you may choose to hike into an area that has no turkeys in it!  That is where having good map evaluation skills becomes REALLY important.  Understanding what habitat is likely to hold turkeys,...and which is not,...can save you a LOT of fruitless walking. 

Simply put, the key elements are water availability and roosting habitat in much of the western turkey country.  Have a good map (or map app) and look for those two elements first before you walk into a roadless area. 

[Southernson13]

Bump