South Dakota
The previous week I decided that I was going to the SD Black Hills over the Memorial Day weekend, so I’d ordered a tag online as required. The tag showed up in 4 days.
My wife and I arrived later on Friday than what I'd planned, but tried to roost a bird without any luck.
A "new to me" 2012 Tundra that I bought the day before this trip.
The next day started with lightning, wind, and light rain. I didn't hear a peep and didn't really like the area that I was in. It had been burned years before and had a lot of blowdowns that just didn't appeal to me.
There were still a few nice looking areas there
I did a lot of driving that afternoon looking the region over. During the afternoon it stormed hard complete with hail. I saw two hens the whole day, so I was a little disappointed. I was still digging the Tundra though.
The next day was much better weather so I picked a couple spots on the map and drove there in the dark. The first two spots turned out to be closed trails that I thought would give me access in my truck, but were going to require almost parking in someone's yard. I moved on and started listening at likely spots. I heard a bird gobbling at the second or third spot that I stopped. He was likely still in the tree, so I started walking a really muddy forest road. I rounded a bend and there sat two cars with four hammocks hanging in the trees. I walked by them on the road and found a "road closed" sign and barricade. I assumed that meant that I was on my own to hunt this bird, but I found a truck parked past the sign. I assumed that the hunter was on the bird and backed out.
I stopped a couple more spots listening then finally decided to hike in behind a gated trail. I heard a bird a short ways in, but it turned out to be jakes and hens. I heard a bird gobble a long ways back after bumping the flock of jakes and hens while trying to move. I climbed up and over a couple ridges then sat and waited to see if he'd sound off again. I didn't wait more than 10 minutes before he gobbled, but still sounded a long way. I dropped down, crossed a small creek, then climbed the next ridge to a big rolling opening with scattered patches of pines.
I set up and he started gobbling at anything that I threw at him but wouldn't budge. He moved away from me, so I decided to risk moving up into the shade of another patch of small pines. It looked like I could make it 75 yards or so and stay out of sight before breaking over the hill.
The bird gobbled just before I sat down and was close, closer than I expected, just out below the drop in the terrain. I sat down quick, got the gun up and yelped. The bird gobbled from 50 yards at the most. I waited with gun ready, confident he'd pop into view any second. He didn't disappoint and within seconds I could see the top of his fan moving right to left and angling slightly towards me. I started to see his head just as he cleared a small tree still strutting and drumming. He then did me a favor at 32 yards and came out of strut and stretched his head out to look for the love of his life. He never knew what hit him.
My first Black Hills turkey. I don't plan on it being my last.
He had a little darker wings than most Merriam's that I've killed. The white bars are usually more prominent in the birds that I kill. It reminded me of an Eastern's primaries. He had also been strutting a lot.
I never want to wish that I'd taken more photos, so I stopped uphill in some rocks and took more.
It was 1.13 miles back to the truck, but I didn’t mind the extra weight.
I needed help getting a photo here, but did the best that I could. I forgot that I could have rigged a tripod in my truck to hold my phone.
I could have made a dash across the border to Wyoming and bought a tag, but decided to spend the last couple of days with my wife in the SD Black Hills. I’m sitting here now thinking that if not for my wife’s birthday this weekend, I’d drive to WY and sleep in my truck in one last effort to kill another bird before the end of May. I’m smart enough not to try that though. Ten years ago……... I’d probably have been in trouble.
