bake
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Chirp Chirp
Posts: 64
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Post by bake on Feb 2, 2011 0:22:27 GMT -5
I was just wondering if anyone had any information on Merriam turkeys. I am planning a trip to South Dakota this Spring and was wondering if anyone has made it out there, and has any advise. I have heard that Merriam's are easier to call and hunt compared to Easterns. Just looking for some advice.
Thanks
Cody
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Post by featherduster on Feb 2, 2011 7:53:35 GMT -5
The area I hunt in Nebraska is a stones throw from the South Dakota border.
There are Merriam, Eastern and hybrids throughout that area.
I cannot say that anyone species is smarter than the other.
Hunt smart and hunt hard.
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Post by Woody Williams on Feb 2, 2011 7:57:02 GMT -5
Cody,
Woodmaster (who is a on a cruise ship right now) and Gobblerstopper have both hunted the Redbud (or is is redbird? ) reservation in South Dakota. They saw lots of birds and killed their limits.
Gobblerstopper can fill you in.
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Post by gobblerstopper on Feb 2, 2011 8:24:27 GMT -5
Leroy Sleeping Bear at Rosebud Indian Reservation can put you on birds if he is still at it. He had guides that worked for him and I don't know how good they all are, but I would only recommend Leroy. As Woody said, our group killed their birds but the best day we had was the day we told the guide where we were going that day. It was Leroys area that a member of our group had hunted the two previous years. Chris Little Elk (I think is his name) is also very good.
One thing about Rosebud is that I would go early. You may run into a lot of henned up gobblers (groups of 15-20) but the natives hammer the birds and there are just less of them later in the season. The year I was there you could shoot hens or male birds? There is a debate about the birds in the area. Merriams, easterns or rios? The birds we kill do not sound like easterns and don't look like Rios. The biologist for our area of Nebraska said there are NO rios in the area.
We now got permission to hunt a ranch in Nebraska that is a little south and west of Rosebud. There are public places in the area, but you will quickly find out that the ranchers didn't sell the prime ground to the state. Some rough country in that area.
If you are going on public ground, I would recommend the blackhills or western Nebraska. A little further drive, but prime turkey habitat plenty of land, but also a lot of pressure. Get some maps and study them well. Nebraska may be starting a new program that is going to open up access to a lot of private ground for turkey hunting. I'll see if I can find if they've made any progress on it lately.
As far as merriams being easier? It all depends where you hunt. With the number of birds in most places it is easy to run into multiple two year olds. Last spring two of us killed 6 birds in a three day span and hunted about 9 total hours.
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bake
Full Member
Chirp Chirp
Posts: 64
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Post by bake on Feb 3, 2011 0:57:18 GMT -5
Thanks for the info everyone.
I was planning on hunting public land outside of Sturgis. Planned on going sometime between May 4th-9th. Area I am looking at is an archery only BLM about 6700 acres. Seems like its worth a shot. Prolly bring the gun if they dont respond there and head south towards Rapid City.
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Post by dsayer on Feb 15, 2011 10:46:38 GMT -5
I've hunted Merriams in the Colorado foothills for the last few years on piece of public land that gets hunted pretty hard. What I found compared to hunting river bottoms in central Nebraska where I grew up is that the Merriams have a huge range so I spent a lot more time walking around and using my box call until I heard a gobble. It wasn't uncommon to put 6 or 7 miles on the boots before I'd here a gobble. In general, I would also say they were more likely to gobble back at my calls when I found them, but (probably because of the hunting pressure) they often seemed content to wait for me to come to them rather to walk into my set-up.
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