Hi all – Ben Brettingen and I just got back from Nebraska last week, and had a blast chasing some of the purest white merriams birds I’ve ever seen. Now this trip has been in the works since last year when we really lucked out in terms of the weather and gobbling birds; it all seemed so easy, maybe too easy. Fast forward to 2015, as we stepped outside of Platte Creek Lodge in South Dakota to see a flag being nearly ripped from its pole. Wind is a fact of life in the western states, and usually you get some reprieve from it, but the first two days of our hunt saw 35mph sustained winds, gusting to 45mph.
We started out in South Dakota with Bens bow tag on a spot we knew well in the shadow of the Missouri’s Francis Case Reservoir. Beautiful hills, gobbling birds, and thanks to Ben, a pinpointed roost location from where he had helped his father punch a bow tag just weeks earlier. We got to the edge of a cedar break, slightly higher in elevation than the roost trees, got two dekes out to the edge, then got settled back in the cedars. Birds flew down in the opening across the drainage, and all they had to do was spot our dekes, in the wide-open mind you, then follow the two-track trail directly up to us. This was a textbook setup, that for whatever reason, only works in textbooks. We brought two toms within 60 yards multiple times, even one of the toms inside of 40 yards, but it was too far to chance a shot in gusty winds.
We’d spend the rest of that day familiarizing ourselves with some new property in Nebraska along the famed Niobrara, learning its twists and turns, and some of the bird habits from Fellowship Adventures guide Phil Frasier. Phil was incredibly generous in letting us hunt, and not knowing his experience with turkeys, I offered to help in whatever way I could. I later found out, Phil didn’t need any help, not at all! Phil was a crafty veteran of the turkey woods, as evidenced by the bird he tagged after a 2 hour game of cat and mouse in the big Niobrara hills. We held our own that night too, with Ben spotting some birds feeding in the corner of a green field. With it being so intolerably windy, we had to literally get within 100 yards of the field edge, upwind mind you, just to have our loudest box calls reach those turkey’s ears. I hung back in the cedars, observing the strutter with 3 hens, as Ben belly crawled flatter than a snake to the fenceline. The hens didn’t appreciate the gesture, but also couldn’t distinguish it from the blowing tallgrass prairie he was sneaking through until finally settling underneath a gnarly cedar for the shot. Problem was, a shot was not to be had. Not yet anyway. The bird was 65 yards away and moving away. I had been talking to these birds by this point at my perch now 100 yards or so away from the tom and his hens, but I could not even hear him gobble at me. Sensing this to be a last ditch effort, I let it all hang out with fighting purrs, complete with hat-simulated wing beats and all. It so turned out, that this was what helped the tom close those last 10 yards, with Ben taking down his Merriams at a lasered 54 yards. Nice shot Ben!
I’d love to say that this was the beginning of alot more great hunting to come, but even though the wind calmed down, we just couldn’t contact birds. Not for lack of trying. We covered miles and miles without even spooking a bird, though I was able to call a very peculiar tom across the Niobrara, directly at us. Though upon crossing the river, he was never to be heard or seen. Odd. He flew across 120 yards of river, but never made another peep? That was just a small sample of what was to be the attempt to fill my NE tag. We did get back to SD for one more morning bow hunt, getting within 30 yards of a roosted and later flown-down tom several times. With a gun, that bird would’ve been ours, but our tag was for archery so he lived to gobble another day.
Either way, the experience was an incredible one, and I look forward to doing it again soon, especially after seeing some of the birds that Phil and his crew took after we left camp. Good work guys, and thanks for the memories!
Joel
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