About 5 weeks ago I was in SD for work and started discussing turkey hunting with a coworker. It was quite clear he has a huge passion for the birds that Ben Franklin once wanted to be our national symbol. After about 30 minutes of hearing all about the birds in SD, I decided I better see if I could coax one of the most passionate turkey hunters I know into joining me for a prairie hunt. I called Joel Nelson up and with very little coaxing he was on board. I’ve never hunted with Joel so I was extremely excited to get some time in the blind with him.
Our original plan was to hunt 2.5 days. Wouldn’t you know it, work got in the way and I wasn’t able to get any time off. Luckily we both have very forgiving wives and instead of leaving Saturday night, we left on Friday night… Technically Joel arrived at my house at 1:30AM on Saturday. We quickly loaded his gear and headed west. I had gotten about two hours of sleep and was jazzed. Joel on the other hand needed some rest about half way to the state line. I only tormented him a bit by hitting a few potholes this wet spring has opened up. 
We arrived at our destination with just enough time to get camoflauged up as it was getting light quick. 1, we were going into public ground completely blind. 2, the wind was howling with off and on rain. However, we heard our first gobble from just across the road. Our spirits were high. We messed around waiting to hear another gobble for at least 30 more minutes and nothing. It was sprinkling pretty good and an agreement was made to get in the truck and familiarize ourselves with the public ground. If we spotted birds, we would make a plan of attack to hunt them.
After cruising around and checking out several of the public walk in areas we spotted two Toms. There really was only one way to go after them. We parked, grabbed our gear and headed to a spot close to where they last were. I think we sat calling for close to 30 minutes or slightly more. Nothing. Then suddenly about 90 yards below us there they are crossing the dang road on to private ground. Joel started to work his magic. Both birds got really interested and started working up the road towards us. Now at 60 yards, I’ve got my bow in hand feeling very confident Joel’s sweet “whispers” would bring one of the birds within bow range. Of course the birds had other thoughts. The one bird who really wanted to come back simply couldn’t get comfortable crossing back under the fence to us. About this time, both birds pushed up over the road in a hurried manner. What the heck??? Not 10 seconds later we understand why. See pics. 
By now, it’s raining and the wind is 20+mph out of the NW and temps are hovering in the 40 degree range. Perfect turkey weather, right?? We spotted another creek bottom that looked promising and decided do some still hunting. We would walk 30-50 yards, do some glassing and looking. Nothing move forward. At the end of the creek was a wood lot in the middle of a some soybeans/hay/corn stubble. We worked our way to the edge of the woodlot and were skirting the edge when I spotted a Tom about 50 yards from us. I froze for a good 3 minutes before he put his head down to feed and we backed away.
We circled to the north into the center of the woodlot and found a good spot to setup an ambush. Joel began calling, but no response. He actually had to call quite a bit before this old bird finally fired off a gobble. He had moved away from our position about 40 yards. We decided to get super aggressive and move in on him. Each time Joel would get him fired up, he would pace back and forth at the edge of the woodlot. This game went on for over 2 hours. Without a blind and only archery equipment, we were very limited on options. We decided to back out and come pay this old boy a visit in the AM. It was about 3/4 mile hike back to the truck. We bumped one hen and walked up on another along the way. When we reached the truck the rain had really started to come down and neither of us had the motivation needed to hunt more that day. Off to the cabin we were headed.
Luckily for us, a good friend has a place about 30 minutes from the public ground. A warm bed and something to eat would certainly revive our spirits. It was a great evening catching up with an old friend and telling Joel all my stories everyone else has heard a 1000 times. A fact I didn’t know. Joel can play the guitar. And quite well I might add. We spent the end of the night listening to just about any song we could think of being strummed by the bonfire. One would say we might have stayed up a little late since we were both going on 2 hours of sleep the last two days. I think we both needed a bit of a mental break. We set the alarm for 3:40AM and crashed. Day 1 conclusion, birds 2, good guys 0.
Note to self, never rely on the your cell phone alarm when you are in an area with poor signal that drains your battery overnight. Needless to say we missed the gobbles on roost that morning. We got up, loaded our stuff back into the truck and headed for the hunting grounds.
Shortly after arriving we spotted a lone tom along a creek bottom in a walk in area. We parked and slowly worked our way into a position we felt like was perfect for getting a shot off. We called, sat, called, sat, NOTHING. Maybe we spooked him going in? Maybe he headed the other direction? We got up, walked up the creek a bit to check it out. Again nothing. As we turned to head back to the pickup, wouldn’t you know it. The Tom zigged when we zagged. He circled back in on us from the east. So, here we are in the wide open at 125 yards with the bird on full alert leaving the country fast. Joel was cussing himself for making this mistake, but the reality is we probably would not have gotten shot at him anyway from that direction. It was a valuable lesson for a rookie like me for sure. As we crested the corn stubble field en route to the pickup this bird took flight and buzzed the pickup sitting on the road some 600 yards away. We laughed…sort of.
We setup in a couple more spots that day that looked good for turkeys, but no success. When I’m hunting in an area new to me, I always like to stop and visit with the locals. As I was really starting to lose my drive, we passed a nice gentleman fixing fence. I jumped out and starting jawing with him. Wouldn’t you know it, he says, why don’t you go hunt my land. I have a 40 in one spot and another smaller spot, but it’s a highway for birds. We checked out the “highway” and it’s a great spot but not something we wanted to burn the few hours we had left on. Over to the 40 we go. It’s a thick creek bottom full of oaks. It felt very turkeyish in there. We got to the bottom and setup in a great strutting area. Joel did some calling but no response. We sat there for quite a while with nothing. Then Joel heard something. We made sure we were concealed he started calling again. The bird sounded off, much closer now. Unfortunately it was so thick and he came in so fast and silent we didn’t see him until he spotted us. Busted again. Our plan was to leave this bird for a few hours and come back and try him from a different direction.
We spent some more time looking at the walk in areas and sure enough we spotted a tom and hen on a spot we had seen turkeys consistently both days. We decided to be aggressive again as our time was dwindling fast. We setup the blind and decoys and called to these birds with only a single gobble for a response. An hour later, we packed our bags. Grilled some brats on the side of the road and officially ended our 2011 spring turkey seasons. Day 2 conclusion, turkeys 2, good guys 0.
As a rookie, I learned a ton of stuff from Joel this weekend. While our hunt wasn’t successful in the sense of filling our tags, I personally thought it was a great success. Anytime you can spend that much time together with that many laughs, it’s hard to beat. The last pic is my fearless guide after the wind and rain beat his butt the first day. Thanks again for the great time Joel! I’m looking forward to doing it again next year. 
