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4x4
Grand Slammer
Hunt
For The Merriam's
(Hunts compliments of
Double
K Guide Service)
Doug Crabtree
Gets the First Merriam's
 First
Merriam's hunt - After his Texas Rio
hunt Doug drove to Pierre, South Dakota and bought his license. He
arrived at Double K Guide Service in Gregory, SD at 4:45pm.
Guide
Don Wing met Doug and they went to an area where Wing had located Merriam's.
Doug set his Double Bull blind up at 6:15 and started calling.
Hens
yelped and one came to the blind. Other hens joined it and two fought,
charging and beating each other with their wings.
During
the commotion Doug saw 3 gobblers approach, he took a picture of some of
the birds
in front of him and then got his bow. When the gobblers were at 12
yards Doug drew.
His
arrow hit the bottom of the waddles and the longbeard collapsed. It was
6:50pm. The gobbler weighed 19 lbs. with a 9" beard and 1 1/8" spurs.
Day 1 - the rest
of us arrive at Dave Keiser's Double K Guide Service
Fred
Lutger, Tony Dukes and I rolled into Gregory, South Dakota at 9:00 pm and
met Dave Keiser at his Double K Guide Service. We had been in contact by
cell phone andDave is ready to take us wild turkey hunting in the morning.
Day 2 - A Triple
Header
  
Early
AM - Dave Keiser took Tony Dukes and Fred Lutger hunting and I went
with Charlie. We grabbed a cup of coffee and drove to his Wild Wings property.
I set my green Double Bull blind up on the edge of a 90 yard wide field
on a hill. Daylight trickled in and I heard distant gobbles.
A
lone turkey's silhouette appeared at the top of the hill. Others followed.
I took pictures as 27 turkeys walked downhill and ducked under a fence
at the uphill boundary of the field, on the opposite side from me.
When
I saw some red heads I clucked softly. 4 gobblers separated from the group
and with a little Knight & Hale slate call coaxing put on a show right
in front of me.
Across
the field 3 big longbeards strutted and did their thing with the hens at
hand.
I
took some super pictures. Here are
the highlights.
Day 2 - Triple
Header, I get lucky ... first!
 
Morning
-
One of the unique things about Dave Keiser's area is the rolling hills
and prairie grass. You can see a long way. Charlie was 1,000 yard away
and saw the birds leave and also could see that nothing was in sight. He
drove to me to go to a different area. First we took a 5 minute bread and
drove into Gregory for coffee to go. We returned to Charlie's place right
away.
Wild
turkeys were in a field across from Charlie's and walking towards his gravel,
farm road. Two big longbeards strutted in a group of hens and jakes We
turned onto the farm road, the left side was prairie and the right was
woods. When we turned a curve we passed a perpendicular, side lane through
the trees. Charlie told me the birds used it regularly. He zipped ahead,
stopped, and hid his pickup.
We
ran back to the side lane. Gobbles were getting close, the birds were coming
on the gravel road -- we were 65 yards down the lane. The Double Bull blind
only takes seconds to set up, and, with loud gobbles ringing in my ears,
I think I set a new record. Charlie returned to the truck.
Gobbles
were getting louder every minute. A jake
turned into the side lane and walked right to me.
But
the other birds continued down the gravel, farm road, it was 65 yards away.
The
jake
stepped into the woods, going to the other birds. I called but it didn't
turn the gobblers. I heard Charlie begin calling from somewhere further
down the lane.
But
the gobblers were occupied, strutting for the hens and jakes. I waited.
The gobbles continued but the hens and jakes left the road and walked into
the prairie.
I
had to do something -- and I had an idea.
Inside
the blind, I picked up my bow and Double Bull chair and then grabbed the
top hub of the blind with my other hand, and lifted the blind a foot and
walked ti 30 yards down the lane.
When
I set it down I peeped through a window and, through the dried grass and
limbs, I saw the back of a fan. Had they seen me?
No!
They were too busy doing turkey stuff.
And
now, due to the curve n the road, I was only 20 yards from them. Close,
but they would have to come back to the lane for me to get a shot.
I
grabbed my new camera and focused on the gobblers.
The
gobblers co-operated nicely and I got some Merriam's eye candy. For some
reason the gobblers stayed on the road. A loud, raspy voiced hen returned
to the road, yelping continuously. I got it's pic yelping
at the gobblers. More hens returned and the gobblers showed off big.
Then
the yakety hen started walking -- toward the lane!
I
took it's pic when it was in
the clear. This was a good thing. My guess was the gobblers would follow.
They
did, and painfully slow, strutting and posturing all the way.
 
The first gobbler
entered the clear spot, I took it's pic, and it turned to the other gobbler
and they did some sort of goofy looking bowing thing. Then one of the gobblers
walked into the clear. I couldn't resist one
last pic.
 
I had already range findered
the tree in the above pic as 25 yards. The big Tom was strutted up so I
had to be extra careful. I drew and put my top pin on the gobbler, between
the legs and then up, above the forward leg.
I released.
Down on the spot.
The other birds ran to the
downed gobbler. The jakes pecked him. I swapped my bow for my camera and
got two pics.
And then Charlie took my
picture.
The gobbler weighed 25 pounds
and had a 10 1'4" beard and 1 1/4" very sharp, spurs. What a super morning.
Life is good.
Day 2 - Triple
Header, Fred's Turn In The pit
Dave Keiser took Fred Lutger
to a field where he had set up a Double Bull blind the night before. There
were trellises to Fred's left and right and before daylight he heard gobbles
from both directions.
At good light the birds
flew down across the field in front of Fred. They were moving his way.
Two gobblers were strutting and when they got closer Fred saw 2 longbeards,
several jakes and 10 hens. They main group passed close but the longbeards
kept their distance.
The birds disappeared. At
8:30 Fred heard one bird gobble at the treeline to his right. Fred yelped
at it. The gobbler answered enthusiastically and started coming.
Fred had the blind's windows
closed on the right side, one was open so he could shoot when a gobbler
approached the decoys.
Fred heard the gobbler spitting
and drumming behind the blind. Through the horizontal Pro Staff window
Fred saw a longbeard in full strut, advancing toward the decoys.
Because he could follow
the gobblers progress through the horizontal window Fred knew when to draw,
and did it just before the big Tom entered the open shooting window.
Spitting & drumming
in full strut the gobbler walked right to the decoys. Fred's arrow hit
and the Tom staggered. It ran 30 yards and stopped. Fred shot him again.
It ran into a creek
bottom. Fred followed it.
The gobbler was in the creek
bed. Fred walked to it, it was still alive and Fred dove on it, grabbing
it by the secondary tail feathers -- and pulled out a handful (notice it
in the picture below). Fred grabbed the longbeard again, by a foot and
the head.
Fred carried it back to
the blind, it was 9:05.
Dave was going to pick him
up at 11:00 so Fred got back in the blind with his video camera. He called
in 5 more gobblers during the next 2 hours and got some excellent video
footage for his TV Show.
This is Fred Lutger's
3rd out of the 4 necessary for his Grand Slam.
Tony Dukes Completes
the Triple Header
Dave Keiser did the run
and gun with Tony Dukes. By 9:00 they had worked 4 groups of turkey and
had 3 sets of gobblers in. The 3rd was the charm.
They saw a gobbler on the
edge of a cedar wind row and went 300 yards past it and set up the Double
Bull blind. Dave called and got an immediate gobble.
Dave videoed the gobbler--he
is videoing hunts for Double Bull Archery's new video--as it came in on
a strutting trot. Dave called all the way and the Tom gobbled and strutted
to 15 yards. Dave was filming and calling in the window Tony needed to
shoot out of. They switched positions.
Tony got the arrow off in
tight quarters. The gobbler collapsed on the spot.
Dave shouted, "That was
awesome, what did you shoot him with?"
Tony grinned, "My Rocky
Mountain Assassin."
Dave answered, "They'll
love this footage at Double Bull."
Tony replied, "Yea Brooks
eat you heart out."
They recovered the gobbler
and picked up Fred and his gobbler (see below).
When they arrived in camp I had my gobbler also. (see
below.) Three in one morning, a Tripple Header!
Back at camp Tony told
me, "It was great hunting with Dave Keiser, this was my most fun turkey
hunt ever."
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