After lunch Dave Keiser and Jeff Neil took us to a new area. We got set up and waited. But nothing happened with Collin and I. However Fred had a gobbler hang up on him. Then I followed Dave to another area and set up the blind and decoys in large open area with slopes on 3 sides; front, right and left.
Robert Hoague sets up a jake and hen decoy 8 yards in front of the Double Bull ground blind.
At 5:58 pm we heard a distant gobble and I yelped an answer. The second gobble was noticeably closer. At 6:02 I saw him in the trees to our left. He came out to look things over.
The gobbler steps out of the trees along a gulch and walks into view.
The gobbler let fly with several gobbles and I gave him some cuts to think about. Good deal, he looked interested.
He strutted up and showed his impressive profile. And came closer.
The gobbler struts several times on the way.
He came toward the decoys. Strutting, gobbling and walking as he got closer. Here is he at 25 yards.
Right now he is about 25 yards away.
For some reason only turkey gobblers know, he angled away from the decoy and stopped briefly 35-40 yards from the blind.
Then the gobbler walked up on the hill to our right and stopped to watch things. The time was 6:04. He was 65 yards away.
This is a nice looking gobbler, very iridescent, an Eastern and not a Merriam’s. He continued to gobble and it looked good for him to come back where we were.
He hung for 10 minutes and then was done with us. At 6:31 he walked away toward the hill and woods in front on the blind.
At 6:32 two gobblers walked along the top of a rise to our left. They looked at our decoys but weren’t interested. They walked off into the trees the first gobbler had came from.
Half an hour later at 7:06 the sun turned the sky yellow as it dropped below the horizon.
We pulled the blind, chairs and decoys and trudged to my pickup. The dinner at Dave Keiser’s lodge was good. Two other turkey hunters had arrived and one bagged two Merriam’s this afternoon.
I turned in as soon as I could so I could get some sleep before the 5:00-am wake up call.
We are hunting with Double K Guide Service in Gregory, South Dakota. For more information visit www.doublekguides.com or Email dave@doublekguides.com or call Dave Keiser at 605-830-2091.
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