Sodak Bound....

[HD]

Jr and I are heading for Sodak in the morning.....searching for the elusive, but still killable Merriam turkey...
(stole Cookies catch phrase)

Auggie is putting us up in his cabin, and hopefully he will be joining us on this adventure! We have great folks here on MNO, and this going to be EPIC!

I'm not sure how much cell coverage we will have out there, but, we will keep you posted as much as possible.

Our food shopping is done, along with the beer & the truck is loaded....wwaaaaaa whooooooo!

[mike89]

good luck to you guys!!!

tell Auggie I still want to ride down there and meet him!!  and "look" at his garden!!!

be safe!!

[HD]

We made it out!
LONG drive....
Hundreds of deer out here.
Did some scouting last night, seen some hens, no Tom's.
Lots of folks out looking for birds. Ran into 3 different groups.

[dew2]

Where in SD are yah HD??Good luck go get em!!
 Great guy Auggie!

[HD]

We're in the black hills, very little cell coverage out here.

[glenn57]

We're in the black hills, very little cell coverage out here.

good luck PUTZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST hope noone mistakes you fer a 

[Rebel SS]

We expect some good turkey pics!   

[HD]

We expect some good turkey pics!   

How am I gonna get pictures of Glenn out here? 

[Rebel SS]

 

[glenn57]

We expect some good turkey pics!   

How am I gonna get pictures of Glenn out here? 

yea so much for poor reception!!!!!!!!!!! tut_tut-3315.gif

[mike89]

 

[HD]

Very windy here today and the birds aren't making a sound, real hard to find them.

Here is a hen we had come in this morning.

[LPS]

Drop some peanuts off the deck of your cabin.  We had turkeys walking by the deck where we stayed there last summer...     Have morning coffee and shoot a turkey while you still have your pajamas on...   A Gentlemens Hunt...

[dew2]

Drop some peanuts off the deck of your cabin.  We had turkeys walking by the deck where we stayed there last summer...     Have morning coffee and shoot a turkey while you still have your pajamas on...   A Gentlemens Hunt...

pajamas??Uffta maggie da girls dont go fer dat

[dew2]

Very windy here today and the birds aren't making a sound, real hard to find them.

Here is a hen we had come in this morning.

Hearin em walkin out?? yote sounds,Owl tried em to hear anything?

[dakids]

Had a big Tom cornered in Blaine friday.

[dew2]

Any update HD??

[Auggie]

3 tags......3 birds! Their luck changed for the better when I showed up Saturday. I'd like to say it was my doing, but the wind going down pry had everything to do with it! I'm sure HD will post some pics when time allows..great trip!!

[HD]

I finally got all the gear put away, and now it's time for the story of the adventure.....

From our door to Auggie's cabin, it's a 10 hour drive. Going out there, seemed a lot shorter than the return trip. probably from the excitement of getting there. once you get into the plains part of Minnesota, you see wind generators all over South West....

[Rebel SS]

God, I HATE those ugly things!!!   

[HD]

Driving through rain and drizzle for most of the way, we finally pull into the hills of the Sodak. It had just snowed a few days before, and it was still cold with heavy winds. If you have turkey hunted before, cold and windy shuts them down from talking, making them hard to locate. So, we did a lot of driving around the hills just looking for birds. We only saw hens in one spot, and decided to set up a blind to wait out the wind to calm down.

[HD]

We did not have much luck by hunting in the blind, and only had a single hen come in. With no way to plan for the hunt, we decided Friday night that we would sleep in and wait for Auggie to show up. (he had meetings to go to, so he couldn't travel out with us) Saturday morning came, and the wind had calmed down considerably, so we took off looking for birds with Auggie. On on one of the back roads, we saw some birds strutting in a small opening by a creek. We decided to try and cut off their travel by climbing the hill side and descending on them to get a shot. But by the time we headed down to them, they crossed the creek, and up the other hill side.

[mike89]

that would be my luck!!

[HD]

So, it was back on the trails looking of birds....we traveled several trails looking, when we came over this rise and found several birds on the trail. Auggie stopped the truck, Jr jumped out with his gun, loaded it, one of the Toms stopped to watch him...big mistake....BOOM!......... DEAD BIRD DOWN!

[HD]

That evening we "roosted" or "put the birds to bed" the group we had seen that morning. The plan was to return the next morning and set up on them. The next morning came, and we headed out. We got up to the spot and decided to split up in case the birds decided to go a different way off of this hill....well, that's exactly what they did when they got down out of the tree, they went the opposite way from us. So....back to hitting the trails.... We traveled quite a few roads before we came upon a meadow with a few Toms strutting around a single hen. I told Auggie I would like to try and put a stalk on them, so he stopped the truck. I had some trees between them and me with a rock basin to cross. As soon as I got to the rocks, I got busted by another Tom that was there in full strut....he dropped his feathers and ran towards the trees and past through the other turkeys. I thought I was done, but kept going.... once I got to the tree line, I could see that the running Tom had not spooked the others, and 4 Toms were still strutting around this single hen. I poked my gun out through a crotch of a tree...beaded up the biggest one up and let her fly.....BOOM....DEAD BIRD DOWN!

[HD]

After all that excitement, to kill some time, we did a little sight seeing....
Checked out Crazy Horse, The Needle and Mt Rushmore....

And as we headed back, we saw some Mule Deer & Whitetail on the back roads...

(Whitetail deer are EVERYWHERE out there)

[mike89]

crazy horse does not look any more done than it was 24 years ago when I was there.  interesting.

[HD]

That evening, Auggie had said that he was going to go out and check some spots and roost some birds. Jr was tired from all the running around and wanted to take a nap, so me and him stayed behind. It didn't take long and Auggie came back to the cabin. Jr said "He must have forgotten something" I said "I betcha he got a bird"

I was right....Auggie got his bird while checking different spots......DEAD BIRD DOWN!

He'll have to give you the whole story, because I don't wanna get it wrong.

This was an AWESOME adventure! And, I have to give credit where credit is due...
Auggie was a pretty darn good guide in helping us get birds! Not to mention letting us stay in his cabin, that was very gracious, and very much appreciated!

THANKS AUGGIE!

[glenn57]

great read there HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[snow1]

Well that was a fun picture story read....thanx for sharing.