Black Hills 2012

[Gopherlongbeards]

The turkey tracks club hunts a lot of private land. This means ranches, which are usually (not always) low altitude. There you get a mix of merriams (if its early season, or a late spring and they haven't started moving back up into the hills) and plains hybrids. Every bird I have killed or seen killed out there was a choppy gobbling, thin bearded, snow tailed merriams taken at altitude. And the majority of hunting at altitude is done in BHNF i.e. public land. Hence, no turkey tracks hunts. Also, if you only want to shoot a pure white merriams, don't pull the trigger on a plains bird. Its ok to let one walk if he's not the bird you want.

[perrysbirds]

Does anyone have a picture of what they would consider a real nice merriams...
I would like to see the white in one and how one looks..
thanks perry

[roycefromrc]

If you go to team 5 on this board and go to score!!! you can look at the pics of my snowy little jake I shot last year.

[turkey junky]

gopherlongbeards has a beautiful merriams on his profile pic you can see it on this page i would take that bird any day as a merriams perrybirds ... i have shot whiter but pictures dont do them justice so i would say gopherlongbeards bird in the pic was snow white in person i have seen the pics of the 2 you guys shot in the black hills last season gopherlongbeards & they have a creamy color to them so it must be the pics??? i hope?


happy to see somebody else has herd of or knows about the hybrids that roam lower elevations in the black hills of SD i also have seen plenty of creamy buff tan color supposed merriams on the wyoming side coming from the 7 J outfitters who can & do guide in the black hills national forest on both sides of the black hills you can hear them get excited when they shoot a snow white true merriams they say man that is a pretty 1 isn't it??? well if they all were snow white in color up in them hills they wouldnt have a ugly/creamy buff tan color bird to compair they all should be pretty & snow white like a true merriams...


i try to make it a point to hunt in regions of the country that have pure strain wild turkey sub species that way if i travel over 10+ hours to hunt a specific state & sub species i will know that the turkey i pull the trigger on will be & look like the sub species i am supposed to be hunting in that state/region... my 1st time out west after merriams i was in a area known for tons of merriams on public land & i tagged a tom & was happy as could be then i got back to the truck & my dad had scored also we laid the birds out next to each other my dads 2 turkeys were snow white in color true merriams color & my bird was buff/cream/tan color on his back & tips of tail fan & it had a totally different body color iridescence as well??? we took em to a local taxidermist & he said you guys did good you got both kinds of birds we have out here??? i said what he said yeah we had some joker release some rio grande & white farmyard turkeys into the area & the rio grandes & merriams hybridized & some of the birds come out looking like rios... i later went into high high ponderosa hill country & tagged a snow white merriams but i was bummed that the birds in the region i was hunting were not all what they were supposed to be i dont want the same to happen in the SD/WY black hills so like gopherlongbeards says i may have to let a few birds pass by B4 i shoot 1 if they are looking like rios color wise???

also some of them SD prairie units has some pure strain merriams they are isolated by geography & cant mix/hybrid with any other birds in many of them units less hills also more creek bottom & crop field hunts rather then nomadic hill country merriams hunts...

i am after a snow white stud merriams gobbler to get mounted i have 1 in the freezer but i think this yr i could get 1 with better spurs & more white on his tips of fan so im going after it hard... i also have a taxidermist friend in kansas that if i give em a tom turkey he can mount & display in his shop he will do a mount for me for free so i may have to take em up on that & get me a stud rio to add to the wall mounts???

[turkey junky]

from what i could see of that bird royce that bird looked like a mice merriams & i couldnt see that fan but what i could see almost looked like it was a tom's fan??? think we could get another pic of that bad boy posted some wear??? also any pics from ghopherlongbeards would be sweet also thanks guys & keep the info on the black hills coming

[turkey junky]

after looking again at gopherlongbeards pics from last yrs SD black hills hunt they are merriams for sure!!! nice birds man...

hope i get 1 like that if not more white the 1s i got last season were all snow white just 2 yr olds hope n for a nicer pair of spurs or a thicker white band on my tips of tail fan... im going to be hunting more creek bottoms & sand hills this season in hopes of good spurs... the beards i got last season were decent 9-10 inch good for merriams not pencil thin like my 1st merriams ever just not a paint brush like our SE MN easterns

[perrysbirds]

I certainly hope not but you never know.....this might be the only time ever I get to hunt in Wyoming or South dakota and i would love to have a real nice Merriams in my trophy room up here in ontario......and bird that stands out...Ive got 5 days in April to make it happen...cant wait...

[turkey junky]

i understand ur trip is set perrysbirds but you may want to try & get out there around may to avoid bad weather & henned up/flocked up birds ??? i wont go out west any more until at least may 10-may 15 gut hit with snow a few times & dont care for it...

hope all goes well for you perrysbirds enjoy the hunt itself if it mite bu ur last merriams are unique as well is the terrain they live & wear you hunt them some of the most beautiful terrain turkeys live in is in the black hills & or mountain terrain wear turkey & elk tracks mingle with one another on the same trail...