This morning Tim and I made some fun turkey history for us in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We set up on a gobbling gang about 75 yards in front of us. As first light came, I saw two toms strutting on the roost. They were eagerly answering our tree yelps and the hunt was on! The two toms flew off the roost in our direction and we both anxiously awaited the red heads to pop up over the rise. Then, the silent hens flew down the draw to the bottom and the toms went with them. We decided to make a big loop and find a manageable descent route ahead of them. We got down to a promising bench and set up under a tree. When I called we got a couple or three energetic responses. With guns at the ready, I had a nice strutter drum up over the rise. The 10 gauge barked and a second bird crested the rise and Tim popped him. First double down at 6:35AM. We then decided to take a 5 mile hike through the resident bison herd and no more toms talking. Then, we made the difficult decision to head back to the bottom for the second time. Did I mention these hills are steep?! We had a couple of toms answer, but they didn't want to play. We agreed to head back for breakfast and the big camera. The morning had been so good, we decided to prospect call along the road out. At our last stop, we struck a flock across a deep ravine. Neither of us paused to embark on another hunt. We made it above where we thought the birds would be and caught two gobblers fighting with their necks intertwined. We dropped in under a large pine and had another strutter come off the wood line. I wanted to make sure Tim had a shot, so I didn't take the single bird and he went back into the cover. I decided to sneak out the back to see what the two fighting birds were doing. After only three steps, looking over my shoulder Tim smoked the single strutter with his 20 gauge at 50 steps. His shot broke the fighters and I dropped one of those longbeards. It was 9:35AM, exactly 3 hours after our first double! It just couldn't have been better.
