South Dakota Hunting (need some help)

[camoman79]

A couple of guys and myself are planning on going to south dakota to try and whack some merriams on film this next season. The only problem is that we've never hunted SD and are trying to find where to start. Does anyone have any advice on where we could go and have a good chance at getting on some birds. I've also heard a little about hunting tribal reservations. Any help would be appreciated.

[bosstom3]

Try the Black hills area. I stayed in Custer SD and you can hunt the Black hills National Forest which is all over the area. There are all kinds of maps on the internet of the Black hills. One note, once you find those birds you are set, but they cover alot of ground in a days time. Hope this helps. I am plannin another trip out there next spring.

[jghoffman12]

I agree. try the Black Hills National Forest. There is more land than you can ever cover and the turkeys seem to be pretty evenly disbursed. Look for areas that are moderate terrain; stuff you can walk. Also, use the logging roads and don't be afraid to walk for miles. Get good shoes and listen for gobbles all day long. I'm going back for the 3rd straight year this spring and can't wait.

[mez]

Like was suggested the Black Hills are great for turkey's. There are more public acres than you could hunt the entire season and the birds are everywhere.

I would steer clear of the tribal situation unless you have a good guide. There are a ton of turkeys on tribal ground but also a lot of headaches. You need a special tribal license to hunt the lands. There is a lot of deeded ground intermixed with the tribal ground on the reservations. Your tribal tag doesn't work on the deeded ground and a state tag isn't valid on tribal lands. The boundaries are not marked and in a lot of cases not well defined. Unless you are going with someone through the tribe I would avoid that.

The Hills are beautiful in the spring, plenty of turkeys and plenty of land to hunt them on.