Several Derby City Pro Staffers are in the process of booking a 2011 spring turkey hunt.  We are looking at a number of possibilities for either Merriams, Goulds, or Rios.  We have been thinking about hunting in one of these states, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, or Texas.  We are looking for leads to several well established, good outfitters in these states.  We have even discussed hunting on Rosebud Indian Reservation.  If anyone has hunted there and has any insight on the Pros and Cons of hunting the Indian Reservation, please give us some feedback.

A good friend of mine, Scott Cronin, invited me to go on a hunting trip to Nebraska with him this past weekend.  Scott’s friends, Nick Brown and Steve “Fish” Callison were on the trip as well.  We went to Ponca Creek Outdoors in North Central Nebraska.  The country is beautiful and the turkey hunting was phenomenal.  

Each one of us killed two birds.  Scott and I hunted together on day one and tagged out.  After hunting a cut cornfield on the first morning,  we did some run and gun hunting early in the afternoon.  We struck a bird, put a short stalk on him, called to him a little, and Scott put him down at 60 yards.  This bird completed Scott’s 2nd grand slam.

That evening, Scott and I hunted the same cornfield we hunted in the morning.  We had an eventful morning at that location and wanted to get a shot at those birds again.  In the morning, we had three longbeards chasing and breeding hens all around us.  We knew they would be back later that evening.  I ended up shooting a true Merriams at about 4:30.  About 2 hours later, Scott and I pulled a double on two beautiful Hybrids.  My Magnum Aluminum call helped bag three of these day one birds.  It was the best day of turkey hunting I have ever had.

Nick and Fish hunted together and killed 2 longbeards on the first morning.  On day two, both of them killed their 2nd birds.  Nick and Fish hunted a cornfield that was loaded with turkey.  It was common for them to have 5-8 gobblers strutting in the field throughout the day.

It was a great trip.  We had a lot of fun and did some serious turkey hunting.  I came away from this trip with two nice gobblers, two new friends, and one truly good friend.  What a great way to end the 2010 spring turkey season.