Photos and video from the Black Hills.

[Cheetah]

Unfortunately I didn't take as many photos as past hunts. It is hard to use the camera while also holding the bow and trying to call all at the same time. I managed to get a few decent snippets of video that I pieced together to share.

[sticknstring]

Sweet video & great pics Cheetah! The black hills sure are a neat place to hunt.

[DonBo]

Awesome footage Josh! Why weren't you shooting those bad boys?

[Cheetah]

Awesome footage Josh! Why weren't you shooting those bad boys?

I was using my bow at the time. Most in the video are too far. Any that were close either wouldn't hold still or had brush and stuff in the way. After 3 days of games on that spot I think I have them figured out for next year.

[Cheetah]

Let me re-phrase that.

The birds up through 1:57 were close enough but I had the blind in a poor spot. When in front of me they were below the lip of the logging road I had set up on and I could barely see them. When I could, they were behind the brush or my decoys were in the way. When they would go up next to me on the road, they never stood still long enough and it was a severe angle out of the edge of the slit in the blind to shoot through. Then they liked to go above me and I couldn't see jack squat out those holes in the blind. It was the first morning anyway so I was happy to just drive them nuts by calling and making them gobble in front of me.

The birds after 2:00 in the video were too far for a bow. They had other ideas on where to go and had no intention of coming any closer to me or my decoys.

[Scoot]

Nice work, Cheetah!

[hunter322]

Man those meriams are beautiful birds.

[plannerman]

Great video and pics! Love the hen decoy, you create that yourself or is it a "store bought" Merriams hen? Interested in locating a Merriams looking hen for western hunts.

[leech~~]

I was going to say that setup on the edge of a rise is a tough one to get a shot! Glad you picked one out! Nice bird.

[Cheetah]

Plannerman, my dekes are old featherflex decoys I think. Lots of paint worn off so I added white bars to the heads, wings and tail tips. They need a lot more creme/white color to their backs to be better merriams decoys. I use them so rarely that I haven't taken the time to fix them up more...

[hugonian1]

Good stuff there Cheetah.