Twenty-one hunters and over 30 volunteers recently gathered at Sioux River Wildlife near Flandreau, South Dakota for the 19th Annual Wheelin’ Sportsmen Rooster Round Up pheasant hunting event. 

This year’s event was made possible by the South Dakota NWTF State Chapter and South Dakota Game Fish and Parks.

Sioux River Wildlife is a family-run hunting preserve, with hundreds of acres of hunting land on the bluffs of the Big Sioux River. The preserve’s native prairie grasses, food plots, shelterbelts and ponds provide the perfect assemblage of habitat for native wildlife and upland game. In support of the NWTF’s Wheelin’ Sportsmen program, Sioux River Wildlife owners Tad and Kathy Jabobs hosted the Wheelin’ event at the preserve for the 10th year this year.

The event brought together participants from previous years as well as many new faces. NWTF volunteers and dog owners helped work the fields, moving the birds towards the hunters.

Despite the unseasonable temperatures (reaching into the 90s), everyone had fun enjoying the beginning of hunting seasons and the foreseeable temperature drops. Altogether, hunters harvested 94 birds.

 The hunt was followed by a lunch, banquet dinner, raffles and silent auction to raise funds for the NWTF mission.

In addition to the partners mentioned, the 19th Annual Rooster Roundup was made possible thanks to County Fair Food Store, Rysavy Excavating, Central Valley Struttin’ Gobblers, Morning Optimist Club, Pendar Properties, Dell Rapids Ace Hardware, Tom Kromminga, Mike McKernan and Holly Hilbrands.

The Wheelin’ Sportsmen program began in October 2000 as the NWTF recognized the need to help people with mobility impairments enjoy the outdoors by participating in hunting and shooting sports.

Wheelin’ Sportsmen events provide participants an opportunity they may not be able to have on their own due to the lack of hunting land access, lack of knowledge of how to return to the field after an injury or lack of necessary assistance.

Often, the knowledge and experience gained at an NWTF Wheelin' Sportsmen event allows the participants to continue hunting on their own throughout the year.

Annual Camp Crook Youth Hunt Held

The South Dakota and Montana State Chapters combined efforts to host the 2023 NWTF Camp Crook Youth Turkey Hunt the first weekend of May. We had 4 youth hunters that had completed Hunt Safety courses, but had never hunted turkeys before. All of the youth got their first turkeys, adult Merriam's gobblers.

The NWTF Camp Crook Youth Turkey Hunt has support from many partners, the local 4-H Shooting Sports people who help select youth and provide breakfast and lunch, landowners who open up their land, U.S. Forest Service, NWTF volunteer guides and staff, Outfitters that donate lodging for the guides, and Bobby Cordell and Laurie Elmore who coordinates all of the pieces and players so they come together for a successful hunt.

The guides were Tony Tabisz, Dale Tribby, Rob & Justin Lyons, Collin Smith and Randy Gaskins. The youth hunters were Walker and Weston Dingfelder, Kane Olsen, and Dane Smith.