Vanish's 2017 Spring Turkey Season

I've always been a hesitant turkey hunter. Growing up, they were kind of around, but nobody put any effort into hunting them. The last time I had called in a turkey (and missed!) I was less than half my current age. In May of 2016, with the weather uncooperative for our preferred method of spring fishing, I decided to give local Merriam's turkey hunting a try. I put in a fair number of miles over the course of 6 days worth of attempts, including two backpacking trips, and never heard nor saw anything related to turkeys.

While this wasn't exactly encouraging for future attempts, I really appreciated being out in the woods with a tag in my pocket as the world was coming back alive. I found plenty of other game - Deer, Elk, Moose and even Bighorn Sheep. Later that year, my wife hunted doe deer and one of the areas I had found and had plenty of opportunities.



Fast forward to April 7, 2017, the evening before turkey season opens and you'll find me in one of those areas again. But this time, there are turkeys there. After the mile hike, I crested over a ridge and was immediately hit with a gobble. Yes! I could hear hens clucking in the distance, and another gobbler. Finding a hidden place to watch a meadow, I settled in to watch and listen. Some deer were feeding ~100 yards off, and had my attention, when through the binoculars, a black shape appeared between us. A tom turkey! I held still and watched as he fed around that meadow, eventually making it far too close to me for my comfort (as seen in pic above).

I don't know if he saw me or just finished what he was doing, but he turned and fed back the other way. About half an hour later, another tom worked his way through and passed within 30 yards of me on his way to his roost. I waited for darkness to fall, and then attempted to located a roost to no avail. Well, at least they are around! After carefully navigating down the steep slope back to my car, I picked up FireTiger and we went to purchase our tags, prepared for excitement on the opener.

Good luck.

The morning of the opener found us ascending the steep grade in the dark. FireTiger is allergic to early mornings, but we made it to the ridge only a few minutes behind schedule. While the excitement was high, which helped us with the climb, it was tempered by the number of vehicles we had seen on the way to our parking spot. I had a feeling the area was known to the locals, but I didn't expect that many vehicles. My hope was that we'd be "behind" the crowd as we'd taken a route in to the back side of the area.

It didn't take long before we heard our first gobble, and I could see the excitement on FireTiger's face. This was her first time ever turkey hunting. I then heard some raspy clucks, which sounded and awful lot like a slate call to me. In hopes of finding a different turkey, we continued further in to give the other hunter some room to work the bird.

Cresting the next ridge, we were greeted with a different tom. We cut the distance and wound up unexpectedly close, with the tom working toward the other called. We set up and the tom was about 80 yards out, working from 2 o'clock to 8 o'clock. It seemed like he might pass by within range, but I hit him with a few calls from 20 yards behind FireTiger. He responded, but continued on his current path, which was more and more downhill. He passed by as close as 50 yards, but while responding, did not want to investigate my calls.

We looped back and downhill, hoping to catch him on the next gulley. With no response, we were a bit confused, but soon had turkeys moving uphill from 9 o'clock. They passed by also about 50 yards out. We were on a bit of a ridge, so FireTiger humped up the hill in hopes of catching them at the next ridge connection. She had a tom right at 40 yards but got busted by a hen while lining up the shot.

Meanwhile, I had 3 toms come and stand 40 yards below me. FireTiger had drawn the straw and I didn't even have a gun. A bit later I saw her coming back to me. It is very difficult to point to turkeys while your companion is trying to not twist an ankle on the rocks and pinecones.

The action in that area died down, so we moved on. We worked another tom for awhile, but he had moved onto private property and didn't seem like he was coming back. About 8:30am the sounds of turkeys stopped. We did some exploration and found a couple of hens roosted again. By 10am we decided to back out and leave them for another day.

Sounds like a great day in the turkey woods. Good luck on your next trip!

A couple days later, I headed up in the evening to try my luck. I knew there were turkeys around, but no dice. I'm sure they had been pushed pretty hard the day before. On the way out, I thought I heard a gobble on the roost, but it was hard to tell. Heading back down to my car, by pure luck, I shocked a gobbler simply by walking too close to his roost. Hey, that's good to know they roost this close to where I parked. It would be a reasonable spot to hunt before work.

Once home, my wife had been out and I was telling her the story when she got home. She immediately convinced me I should go after him. It was almost midnight, and I would need to be out of the house by 4:20am if I wanted to pull this off. I'd have about an hour of hunting before I'd need to head back to get to work on time.

I worked up the mountain in the dark, and got near the roost at about 5:20. I wasn't quite sure where to set up as the night before I had been too close and didn't want to bust the tom out of there inspecting the place. As I was trying to pick a tree, I heard a couple of clucks and was worried I would get busted, so I just picked the closest tree and sat down. That seemed to relax the turkey.

5:50 rolled around and it was starting to get light. A car door slammed in the distance, and this set the tom off. The gobbling in turn woke up a hen. There must be more turkeys nearby. They just did not shut up at this point. As the light turned into sunrise, I finally spotted the hen ... FAR TOO CLOSE! She was only 20-25 feet from me, in the tree next to me. Alright ... definitely have to be careful not to get busted.

The turkey talk continued until 6:30, when the tom finally flew down about 30 yards to my left, straight into a strut. There was a bit of a rise between us, so I didn't have a shot. He started heading towards the hen in the tree and I mentally prepared --- when he pops out from that big ponderosa, bang..! Of course, that's not what he did. He tormented me by turning back and repeating that sequence three times, then finally a hen flew down, more uphill and further away. The close hen was still clucking away next to me.

Finally, she joined them and the hens started uphill. The tom had moved closer, and the top of his back and head were visible above the rise. He stopped, periscoped to look at something, and I took this as my opportunity. BANG! He did not flop over, but rather looked around and scurried up the hill after the hens. What the heck?! ...



Of course ... I can't believe I did that. I did this same thing last year while pronghorn hunting. When looking through a scope, the trajectory is slightly different than your line of view. The path of the bullet (shot) is slightly lower than your site picture ... I blasted that rise real good!

Oh well, guess I'll have to keep hunting.

I've done that before!

Vanish.

I love following your stories. You enjoy the hunt and it comes through in your writing.

Keep after it and good luck.

Thanks bobbydean!

The next outing was an evening after work. FireTiger had the gun this time. Unfortunately, there was no action to be had.



That is, until 8 minutes before sunset. We had pretty much given up when I walked out on a cliff edge and let out a crow call. Holy cow I got an answer back straight downhill from me. FireTiger looked at me and said "I'm not going down there with only 8 minutes left!" as it was pretty steep. So, I did the only reasonable thing and dropped my pack, grabbed the gun, and bombed down the slope. At the very least, I figured I would find another roost tree.

It took me 7 minutes to catch up to him. He was unfortunately still on the move. I ranged him at 62 yards, well out of my comfort zone. The hen calls were too late. Not enough time for a true setup. All I could do was watch him continue down the hill. I never did roost him as he kept heading near straight down the mountain, but I had a feeling I should be in this area on my next attempt.

The weekend rolled around, and I made plans to go backcountry ice fishing with some friends on Saturday, as I figured the area would be hit hard. I drove past the area on my way to the trailhead just before sunrise, and there was nobody there?! Surprised at the lack of pressure, I decided I needed to get in there on Sunday.

With the early start the day before, FireTiger opted to sleep in. Before 4:30, I was on my way. I worked my way into the area where I had left the tom the other day and gave it some time before I tried any locator or turkey calls. Silence. Time moved on, and I worked my way slowly around the area. Still nothing. As it was approaching 7:00 I figured I must have made a mistake and they did not roost on this part of the mountain, and I should head towards where we had found them earlier.

I was walking up the ridge toward a nice glassing spot when I finally heard a gobble in the direction I was headed. I attempted jogging up the hill but apparently my cardio isn't quite as good as I thought. Still, I cut the distance considerably. He was in yet a different canyon than I'd heard turkeys before. There was a large meadow I had to cross to get in position and I was a little leery about exposing myself crossing it. Luckily, after I'd crossed he was still over the ridge. I could tell he wasn't too far away and figured this would be a good position to set up. He'd half to come over the ridge to find the calling and I would be there waiting for him.

I set up a decoy and took a dozen steps on my way to a tree to set up against when I caught sight of a fan ... crap! He's already over the ridge and only about 50 yards away. I dove to the ground and just laid motionless. He hadn't caught me. I decided patience was the key ... I'd wait until he saw the decoy and walked over - no calling needed. It seemed like it was working as he closed to 40 yards, but due to my awkward positioning, I didn't have a shot. Still, I figured this was it, I was going to get a shot at this bird. Another gobble down lower in the canyon, and then some hens clucking. Things started to go south. This got the tom's attention and he reversed course. It gave me a chance to shift positions, but he was out of range. I'd have to call.

Well, this went on for a good 30 minutes. I don't know if he never saw the decoy, didn't like the way it looked or just didn't care, but I could not get him to break the 40 yard barrier. Finally, he started to drift downhill away from me and away from the other turkeys. I had some cover between us, so I tried to cut the distance. I think he was playing with me. Every time I would get to 50 yards, think I could cut off 15 more, and then he would be at 50 yards again. Eventually, I got too aggressive and he moved off even more, so I bailed on him.

Meanwhile, there was still a tom gobbling down in the bottom of the canyon. While pursuing the previous tom, I made the mistake of setting my box call down next to a ponderosa. I was on the edge of a large meadow, so it should be easy to figure out which tree I left it next to, right?? No, it wasn't. I wasted probably 15 minutes looking for that damn call. This was long enough that the flock in the canyon headed off somewhere else. I was able to get the tom to respond, but he wasn't coming my way. At one point I had a herd of doe mulies come over to about 20 yards and laugh at my calling. Talk about denigrating.

I packed up and worked my way to the highest point around. It definitely seemed like turkeys had been working up here, but I hadn't heard a call in almost an hour. Working my way back towards my entry point, I was nearing the same meadow where I saw the tom the night before the season when I thought I heard a gobble. Giving a call, I got a response! Moving downhill was a lot faster than up. I neared a rock drop off and called again, and it seemed like he was coming and was not that far off. Decoy up, peak over the rocks and there's a fan! This time though, I was prepared and not exposed. I huddled up against a tree, gave a couple soft clucks and waited. It didn't take long and he strutted up through those rocks about 25 yards out. I already had the gun ready.



The hike back to the car, even with 20 extra pounds on my back went by like a flash. (Note: my quads are still hurting from going down that canyon without my trekking poles! ). After cleaning him up, we called up some friends and arranged a dinner party for that evening.

Nice looking bird. Glad you were able to share him with friends.

Great job, beautiful bird!

You have located a great area! Name that bird persistence and get back up there with FT and get another one!!

Awesome!!

Wednesday morning was predicted to be the only decent weather this week, so we made the plan to do the bonsai pre-work hunt. This only gives us a little under 2 hours of hunting time, but its probably the best time. It makes for a long day, but hey, you aren't going to get a turkey while sleeping.

We arrived at the parking spot at 4:45am and began the climb. I made my first call just after legal shooting light (though it seemed dark to me yet!) and immediately got a response. Hooray! We dove down the hill and it sounded like we had cut the distance, but we may have gone too far and pushed them, as the next reply was from farther off. Chasing them across the hillside, we finally got several responses in one canyon not too far off.

I set up the decoy while FireTiger nestled in next to a pine about 20 yards ahead. It was far too open for my liking but I was well hidden behind a bush and with it being open, the chance of them seeing the decoy seemed high. After a 20 minute battle with a real hen, she finally got curious and wandered over. Two jakes were on her tail. Unfortunately, they circled and came past uphill and to our right instead of downhill to the left like we expected based on their original position. They were still within range, but FireTiger elected not to risk spooking them.

Another fun morning in the woods.

Great story, Nice Bird

We had a bit of a battle with a tom last week, but ran out of pre-work time and had to leave him. I'm going to try to roost a bird tonight for FireTiger. Tomorrow morning may be our last chance to get out. I am concerned about the hunting pressure I expected the area to get over the weekend (we were several hours west fishing) but what can ya do?

Good luck!!!!

Well, the place we've been hunting is now inaccessible to due runoff. It was bound to happen eventually.

I decided to venture in another local area and scout it out. There were a couple of places that looked like they held turkeys at some point, but I couldn't elicit any gobbles via hen or crow call.

At least it was a great hike. Saw probably a dozen deer, as well.

Well, the place we've been hunting is now inaccessible to due runoff. It was bound to happen eventually.

I decided to venture in another local area and scout it out. There were a couple of places that looked like they held turkeys at some point, but I couldn't elicit any gobbles via hen or crow call.

At least it was a great hike. Saw probably a dozen deer, as well.

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Awesome pictures and beautiful dog!
We need to sit down when I get back from this "trip" and set something up for next year.