I can relate Vanish. I went up to a prime knob and got a gobbler to respond to my calls about 500 or so feet below me with an hour of daylight left. I made a mad dash downhill while trying to keep him talking. I know I was close, probably 100 yards or less with 15 minutes of light left and he went totally silent. Maybe I came in too fast and he knew something was up or he was just being a turkey. Nice to get into a bird though.
2018 Colorado Turkey Thread
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I hope with the 'upgrades' of their tech that CPW is going to allow for some kind of e-reporting. I don't like adding bureaucracy, but NM's system (have to file a harvest report before applying the next year) seems to work well without being onerous (of course they are dealing with a fraction of the hunters and all limited tags). In the age of information, it's a little head-scratching that harvest reports outside the big 3 are still a 'pull' model based on (random) phone-call-based reporting for all species.
Desk Pop
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Awesome birds
Yes! That's the exact kind of system I would be pushing these days. Had a tag last year and want to apply this year? Report your previous year's hunt. It could all be handled inside the new system, now that everyone is required to login.
Its not looking good for me getting out with my dad this year. Next weekend is the BHA cook off, so I'll want to be here for that, and the following weekend they're heading on vacation. As far as I know he hasn't found any yet, but I don't know how hard he's trying.
AvidIndoorsman
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I got out there this weekend but unlike vanish, can only attribute my failure to being a poor hunter 
Last year I was able to luck into a tom in the ramparts and this year I have been trying to find a new location and just explore a bit as I'm new to the front range. I picked a spot last week in 581 after doing some E-scouting using the turkey winter concentration layer from Colorado Hunt Atlas. Friday was painful as I was excited to get out of work and put some boots on the ground, my goal was to hike in that night a few mile and try to be in range to hear birds on the roost. Sadly traffic kicked my butt and right as I pulled into the parking lot, about 20 min before sunset, I realized that I forgot my sleeping bag... I had everything else, including my inflatable pillow, just not the one really important thing for camping. Well if you are going to be dumb you gotta be tough? At least that's what my father-n-law tells me... so I grabbed every piece of clothing I had in my car and made it work. At 4:45 cold as hell I got moving and kept my ears open. For the next 5 hours I hiked my butt off looking for birds but didn't hear a thing. Around 10:30 after covering around 9-10 miles I headed back to the trail head. Strangely enough there were 5 trucks in the lot, clearly all hunters with all the bow and rifle cases in the cabs. Given that I hadn't heard anyone else call or shoot and the only thing I can figure is I had picked the entirely wrong part of the area to hunt.
All said and done, Saturday was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular, steep red canyons with green river bottoms ... not sure if I'm head back to the same trail-head this weekend or going to try somewhere else, but chasing toms is undeniably a great reason to get out of the house in the spring and explore.
Last year I was able to luck into a tom in the ramparts and this year I have been trying to find a new location and just explore a bit as I'm new to the front range. I picked a spot last week in 581 after doing some E-scouting using the turkey winter concentration layer from Colorado Hunt Atlas. Friday was painful as I was excited to get out of work and put some boots on the ground, my goal was to hike in that night a few mile and try to be in range to hear birds on the roost. Sadly traffic kicked my butt and right as I pulled into the parking lot, about 20 min before sunset, I realized that I forgot my sleeping bag... I had everything else, including my inflatable pillow, just not the one really important thing for camping. Well if you are going to be dumb you gotta be tough? At least that's what my father-n-law tells me... so I grabbed every piece of clothing I had in my car and made it work. At 4:45 cold as hell I got moving and kept my ears open. For the next 5 hours I hiked my butt off looking for birds but didn't hear a thing. Around 10:30 after covering around 9-10 miles I headed back to the trail head. Strangely enough there were 5 trucks in the lot, clearly all hunters with all the bow and rifle cases in the cabs. Given that I hadn't heard anyone else call or shoot and the only thing I can figure is I had picked the entirely wrong part of the area to hunt.
All said and done, Saturday was beautiful and the scenery was spectacular, steep red canyons with green river bottoms ... not sure if I'm head back to the same trail-head this weekend or going to try somewhere else, but chasing toms is undeniably a great reason to get out of the house in the spring and explore.
I got out there this weekend but unlike vanish, can only attribute my failure to being a poor hunter
Ha, I doubt that! Those dang birds are super localized.
By the way, for anyone heading into the foothills, the TICKS have awoken. We pulled a half dozen of those buggers off us yesterday. I freakin hate those things. I still have a case of the creepy crawlies.
AvidIndoorsman
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Sounds like I need to get the permethrin out...
Vanish (or any CO veteran hunters) one thing I was trying to figure out is calling frequency to try and get birds to shock gobble. I feel like I am okay a luring a gobbler in once I find one but I can't tell if the reason I didn't hear anything was do to A. No turkeys around, B. Not calling enough , C. Calling too much... any tips?
Yesterday was a bit humbling for me, as I've always felt that I could get a shock gobble out of a Merriams during the prime times. There may have been pressure in that spot on Saturday, so maybe they were a bit call shy? Maybe I'm overconfident and just lucky?
Generally, I'd consider locating a Merriams to be the hard part. They're usually pretty willing to play, but as yesterday showed, not always. My experience is all early season, the first three weeks or so. I'd say 80% of the birds I've located have been with the crow call, 10% with yelps and 10% just gobbled on their own. Its fairly steep with a lot of small canyons and ridges where I've been hunting, so I generally try a locator with each new ridge, or every 1/4 mile or so.
I'm also usually looking for fresh scratching. If you're not finding that, usually in the pine cones under the ponderosas, there probably aren't a significant number of birds in the area.
In the afternoons, where my time has been limited, I've had exactly zero success getting a gobble until the last half hour before sunset, with the most responses between sunset and dark. Of course, you can't shoot one during that period, but you know where they are for the next morning. It makes roosting one difficult if you don't already have a general area you know they're hanging.
If Colorado follows Kansas statistics, then in a 9 week long season over 50 % of the harvest occurs in the first two weeks of the season. Easy to fool birds, or easy to get to birds probably fall first. I figure that as the season rolls on, there are fewer birds to chase, and they are the smartest, wariest customers.
Talked to my dad yesterday. He's been to 4 different locations and still hasn't found any bird sign. He's not terribly motivated though, so hasn't been anywhere at daylight or sunset. Since I've got the BHA Wild Game Cook-off this Saturday, I can't make the drive out to help him, but I did invite him here. He declined.
Every presentation I've been to on turkeys in CO has pushed the idea that mid-season is the best time. Part of me wonders if they're just trying to distribute the hunting pressure.
Every presentation I've been to on turkeys in CO has pushed the idea that mid-season is the best time. Part of me wonders if they're just trying to distribute the hunting pressure.
Where/When is this, Vanish?
I think it's less nefarious
. With the mid-april start and the fact that many of the mountain birds aren't fired up yet/snow on the ground at elevation + the chance of more big snow (I have been snowed out opening day twice after having roosted birds the night before) - the birds often don't get rocking and rolling until later in the season. Big variances locally given their habitats, but I know my friend in Meeker doesn't even bother until May 1.
Slight derail!
Thanks! I'm bugging the wife and my 'Longtucky' friends to see if they can be convinced. Taking the boy out in the ramparts that morning but that's probably just a nice hike.
Back to turkeys...
AvidIndoorsman
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Cedahm might see you out there, I will be the idiot with a corgi.
Did you make it out in the Ramparts, wilm?
We made a last minute call to go fishing down in Salida for the weekend. My son broke his cherry on float-fishing jewelry...probably should have gone turkey hunting...but he was tough as can be expected for a 9yo with his dad and uncle performing minor surgery on the riverbank.
Mudranger1
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Wowsers is this common amongst you fly fishers?
AvidIndoorsman
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Ouch...I've hooked the dog, the wife, myself, pretty much anyone within range, not a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I made it out both days but didn't get into birds, the area I e-scouted looked good but had lots of snow and no birds. Good thing it's a long season.
I made it out both days but didn't get into birds, the area I e-scouted looked good but had lots of snow and no birds. Good thing it's a long season.
I don't know about 'common' - but certainly an occupational hazard when fishing in the boat (particularly on this river). Luckily it didn't get in the cartilage, but still an unpleasant surgical experience for a 9 year old (and maybe worse for me).
A friend at the northern edge of the Ramparts said they were fired up pretty good for a few days last week, but then just vanished/shut up. Those birds are agonizing.
Elkhunter24
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Congrats!
Mudranger1
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