mcelweed
Member
I’m a little behind posting due to work and family schedule. My daughter and I started the season in Tucumcari, NM hunting Rios. Apparently Outdoor Life mentioned Tucumcari in their spring turkey preview saying there were lots of Rios and Open Gate properties. What they didn’t mention was that there are only 2 Open Gate properties (one is 270 acres and the other is 94 acres). So Saturday morning we had six other groups on the 270 acres with us and at least 3 hunters on the 94 acres property. They had also been hunted hard during the youth season the weekend prior according to the landowners. All the birds had been pushed onto private and were very spooky. We had a hen walk through our set up early and saw a couple toms along the edge of the bordering private, but they would respond to calls. Tucumcari was a bust.
So I went to the Gila for turkey hunting on Monday last week. I had found an area where there seemed to be quite a few birds so I was hopeful. When I got there I talked to a couple other hunters who said the turkeys were fired up Saturday morning, but it was wall-to-wall people stepping all over the birds. A lot of the people were road hunting also. So between all the people and all the traffic, the bird shut up by noon Saturday I was told.
I found an area that looked promising for Tuesday morning away from road. I got there early the next morning and walked in. As the sun came up I started calling but didn’t get any responses for the next 2+ hours. As I started back to the truck I hear a couple of shots a mile or so away. About a minute later I heard 2-3 wolves begin to howl toward the area where the shots were. Tuesday afternoon was spent trying to find a good location for Wednesday.
I eventually found an area with a fair amount of sign within 2/3 of a mile from my camp. Since I didn’t find anything any more promising, I made a plan to walk in and get set up well before sunrise Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning I was set up with decoys out, blind (burlap sheet) set up, and camera ready to go about a half hour before twilight. It was a little windy, but then again it’s always a little windy in New Mexico in the spring.
I ran through a couple of call sequences starting around sunrise with no response. I would run a short series of calls about every 15-20 minutes. Finally around 6:45 I call with a mouth call and a box call at the same time trying to sound like multiple hens. Still no response.
Just before I was going to do my next series of call, and beginning to feel quite discouraged, a tom sounds off about a hundred yards to my right. Of course to my right! I had expected a bird to come in either in front of me or to the left. I made a couple soft calls and at first he answered and sounded like he was moving away, but then he started coming closer. At about 70 yards he came over a slight rise and spotted my decoys and began strutting.
As he moved with 40 yards, still to my right, I slowly turned on the camera and began recording. I thought my movement was blocked by the burlap and my gun, but apparently not. He started putting and turned away. Great! He’s going to bolt and I won’t be able to swing the gun fast enough to shoot him. Fortunately, after a couple seconds he turned back to the decoys and came strutting in.
He postured around the jake decoy, puffing up his feathers and drumming a couple times right in front of the decoy. Not getting a response from this intruder seemed to really irritate him and he jumped on the decoy giving it a wing chop and spurring it. As the decoy spun around on its post, he fell to the ground which made him even madder. He circled back around in front of the decoy and jumped it again.
Until now he had been too close to my brand new Avian X decoy for me to shoot, but as he fell away from this second strike he wound up about 3 feet to the left of the decoy. I clucked a couple of times with the mouth call and he raised his head. That was all it took for the Mossberg 500 loaded with Winchester Long Beard XR shells to do its work. Turkey down at 18 yards!
This gun/shell combination shoots a pattern about 15 inches across at 30 yards, so at 18 yards I’m sure most of the pellets hit him. He flopped a couple times and was done.
He measured out at 19.5 pounds with a 9.5 inch beard and 5/8 and 7/8 inch spurs. Another beautiful Gila Merriam’s for the freezer and wall. The next morning I went trout fishing (no luck) and went back out Friday to fill my other turkey tag. The wind was blowing really hard and I didn’t see or hear anything.
(Sorry, not sure why my pictures always post sideways)
(I'll try to post the video shortly.)
I’m hoping to take my daughter back down this weekend so she can get her first gobbler.
So I went to the Gila for turkey hunting on Monday last week. I had found an area where there seemed to be quite a few birds so I was hopeful. When I got there I talked to a couple other hunters who said the turkeys were fired up Saturday morning, but it was wall-to-wall people stepping all over the birds. A lot of the people were road hunting also. So between all the people and all the traffic, the bird shut up by noon Saturday I was told.
I found an area that looked promising for Tuesday morning away from road. I got there early the next morning and walked in. As the sun came up I started calling but didn’t get any responses for the next 2+ hours. As I started back to the truck I hear a couple of shots a mile or so away. About a minute later I heard 2-3 wolves begin to howl toward the area where the shots were. Tuesday afternoon was spent trying to find a good location for Wednesday.
I eventually found an area with a fair amount of sign within 2/3 of a mile from my camp. Since I didn’t find anything any more promising, I made a plan to walk in and get set up well before sunrise Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning I was set up with decoys out, blind (burlap sheet) set up, and camera ready to go about a half hour before twilight. It was a little windy, but then again it’s always a little windy in New Mexico in the spring.
I ran through a couple of call sequences starting around sunrise with no response. I would run a short series of calls about every 15-20 minutes. Finally around 6:45 I call with a mouth call and a box call at the same time trying to sound like multiple hens. Still no response.
Just before I was going to do my next series of call, and beginning to feel quite discouraged, a tom sounds off about a hundred yards to my right. Of course to my right! I had expected a bird to come in either in front of me or to the left. I made a couple soft calls and at first he answered and sounded like he was moving away, but then he started coming closer. At about 70 yards he came over a slight rise and spotted my decoys and began strutting.
As he moved with 40 yards, still to my right, I slowly turned on the camera and began recording. I thought my movement was blocked by the burlap and my gun, but apparently not. He started putting and turned away. Great! He’s going to bolt and I won’t be able to swing the gun fast enough to shoot him. Fortunately, after a couple seconds he turned back to the decoys and came strutting in.
He postured around the jake decoy, puffing up his feathers and drumming a couple times right in front of the decoy. Not getting a response from this intruder seemed to really irritate him and he jumped on the decoy giving it a wing chop and spurring it. As the decoy spun around on its post, he fell to the ground which made him even madder. He circled back around in front of the decoy and jumped it again.
Until now he had been too close to my brand new Avian X decoy for me to shoot, but as he fell away from this second strike he wound up about 3 feet to the left of the decoy. I clucked a couple of times with the mouth call and he raised his head. That was all it took for the Mossberg 500 loaded with Winchester Long Beard XR shells to do its work. Turkey down at 18 yards!
This gun/shell combination shoots a pattern about 15 inches across at 30 yards, so at 18 yards I’m sure most of the pellets hit him. He flopped a couple times and was done.
He measured out at 19.5 pounds with a 9.5 inch beard and 5/8 and 7/8 inch spurs. Another beautiful Gila Merriam’s for the freezer and wall. The next morning I went trout fishing (no luck) and went back out Friday to fill my other turkey tag. The wind was blowing really hard and I didn’t see or hear anything.
(Sorry, not sure why my pictures always post sideways)
(I'll try to post the video shortly.)
I’m hoping to take my daughter back down this weekend so she can get her first gobbler.
