Afternoon, anyone want to share thoughts on hunting in Gila National Forest near Reserve NM.
Here's what I tell people that ask me about hunting the Gila area:
It is a giant area with limited access due to large tracts of wilderness and roadless areas. There are turkeys throughout but in scattered flocks with lots of turkey-less space between. The lack of access concentrates hunters along access roads which results in turkeys along those roads often seeing excessive hunting pressure. Finding turkeys away from the roads requires legwork into those wilderness/roadless areas to try to find birds to hunt that are widely scattered, sometimes difficult to find, and in difficult terrain for folks that are not accustomed to that.
Conversely, if you can hit on a spot with turkeys and little or no competition for those birds (good luck with that), you have a good chance of having a great Merriam's turkey hunt in their true native range in some really spectacular country. :)