GobbleNut Hunt Log 2024

[GobbleNut]

Saturday, May 11th:  After getting blown out by the winds on my last trip, I stewed over trying one last trip for a few days. The weather report called for tolerable conditions on Saturday, so I decided I would make a last-ditch run to the mountains for the morning to try to fill my last NM tag.

The two-hour drive put me where I had decided to go before daylight, giving me ample time to start the trudge up another steep, towering mountainside I had chosen to hunt...which was a high ridge where I had never been before. My thought was that the difficulty of this ascent, combined with the limited amount of area it afforded to hunt, might have discouraged others from hunting this particular location.  After the forty-five-minute climb, I reached the ridgetop.

This ridge once again parallels a big private holding, so I worked my way along the boundary fence calling off both the public and private sides. The going was a bit slow as the terrain turned out to be a bit rougher than anticipated, but after working my way along the ridge for about an hour without a response, I came to a spot that just looked "turkey". I slowed my pace, worked slowly through the area, calling as I went.

There was an open slope to my right that tapered down the ridge and over a hump and into what looked like a shallow draw beyond, and as I worked my way parallel to the slope and called, I got a gobble response from the draw about two hundred yards from me.  Moving into some nearby cover, I again called, and got gobbles from two birds in the draw, closer now, but still out of sight over the hump. 

I quickly assessed the situation and knelt behind a small pine tree, sticking my shotgun over a branch at shooting height...and watched and waited.  I felt confident from the gobbles that these birds were interested and might well be on their way to investigate.  I peered across the open slope towards the hump, hoping that one or both gobblers would soon come into sight.

I could see roughly eighty yards down the open slope towards the hump and I knelt there watching. After a bit, I called softly one more time hoping for closer gobbles from the birds...but got no response.  Still, I was feeling certain that they were probably coming.

I'm not sure how they got to where they were without me seeing them sooner, but suddenly I see two turkeys working their way towards me on the open slope about sixty yards out. They cautiously and slowly worked their way along, looking for the hen they had heard. Soon, I could see they were both good, mature gobblers...both with good, heavy beards for this country and I mentally decided to take whichever one presented a good clean shot.  I waited, gun already positioned over the pine limb, as they slowly kept coming, stopping to look for any sign of the hen they had heard, but otherwise not alarmed.

Confident now, I knew my NM season was coming to a close shortly, and when one of the gobblers stood tall at thirty-five yards, I ended it. I patted myself on the back as I walked towards him, glad that I had talked myself into making the effort to try one last time. He turned out to be fine, older gobbler...and I took the time to sit for a while and admire his beauty and be thankful for him. Quite honestly, I had not expected my NM season to end on such a wonderful note. Sometimes things just work out when you least expect it.   



NM Merriam's country...









 

[JeffC]

Congratulations on a great finish to a great season sir! Great read and pictures!!

[eggshell]

Well done captain, you certainly had a good season.

[Happy]

Good going Jim! You have had a good run this year!

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

[GobbleNut]

Off to Kansas early tomorrow morning (15th). Probably won't be posting on OG for about a week, although I may be able to see what is happening on occasion.  Everybody hold down the fort...and best of luck to all who might still be hunting! 

[GobbleNut]

Wednesday, May 15th:  After fifteen hour drive, we (three of us) get to Kansas destination, meet our host, and have just enough time to drive around the areas we have to hunt before dark. No turkeys heard or seen, but we will be ready to get after them in the morning...

[GobbleNut]

Thursday, May 16th:  Weather forecast called for rain in the night, and sure enough, it has come.  We step outside the house only to find everything soaked...and a foggy and soggy morning awaits us. Not to be deterred, we jump in the truck and head towards the two properties we can hunt well before daylight.

I drop off my hunting buddies at two locations on one property and then head on down the road to the other, hoping between the three of us, we can gain some "recon" on the hunt area. The property I go to turns out to be a bust in that I hear no gobblers, or see any, on the place. However, about midmorning after the fog has lifted and things are beginning to dry out, I hear a single distant gobble from off of the property. 

Despite my calling efforts, I get no response from the bird again.  Later, my buddies have better news in that both of them have heard multiple gobblers on the other property, although they are unable to entice any of them.

That afternoon, a couple of hours before dark, the three of us return to the property, spot a couple of gobblers in a field, and try to work them.  Although they will gobble enthusiastically at our calling, we are just not where they want to go, and at dusk, they fly up to roost very close and we get a good fix on where they are...and where they might fly down in the morning. 

A plan is set for the next morning for my two buddies to try those gobblers...and I will hunt another corner of the same property to look for more birds elsewhere. 

[GobbleNut]

Friday, May 17th:  The rainy weather has cleared, but the fog has stuck around. Nevertheless, we are parked at a gate into the property well before daylight.  Gathering our gear, we head in, my friends heading towards the roost location and me going the opposite direction towards a long, open ridge that parallels some great looking roosting habitat.  I will be able to easily walk the ridge, listening for gobbling on the timber-covered slopes below.

Standing at a high point at first light, through the fog, I begin to hear gobbling from the birds that my friends are setting up on a quarter-mile away. I mentally wish them luck and slowly begin to work my way away from them down the ridge in the opposite direction, anticipating hearing additional gobblers sounding off at any moment.

Working my way down the ridge for about a half-mile, I have not heard any gobbling...and it is now fully light and nearing fly-down time.  I decide to call, and at my first series of soft clucks and yelps, multiple gobblers gobble back from a ridge across a foggy draw three hundred yards away.  I am in business!

Over the next half hour, I encourage them to come meet me face to face...and they gobble at everything and act like they will eventually come take a look. However, they eventually set up shop across the draw and will not budge despite my best efforts. the fog is lifting so I can see the lay of the land between me and the gobblers, so I decide to try to get closer

I drop off the ridge into the trees and brush below and begin to descend the slope, watching across the draw for any sign of the birds.  Shortly, I can see a clear area across from me that runs up the draw to the open ridge...and looking with my binoculars, I quickly pick up three turkeys on the skyline two hundred yards away.

Looking them over, I can see they are all jakes...or so I think, and my first thought is that these are the birds that have been responding. I step behind some brush and begin to watch for other birds, but can see no others.  In the meantime, one of them has started to work his way along the open ridge towards where I had been initially set up calling to them. He is steadily working his way along, so I decide to move back up to the ridge and see what happens, thinking I at least might have some fun with these birds.

Reaching the open ridge, I look quickly for a spot to set up, but taking a few steps forward, a gobbler suddenly steps out of the brush fifty yards away, catching me flat-footed. He quickly retreats away from me down the ridge and out of sight. This was a good, mature gobbler and he was probably working his way silently to me...IF I had just remained in my first set-up for just a while longer. ...They say patience is a virtue...which escaped me at the moment.

Shortly after the gobbler ran out of sight towards the jakes, I suddenly hear fighting purrs and wing beats in that direction. Apparently, the mature gobbler has run into the jakes...and they have decided to sort matters out as to who is the boss.  At this point, I am cussing myself, but decide I am going to try to sneak closer to the ruckus by dropping back down into the brush and trees on the slope, then move back up and peak over the top a bit closer to where the brouhaha is coming from. All the while, I am now assuming that the mature gobbler is long gone, and I am just "messing" with a bunch of jakes...again, with the intention of just seeing if I can have some fun with them.

I move fifty yards closer out of sight and then carefully move up and peak over the edge of the ridge where it flattens out. The fighting has now stopped, and as I look further down the ridge with the bino's, spot two red heads looking back in my direction a hundred yards away. They do not seem terribly alarmed and I quickly duck back out of sight and continue towards them.

Thinking I am about even with them, I again move up the slope and peak over the top with the bino's. There, now seventy-five yards out, are the two birds...just standing there looking. 

...To be continued...

Looking forward to more ... you can't just leave them standing there 

 

Continuing on...

At this point, I was still of the mindset that these two birds were jakes, so I figured I would do a bit of "experimenting" with them. Although I rarely ever pull it out, I have a foldable silhouette "decoy" that I carry, so I decided this was a great opportunity to see how these birds would react to it. I laid my gun on the ground next to me and, kneeling in the shin-high grass, I held it up, moving it just enough to give it a bit of motion. 

It caught their attention immediately and they stood, heads up, looking towards me. I figured they would high-tail-it away at any second, but instead, they began to slowly walk toward me. They would take a few steps at first, then stand and look, but soon they began a steady march at me.  They came on...sixty...fifty...forty...thirty...twenty yards, and still coming.

I had noticed that one of them had a much more colorful head and was a bit taller than the other, but I was convinced that they were both jakes...until they turned broadside at ten yards and I could see a good beard hanging from the breast feathers of the bigger bird.  It was a mature gobbler...and a good one!

So, here I was, kneeling down in the open, holding the decoy as much in front of me as I could, and with my gun laying on the ground next to me (Some may see a pattern from reading my past musings that I seem to get into these kinds of "fixes" more or less on a regular basis as I "age"...    ) 

With the turkeys now less than ten yards away, I "deduced" that my only course of action was to slowly reach down, try to pick up my gun, bring it to my shoulder, somehow get my "decoy arm" over and grab the forearm, aim, and attempt the shot...all assuming that these birds would just stand around and wait for me to do all of that. The entire affair was fully in "three-ring circus" mode at this point. I was most certainly the clown, and that they would be running for the big-top tent door at any second.

Well, as it turned out, they were quite obliging to let all of the above happen.  They were so fixated on my "visual aid" that they basically just stood there, albeit somewhat nervously, while I raised the gun, hurriedly aimed, and summarily and unceremoniously dispatched the gobbler.

I didn't have far to walk, as he was probably seven or eight yards away when I shot. He turned out to be a fine, old gobbler...and probably didn't deserve to "meet his maker" in such an undignified manner, but I accepted the gift that he was, telling myself again that looking a gift gobbler in the mouth (which I most certainly did in this case) will invariably come back to bite oneself right in the backside. 

As it turned out, it was probably a good move in that, for the next several days, my two companions hunted hard, but only one of them came home with another gobbler.  I'm not sure I would have gotten another chance. ...So be it...

(Note: I have tried to load pictures to post here, but alas, my "tech skills" have again deserted me.  If I can sort things out, I will post a picture later)...

That's it for me for this season...and it has been a memorable one. ...Hope the same for all others here on OG! 
Jim

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

Great season Jim, thanks for taking us along

[YoungGobbler]

Well Jim, you had a heck of a good season! Guess we can say you know what you're doing when you hit those turkey woods!