Big Browns

My wife and I were very luck to draw 2 early season tags. This was going to be a very different hunt for both of us. Initially I didn’t think I was going to be able to help my wife or hunt myself, because a month before the hunt I broke my leg and severely sprained my ankle. Thankfully by the time the hunt came around I was able to walk in a walking boot. Since we didn’t know how much walking I was going to be able to do we enlisted help from one of my very good friends, Larry. Saturday morning started out with an early buzz of the alarm clockL We were on the road quickly and headed to our spot with plenty of time. So we thought! After a short drive we were surrounded by some very dense fog. This lasted for 30 miles. By the time we got into our hunting area it was way past first light. I was really bummed, because I really wanted to find some roosted birds. We then proceeded to miss our turn to our honey hole. I finally decided to pull over and start where we were. I knew this was a gamble, but I also knew there were Turkey’s in this general area. Larry and my wife went one way and I went the other. We made plans to meet back at the truck in 2 hours. After a short walk Larry and my wife were hearing gobbles. They tried to call 3-4 different birds in the next 2 hours with no success. The birds would gobble 1-2 times and then go silent. I was able to find a water hole about ½ miles from the truck with a lot of fresh sign. I put out my decoys and started calling. After a few minutes I had a bird responding. I got really excited, because he responded 4-5 times. That was short lived, because he eventually became silent and after an hour he never came into the water hole. I walked around calling for another hour, but no luck. I was the first one back at the truck. While I was sitting at the tail gate eating breakfast I saw 2 Tom’s cross the road about 100 yards away. I made a big loop to get in front of them. I called several times, but no luck! Nobody wanted to play with me! After we all met up we decided to head to our honey whole area. We again split up and made plans to meet in 3 hours. During this time Larry and my wife didn’t hear or see anything. I found another water hole to sit at. I had another bird responding to my calls after only sitting the water for 5 minutes. This bird sounded really hot! I decided to leave the area and go find my wife so she could have a chance at him. After finding Larry and my wife we headed back to the water hole with high hopes of getting this bird. As we arrived back at the water hole I started calling while my wife found a nice place to pee! Larry and I were about 100 yards away trying a few hen yelps. We were only a few yelps into our 2nd calling sequence when I heard my wife start SCREAMING! I FOUND A HORN! I FOUND A SHED! O MY GOD, IT’S A WHOLE HEAD!!!!! We look over her direction and we see here running around the water hole carrying a 5x6 Elk head. When she got to us she was almost crying she was so happy! In fact she said “I’m so happy I want to cry”. My wife LOVES, LOVES, LOVES shed hunting. This was the first dead head she has ever found. This alone was worth the trip! After taking some pictures and calming down we did some more calling with no luck. We then decided to sit the water hole for the rest of the day. That SUCKED!!!!!! We were all really bored and tired. We stayed until the rain, hail and lightning drove us out. We headed back to the cabin for Dinner. I thought the drive back would be clear, but I was wrong. We again encountered dense fog & a lot of snow. The next morning we were concerned the conditions would not be very good. We were right. It was windy, foggy and snowing. My wife had a bad head ache from the day before and decided to not go out. She was the only smart one in the groupJ Larry and I decided to head back to the water hole and do a little calling and pick up my blind. We didn’t have very high hopes, but we had to give it a try. The ground had about 3-5 inches of snow. That combined with dense fog and snow made the drive a lot longer than expected. A short time into our drive we encountered 2 guys stuck in the middle of the road towing a pop up trailer. Unbelievably the guy only had 2 wheel drive. Thankfully I had a rope and we were able to help them out. A short time later we were owl hooting our first spot. Nothing! Thank God, because it was really coldJ we stopped 2 more times trying to find a roosted bird. On the second stop we had a bird respond instantly! He sounded really hot! We parked the truck and got set up. I asked Larry to do all the calling. Larry has never called in a bird before. I was really wanting him to experience calling in a bird. I got set up with Larry about 30 yards behind me. Larry started off doing some light yelping. The bird responded to it instantly. We both got really, really excited! A few more calls and again “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble”. I was really hoping the bird would not get silent when he got off the roost. The sky was just starting to get light out. You could tell it was just about time for him to fly off his roost. Well an hour later and the sun was up and the bird was still in his roost. In fact he was still talking to every noise in the woods. Every time a squirrel would make a noise he would gobble. A care would drive by and he would gobble. Larry would yelp, he would gobble. It was very exciting, but my butt was FREEZING! I was praying for this stupid bird to either shut up and go away or fly down and come to us. I would have been ok with either one. Thankfully at 7:35 I could hear him fly out of the tree. As soon as he hit the ground Larry called. He answered immediately. Larry called a few more times with no response. I was getting disappointed, but I was also dreaming of a nice warm truck seat. Thankfully the bird started slowly responding. In the fog I could see the bird slowly making his way down the hill. He would gobble once in a while, but he was mostly coming in silent. I waited for him to get into a spot that I THOUGTH was close enough. I was wrong! My first shot hit the bird low. The bird started running to my right down the hill. I got another shot and saw the bird stumble into a log jam. This is when it got interesting. I want you to imagine a freezing guy in a walking leg boot who has been frozen to the ground for an hour. Now imagine him trying to get up quickly and re-load. This was anything but smooth and graceful! Then I had to HOBBLE up the hill to get another shot at the bird. As I was HOBBLING up the hill I was ripping off my gloves, hat and face mask so I could re load the gun. As Larry and I got to the last place we saw the bird I saw him get up and start running. One more shot from an expert shooter and he was downJ High fives and hugs started instantly! We were both very excited! Here is another interesting part. As we were setting up the bird for pictures I discovered some of the bird’s tail feathers had frozen together! I’ve never seen this before. This was also the ugliest bird I have ever seen. He looked like a wet rat! I’ve always wondered what the birds would do it this type of weather. I thought they would come down and huddle under a tree for cover. Apparently not! This was the first bird Larry has every called in and my first bird taken in the snow, fog, rain and hail. Very exciting hunt! Thanks again to my wife and to Larry for helping me take this bird.

Awesome pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo of the year winner!!!!!!

You da man! Great job! Congrats......................

Thanks for the info. Congrats on a nice bird!

I did not know NM has Rio's. Are they a draw or OTC?

Just wondering how good that hunt is? Was this the first year we had this tag? It may take a long time, but it's nice to have 3 species of Turkey in Arizona to hunt. Adam

Sorry for you loss buddy! TIme for a security camera.

Best thread title ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

National Forrest is very close and FREE!!!!!!!!!!

I'm considering re-barreling my Sendero due to accuracy issues. I still have a few more loads to try. I'm really hoping one of them will work. If they don't I'm planning on having it re-barreled. If I decide to re-barrel I'm going to stay with 7mm. What barrel would you go with? Would you have it fluted? What twist would you use? I'm not worried about the weight. I'm really considering a Brux, with fluting. I only want the fluting to help the barrel cool and for looks! I've been told by some high end gun smith's that fluting causes accuracy issues and barrel twisting. Have any of you had any issues with this? Any statistics to confirm this? Thanks, Adam

I will add that to the list of loads to try. Thanks!

Arriving that early on a Friday I would think you will be fine. Oak Creek gets crazy busy, so it's always hard to say. Let us know! Good Luck.

Nice Buck!!!!!!!!!!!

My wife & I had a great time at the event. Thank you very much for inviting us Kevin & Holy. We were unfortunately out bid on all the live auction items. For some reason my wife wouldn't allow me to buy the Muley tag. My wife said somthing like "our house isn't worth that much":) We didn't have any luck on the raffle prizes. That's normal for me! We were able to get a few of the silent auction items. All in all it was a really fun event! I'm looking forward to attending next year.

I havent won anything yet!!!!!!

Awesome! How did you cook your birds. I have mine in the freezer waiting on a good recipe? I love your home made fan decoy! Looks great! Did you use it? Adam

We should all get togeather and charter a boat for a CW fishing trip.................. That would be AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Very cool! Wish I had a use for it! Free bump......

I hate to admit this, but I would never make it withoug TV! I love watching my TV shows. Without Velocity, Outdoor network & Discovery I would be very sad:)

Saguaro?

My wife & I are planning on coming.

Should have taken the fan too:)

It's a 12 gauge Baikal Over Under. It's the first gun I ever bought. I've used this gun to kill 5-6 birds over the past 5 years in New Mexico and Arizona. I call it my Turkey Slayer:) Not many people use Over Under's for Turkey. I understand why, because it's a disadvantage. I only do it, because I like the picture of me holding my O/U with my Turkey:) Next year I'm planning on using my Beretta 28 gauge O/U:)

Thanks guys! To say my wife was happy would be a huge understatment! She has shown the head to everyone she knows. She is already talking about finding another one. Our anniversary is coming up soon. Last night she asked me if we could go on a shed hunting trip for our anniversary. Gotta love my wife. If you would have met my wife before we got married you would have NEVER thought she would she would become a hunter. Now she has become a shed hunting freak. That's all she wants to do. She also loves watching hunting shows on tv. When I come home from work it's not uncommon to find her watching the outdoor channel by herself. She has really suprised me and all my friends. I'm very lucky to have her! Adam