I returned from New Mexico today (Sunday). It was a tough hunt this year, we found one spot in the past three days where the turkeys were gobbling. Everywhere I went we couldn't get a gobble even early in the mornings when it was calm.
Friday early morning we had a gobble at the top of a mountain and set up on him. He answered a few calls and thought about coming in but soon quit gobbling and went on with his hens. At about 1:00 p.m. I set up on the opposite side of the hill of where I heard the gobble in the morning, and hen called for about an hour. I wasn't expecting anything to come in, when suddenly I saw three turkeys slowly walking towards me. They weren't gobbling but I noticed they were jakes so I got ready. They were about 60 yards out, and I decided if they got closer I might try a shot, but they didn't so I let them go. About an hour later I walked farther back into the hills and continued calling as loud as I could for about 45 minutes. I finally irritated a group of hens walking by on a near hillside. The hens would call back, but it didn't seem like they wanted to come in. I just kept messing with them, clucking and calling a lot hoping to bring them in where they could possibly bring a tom with them. Finally about 30 minutes later and about an hour and a half of messing with them a hen appeared coming straight at us. The hen puffed up like a gobbler but I didn't see any beard so it continued on by wondering where the sound was coming from. A hen above on the hill continued calling but never came down the hill, (the gobbler may of stayed up with that hen, or it was just a group of hens).
Friday evening it was calm so I tried a few locations trying to roost birds with no luck. With about 10 minutes of light left I arrived back where I had heard the only gobbling going on and called. Got a response from three gobblers on the mountain, and all three were within a hunderd yards of each other. I left the area thinking about how to go about calling them in the next morning.
Saturday morning arrived and we continued into the area with the moonlight. Right as we reached the spot we wanted to set up a turkey gobbled on the hill above where I heard them the evening before. There was four of us, and the two of the guys we were hunting with had never killed a Spring bird. My brother and I decided we would split into two groups and try to call one in for them, my brother with one and I would go with the other. We set up on opposite ridges about 200 yards apart and started to call. The turkey would respond to almost every call, but there were hens calling in the area also so I knew we may have to compete with them. So we had one loud mouth gobbler and then two gobblers that would let out a very silent gobble and they wouldn't do it often. After staying in his roost another 15 minutes the loud mouth gobbler finally flew down on the opposite ridge where my brother was calling. They said the turkeys were flying off the roost and flying right over them and all around them. They were landing in every direction around them, and I was on the other ridge listening to all the gobbling. Then they had a jake run straight at them to about 30 yards and they shot him. Then all the turkey's went silent, so we started calling again hoping the other bird would start to gobble. After about 10 minutes the other bird started to gobble again. He was on the same ridge they had just shot one. He gobbled for a while and finally stopped. I then decided to make my way over to him calling every 30 yards. Suddenly as I reached the base of the hill he let out a loud gobble. He started gobbling a lot and the hens started calling also. It got pretty loud, my brother was above on the same ridge calling, I was below calling and the turkey was gobbling with his hens and we were all within 100 yards of each other. I was competing with my brother to call the turkey to us while they were trying to get turkey number #2. I was calling as much as possible without being rediculous trying to keep the turkey from going to my brother and the guy with him. Then suddenly the gobbler makes a break down the ridge but he's going towards my brother and the guy he's with. I call as dramatic as I can trying to get the turkey to turn direction towards us, and at the last second the gobbler turned towards us and started coming in. The turkey now went silent but continued walking in looking for us. I kept whispering to the guy I was with to shoot when the turkey was at about 50 yards, then I would say no wait wait. Then the turkey then made it to 40 yards and I said take him, and boom flop, it was over. As excited as these two guys were to finally harvest their first Spring birds after numerous attempts, I think my brother and I were more excited to finally make it happen for both of them on the same morning.
Saturday evening and Sunday morning it got a bit more windy without any gobbling, but overall it was a good experience in New Mexico!
