Little Creek Calls

Getting my Gould's completed my Royal slam so I thought I would share a photo of each. Posted in the order I took them. Merriam's Rio's Eastern's Osceola's Gould's

Muzzleloading shotguns are supposed to be tight patterning long range guns. Only downside is you only have one shot. How often do you even need the second shot and after the bird is running how affective is the second shot anyway. With the rising cost of turkey loads why not. The new TSS loads are $10 plus a round and the cheaper copper plated lead is getting harder to find.

Great looking tom. Always wanted to try a muzzleloader shotgun. What muzzleloader are you using?

If you are after a nice tom in the fall this might be your best bet.

Fall turkey hunting is a different experience then spring hunting. In the fall I target jakes that are running with the large flocks. I like to find and split the flocks and call them back together. For me turkey hunting is about calling and interacting with the birds and this method provides the best opportunity for calling in the fall. That said I haven't fall hunted in a long time, I just buy the extra bonus point.

I was able to take my son on his second youth turkey hunt this past weekend (last year being the first). After several close calls on the first day of the hunt with no shots fired he was able to connect on this tom on the second morning. The birds threw us a curve ball on the first evening and roosted in a different location several ridges away. From hunting this location in years past I knew where I wanted to get before first light and set up. The birds ended up being roosted a little farther than what I had thought but I still liked my chances and setup. There were several toms gobbling off the roost but you could hear the hens show up to pick them up. They were out of sight over a ridge or two. It sounded like they were starting to head the other way but luckily the boss hen was talkative and we got into a nice argument. After about 5 minutes of back and forth she decided to come kick my butt. And guess who she brought with her a strutting gobbling tom. My son made a great one shot kill to the head. I love it when a plan comes together. It is so fun and exciting to be able to share these experiences with my son, some of my favorite hunting memories.

2 tags over the counter doesn't help the population. Lots of AZ hunters who didn't draw a Gould's tag looking to go somewhere close. 15A has always been a hard unit for me. Look at some other units with steeper harder to hunt areas where other hunters don't go and you will find more birds, or go deeper into NM. I was always amazed at how many birds we would see just across the border in AZ on our way home.

I haven't been in about 3 years but getting to the camp ground shouldn't be a problem. It can get a little rough and more bumpy between the camp ground and the AZ border.

For me I like cooking brisket to 203 for the Flat and 205 for the point. Lately I have been separating the two muscles before smoking so I get more bark and so both get cooked to perfection. When cooking unseparated all together and I am smoking for the perfect point the flat is overdone slightly dry and falls apart. If I cook for the perfect flat the point gets under cooked and is not as tender as I would like. Separating them before takes a bit of time but you just follow the fat line between the muscles. Your finished product will turn out better and the meat will be easer to slice correctly. Brisket is my favorite meat to smoke. Good luck.

He edited and added it after my comment.

price?

I have fly fished the ferry multiple times and have only ever caught rainbows and only seen rainbows caught. I don't think the browns frequent the wadable shallows and sand bars as much as the rainbows. I have seen photos and heard stories of brown trout being caught but most of them come from trolling lures. I don't think the fly fishing community would participate as much in the rewards program anyway, they are more catch and release and opposed to removing brown trout.

That's crazy the top angler made almost $4000 catching and turning in brown trout above Lees Ferry. 53 fish and 10 had tags.

I would go with one of these two. I have a Gould's hunt this spring and if I decided to get it mounted I will take it to cut n strut. Kyle Thorn at Cut-N-Strut Taxidermy, only does turkeys. Sven Eberson Wildlife Wings and Design Taxidermy

In the fall flocks are much larger even sometimes up to 100 birds mostly hens and jakes or all toms. In the spring they break up into smaller breading flocks 8 to 15 birds. When you see them in the fall you think there are more because of the flock size but in the spring they are just more spread out.

Hope you drew the second hunt in 12A. Access will defiantly be an issue. Follow the melting snow line and don't get stuck in the snow drifts. Maybe think out side the box and bring a mountain bike that you can carry over the drifts to get access to unhunted areas. Quite a few years ago after hitting a deep drift we couldn't cross we hiked in 5 or 6 miles and got into some areas that were really good with lots of birds calling but the long hike and crossing lots of deep drifts on foot sucked. I told myself the next time I would bring a mountain bike.

The first Cabela’s I visited was in Dundee MI back in the early 2000’s. I was on vacation with some friends and we drove out of our way to go there. It was huge and at the time I thought it was great and we spent two or three hours there. I also remember when sportsman’s warehouse first opened its phoenix store in 2003. I could drive across town and spend a couple hours there just looking at everything. The first Bass Pro shop I went to is the original home store in Springfield MO and was not as impressed. When Cabela’s and bass pro both opened in town I was disappointed. I don’t know if it was because I had already become used to the large stores from the other visits or from having been regularly shopping at Sportsman’s. I enjoyed the experience of both but found myself buying more product and finding what I was looking for at the warehouse style shopping at Sportsman’s where they tried to get as much product on the shelves as possible. Now it seems like Sportsman’s has a lot less product to offer on the shelves and I leave most visits not finding what I am looking for. I also find myself not going to any of the three and buying more online. Whenever on vacation I still enjoy visiting different Cabela’s and Bass Pro store locations that I haven’t been to as each location seems to be a little different.

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Some states like Washington do not allow raffles and can sue and ask for a refund after its over. They could change it to a sweepstakes to cover for that but then they have to add no purchase necessary entries. I think by making it must be present in AZ when purchasing it allows them to keep it a raffle and avoid free entries and clears all legal problems that could arise.

Sand some more DeWitt. I graduated in 95.

Don't you teach Woodshop at Snowflake High? I graduated a Lobo. Thanks for continuing to teach a usable skill to the newer generation of kids. Its nice to see some of the kids take interest in something other than video games and YouTube.

A few years back I made a mesquite slab table for my wife’s plants and cut some mesquite logs for the legs. My wife liked the look of the live edge on the legs even though there were some bug holes in the sap wood. When cutting, plaining and sanding the wood for the legs lots of beetle larva came out of the woodwork. Put on lots finish and didn’t think much of it. Then every year for the first year or two we would get a beetle or two that would burrow there way out of the legs and show up on the floor under the table.

I have made several turkey call strikers using bug hole wood. It nice to use the wood and not just throw it away or burn it. I have mainly done it with mesquite wood.

I like the bug hole wood on the front plaque, looks cool.