Jemez High Country Mt Gobbler

[5yearcoueshunter]

Hey everyone,

Finally got time to post my bird I got two Saturday's ago. Here is the story:

 

Until Thursday I hadn't even decided if I was going to go hunting or not. Work had been super busy and gas is expensive. Well, after looking at the weather report I couldn't resist. It was calling for perfect blue bird weather with high's in the 70's and no wind. A turkey hunter's dream weekend. So I went and picked up my license and a box of shells and my Dad and I took off for the mountains mid-day on Friday. My uncle and good friend Jim decided to come up late that night and stay the weekend as well. Nobody bought a license but me. Everyone else wanted to stay in bed and just do a little fishing. haha

After doing a little fishing in the creek and setting up camp, we headed out trying to roost a bird. It didn't take long and we had a Tom roosted for the morning hunt. I persuaded Jim to get up with me.

 

Alarm went off about 5:00. We got ready in a hurry and headed off to the place where we roosted him. It was chilly up here at 9000 feet, so we dressed warmly. The sunlight was barely coming up when he Gobbled. It was still early, so we had plenty of time to set up in the best position. We moved in to about 300 yards from him. We set up at the bottom of the hill that he was roosted, which was an old logging road that was greening up. A perfect place for turkeys to come. I took my rangefinder out and made sure I knew what landmarks were in range. One particular landmark was a snowbank. It was 50 yards away. Rangefinding that turned out to be a good decision. As the sun continued to rise, he continued to gobble. I wouldn't say he was very vocal though. He probably only gobbled about 5-7 times in about 30 minutes. Finally around shooting time, I figured I better give a soft hen yelp on the box call so he knew I was there. He gobbled 2 two times in a row right away. Definitely a good sign that he was hot. However after I called, I also heard some hen's yelping. In that case, might be tough to get him to leave his hens and come close. Well for the next 20 minutes, he never made another sound! I called one more time and got no response. Very weird. I was starting to think that they flew off and left me. In my experience, they usually gobble more when it starts getting lighter, not less. Well, I gave one more call and he gobbled again, still in the roost. Then, the hens called, but they were on the ground. I put the call down and waited. Another 10 minutes went by with no noise. I turned to Jim and asked him to give a call. I thought maybe something different would get an answer. Jim hadn't even got the rubber band off his box call when I heard the unmistakeable sound of turkeys perking. I signaled to Jim not to call. It wasn't 30 seconds when I saw 3 hens coming right for me, perking and looking for the hen I was suppose to be. Of course they came from the direction I wasn't expecting, so my gun was pointed completely the wrong way. lol They got as close as 9 yards and then just stood there perking and cocking there heads from side to side. In the meantime, I caught a glipse of the strutting Tom about 70 yards away in the clearing. Fortunately for me and Jim, we were well camo'd and hidden in the underbrush. The hens stayed there, going back and forth on the logging road for at least 10 minutes, trying to locate me, all the time I could see the gobbler strutting in the background. It was very cool. Finally the hens gave up on me and decided to feed up the logging road out of sight. This was my chance to point my gun in the right direction. I knew the gobbler would follow the hens. It didn't take long and the gobbler was quickly on the hens trail. He passed right in front of the familiar snow bank, so I knew he was in range. After the shot, the gobbler started flopping immediately and I knew I made a good head shot. Jim and I jumped up and started celebrating an awesome morning! I thanked the Lord as I couldn't think of a better place to be. There is nothing like a cold Spring morning in the NM high country where the beautiful Merriam's Turkey Gobble shake the mountain down in the thin air! After tagging and snapping a couple pictures, we headed back to camp to wake up the sleepy heads and make a pot a coffee.

 

The rest of the weekend was one of the most relaxing times I've had for a while. Just as the weatherman had predicted, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The rest of the weekend we did a little fishing, BBQ'd some Barbary burgers and hiked a little. We tried roosting another Turkey just to hear another one, but no dice. It was an absolutely perfect weekend. I'm so glad I didn't stay home!

 

 

Where I shot him. See the snowbank!

 

Back at camp in the warm sun

 

So glad my best Bud got up and shared it with me.

 

 

Thanks guys,

Travis

[hunter4life]

Nice, congratulations!

[Couzer]

Very nice and great right up! Good to see the weekend treated you good!

[azslim]

nice, I spent a month in the Jemez mtns last summer on fires, saw quite a few turkey

[CouesWhitetail]

Awesome! Nothing like that feeling when you know the gobbler is coming!

[tjhunt2]

Thanks for sharing your hunt with us. Congratulations on your beautiful bird.

 

TJ

[Drew23]

great job and great pics. thanx for sharing your experience