Don Martin Report post Posted May 10, 2012 Wanted to share with all you fellow turkey hunters our recent turkey hunt on the San Carlos Inidan Resvervation. First of all I want to thank Mr. Jim Warren (Old Gobbler) for the invite to camp with him and his friends. Jim and a few friends and a son in law all had tags, and it was a pleasure to share hunting tales with them around the campfire. Jim's knowledge of that area around Point of Pines is uncanny! Our hunt started off pretty good. We got there very late on a Saturday night and decided just to pull off the road, get some sleep and then try to find Jim's campsite on Sunday morning. After a short night, we headed out and right off the bat, we watched two good gobblers walking across the road heading for for or from a nearby water tank. We could have filled two tags easily, but that's not why we were there. We wanted to hunt, not just kill a bird! My buddies on this tri[ included Jimmy Wilhelm, a 63-year-old veterant turkey hunter who up to that point had taken gobblers in 48 states in the U.S. All he needed was a bird from Arizona to be one of a handful of men who had completed that unusual task of taking a gobbler in all 49 states that have them. (Only Alaska does not have turkeys!). His friend--and mine now, was Jim Ward. Jim is a veteran turkey hunter who has about 50 birds under his belt and when he got his Arizona Merriams, he would have a slam of turkeys! He had previously got a number of Easterns, Rio Grande and even an Osceola gobbler! Jim owns Warbird calls, and I can tell you, his custom turkey calls work great on AZ birds! Both of these guys hail from the great state of Virginia! Jimmy asked me where a guy should go to get a AZ Merriams as he had hunted once here on his own with no success, and once on the AZ Strip with no success. This was to be his third 2,500 mile round trip to AZ and he wanted to know where his best chance to get his 49th gobbler would be. Without hesitation I told him the San Carlos Reservation! We got our 2012 tags in 2011 as they always sell out a year in advance, its that good there! Anyway after our Sunday a.m. encounter with the two gobblers we headed along the main road until we found Warren's camp. We learned that two in camp had filled tags, while two others, Jim and Ralph, had both missed shots at birds. Before you say, "What how do you miss a turkey?" Wait till you hear as Paul Harvey would say, "The Rest of The Story." Jim told us of a water nearby and we decided to make a quick run out there, more just to learn the country, not expecting to see or hear any gobblers. We stopped two or three times along the way and the "boys" sent out some plaintive hen calls which sounded awful good to me! But we got no responses. When we got to the tank, we walked around it and the only tracks we saw were elk and cattle. We walked back to the truck and the boys set about making some hen calls. Suddenly, from the east came a real loud "Gobble-Gobble". We ran out and sat up in the brush and within minutes a long beard was strutting about 70 yards away. Unfortunately he locked up when he got to some laydowns, turned and walked away, still gobbling. Ok, gobblers 3, hunters 0. We went back to camp, got it set up and decided to do some more exploring in the afternoon. While just driving around we saw and heard more birds, but we didn't get any close encounters. Near sundown, we split up to try and listen for birds on the roost. As it turned out I found a couple of birds and was able to glass one up on the roost just 151 yards awy from the truck. I went back to camp and told the boys about it and said that Jimmy and I would go after him on Monday a.m. 0345 a.m did come early and off we went. I dropped Jim Ward off while Jimmy and I headed up the mountain to the previously roosted bird. We found him and I sent Jimmy down the mountain to get into position while I would wake the old gobbler up with some coyote howls from the Fox Pro call I had. Coyote howls did the trick and the old gobbler sounded off each time I played that coyote call. I figured that Jimmy had a bead on the location of thar roosted bird, so I sat down to watch the action. When I howled one more time, to the east of me I heard a distinct "gobble-gobble" from another roosted bird. I figured Jimmy had his bird located so I went back to the truck and grabbed my trusty SP-10 10 ga shotgun and headed down the mountain. I used the howler to get him located about 200 yards, sat down and waited. I didn;t have to wait long... The story is long, so I'll finish it up later! Bear with me. This is the Goulds gobbler my friend got on opeing day in Unit 35A. He weighed 22 lbs, had a 10.75 inch beard and a match pair of super sharp 1 1/8 inch spurs! Don Martin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Don Martin Report post Posted May 17, 2012 Sorry its taken so long to get back to this. Fishing has started on Lake Mead and I've been doing some work up there! Anyway, I call this big longbeard in and still don't know how it happened, but I flat missed him at 45 yards! My first miss with Big Bertha on turlkeys! Anyway, I was disgusted and met up with Jim and Jimmy and told them what had happened. Jimmy decided to sit a small wet meadow while Jim decided to work the side of the mountain where he had heard a gobble. I headed down to a flat and saw some areas that had been tore up by turkeys. I walked away from the truck about 50 yards, called and four different gobbllers lit it up! Time was 7:30 a.m. Went back to the truck and got Big Bertha and set up. One bird with hens went up the hill about 100 yards from me, so I tried to move up only to spook another group of 4 hens and a big gobbler who was following them. They had been heading straight in to me. After they ran off I moved up a little farther and set up to call. Yep, the other two birds readily responded so I got ready. Within 5 minutes I had a long beard strutting through the pines. I had ranged the area and knew the "kill zone" and waited. One more little call and the gobbler was standing in front of me at 45 yards. Big Bertha spoke twice and the 10.5 inch bearded bird that weighed 20 lbs on Jim Warren's scales was mine! He even had 3/4 inch spurs. I met up with Jim and Jimmy and gave them the good news. We headed back to camp and I cleaned my bird. Jim and Jimmy went out that afternoon, but nothing was seen. On well, it was only Monday. The beard wasn't thick, but it was long. Definitely a mature gobbler! Jim Ward is on the left. More on the rest of the hunt later. Don Martin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
'Ike' Report post Posted May 17, 2012 Great birds Don... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesWhitetail Report post Posted May 24, 2012 Not sure how I missed this story until now, but congratulations on all the success for you and your friend Don! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mitchel Report post Posted May 24, 2012 Congrats and a great story. A bird from every state congrats. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
