My Chiricahua Gould's turkey hunt

[Couestracker]

First, a thank you to Mark (125Coues) for sharing his knowledge of the unit. I have been in the unit many times, deer and varmint hunting or just camping, but I probably wouldn't have picked the camp spot I did if it hadn't been for something Mark said, so again, thanks Mark!

 

My Gould's turkey hunt was very different from any of the other turkey hunts I've been on.... I parked the truck/trailer to walk up a side road and check for a camp spot. When I opened the door to get out I heard yelps from nearby. As I got out of the truck I heard my first Gould's turkey gobble-this was at 2 pm. I walked over to the sounds and saw him strutting around his hens in the shade of some trees. I was about to take his picture through my binoculars when I got the dreaded "change batteries" window. I watched the birds a few minutes and thought I'd better leave them alone....might be hunting him in the morning.

 

I walked the side road and found a nice camp spot about 150 yds up, so I drove in and set up camp. Then I took the Ranger for a spin to look around and do some scouting. I got back to the gate near camp and was opening it when I heard another gobble. He was roosted 100 yds from my camp! After getting to camp I had happy hour and then dinner. He gobbled until after dark.

 

At pre-dawn light, I hiked over to a clearing near the bird-he was gobbling already. From where I set-up, I had a full view of him in his roost, his beard was hanging well below the tree limb and his feet. I heard vehicles driving down the main road nearby and figured I'd have some company soon, because this bird was gobbling constantly. Sure enough, I saw two hunters come in from behind me and to my right-I signaled my presence with a flash from my headlight and they withdrew (thanks guy's!). The bird gobbled continuously from his roost until way after light. I tried to coax him to fly down by slapping my hat on my thigh and cackling with my mouth call, but he stayed put, gobbling and going in and out of strut pose. Finally he flew down to the bottom of the hill away from me and then I heard his hens fly down too.

 

He would respond to my calls, but the flock continued to move away from me, towards my camp actually. I moved closer and saw they were heading up the hill behind my camp, so I kept following them, but not too close. I climbed this steep hill that was loose dirt and rock hoping to get a shot at that tom, all the while thinking I must be nuts-a few minutes ago I had him roosted.

 

I heard what I'm sure was another hunter using a slate call, apparently climbing the other end of the hill, so I was worried how this was going to turn out as well as nervous that we were pursuing the same bird from different directions. But I kept climbing, trying to be quiet (yea, right). Nearing the top of the hill, I scanned up looking for the birds, and then I saw him, 40 yards up above me. I raised my shotgun and let out a yelp from my diaphragm call and as he gobbled to it, I saw a clear shot, no hens in sight, so I shot....bird down! When I climbed up to him, I looked down the steep hill through the trees-there was my camp! It was so steep I decided to climb down there to clean the bird on flat ground.

 

I weighed him first, 21 lbs 1 oz. He had a nice long beard, 15" before that hair came out, but a good 14". Then I changed the batteries in my camera, but still got the "change batteries" window. I couldn't get it to work even with known full charge batteries. About then, someone came along and I asked them to take some pictures with my cell phone, so those are all the pictures I have. Oh well, I have the memories and I am having Sven from Wildlife Wings mount him in a strut pose that'll last a lifetime.

 

So now I realize I have 4 more days off, a full complement of food, drinks and gas and 2 New Mexico turkey tags in my pocket that I couldn't fill on the first trip there. I broke camp and was out of there by 11:00. I hadn't even been in the area 24 hours! Off to New Mexico I went, but that's another story.

 

Thanks for looking, Tommy

 

 

 

[Ghosthunter]

Great looking bird and even better story. Thanks for sharing.

[IA Born]

Awesome bird and congrats!

[elkslare]

Great looking bird and good story. Thanks for sharing.

[Santana Outdoors]

Sweet Bird, thanks for sharing and congrats to you

[Gut Pile]

Way to go on a Goulds! & a beautiful one at that! Congrats!

[JLW]

that's awesome!

 

James

[Big Browns]

WOW, 15 inch Beard!! You da man! Great job!

 

Adam

[bonecollector]

Congrats on the Goulds and nice write up. Look forward to hear about the trip to New Mexico.

[palivs2hnt]

So cool! Enjoyed the read and huge congrats on a sensational Goulds!

[trophyhnter]

Turkey hunting has been furstrating for me all these years so it would be a very welcome change to have a hunt like that! Huge congrats on your turkey!

[pwrguy]

Very cool, good job!!!

[standman]

Awesome job on the goulds. Unit 29 is my favorite goulds unit.

 

Brian

[Big Tub]

Congrats. So how many bonus pts did that take?

[tjhunt2]

Congratulations Tommy on a beautiful bird. That Mark sure is a nice guy. I hope if I ever draw he's still nice enough to help me out. lol Good luck with the NM turkey hunt. Can't wait to hear more of your stories. Great write-up by the way.

 

TJ