- Details
- Category: Turkey
- Published: Sunday, 22 April 2007 16:10
- Written by Greg
The Hunt for Merriam's Turkey
The previous week I had the opportunity to go hunting with my son and watch him shoot a huge gobbler! Now it was my turn to give it a try…
I am quite a newbie when it comes to turkey hunting and calling. Just last year I purchased my first turkey calls and I’ve been practicing quite a bit for this upcoming hunting season. My calls consist of a couple of friction calls and a mouth diaphragm call. I was prepared to use all three types of calls on this hunt, but only ended up using my power crystal and my box call. My entire repertoire of turkey calling consists of yelps, cuts, clucks and purrs, which will hopefully be enough to lure in a gobbler!
Late afternoon on Saturday, twelve hours before the opening day of the turkey hunt, I was glassing the hillsides and ridges trying to spot some Merriam’s in hopes of roosting them for the morning hunt. Finally, about thirty minutes before sunset I spotted a flock of ten turkeys with three nice toms in the bunch. They were quite a ways off and I could only make them out through my binoculars. Even at that distance I enjoyed the show put on by the strutting gobblers.
About fifteen minutes later, I spotted four more turkeys approximately 150 yards closer to me than the first group of ten Merriam’s. This time only one ‘strutter’ was in the bunch. As the turkeys continued to walk and feed I finally lost sight of them. Unfortunately, I never did see any turkeys fly up to roost, but my fingers were crossed that they would be near the same area come morning.
6:00 am came quickly. Within fifteen minutes of waking, I was up and headed toward the area where I had seen the turkeys the previous evening. The morning air was cooler than last weekend, but still a very pleasant start to the day. Down the hill I went, heading for the creek that separated me from the turkeys. At the creek, I traded my boots for hip waders and crossed the creek. Not unlike the previous weekend, I ditched my waders on the other side of the creek and headed south east up the mountain until I reached a big open meadow. Just inside of the tree line, I got out my decoys. Crawling on my hands and knees, I placed the decoys 30 yards out into the meadow. This calling location was approximately 500 yards to the east of where my son shot his gobbler the previous weekend. During the entire hour and forty five minutes of calling, I only heard one gobbler which sounded like he was over 1000 yards to the east. Maybe it would have been better if I had changed my calling location periodically because I’m sure that every turkey out there was wise to the fact that no turkey (except me) would call from the exact same spot for nearly two hours. In my own defense, I was afraid of getting busted…those turkeys knew the exact point of each call and probably had several pairs of eyes focused on my location (or so I thought). Enough was enough…just as I headed out to pick up my decoys, I heard a turkey yelping due south of me. Quickly I sank back to the ground and waited.
Again a turkey yelped! As fast as I could retrieve my calls from my daypack, I replied back with a cut and yelp of my own. Another answer. Engrossed on the hillside 120 yards due south of me I saw my first turkey. Then another…and another…and another. Suddenly a gobbler appeared, he let out a gobble! He was making his way through the trees, but appeared to be heading west, following the other hens. For forty five minutes or so the turkeys slowly worked their way away from me, calling every so often until they disappeared over the ridge.
Time for a new game plan…I gathered up my decoys and set off to close the distance. My plan/hope was to drop down a little to the northwest, circle around and try to lure them within gun range. After a twenty five minute stalk across the hillside I was now approaching the location where my son shot his gobbler the previous week. Suddenly I noticed a movement on the hillside in front of me! I froze in my tracks. There in plain view were three gobblers feeding 120 yards ahead of me!
What to do…? With a huge clearing separating myself from the toms, I felt like I would need the aid of decoys to bring these turkeys within gun range. I could try to inch another 30 yards closer…that would put me near the edge of the clearing. Bad idea, there was no way I could risk moving toward these turkeys, I was way too exposed. At this point, simply retrieving the decoys from my duffle bag and placing them twenty feet in front of me seemed like an extremely risky move, the possibility of being spotted was incredibly high. I made my choice…slowly backing up three feet I crouched behind some scrub oak. Cautiously, with decoys in hand, I crawled twenty feet and placed my three decoys in the small opening. From this location I could easily see the toms, surely they’d be able to spot my decoys. Back to the cover of the scrub oak, I snuck. My first call had the gobblers looking in my direction. A couple of calls later and the toms were losing interest. Through my binoculars I watched as their inquisitive bright red heads peek and poke around, strutting here and there, now only semi-interested in my calls. Again I noticed movement. This motion came from down below and to the west of the birds I was watching. Here they came, three deer heading in my direction. Would the approaching deer help to ease the reluctancy of the toms to head in my direction? Nope.
Inspiringly, the sound of a distant gobble northwest of my location made my heart skip a beat. From the sound I estimated this tom to be 500 – 600 yards away, at least he sounded interested. I began calling…during my ‘yelp’ the tom cut me off. This was a good sign! I launched into a ‘cut’ call and again the gobbler cut me off. The excitement was mounting! After five to ten minutes of silence the tom let out another gobble, he had cut the distance in half. My next series of calls were made up of cuts, yelps and clucks. The tom responded with a gobble from no further than 75 yards away. Now I was extremely excited! My heart was racing…I repositioned myself, facing northwest, knowing that the tom could show himself at any time. If and when the gobbler did appear, my view of the tom would be at no more than 20 yards through the thick oak, maple and sage brush. I knew there wouldn’t be a better time than now to grab my shotgun. I proceeded to call…a few clucks here and a couple of purrs there. He was getting close…I could hear his quick high pitched whistles (I’m not sure that I’m accurately describing the sound this gobbler was making and I don’t know what this type of sound is called, but I’ve heard the turkeys make it several times once they are in close proximity). One more series of quiet clucks and a purr and I was done with the calling. Anxiously, pointing my shotgun toward the brush in front of me, I waited. There he was! His head was bobbing up and down and all around as he was peering through the thick brush. Back and forth he moved, all within a small two foot area, ever so cautiously trying to locate me, the hen. I didn’t have a clear shot. Still aiming down the barrel of my 12 gauge, pointing at the scrub in front of me, the tom paused, fixated only briefly…the gobbler was mine!
My first Merriam’s turkey, in fact my first turkey ever! He weighed 18 ½ pounds and had a 7 inch beard, a trophy in anyone’s book!