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Category: Turkey

Published: Friday, 12 June 2026 01:57

Written by Greg

Not Once but Twice

This year’s general season Utah turkey hunt turned out to be way more time consuming that I could have imagined. I spent more time chasing turkeys than I ever have during a single season.

My son’s hunt was picture perfect and was over in no time at all. Opening morning on his first attempt he called a tom in close and bagged his bird. But my grandson’s hunt was much different. There were days where we had no luck at all and then there were days that went almost perfectly, "almost" being the operative word.

                    Carson with a nice tom                                          Thick beard on a mature bird

We hunted public property exclusively, expecting contention for hunting spots was not unexpected. However, on two separate occasions we had set up in a location where we thought we were alone. Our calling was working perfectly; had a tom gobbling in the distance. Of course we were concerned that a gobble might cause hunters to come a-running, but we continued to call. Finally the gobbler was in sight, 120 yards out but closing the distance. Seconds later the roar of a shotgun broke the silence as we watch the tom drop a hundred yards away from us! Stunned we watched as a hunter sprinted out from a clump of trees to claim his prize. Again, we had no idea that anyone was near us but boy were we wrong. And this didn’t happen just once but a similar setup resulted in the exact same scenario happening days later. A definite first for me in my 20 plus years of hunting turkeys and unbelievably it happened not once but twice within the same season!

           A tom was closing the distance                     For a second, thought we had a bearded hen

There were many days where we were up at 4:00 a.m. and back to work by 8:00 a.m. and then back out again for an evening hunt. Until eventually the final day of the season was upon us. On that day we had the absolute best opportunity ever and completely blew it. Unbelievably we called in a mature gobbler to within 10 yards and never fired a shot, here’s why. We were perched up on an embankment overlooking a 20 ft wide terrace below. Beyond that shelf the hillside continued its slope downward into an aspen tree covered canyon. Using our mouth call we let out some yelps and a hen immediately responded.

                        Saw this collared moose                                      Turkey nest was raided, eggs damaged

Within minutes 3 hens appeared on the bench 10 yards below us! They were very vocal, making soft clucks and yelps as they meandered about; a tom gobbled nearby. After a minute or two the 3 hens slowly began moving to our left as they were unable to locate the source of the calls that drew them here in the first place. Just then the tom popped into view about 10 yards to our right; semi-obscured by the tree we sat behind.

          Probably was eating turkey eggs                         Aggressive snake struck at me

Believing that I was the only one who could see the tom, I aggressively poked my index finger in and out in the direction of the tom while keeping my hand close to my body. Unbeknownst to me, Daxton had already seen the tom and took my aggressive gesture as the cue to take immediate action. He popped up from where we sat, took a couple steps to his left in order to clearly see past the tree but the embankment was too steep --- Daxton tumbled down until he splatted onto the terrace 12 ft. below. Sadly to say, there was no shot opportunity.

         Unexpectedly caught in rain storm                                   Called several hens in close

That incident was a very humbling way to end the season, but we definitely learned a valuable lesson, namely patience. Had either one of us calmly waited, the tom would have continued to follow the hens and presented a clear shot within 10 feet at most. But the reality is that the excitement of having these types of encounters is what keeps us coming back again and again!