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Arizona
New Mexico Outfitters and Guides
Turkey
Hunting Stories
The following is a
collection of real life entries as written by the outfitter, guides, and past
clients. Their purpose is to give potential hunters an idea of our hunts.
Merriam's
Turkey Hunting at 110%
By Russell Leachman
My fellow sportsman:
Last weekend, April 28th, 2005, Tony "The Safinator" Safi, Hunter "Umzingi" Burkhalter and I
took to the high forest around Alpine, Arizona in search of the Merriams wild
turkey. This was a draw only hunt, and we were lucky enough
to draw out for these birds. There was much anticipation for this hunt,
and Arizona was a close locale to strike one more state of turkey hunting off of
the list. Pat Feldt of Arizona Guided Hunts was our outfitter, and he
showed up with Dave and Bryan to round out the crew.
We arrived at Alpine in near gale wind conditions. A condition that would
largely persist over the course of the next few days. It was clear that we
would have to accept these conditions and give 110% if we were to prevail on
this hunt. The wind was an aggravating factor from the beginning,
including the set up of the canvas wall tent in which we stayed. It was,
however, remarkably calm inside the tent despite the howling winds outside.
Incidentally, the winds were not the only thing howling outside. The unit
in which we were hunting is an area where wolves have been re-introduced, and on
Thursday night I woke to the eerie howl of El Lobo.
Friday morning came early, and we were up at 4:00 a.m. ready to pursue our
quarry. The assignments were as follows: Team Leachman-Russ/Pat;
Team Burkhalter-Hunter/Bryan; and Team Safi-Tony/Dave. The wind was still
howling when we woke up, and it began to snow. It would continue to snow
off and on all day Friday. The wind would also continue to blow, although
there were some windows of relative calm. These were definitely not ideal
conditions for a turkey hunt. Teams Burkhalter and Safi hit
the ground running Friday morning, and were out of camp in the dark to look for
birds. Team Leachman (myself and Pat) was all about situational awareness. The
situation was as follows: 1) the wind was screaming...a condition non-conducive
to turkey calling; 2) the coffee pot was still relatively full (a fact neglected
by the other two teams); 3) the heater in the guide's pop-up camping trailer was working
and warm (and it would stay that way for the next hour or so); 4) it was real
friggin cold outside; and 5) it was a good opportunity to warm up our calls.
Now one thing that was clear very early on was that this turkey hunting effort
would take a 110% effort. There is a mental and physical aspect to this
effort, and this early morning strategy session could be the difference.
After a couple extra cups of cowboy coffee and not much enthusiasm due to the
current conditions, Pat and I took out on foot up an old
logging road. We would call occasionally, but were not really hearing anything...no
tweety birds, no turkeys, no nothing. Incidentally, we also could not
locate any sign because a 1/2 inch of snow had accumulated on the ground, and
any sign was thus concealed. After climbing a bit further, we did finally
hear a gobble. It was faint, and we did not even have a good sense of
direction for the bird. The bird went silent after that one courtesy
gobble. Not even Pat's Kentucky Long Box paddle call from Hell could
raise a gobble. Frustrated, we continued forward.
About 45 minutes later, Pat thought that he heard a gobble, and he sent me ahead
a little way to call. I did, and the bird immediately responded. It
sounded as though the bird was 800 yards away, so Pat and I hustled at a 110%+
pace to try to close the distance. After traveling about 300 yards, we
almost ran into a gobbler that was in full strut. Luckily, we both
immediately did a full sprawl to the ground to be followed by an Army crawl maneuver
to the nearest inadequate cover, two six-inch diameter saplings. Once set
up, Pat let out a short series of
yelps. Two gobblers hammered the call, only to be followed by the raspy
yelp of a hen. Crap!...are they henned up? One more short yelp from
Pat's slate,
and here he comes. At about 35 yards, my pack makes a noise while
positioning for the shot. Mr. Tom lifts his head in a classic alert
strut..... game over. Beard
goes 9 1/2", spurs worn down to about 3/8".
After many high fives, photo ops in the snow, etc., Pat and I return to camp.
Once back in camp, we hung up the bird and waited for Team Burkhalter and Team Safi to
return. When they did, my fears that they might not have given 110%
were confirmed. My bird had no company. Team Burkhalter proceeded to
take a long winters nap. Team Safi stayed up, but complaints started to
emerge concerning the ankle, the altitude...oh no, that's not 110%. I was
also unfortunate enough to learn later that hidden under Safi's medley of some
12-15 camo patterns was a panty hose looking thing on his foot. He claimed
it was some sort of ankle brace, but it said something like Hanes Control Top on
it. I didn't like having to see that!
Later that afternoon, I enlisted with Team Safi to try to drum up a bird.
We did manage to bump a bird that did not respond to the call some 200 yards
away. We tried to work our way around, but the terrain and cover would not
allow for it. We did get a response out of a hen, but it was clear that we
would not talk the gobbler away from them, and decided to leave them for later.
We also spotted one other bird after a lengthy distraction by a giant bull elk
feeding. Incidentally, this area is the prime elk habitat in Arizona where
many record book elk have been taken.
Friday evening, we took the collaborative approach to roosting, and everyone
took a separate mountain top to listen for gobblers. The only thing that I
heard was a shot at 7:24 p.m. That's roosting time. I understand
that the only suspect denied any shooting, but there was definitely a shot.
Saturday morning, Hunter went to an area where they had roosted a bird.
Safi went back to the area we had been, and I went home to see Margaret get the
Outstanding Federal Lawyer Award from the El Paso Bar. I did see about 30
herd of elk between camp and Cliff, N.M.
Subsequent reports from Team Safi and Burkhalter indicated no birds. I only
hope it was not due to giving less than 110%.
Respectfully submitted,
Grits (Russ Leachman)
Spring
Turkey Hunting
by Pat Feldt
 It
was the evening before the opener of Spring Turkey Season..........The owl call
echoed across the canyon as I waited in hopes of getting a response from an old
longbeard, but there was nothing.
I hooted again, but still no gobble.
The wind was terrible, roaring and shifting the 60-foot pine trees back
and forth with fury!
Remembering a trick I learned from an old turkey hunting pro, I broke-out
with my long-range predator call, hoping this would cut through the wind and
reach the 600 yards to the other side of the canyon. Giving a couple loud, gut-wrenching screams on the flute, I
stood patiently waiting to hear the response that all spring turkey hunters want
to hear, a gobble. As soon as the
sound of the predator call came back off the opposite walls of the canyon, I
heard the faint gobble of a “Lovesick ” Merriam’s turkey. I gave a cunning chuckle to myself and pinpointed his
location because I knew there could be some good turkey hunting action in the
morning to come.
Spring turkey hunting success usually relies upon locating
a vocal, hot and lonely bird. Roosting
a lonely Merriam’s turkey the evening before a morning of hunting can
often be the key to success. Don’t
get me wrong. If a gobbler is not
located the evening prior, there is still a good chance for tagging, but it is
not as easy because many ridges and steep canyons must often be hiked to locate
a hot or responsive bird.
Also, if the tom turkey is already on the ground when you locate him in
the morning, the chances of him coming to your calls decreases and having him be
lead away by hens (the real thing) increases.
I have often had good success while calling Tom's off the
roost.
If a longbeard is located on the roost in the evening, the
turkey hunter can plan more carefully for the morning to come. The hunter can
set-up on the turkey in the morning when there is total darkness and the bird
cannot detect his presence.
The hunter tries to place the decoys between the gobbler and the hens (if
any), blend himself into the surroundings, and plan carefully for the moments to
come. I found if it's going to happen off
the roost, it usually happens a few minutes after the hunter calls out the first
few series of tree yelps. I have often made the mistake of calling too
early when there is just a glow in the sky to the east and I can barely see the
strutting bird on the ground in front of me, let alone my shotgun bead. I've had
turkeys fly down off the roost into the decoy set less than a minute after my
first yelps. Now that's a hot bird!
It was now morning and time to go Merriam’s turkey
hunting.
Since my hunting partner heard nothing the evening prior, he
decided to come along and video the excitement and possibly get a turkey, if
there was more than one.
We had an agreement that if there were two Merriam’s gobblers at this
roosting site, we would take both at the same time.
We climbed to the top of the ridge where I had pinpointed the gobble of
the turkey the night before. My
partner set-up the Cary-Lite jake and hen decoys about 15 yards away in a small clearing
among the pine and juniper trees. We
nestled against a couple pine trees and waited to see if the bird would gobble
on his own. After a few minutes of waiting, we began a series of owl
hoots.
There was no response from any animal, let alone a Merriam’s turkey.
Getting worried, I owl hooted again, but not a peep was heard.
“Maybe it is still too early?” I thought to myself.
But then it happened not a moment later; Gobbles in front of us 100 yards
away. Then another turkey hollered
to the right, left and another just below. We
both looked at each other in amazement. After calling with some soft tree yelps on the slate, we soon
realized there were responses from six gobblers. Spending many years Merriam’s turkey hunting in the desert
mountains of the Southwest, it
was a very rare occasion to have this many toms in the same 100-yard vicinity.
Waiting and looking cautiously, I noticed movement beyond
the jake turkey decoy. A big
Merriam’s longbeard was silently approaching the decoy in half strut.
He approached and began dancing a jig. Hesitant to shoot because of
the agreement with my partner (wait until two turkeys are present), I whispered
to him “there’s a bird by the dekes!”
I wanted a double harvest and knew there were other turkeys that might
also come to the call. But my
partner said “ just shoot!” The
turkey hunting adrenaline rush from the sight of a strutting tom is like
that of no other. Being in this
position many times before, I thought I had gotten over it, but it had
hit me again. I managed to slowly place the bead of the shotgun on the tom’s
head. The tom jigged his tail and circled the decoy, spit n' drumming as he
did. As he went out of strut and stuck his head up to investigate my loud
"alarm putt", I squeezed the trigger. The
shot rang-out and I had a beautiful 3-year old longbeard flopping and fluttering
on the ground in front of the jake decoy only 15 yards away.
The other toms gobbled their heads off from the ring of the shotgun blast.
We sat patiently and called to see if they were interested, but the gig was up
and I was sitting there content that another turkey hunt went as planned. Nothing
beats the excitement of Spring Merriam’s turkey hunting in Arizona or New
Mexico! Try turkey hunting with
Arizona Guided Hunts, you’ll be hooked!
Visit our turkey
hunting page for rates and other info.
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