Had the opportunity this last week to chase Merriam's for the first time in the mountains of northern New Mexico. 3 other guys and myself hooked up with a buddy of mine out there who had been finding us some birds on state land for a few weeks. He had been giving us some good reports on the birds he was finding but warned that the birds had not been acting Merriam like this year for some reason.
Got there on Thursday around lunch and went right at it in the Mts. He dropped me off at a spot and gave me a few land marks to focus on so that I wouldn't get lost and off I went. He told me that once I reached 4 miles that I would hit a fence and that was where I would stop and start back out towards the road. Well let me tell you something, 4 miles in the mts of New Mexico is like 10 miles here. Up and down, up and down, up and down I went calling on every high ridge I came to. Gorgeous woods. Big ponderosa pines with grassy meadows with watering holes. Looked like turkey heaven. Saw a bunch of elk, mule deer, prairie dogs, coyotes and one small bear but never heard or saw the first turkey. The guy we hunted with was surprised by it as he had heard birds there every time he had been in there this year scouting for us.
The next morning we were up at 4:00 and off to what he called his honey hole where he has always killed birds and where he said he heard 4 birds the morning before while scouting. We get there and walk in about 2 miles and get on a high hill as he called it but really it was a damn mountain. I finally catch my breath just in time for day break anticipating some wild and crazy Merriam action. After listening and calling for about 30 mins and not hearing a thing he looks at me with a worried look and tells me that this is what he had warned me about. For some reason the birds out there this year will be hot for 2 or 3 days and then go dead for a few days. He said he had never seen them act like that before out there. We hunted from sun up to sun down not hearing a single gobble. Saw some hens but no toms. The hens would be walking alone through the meadows just calling like crazy with no toms around. When I saw that I knew were in trouble. Everywhere he had been seeing and hearing birds was dead as a door nail. Problem with hunting the birds in the mts out there is if they don't talk, you can't find them. They normally stick to the mt sides with good roosting trees and where a meadow is below with a water source. But even knowing that we still couldn't find any toms. It was like they had vanished. We found hen after hen alone but no toms.
Well he and his wife were going to hunt Sat and Sun morning so I decided to go and video for them to try and get his wife her first bird. First light came and BAM, birds were talking. I was ready to run up and down those mountains once I finally heard some birds gobble. Closest bird was up a draw which led down into a meadow so we got set up around a corner and went to calling. Old boy gobbled good for us and came in on a string. He put on a great show for us spitting and gobbling the entire time. We had to set up in some junipers so I had nothing to lean on. She had a gobbler lounger but I was laying on my side trying to hold up my gun and video. Bird came right in and at 25 yds and she shot but should have waited as the bird was walking and lowered his head as she shot. You will see in the video that she shot over the top of him. I scrambled to get up and shot and by the time I got on him he was rounding the corner and all I hit was juniper.
We were able to get on two more birds that morning but they had hens and would never leave them. We worked on them for more than an hour but they never moved so we decided to back out and get back after them the next morning.
Next morning we go back to where the two toms were with the hens and found them roosted on the side of a mountain so we setup in the meadow below and waited them out. They would gobble when we called but you could tell they were working across the mountain top instead of coming down. Figured they had the hens with them again so we got up and went to another meadow at the end of the mountain expecting them to come off the mountain into it. We got around and while walking into the meadow I stopped and crow called and the birds immediately gobbled and close. These birds had covered some ground and covered it fast. We scrambled to get setup and luckily there was a ponderosa pine we could all get setup on this time. I figured I needed to change things up seeing how this group of birds had heard me the day before using my mouth calls and already that morning so I pulled out the Mann box and laid it on its side on the ground so that I could hold my gun up and still run the call. I had taken the camera off my gun and gave it to Shane for him to video. Video gets a little shaky as he had a hard time focusing on the camera and not the birds but we still got some good footage. Just about every time I hit the box call they would gobble so I kept feeding it to them. Wasn't long when the lead bird popped up over the hill and man was Lisa excited. I thought she was going to have a heart attack watching these birds come in. The lead bird came right into the gap she needed and at 25 yds she let her 20 gauge bark. As you will see in the video she must have dropped her gun when she pulled the trigger because she cut his legs out from under him and never even hit the birds body. This time since I was sitting up I was able to make a follow-up shot and put him down. I cannot even put into words how happy this woman was. The day before when she missed she cried and was really down on herself. But this day she was on cloud 9.
He was a good bird for the area we were in. 16 lbs, 8" beard and ¾" spurs. With the snow they get every year, Shane said he had never seen a bird in those parts with a beard over 10" and never seen one with spurs longer than 1" with the rocky terrain.
This was the last day I had to hunt so Shane and I went back after the other bird but could never get him to leave his hens or get a sneak on him to get a shot. He eventually went quiet on us and I had to leave him so that I could get back to Colorado and catch my plane.
The birds finally started talking for the other guys as well. They were ready to give up after they first 2 ½ days of not hearing but one bird but Shane talked them into giving it one last try before leaving. Sure enough as soon as they got out of the truck a bird started hammering in the same area where they had not heard a single bird in 2 days. It was like all of a sudden the light switch had been cut back on. They had to chase him for 3 miles but finally got in front of him and let him have it.
Shane had told us that he had never seen the Merriam's act like they were this year. Vocal one day and not say a word the next 2 or 3. Toms by themselves not coming to calls and going the other way. Toms being so henned up and not coming in. It was like hunting birds here at home. Even getting on the high ground and glassing the meadows we still couldn't find the birds when they were quiet.
Didn't get the birds like we thought we would be we had a blast none the less. Saw tons of wildlife. Elk were everywhere. Probably saw 2000 or more. At first we were all excited about seeing elk but by the 3rd day we didn't even pay them any attention. Mule deer all over the place, coyotes, bears, prairie dogs and saw some antelope while in Colorado.
http://youtu.be/ZncoowNoWyE
