Colo Gobblers

[birddogdoc]

I look for areas that have burned...I've found that turkeys will even roost in the burnt trees.  Last season I called in a bear and a bobcat, and I killed a nice tom a few years ago that that been attacked pretty bad and had gangrenous lesions on the breast and legs.  I wouldn't make much noise either!  I work the logging roads until I see sign and then work those areas.  This has worked every season for me here in Colorado.  The San Isabel NF is much better than the front range.  I got my bird on May the 4th this year and I heard several turkeys gobble right after they left the roost then nothing for a few hours.  He responded to my call when he got close.  I've found also that you have to follow the snowline as it recedes.  This week, a person will have to be 1000 ft higher than I was last week.  I absolutely love chasing these mountain turkeys and they are a challenge.

[jims]

I was able to make another marathon hike into the same turkey spot one day last week.  I didn't get into the area until around 8 am.  The toms actually gobbled this time about once every hour or 2 until around 11 am.  It made it super tough pinpointing their location but I did find a group of 2 toms with around 8 hens.  I had a slam dunk opportunity that I managed to botch up on a gorgeous mature tom.  I could have shot a jake but passed.  The remainder of the day the turkeys were silent but I got 3 stray hens to wander into decoys.  They hung around my decoys for around 3 hours.  It was nice having live decoys running around.  I could get the hens excited and do soft turkey talk but no toms showed up.  It seemed like the few toms that are in the area are with hens.  I'm going to try giving it another shot this weekend.  I'll probably backpack in a spike camp this time so I can spend more time hunting than hiking in the dark!