Every year for five years now I have flown out to Massachusetts from New Mexico to hunt turkeys on my old stomping grounds with a buddy of 40 years plus. We originally met in hunter safety class and discovered our moms were nurses in the same hospital. In the days I was growing up there we didn't have a turkey season but did some fine grouse, woodcock, and duck hunting. The gobbling was off and on this year, but mostly off. Places I know there are a few gobblers were completely quiet most days. I was lucky to time my hunt last week to a stretch of a few very nice high pressure days and the toms did fire up a bit. On my second morning I managed to find a gobbler on the roost that liked what I was saying with my Hudson hen box. After an hour long battle it was clear he was hung up hard at about a hundred yards. I switched to my brand-new-to-me Shannon Kelly push pin for some quiet clucks and soft quavery yelps. (Thanks again Andy) That did the trick and I could see him start working his way in from a long way off.
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/961/40238109640_91e906ee8c_o_d.jpg)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/957/40238114030_2bb619b80c_o_d.jpg)
(https://farm1.staticflickr.com/951/40238119230_9aa5613302_o_d.jpg)
As much as I love hunting our high mountain New Mexico forests for Merriam's, those New England hardwood forests, rock walls, and small creeks are in my DNA. A couple of other highlights from the trip were finding a bear skull in the woods complete with nice big teeth and an enormous patch of ramps ready for picking which we sauteed with some fiddlehead ferns and mushrooms.
Nice bird and great photos!
Congrats on a nice trip and bird!
Congratulations to you and thanks for teaching me something new, I had to look up fiddleheads.
Great hunt bro, congrats
Very nice season. Merriam's in NM followed by Easterns in the Northeast. Good stuff.
I killed two nice toms in MA my self this year (home state). I'd love to get to New Mexico some time to hunt Merriams!
Congrats...Those tight beaked birds sound like the ones I'm hunting. Weird year compared to years past..
Congrats
Beautiful bird. Nice work!
Congrats on a good Homecoming trip!!
Congratulations on a great trip.
Gorgeous bird !!!!
CONGRATS on a job well done !!
Very great looking Tom. Congrats
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Great job!
One of these days I need to head down and give western MA a go.