I will just start off by saying, the days of the "easy merriams" are over. Of course there are exceptions, but you're talking about low population densities and lots of folks in the woods. Heading west appears to definitely be the "cool" thing to do and finding birds and willing birds at that has simply become very tough!
I have blanked two years in a row in my home state and really it felt like a third skunk was looming as I got into day 3 without much so show. I had only seen one turkey in three days (a hen) and heard very few gobbles. The best group of gobbling turkeys were, of course, birds that seemingly lived on private land and may filter onto public some. It appears they were hunted hard as some guys pulled into the gate while I was getting ready on day one. We had one of those "chats at the gate" about where they'd be as they had those turkeys roosted. I heard only one other gobble from that area and couldn't get anything going. There was a truck at that gate every time I checked.
Anyway, the evening of day 3 I finally roosted a couple turkeys a couple miles in. That's just the way I like it. The odds are low that anybody who would park by me and walk in behind me would make it that far before gobble time.
The two toms were about 500 yards apart and both were close to private. One straddling the line and one a couple hundred yards away. We had a big turkey camp and since turkeyduster was on his own birds, I took another buddy in camp and we both picked our battles.
After flydown I got impatient because of that private land looming. They (tom and hens) didn't come right in off the roost but I was on a point and they were below me. As I tried to move a bit to get a better bead on things, they showed up. I was in perfect position if I wouldn't have moved. But I made a bonehead play due to impatience and now I was caught with my pants down.
Laying prone the hen came up and picked me off. She eased back over the hill but seemed to calm down a bit. I called to help and the tom gobbled CLOSE. I couldn't see any turkeys so I gambled, and scrambled back to throw myself into a bush/the best cover I had. I could tell his hen had moved past me on the other side of the point, and he was still gobbling off the end of the point.
A few calls and he finally presented himself with drumming and popping into strut. He picked me off as well, before I could get my gun and everything into position. As he flicked his wings, I made a quick move to get on target. With a branch blocking his lower neck I figured I had plenty of pattern to hit his head.
At less than 40 yards I let it fly. He did the "hop fly attempt" At impact and I knew it wasn't good. The chase was on and after a whiff and finally another solid hit, it was over. Not how you like it to happen but...it does happen like that sometimes. Very happy to get him after so much hiking into empty spots this week!
Brenner/Nyturkeyduster is still after them. He can post his report after he gets back!
