We are just now wrapping up a week long trip in the Lincoln National Forest. Things started out fairly slow, lots of gobbling on the roost but not much once their feet hit the ground. Honestly, we struggled quite a bit and felt like we were always 3 steps behind.
As the week progressed we gradually started to put the pieces together. Being young and in our 20's (ok I'm pushing 30 but I still have a couple years left) we put our heads down and forced our legs up and up and up and up until we reached the top ridges of the mountains. This is where we found loads of scratching, dust bowls, and poop. We immediately starting coming in contact with birds and knew we would be in good shape the last couple days.
Thursday morning came and we climbed to the top of the mountain and as it began to break daylight gobblers were firing off in almost every direction. We slipped into 100 yards of the closest one and with just a few tree yelps and using my hat to sound like a hen pitching down he pitched down and came running in. My bro in law got a little excited and whiffed on a chip shot. We were both devastated. So much hard work to finally get an opportunity and we didnt capitalize.
We typically hunt together, because to us it's more enjoyable to share the experience but being our last morning we decided to split up and hope we could hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth. I pursued some birds far into the distance but never really got in close enough before they pitched down and got quiet. Finally for the first time all week, a bird started hammering around 9:00 on the other side of the canyon and my bro in law was able to get across and slip into his bubble and get redemption for his miss yesterday.
We learned a lot and look forward to getting back out here sometime in the near future. New Mexico is awesome! Below are the pictures of the bird and some of our other finds/scenery throughout the week. Really dreading the 20 hour drive home to Florida but it's so much easier with the satisfaction of knowing we persevered and aren't coming home empty handed.
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