I wrote a lot of this on my phone while in MX.... I'll add more later as I have time! And Proof Read.... but getting this started
4/8 - Friday night: I landed in Tuscon, AZ. Got my rental car and a few provisions and met Jim at camp sometime around 11pm. For never meeting him in person I will solemnly vouch he is an example of what a class act is for a hunting partner. He set up a camp for us which included a coat and sleeping bag ready for me to get some quick sleep.
4/9- Saturday: The next morning we rose at a time of maybe 330 to leave camp by 4. I followed Jim down the road some 30-40min before he stopped. We stepped out of our rigs and he gave a little gobble. A bird he previously roosted was up and talking. Now one thing about Jim is and I say this with complete humility and no disrespect is he is far too kind and nice. He quickly told me that I needed to go pursue that bird. It was ok, he had another down the road. Showing Jim my OnX he pointed out the cluster of trees the bird was believed to be in. I decided to make a looping approach and get settled in above the bird. As I approached I located him a couple times to get a better idea of where he was and exactly what tree he was in. Now this was my first time hunting this area and I was a little rusty to distance judging. So as I set up what I though was above the birds some 100-150 yds as I didn't want to push them too hard the first morning as the sun rose it became evident I was way way off. I'd nestled in a modest 80-85yds from the roost and had stabbed decoys some 60-65yds out. Being aware of this possibility I had been quite mellow with my set up and almost motionless when I sat down. With a few tree yelps and small talk to let them know where I was I settled in quite waiting for fly down. Much to my dismay the flew down and away from me! Surprise surprise. None the less I had just ascended the hill and had a good plan to get down and around them. It was evident they weren't coming back up so I grabbed my gear and made my move. With a little pep in my step and using the topography I indeed got around them and re-setup. Much to my pleasure I had now positioned myself between him and some other birds. Calling very sparingly it seamed that both flocks were closing into my position. The new flock to my left seaming ever so close that I should be able to see them and the prior only a brush line away to my right. THEN a few putts came to my left but still no birds could be seen and a min later a coyote runs out in front of me clearly being the culprit of the commotion. The flock to my left went silent and moved out. I made contact with the coyote and he moved on willingly. The desired bird with hens after maybe 15min fired back up briefly but pushed on too. I know this because I sat in my spot for another 2 hours hoping for a come back from the gobbling Tom. Eventually I packed it in and went on a little tour to familiarize myself with the area. Sometime later in the mid day Jim and I exchanged stories of our morning hunts and decided it best I go sit on the roost that evening for a comeback hunt.
With almost 3 hours left in the day I made my way back to the roost and located what seamed like there fly up location. Got settled in and began some gentle calling every 15min by the watch. At 6:08 the gobbler sounded off some 600yds in the direction they left out in the morning. Great! Keeping to my call schedule I called at 6:10 with no response. 6:25 he amply responded to my call. 6:40 no response. With sunset at 6:46 I sat time expecting to see the birds back soon. But he just kept gobbling down some 400 yds away. So much so I was convinced he'd roosted down there. Wanting to find him I got up and began my hike down the hill at 6:53. No sooner at 6:55 i watched two hens and the jake fly up from where I'd been sitting only 2min earlier. And much to my dismay one had perched itself into the tree I was but 15yds from. Slipping carefully back I got a big ponderaros between me and the birds and began retreating towards where old Tom had last been heard. I sent out a locate and he was still there. Walked closer and located and he responded but seamed to have move...did he jump a limb? I took some more steps and hit again. No he's definitely on the move. And over the next min he marched his tail right up to were I was sitting and at 6:58 pushed himself off the hill right into his trusty tree. Now I can't say I'd have done anything different because I was so convinced he was in his roost but a good question to ask it when birds typically roost in the area. Which is later find out. Was when they did or even later. Also checkin to know how late you can shoot because I was under the impression I could hunt until sunset not until I couldn't see as the rules were where I was hunting.
4/10 - Sunday: Next morning I get up and set up close to the roost again but this time down him and relative to about where they flew down the day before. Only this time the hens pitched right to the hill. The Tom hung up in his tree and finally pitched again slightly away and down the hill. Which I would determine was to the hens. I assume they walked straight down the hill under and passed him. Unfortunately I never saw them and this time I could only get one gobble out of the Tom on the ground. Right or wrong I got up and tried to swing around them again to no avail. So then I took the morning plus some to do a 9 mi loop of the area learning the terrain and what these birds liked and didn't like. From dry creek bottom to hill top I got a good idea of what was what and where the travel routes was. I did get in the mix with some Jake's and hens throughout this 8hr adventure but never once struck a gobble. It was windy but more the birds were not split up quite yet. The breeding had not quite began. Again I regrouped with Jim to find he was calling it to head back to NM. He graciously filled my cooler with food and I struck out again to wait the Tom out on his roost. This time I walked straight up the hill to find what there approach was and I picked what I thought to be an even more favorable spot for the evening hunt. As dusk approached with my vantage point I caught the time strutting the bottom with his hens making his way back to there roost. Great! It had cross my mind to sit down in the bottoms as it seamed like such a popular spot but I was convinced I needed to be where I needed to be. Per usual turkey hunting these birds had there new plan and that was to stay in the bottom. I waited until 7 this time to strike off incase I was wrong. However I was not as I had a good idea where his hens were and he was.... I thought.
4/11 - Monday: The next morning I backed my car up some 250yds and walked in and set up where I was in the mix and had a heck of a vantage of the bottom. You could see a great deal as the area had been prescribed burn many a times. The first Gobbler sounded off in the morning down the drainage. I'd heard one there the other two. Then another behind...almost sounded like where I'd parked? Did I mess this up again? Then some yelps in front of me and close and then boom. The gobble I wanted 50yds to my left. But now I faced a new problem. You see the night before the gobbler I was hearing on the limb was up by where I parked because I was locating almost flush under the gobbler I was hunting. And now how I was sitting I was "exposed" to the target bird. Fortunately I had my gun up and froze never turning my head to catch the sight of the bird drumming and strutting his limb. Sometime later he hit the deck in a strut, puffed his way within range, and with a couple putts and a bang from the 870 was down in the dirt! I celebrated as composed as I could and marveled over a bird that deserved more then I could ever express. He was big, he was beautiful, and he was smart. I packed him over my shoulder and back to my rig. As I opened the tailgate that gobbler I'd mistaken for him busted from his roost under 30yds from where I parked. Jim buddy... you should have stayed!
I packed up after a few more pictures and headed out. It was a plan to go hunt NV if I had time before MX. My Google told me I was looking to get there about 10:30pm...I picked a route for 12:30am... wanted to check out a couple more sights on the way. So for the rest of that day I headed north the AZ around the Grand Canyon, passed through UT for a little and found myself in NV at nightfall. Maybe it was the site seeing, the white out snow, or the couple much needed roadside catnaps but I managed to pull into my destination at 4:30 in the morning.
4/12 - Tuesday - now I've been planning this hunt for over 2 years now and have gotten aquatinted with some of the locals. A past hunter from WA had done this hunt with some good intel as well. I chose my place to park for the morning. At 5am I opened my sunroof to listen as I geared up in the crisp morning air and was greeted by a chorus of gobbles. Due to the complexity, nature, and pressure of out state hunters I'm going to skip a lot of the specifics and talk about the hunt. The opportunity is significantly less then the demand. Not to say the birds aren't managed well, but the littlest of detail would put the birds at a serious disadvantage. I was unable to get to the roost in the vast openness of the area but seen the direction they were headed. For the next hour and a half I plaid cat and mouse trying to get at least even with the birds in the drainage. At one point I crossed a dam/weir to get on the same side and again using the topography and creek bed worked my way closer and closer. In total there were 8 mature gobblers and as many hens. As in most of these flocks there is always that one bird that struts deep behind the flock. Finally after getting level with them I began a soft symphony of prrs, clucks, and even a Yelp. That old back bird fortunately was curious enough to work away from the flock and within range. I moved to get a better shot but that movement got the attention of the flock that was now ahead and had me pinned. The Tom pulled out of strut and began to scan for what they seen when I took my shot. He crumpled to the ground much to my pleasure. As I approached he lifted his head and it was that lift that any experience turkey hunter knows... ya hit him, but he's far from dead... in a split second I thought to shoot again but with my now close proximity to him I feared blowing his head off or ruining his back. I hesitated and thought to try to run up and grab him. In that bit of hesitation he got up with a bad hitch and found flight up the creek. I tracked him as far as I could but he tucked around some trees and into the brush along the creek. I ran up there but he was nowhere to be found. I scanned the banks, nothing. Across the creek was a cut bank from flooding I'm sure he'd hole up in. I backed up to the shot, his hit, and then walked his flight path to last sight. Then I began the grid on my side of the creek. Now 100yds from the creek is wide open and it would be hard to miss a bird running up there. I pushed way up to make sure he wasn't up higher. All while my insides twisted and turned with guilt. You always always always take that finishing shot. The animal deserves that. I was near giving up the search and cutting my hard earned tag empty handed when I stopped some 80yds from the creek where about where I thought he was an let out a kee kee run Yelp to try and get something out of him. I'd busted up the flock so maybe I could be a bird looking for him. It worked! He moved! I didn't see it but he was definitely across the creek in that cut bank. Not wanting to double back to the crossing and wanting to see this through as swiftly as possible I waded across the creek. Knee deep the cold water rushed into my boots but it felt warm as I was closer to ending something I felt so cold about. I trampled through the tumble weeds and brush on that bank hoping to step in him if I had to get him to move. Again the thoughts jumped in my mind. Had I heard something else, had a chukar flushed, God I hope I find this bird when my next step produced movement. There he was inside a root that came out of the bank at the edge of the creek under, tail in the water, wings stuck under the root, head up and scared. With haste I ended the chase. With much relief I made my way back to the rig. I got him back out and let him dry out and really stepped back taking in the scenery. NV is beautiful... maybe one of the prettiest states in the country. The hills and mountains were freshly covered with snow and I was blessed to be standing there bird in hand.
Google was dialed back up and to California I went. I scouted a small pocket east side of the Sierr@ nevadas but was shooting for a spot on the west side that I pressed on scouring a birdy birdy area that night with no gobbles to be heard.
4/13 - Wednesday: As 4am rolled around I scanned my OnX for a chunk of public ground to listen on. Picking my spot I pulled up and got my gear on. What do you know! A gobble in The Valley below. Hurry to grab the rest of my gear and take off down the hill to get a closer look see. Very quickly I realize I notice he is a ways off and the path to him is not a straight line. By the time I get to the bottom he has already hit the ground and has some ladies. They have no interest to me dispite getting to sub 100 yds and continue to sounter off onto private ground. After I watch them walk well out of view I head back to the vehicle. I had an end goal of where I wanted to hunt that day. Though as I journeyed along and saw bird after bird strutting in private land after private land I figure I need to just hunt some public behind these. Why would I continue to drive past birds. I get connected with the NF ranger and get a hot tip of a good area to check out. Let me tell you it was a beautiful. I covered country! I was in all sorts of country that just felt birdy. Problem was I couldnt find one. Saw very little sign and couldn't strike a gobble. It was somewhere in the early evening I decided I really needed to check out this long draw that would have some good country to hear in when on the way I see a long beard walking across a field that the owner happened to have just pulled in their driveway. I flip around to go have a chat and he was excited to have me hunt. The long beard disappeared but the land owner told me where I should expect him later/soon. So I set up in that area hoping for a last chance gobbler. I am able to pull in a few hens and I'm thinking to myself this is good. Though time fades and it is getting ever so close to shooting light/time. When boom there he is some 150 yds out. Now shooting time is Sunset which is still bright as heck so this bird is in no rush to be anywhere and dispite my best efforts he really isnt working close enough fast enough. The "sunsets" and as he was so close I figure I'd watch to see what he does. He walks within range 6min after shooting time and fly's up to a tree some 80 yds from me 5 minutes later. California hunt over.
4/14 - Thursday: Traveled back to AZ, picked up at 3:00pm to go to Sierr@ Vista to stage for MX
4/15 - Friday: Wheels up at 4am and travel to MX - Evening Hunt .... to be continued
4/16 - Saturday: Hunt = 2 Birds one in the AM and one in the PM
4/17 - Sunday: Camp and Beer
4/18 - Monday: Camp and Beer
4/19 - Tuesday: Travel Back to US
4/20 - Wednesday: Travel Back to WA
4/21 - Thursday: Pause to Turkey hunting
