This is our first spring season in Montana. Montana is split into general areas (meaning over the counter lic.) and limited license areas. Helena, our new home, is within a limited license area (really limited). The closest general areas are 2 hours west and 3 hours east. Montana allows 2 turkeys per year. One in a general area and one in a limited area, or two in a general area provided one of those is in Region 7 (Eastern MT).
I understand that the western areas have good numbers, but I have not had a chance to look at those areas. The eastern areas, especially region 7, is the more popular turkey country. The Custer NF in region 7 is a 6 hour drive for me. The bird numbers are reported to be down from previous years due to two terrible hatches in a row. I have not had a chance to search out any private land that would be a shorter drive, so we started our MT turkey hunting in the Custer NF and hoped for the best. We left Helena in the afternoon of the 19th and set up camp on NF that evening after dark.
Day 1 (20th)
The first morning started with a little wind, but much to our surprise we provoked a gobble from a bird. Game on! We had to cover a lot of ground to get to the bird. He was on the ground and had already moved some by the time we got close. I would preferred to circle the bird to get ahead, but this is new country and I didn't immediately notice a good way around them. When I finally decided to call to the bird we found out that it was a whole flock. They were no more than 150 yards just over an open rise and immediately responded . It sounded like two toms, two jakes, and some hens. They started so strong that we sat down fully expecting them to come charging over the rise. Thirty minutes later it was obvious that wasn't happening. They finally started moving away and we circled but were unable to keep up with the occasional gobble one of the toms would respond with.
While calling to these birds we heard a single tom gobble at the calls several times far to the east. We decided to circle back that way but were unable to get another response. That was the only action we had all day even after covering a lot of ground trying to find an interested bird.
Day 2
We had no reason to believe that there wouldn't be birds in the same area on day two so we started there. We left the tent earlier and got closer to where the birds were roosted the previous morning.
The winds were stronger this morning and it had rained a little during the night. Not a peep from a turkey...................Darn!
While standing there waiting to hear a gobble, my oldest son Isaac says.........."Is that a bear?" Sure enough there was a good looking Black crossing the field to the east. My boss had told me that I should buy a bear tag because you never know when you'll run into one. This area is part of a huge region that has a quota of 2, so what were the chances. It would have taken some effort, but once the bear dropped into the narrow drainage, I could have switched chokes in one of our guns, loaded slugs, slipped on an orange vest, all while making a dash to get ahead of him. It looked like as good a chance as you could ask for. However, without the tags........we'll never know. It would have ended the turkey hunt to take care of him, but neither of us have ever killed a bear. My boss enjoyed the "I told you so".
Back to turkeys. I thought if we kept moving along the main drainage that we would find a bird tucked in behind a ridge that was preventing us from hearing him..........Nothing! We covered a lot more ground this day than the first because we never stopped moving for more than 15 minutes.
After eating lunch we hiked back to camp and rested for a bit. I had brought along a 22 Mag. to shoot at a few prairie dogs we had located on public land so we decided to give that a try. We each ended up with one prairie dog apiece. We could have had several apiece if I had a better rifle set up for it, but my cheap 22 mag has a terrible trigger, we had a mediocre rest, and the prairie dogs didn't want to give us any close shots.
Once we had waisted enough ammo we made a fuel run for my truck and scouted some new country. We ran across a hen and lots of droppings in an area that we liked even though we couldn't raise a gobble. We decided to hunt this new area the next morning then drove back to camp for the evening.
Day 3
We had to get up an hour earlier this morning because the new area was a 40 minute drive from camp. We had high hopes for this area, but it sounded similar to Day 2................Nothing! We hiked the trail for a while expecting to hear a bird. After getting no response we hiked back to the truck to drive to another location in search of a bird that wanted to gobble.
We ran across a bunch of Sharptail Grouse at the next location that were courting the ladies, so I made a short video and took some photos. We had never witnessed this before. The sounds they make are really crazy.
Video Link:
http://youtu.be/kH9TzKa6fp4At about 9:30 I got a response from a tom that sounded a long way off, so we made our way to a safe location and set up. I called off and on for a while with no results. I don't think we bumped the bird, so who knows why he didn't respond again. I suppose he offered up a "courtesy" gobble and went on about his business. Apparently I hadn't figured out what that business was because I was getting my butt kicked by the few birds that I could find. Wyoming's Bighorns can be seen south of us.
That evening we decided to pick up camp and move it to the second area from today since it was in the direction we'd take home on Day 4. It would give us one more hour of sleep and save us more than an hour of round trip driving to go back and pick up camp on Day 4.
Day 4
Daybreak found us at the same location where we got the response yesterday...........Not a peep! Good grief this was getting out of hand. We quickly made the short walk back over to the truck and drove the Forest Service road another mile and got out. We started hiking to the north. The birds were on the ground by then and I was calling. A bird responded to the south. We practically ran across the field since he was over the edge about half way down toward the bottom. He gobbled 6 or 8 times while we covered approximately 400 yards to the timber.
I started calling once we were set up and ready. I would describe his interest as moderate and weakening. He was moving away into the bottom, so we moved on him a couple times. Unfortunately the bottom along the creek was private land while both ridges were public. The tom crossed the private to the public on the other side. We had no choice but to try and bring him back to our side because I didn't know how to get around to the other side without driving and hiking half the day. I'm not sure I could have found him once on the other side.
We decided to be patient and wait out the hen that I could hear yelping since this was our last morning and it looked like this bird was our only option. There were a couple times we thought there were two different toms, but he wandered around back and forth on the ridge so much and the canyon echoed his gobbles around so much that I couldn't be sure. He backed off to an occasional gobble. I finally tired of the patience routine and started hitting the call a lot harder with some exited yelping and cutts. He cranked up again and moved our direction some, so I thought the hen may have left him, but he drifted back up the ridge and proceeded to wander again.
I actually spotted him one time at about 9:00 AM after he drifted a little closer and back into the field. I could not see a hen with him and was hoping for the best, but he was feeding and ignoring my calls other than raising his head to acknowledge he could hear me. I watched him drift back into the trees from about 400 yards.
We moved one last time closer to the private border and started calling again. Again, he gobbled and sounded closer. Again, I got my hopes up. Again, the hen started yelping at me. I could not get her interested enough to come our way. I assume he was following her around the whole time, but the "He had hens" excuse is used too often. I just know that he wasn't interested enough in me to show up while we were there.
Given more time that day or maybe another day and we may have killed that bird. It just wasn't going to work out before had to leave. We had to get on the road because I had to be at work on Tuesday, so at 10:30 we started our hike back to the truck. Just before leaving and while I was taking a closing photo of my boys.........the smart alek gave us another one of his occasional gobbles as a parting gift.
I've got a couple more hunts to go, but not too sure I'll be able to get back out to hunt here in MT. I've got too much money tied up in driving to CO and NE and honestly can't afford to keep driving so darn far with these gas prices. I had to pay $4.05/gallon at the tiny little town I bought gas in down there. Hopefully the CO and NE hunting will work out for us. We've had a really good run the last few years, but this year appears to have the potential to turn into a bust.
