Boy oh boy was it beautiful out there. Not only were the ponderosa pine ridges a big change from home in Illinois, but the weather was just plain awesome. Upper 60's, sunny, and calm winds. Couldn't have done it any better. It all started last Christmas when all my dad has ever wanted was to make it out west to Montana to hunt the elusive Merriam's. My brother and I decided to give him an all expense paid trip out there as long as we got to go with him. So we set the dates and weren't for sure we would whether or not we would be able to go. We've been pounded with rain and my dad was sandbagging up until the week of. The night to leave was soon upon us and he was still pumping out his cellar but the river was dropping ever so slightly. We received some rain that day and it looked like it may bump it up again but all it did was held. So at 11pm we left central Illinois and headed to Nebraska to meet my uncle at his place.
We get to my uncle's place around 5am and all the lights were off and the door was locked. I thought it was somewhat weird because I alerted him that we were heading out at 10PM and told him to expect us around 4-5. Well I send him a text and lights popped on in the house. He came outside and asked us what we were doing there. I told him the trip to Montana was still on and that Kansas would be next year. His eyes lit up and he started running around the house like a chicken with its head cut off. He was so giddy it was hilarious. About a half hour after that we were on the way to Montana. We arrived at our destination twelve hours later. We bought two permits and headed out. We didn't know the terrain or anything so we decided that night we would just roost. Next morning we went to the spot. At day break we heard a few different turkeys.
Behind us one started to fire up. He was actually walking towards the truck so we hopped across the road and got on him. he did a complete circle and a few feet before his death, he did a 90 degree turn straight into the timber back across the road where we were at to begin with. We sat there a couple minutes wondering what the heck happened and started calling again. We set my dad up by the road and the gobbler came on a dead march. Only problem was he went into the patch of timber we were in and then came up the power line road I was set on. Another 5 minutes later I shot my first Merriam's gobbler. Went towards the first bird we had set up on and it literally ran in. Only thing was my dad made a rookie mistake and sat by a cedar tree and couldn't see to his right. The gobbler appeared at 10 feet. he attempted to move his gun ever so slightly and it was game over. Heard a put and the gobbler took off. We tried to keep getting on more throughout the rest of the day but as we found out, the Merriam's is a whole different turkey. You gotta get them the first hour and a half or the last two hours.
The next morning we sat up on a tom and he came in right off the roost. My dad had his first Merriam's at 530. We shot into town and waited for the general store to open. My brother and my uncle got permits and went back out. We were able to find a hot one and got set up. My brother then made the same rookie mistake my dad did and this bird came up to his side at 6 feet with everybody but him able to see what was going on. That afternoon we decided there was this turkey that was always in the same place but would never come out. So my brother and I went in for the ambush and my dad and uncle went to the back side. They made a couple calls and the bird started wondering their way. So we headed around on his back side. The bird eventually went to my uncle and he was able to make a wonderful shot on it. So we had 3 of our 4 birds. That evening we were trying to figure out what birds were left.
We were traveling an oil road when we saw where somebody had cleaned two turkeys. The only thing left were two heads that had been chopped off. We decided it was time to try again one last time in the morning before taking off to try some other land. The next morning we sat up on a bird that we thought was coming towards us. He was actually just doing a run by. This bird literally ran by us at 60 yards going uphill and continued without stopping. We decided this place had been hunted enough and took off to find some other land. We were able to find some land and tried hunting it early in the afternoon. We just couldn't find anything and we only had one day after this left. We stopped a rancher to ask him if he had seen any birds. He asked us where we were hunting at and told us without a doubt to go back to the spot we had just left. So we traveled back through the 3 gates to get there and decided we weren't going to leave until something was rooster or roasted. About 10 minutes after we got set up, we heard our first gobble. 15 minutes later our Montana turkey hunting trip was over. We were blessed for us to be able to each get our Merriam's, which three of us have never hunted before. It was beautiful scenery and everybody we met out there was very hospitable. We are truly blessed to have been able to make the trip with so much going on. That's a trip that will be cherished for a life time. Thanks for reading. Sorry it was so long.
