Cove's 2011 Season- the western side of things!

[Cove]

Alright, since this is all new material I'll add some stories to this picture show. :bounce:

Friday, May 13th (I know, great day to be on a plane ride huh?) I arrived in Denver Colorado to begin my 9 day stretch of western turkey action. Starting in Colorado and hoping to make it to Wyoming with a couple days to spare given a little luck. It was a 3 hour drive west of the airport to my destination, a piece of public land I was told would be an excellent starting point. Due to a delayed flight, a mandatory 1.5 hour nap and some confusing/ mislabeled road numbers I arrived at the said location an hour after daylight on Saturday morning. Saturday ended up being a great day, full of turkeys and close calls. I couldn't believe I was able to find so many birds in Colorado in a single day. I had 3 locations with strutting birds pegged for Sunday mornings hunt, one in particular just begged for my attendance at daylight. As soon as I saw the big strutter and his lone lady around noon Saturday, I vowed to be there at daylight the following morning. Something about his location and the layout of things just seemed like it would work, I don't know how else to explain it.

Saturday I was set up with my DSD, Roxanne, in place just before daybreak. The wind was howling, I couldn't hear a thing from the roost but wasn't discouraged. For some reason I still had that strange feeling of confidence in this spot. About 45 minutes later I knew why when my calls were answered with a screaming gobble from 75 yards. Almost instantaneously, he emerged in the pasture from behind the sage. He approached to 50 yards and dared not a step closer. This blew my mind, I haven't had a lone bird give Roxanne the cold shoulder all year! Well, the culprit for the odd behavior was his company that refused to investigate. She stayed at 100 yards and I assume he had gotten as far away from her as he dared. I wasn't offered a shot as 50 yards is comfortable range for me although I prefer 30, I didn't cut adequate shooting lanes out of my hiding spot. He soon joined his hen and although he would eagerly gobble, he was reluctant to close the distance. I watched for an hour before they began their walk away into the sage choked pasture. I stood up and kept up with him the best I could and stayed with him with each gobble. He was in sight again at 200 yards when the cards completely flipped. My only explanation is that the hen had a nest somewhere in that area of the pasture and had gotten to tending to it because she vanished. Once she was gone, the big boy remembered just where he could find some company. When he rounded a sage clump at 30 yards I cutt several times to bring his head up which he didn't do very well but it was time for the show to end. Day 2 and I had my Colorado Merriam!




More of CO. . .


I was in and out of Colorado so quickly, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked. But I plan to be back!
More to come. . . .

[Cove]

From Colorado, it was on to the Black Hills of Wyoming. There is no place quite like the Black Hills, almost endless acres of wildlife infested public land that just begs to be witnessed. I had spent many hours scouting Wyoming from the comfort of my office chair using Google Earth and national forest maps. I had several areas that I wanted to try and as the 9 hour drive neared its end, I was left with an hour of daylight to scout out which of the areas I wanted to become my starting point for my first day in Wyoming. Well, this decision was easier than I had imagined when plans A-D where inaccessible due to snow covered roads. Plan E I found to be accessible after dark would have to suffice as the starting point.

Monday morning, it didn't matter where you started because unless the bird flew into the window, you weren't going to hear him. With wind gusts reaching over 50 mph, there was no break and even the locals were complaining about the wind! When Wyoming locals are talking about wind, it is some serious winds! I spent the day driving around the forest, checking private ranches backing up to the public lands hoping to spot birds pushed down by the snow and work them back up the mountain and into gun range. No luck, as a matter of fact, not a single turkey. With the weather calling for the conditions to only worsen, rain was coming to join the winds that were here to stay, I decided I need to get in and find some sign to sit on for the following days. At 2:30pm I punched in my Google coordinates and off I went. I reached my out of the way meadows to find deer and elk were calling it home. The roads were scattered with tracks and droppings starting at only a half mile in, this was better then nothing. My gps showed a road system that would allow me to make a circle back to the truck so that's what I decided to take to cover new ground. I was making my way along the road which brought me to the top of the mountain in some trees that I'm going to call aspens. Through the wind, in mid stride, I heard a racket that in no way resembled a turkey gobbling. But I stopped, because the noise wasn't natural like a tree falling or limbs breaking and warranted a listen. The wind had in fact lessened to gale force and I felt I may be able to hear a bird if it was dangerously close. I cutt and a bird gobbled so close I was scared to turn my head. I eased to the ground against a tree as I slid my mask up and was still getting my gun on my knee when he became visible through the trees at 60 yards. I stayed on the call and he continued to gobble in my face and strut like a king until he reached an open lane where he stretched his neck to gobble for it to never return to it's appropriate location. Wyoming Merriam down at 5:00pm on Day 1!
My Devils Tower shot. . .



My back was against the pair of trees just to the right of center in this picture and he approached from straight out front.


The road


About half way out, round trip the GPS said 5.04 miles on this bird killing journey.

[Cove]

I was beyond excited to have my 2 birds from 2 new states in the bag on my 3rd day of hunting! But this left me in a predicament, I was there for 9 days. . . I needed somewhere new to hunt. I got a motel room for the first and only time on the trip to get internet service and weigh all my options. Utah was a neighboring state but information on where to go was non existent as they just started allowing over the counter tags last season. I was leaning toward going to Kansas again due to my familiarity with the place and past success, but I wanted another state to mark off my distant goal of having pulled a bird off each of the 49 states. The next morning, I called a guy affiliated with the NWTF and explained my situation. Little did I know, I was making a lasting friendship. The first of several I made in the great state of Utah. He seemed confident the national forest lands of northern Utah held enough Rio's for me to find success in my remaining days and offered up a little help on a good starting location.

After yet another 9 hour drive, I was arriving to my parking spot on the national forest land just before dark. I got out with my mouth wide open, taken back by the unbelievable beauty of the snow covered mountains. I was hunting what is said to be the steepest mountains in North America when taking height versus distance into consideration. I found that out quickly in the predawn darkness of the first day. I climbed to the top only to hear a hen across the canyon on the other side but could not be frustrated with a lack of gobbling due to the view I had with the rising sun. That is a gobble-less morning I will never forget. It was Tuesday, May 17th and I was ready to see more of Utah by foot. I hiked up and down, never really growing tired, fueled by what scenery awaited around every bend and what it would be like to kill a gobbler in such a remarkable place. Well, my hiking brought me to turkeys, henned up turkeys. This was the tale of the entire Utah trip. Not once did I work a longbeard, and I worked a fine share, that was without hens. They would gobble but those Rio hens were as anti social as any I'd ever experienced but this didn't slow me down. I ended up having a fine gobbler at 50 yards following a hen but wasn't offered a shot. I also saw many more birds and was ready for another daybreak. This day my GPS read 6.59 miles at the end, it was a 12.5 hour day with a steady rain for the last 2.5 hours. I was beat.

With the rain starting about 3pm and lasting through the night, I assumed the birds didn't move far from the open mountain top meadows I'd saw them in the evening before and this is where I started Wednesday morning. I was slipping up to a maple choked valley between 2 of these meadows as day broke and heard several hens speaking among themselves. I took a seat and joined in the fun. My tree yelps were answered by a gobble, the first of the morning and this guy meant business. He was already on the ground and wanted more. I gave it to him. He would answer only my calls and marched straight up out of the maples and into the openness of the meadow gobbling with each step. He may have continued to walk until he actually shared my face mask with me had I not went to work on his head at 25 yards. Day 2 in Utah and I had a beautiful, wet Utah gobbler! This bird rounded out another single season public land grand slam and I cant remember a more perfect place! I really really like Utah.
Sorry it's a little dark, he died early!

[Cove]

Technically, I was all finished up on Thursday after I killed my Utah Rio. I was asked to help guide some new guys that were guests to the area on my remaining days if I were not moving on to another destination on Friday and Saturday mornings. Of course I was more than happy, it gave me a reason to stay in the woods, blow on my turkey calls, potentially get a kill on video and somewhat return the favor to a gentleman that helped put me in my fortunate position. I was in front of turkeys before Friday though, when reaching the parking lot with my bird I met a young guy who had also found success in taking a jake that same morning. He returned with his wife later that day and it just so happened I was still in the lot. I quickly became cameraman and caller for them. About an hour into the evening hunt, we found ourselves directly in the path of a flock of birds containing 2 longbeards and led by a curious hen that was in search of the new gal. The flock got nervous before the pair of gobblers got into arms reach and the young lady made her move. I'm not sure where either of the 2 shots went, but neither were toward the head of the lead gobbler. Friday found me on a completely new piece of property and hunting in 8" of fresh snow with 3 other guys. We stayed on a gobbler most of the morning who would gobble on command but could never get in front of him and his small harem of 3 hens which held him tight. Saturday before I made my drive back to Denver, we again got on gobbling turkeys but they were quickly led off the public ground and I left the 2 guys there in hopes of they would return. I'm assuming they didn't because I never received an excited call. This was my last bit of time in Utah.


Here are more random pictures I took while on the road for my westward journey of 2011. Thanks to those who took a moment to walk through my 2011 spring and endured my ramblings through the year as well as today.

Some Colorado antelope. . .


Better pay attention to these, I don't know what the fines are but the animals are big!




Wyoming speed goats. . .




Wyoming windmills




Wyoming elk and deer in the out of the way meadow.


More elk. . .

[Cove]

My views at daylight on my first day in Utah.




Evidence that the hens were trying to nest, despite the weather.

[Cove]

Fresh snow.

[ncturkey]

Sweet pictures. I think you won the west.

[spaightlabs]

A trip to remember - thanks for sharing.

[Old Gobbler]

 

[savduck]

Congrats. Thats awesome country.

[hookedspur]

  very nice 

[harvester]

Congrats on a great season and awesome pictures.

[TRKYHTR]

Great pictures and story Dave. Congrats on a great season.

TRKYHTR

[Basser69]

Great stories and pictures. Thanks for sharing 

[vaturkey]

Beautiful country !  Congrats on a great season ! Thanks for sharing !