I drove west on Monday afternoon. On the drive over the weather wasn't looking too promising and I drove through rain the whole way. The skies were supposed to clear by Tuesday, so I was hoping I could squeeze in some morning and afternoon hunts around work.
Snowing over the pass
First evening hunt started off wet.
I did hear and see a bird that was doing the same as me..............hiding under a big pine to try and stay dry. However, we both saw each other at about the same time. I could have swore that the gobble I had heard came from a lot farther away than just over the hill. I don't think he was quite certain what I was because I had just topped a rise and had a thick background behind me. I also saw a bird fly up 30 minutes before dark that I assumed was the same bird.
The turkey gobbled well on the limb but was 100 yards from where I left him. He gobbled at me a few times after flying down, but a few clucks from a hen and that was all she wrote. I got one shock gobble out of a tom about an hour later, but he didn't want to play.
I made a big loop through the same area trying to find one of the birds that evening, but only succeeded in looking at some nice country and seeing a ton of Arrowleaf flowers.
also got rained on a little even though the rain was supposed to be gone.
I didn't have a bird roosted, so I sat up somewhat blindly in the dark where I thought the tom had flown down the previous evening, but he was several hundred yards east and part way up the mountain when he gobbled. I moved and set up near his hens that were doing a lot of clucking by this time. They were a couple hundred yards away from him, but I was hoping they'd fly down close and he'd slide on in to strut for them. One hen pitched out from way up the steep slope and must have been 200 ' high when she banked over my head straight towards the now two gobbling birds. The other two birds flew down closer but were yelping at me and the tom from a long way up the steep slope. The tom was gobbling at both of us. I moved up towards them hoping to push them back away from the tom. I know the one that saw me went away from us like I'd hoped, but the gobbling continued away and up.
I tried to climb the slope but after 1/4 of the way up and not being able to keep my footing due to the incline and loose soil I decided that I preferred to not break my neck and I moved back down to a safer elevation. I then did a big circle and came up the end of the ridge opposite the direction the gobbling had moved.
Looking back on the lower part of the safer route (same location I spotted the bird hiding from the rain on Monday evening)
Looking at the valley below from near the top of the ridge
It had been about an hour since I'd heard the bird once I got on top near where I'd last heard him. It took me a little while to get a response. They had moved into a nicer area than where they'd been roosted. They gobbled 5 or 6 times at me then quit. I waited a while, but no sign of them. The deepest sounding gobbler only gobbled about half of the times that the higher pitched bird gobbled. I thought the higher pitched bird may be a jake.
The higher pitched bird finally gobbled again and had moved out and down some, so I swung around on them to a better looking location and closer to where the first gobbles came from. Two more gobbles and both farther away. I waited a while and finally heard another gobble a little farther again and farther down hill. I swung out left again and moved 150 yards staying well above the last gobble hoping I could find a place that they and the hens liked and pull them back uphill.
I found the place alright.......I started hearing the hens and they weren't far. I quickly set up and in a matter of seconds out pops two hens with a gobbler. It didn't take much at that point for him to get to 40 yards and I wasted no time giving him a load of #6's. I got really lucky and almost bumped them. The topography (and hearing a hen cluck) is the only thing that kept me from walking over him. He'd been there all along and been perfectly content to not gobble while strutting for two hens. The only thing I can figure was that the higher pitched sounding bird had moved away from the tom and two hens because there were definitely two birds to start with but only one when I took the shot. I've ended up with birds this year but it's required lots of boot leather. I've not got good ratio of birds worked to birds killed. Most of the birds I've worked have started good then just quit, and finding lonely dumb ones (the kind that I apparently need) has been a challenge.
Typical respectable mountain stats......17.1 lbs, 7 1/2" beard, 5/8" spurs
Near where I killed him
Back at the parking area
Some additional photos:
