Merriam's Country

[hobbes]

For those of you planning a trip, maybe your first, to hunt Merriam's..............

Nebraska...........











Colorado............











Montana.............

Riverbottom country


Ponderosa country


















Western Mountains

[Rapscallion Vermilion]

Beautiful photos.  Got my heart rate up.  Thanks for posting.

[Tomfoolery]

Absolutely beautiful. Headed to the black hills this year for my first swing at a merriams

[hobbes]

Absolutely beautiful. Headed to the black hills this year for my first swing at a merriams

Enjoy every minute of it.

[nitro]

Don't waste your time...

Hahahaha!!! Merriam's are by far my favorite subspecies to hunt. Largely because of the beautiful places they live in.. Great photos!!

[longbeards]

Hunted Nebraska for the first time last spring! You pictures are assume! longbeards

[SKYNET KC]

Where in Nebraska was that? I'm heading the Chadron this spring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hobbes]

I've been trying to remember the exact location of one of the "Nebraska" photos because I just couldn't attach it to any of the spots I'd hunted in Nebraska.  I believe I shuffled the photos somehow and am mistaken about the photo above the snake. It is a photo from a new area I hunted in Montana last year.

[Dukejb]

Thanks for posting these! I recently moved to Colorado and am planning to chase Merriams for the first time this spring.

[Crobinson]

That snake photo gave me flash backs from Nebraska last year.

Our group is heading back May-7th / 13th if anyone would like to meet up for turkey talk over drinks or dinner.

[kjnengr]

Thanks hobbes.  As a flatlander, I love seeing pictures and experiencing the terrain encountered with those beautiful birds. 

[hobbes]

The snake is a Bull Snake, and a big one.  For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of encountering one up close, I'll describe the encounter.

My son and daughter, probably 11 and 9 at the time, were with me.  We had just topped a ridge that had an old trail on it and had stepped off the far side of the trail into the grass and pine needles while listening for a tom that had been gobbling a few hundred yards away.  The scary part of the encounter didn't last too long, but I remember all of it.  I started hearing a humming/vibration that sounded like it was all around us and growing louder.  As fast as it grew louder I realized that it was very close and below us.  My first thought was a nest of ground bees or wasps, but as fast as I thought that I thought rattlesnake and threw my arms out to both sides and shoved the kids back while I jumped back a good distance.  I think they realized the danger when I reacted and they jumped at the same time I started pushing them back.

When we jumped backwards the snake literally lunged about a foot off the ground in the opposite direction we went while making a most awful hissing noise.  I think before we landed my son's gun was pointed at the snake and he was wanting to know if I wanted him to shoot it.  I didn't let him kill it.  For one, I wasn't sure what it was and if it was protected or not, and it obviously wanted to get away from us.   He was definitely scared of us and I was standing directly over the top of him when he started vibrating his tail, so he could have easily bitten me. 

I had never seen a Bull Snake, so thought it was a rattlesnake at first.  If you've never been around a spooked Bull Snake, they vibrate their tail like a rattlesnake, but don't have the rattles.  The hissing was crazy loud and you can see in the photo that the front half of his body was up off the ground as he moved away.  His whole body left the ground when he first lunged and he carried his head  and body really high as he moved forward.  He was as big around as my forearm at his largest girth and probably better than 36" long.  From what I've read they can actually kill rattlesnakes, and this one was clearly big enough to do it.

That is the only snake I've seen in Nebraska.  I've seen 3 or 4 more bull snakes here in MT since then but none of them have been even close to this one's size.

[WV Ridge Reaper]

I got to meet a bull snake two years ago in KS.Lucky friend of mine pushed me to the side as the next step I was going to take was going to be on the snake.

They get mean and loud quick.

[RutnNStrutn]

Great pics Hobbes!!! I'll definitely be back out west one of these days.

[paboxcall]

Awesome pics.  We sure are fortunate to live in such an incredible and beautiful country.