New Mexico (2 Birds Down!)

[JMalin]

Heading up to Ruidoso Wednesday evening or Thursday morning and staying through Sunday noonish.  I know where some birds were last year not far from the cabin I'm staying at in the upper canyon of Rio Ruidoso.  Forecast looks terrible (high wind Thursday Friday with colder temps and snow forecasted for Saturday.  Anyone have anything good to report out of the Lincoln?

[GobbleNut]

Hope the weather cooperates.  That's always a potential issue hunting here.  There are plenty of gobblers and the birds have been pretty vocal, so if you can catch a good morning or evening to locate them, you should be fine.

[JMalin]

It's been calm enough for them to gobble on the roost in the morning, but the wind has been up too much to roost them at night.  The birds I've hunted have pretty much shut down 30 mins after flying down.  I know there are birds where I'm hunting, but I can't get one to play ball.  I don't know if its the wind or hunting pressure.  Sunday is looking perfect.  We'll see what happens between now and then.  I'm resorting to sitting where I heard birds roosting this morning and waiting them out, no calls, no decoys.  Not the way I want to hunt them, but I don't know if I'll have another opportunity before the season ends. 

[GobbleNut]

The wind has been terrible this entire week,...really sucks having to hunt them under these conditions.  Add that to the fact that most of the easy birds have been hammered or had the bejesus scared out of them by now and it makes the hunting pretty tough.  Keep after 'em and good luck!

[JMalin]

Well, woodsmanship prevails when the birds just won't work to the call.  Longbeard XR #5's in a three inch shell did work at 30-35 yards as he was coming back to roost.  I sat waiting for an hour and a half before he slipped in.  I first noticed him a couple hundred yards down the edge of the ridge I was setup on.  He disappeared and then reappeared a couple of minutes later at 60 yards where I expected I'd be able to see him again.  I got a bead on him and waited for him the close the distance, and ended up sealing the deal.  He ended up flopping halfway down the mountain.  Glad I had a trail of feathers to follow.  If these birds didn't roost in the same place each day, they would be next to impossible to kill.  Not the way I like to hunt them, but it's an effective tactic on these tight lipped and pressured Lincoln birds. 

Spurs are really sharp for a mountain bird.  Also kind of looks like a Rio to me...  Gobbled off the roost this morning like a Merriam's though, but I'm not an expert.  I've got him in the ice chest.  Will take some better photos with the bird tomorrow.






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[mgm1955]

Congrats!!

[WyoHunter]

Congrats!

[hobbes]

Congrats!

[Gooserbat]

Congratulations

[renegade19]

 

[GobbleNut]

Way to go!  Definitely an older bird based on those spurs.
As for the subspecies, depending on where you killed it, it could be a Merriam/Rio hybrid,...although I don't see the tell-tale copper-ish Rio sheen in the picture.  Our illustrious G&F Department, in all of their wisdom (you don't want to get me started on that), dumped some Rios into the Ft. Stanton area about ten years ago for some unfathomable reason.  If you killed that bird within a few miles of that area, it could be a hybrid.  Take some pics in good sunlight of the rump feathers showing the iridescent sheen and we might be able to make a better guess.

My guess is that it is probably a full-blown Merriams,...and an old feller, at that.  To get those kind of hooks in that country, that bird was probably five+ years old.  Once gobblers get that old in the Lincoln, about the only way they get shot is by the ambush method.

Congratulations on a great Lincoln NF bird!  Under the conditions you had to hunt,...wind and now snow, as I understand it,...just outsmarting that bird was an accomplishment in itself. 

Also, I know Sam (Gooserbat) and Kyle (VATurkeyStomper) are up there hunting, as well.  It will be interesting to hear their reports.  Hitting the kind of weather we have had the last week up there really complicates things. 

[Lucky_Strutter]

Congrats!

[JMalin]

The bird was taken in the upper canyon of Rio Ruidoso, only a couple miles from the cabin I'm staying at.  Gave it the old college try this morning, but the snow, cold temps, and lack of birds gobbling after 7:00 AM drove me back to the cabin.

[GobbleNut]

The bird was taken in the upper canyon of Rio Ruidoso, only a couple miles from the cabin I'm staying at.  Gave it the old college try this morning, but the snow, cold temps, and lack of birds gobbling after 7:00 AM drove me back to the cabin.

Pretty assuredly a pure Merriams then.  How much snow did you get up there?  I'm headed up to the Capitan area on Monday.

[JMalin]

The bird was taken in the upper canyon of Rio Ruidoso, only a couple miles from the cabin I'm staying at.  Gave it the old college try this morning, but the snow, cold temps, and lack of birds gobbling after 7:00 AM drove me back to the cabin.

Pretty assuredly a pure Merriams then.  How much snow did you get up there?  I'm headed up to the Capitan area on Monday.

Maybe an inch or so at around 7000'.  Above 7500' closer to three inches.