New Mexico 2019

[HookedonHooks]

Congrats!!! Them birds are so crazy pretty with the deep black feathers.

[JMalin]

Thank you.  Can't recall being any happier with a particular bird.

[Panhandle_strutter]

Congrats man! We called one in right off the roost this morning and my bro in law missed him. We have finally figured some things out, one more day to get it done for us!

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[JMalin]

Congrats man! We called one in right off the roost this morning and my bro in law missed him. We have finally figured some things out, one more day to get it done for us!

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Day isn't over yet.  I have every intention of getting back out there after an hour or so nap.  Gotta take advantage of the relatively calm day. 

[GobbleNut]

    Congrats, JM.  ...knew it would come together at some point for you...

[JMalin]

Tagged out!  Story later.  Half mile walk back down the mountain




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[Panhandle_strutter]

We got one this morning! Gonna post the story and pics later

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[JMalin]

We got one this morning! Gonna post the story and pics later

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Congrats.  I hunted for four days on two separate occasions my first year hunting NM and went home birdless.  Glad it finally came together.  It was a great morning to be out there.

[Fdept56]

Congrats guys! I'm headed that way next Monday to hunt until the end. Any pointers?

[JMalin]

Congrats guys! I'm headed that way next Monday to hunt until the end. Any pointers?

Find several different areas with birds to hunt.  Find birds to hunt by finding water.  Last hour in the evening is better spent locating birds unless you have a roost pinpointed and want to wait out a bird returning to roost.  They wont gobble much at all that last hour until they fly up from my experience, so you may as well call softly, or not call at all (not a fun way to hunt).  They are typically pretty quiet from my experience right after fly down in the morning, but they'll usually start up again after 30 mins to an hour on the ground.  They are pretty lonely at this point in the season, so you shouldn't have many henned up birds to deal with.  They are finicky though.  Birds that have been hunted hard will clam up or gobble very little when you call to them.  Hunt aggressively.  Try to get within 150 yards before setting up and set up in the direction they are traveling.  They won't go out of their way to investigate your calling in my experience.  Hunt uphill from where ever you're parked.  Don't go up and down mountains chasing them, you'll only wear yourself out and will likely have nothing to show for it.  Cover lots of ground probing with the loudest box call you have.  Wind is your enemy.  They will drop off the ridge tops/mesas and into the canyons and its hard to kill them in the canyons.  Steep faces with lots of brush and deadfall to navigate through. 

If you feel as though your morning spot is played out, go to other areas you've found birds from previous evening's roosting/scouting expedition.  If it's cool, birds are apt to gobble all day.  If its up into the mid 70's, you're better off resting up from 12:00-2:00 PM.  Birds usually turn back on around 4:00 PM.  It doesn't have to look like stereotypical pine covered mountains to hold birds.  As long as there are a just a few ponderosa's around for them to roost in, an area that consists largely of cedar and pinion pine will hold birds if there is water around.  Apparently unit 34 more consistent populations of birds, but I haven't had any trouble locating birds in unit 36. 

My post is geared to hunting Lincoln National Forest, but I'm sure it applies to Merriam hunting all over New Mexico. 

[JMalin]

Time to recap my 2nd trip.  Got in late Wednesday evening.  Got to a spot I wanted to put ears on a new to me spot just before dark and heard a couple of faint gobbles down in the canyon, which was enough for me to come back the next morning before daylight and try to get setup.  Thursday morning, I return to the spot and hear the same two birds along with a closer bird.  I set up within 80 yards of the roosted bird as he gobbles his brain out on the limb.  I give hims some clucks and a few soft tree yelps.  Hammers to them and continues to hammer on his own, then flies down to the opposite side of the canyon, away from me.  Lots of ATV tire tracks down in the bottom, so I'm sure he's been hunted before.  He drops down to the bottom, gives me a couple more gobbles (I'm thinking he thought I was a real hen, not just someone trying to kill him lol) and then goes quiet.  The other two birds I had heard the previous evening were gobbling good, but as they got closer, they shut down.  I work the area for a couple of hours listening and occasionally calling, but not much activity, so I decide to take the forest service road deeper in.  I pull over every half mile or so and at the second spot, I hear two birds down in the canyon (way too steep to drop down into, so they are a lost cause), and one faint gobble that sounded like it was out in front of me a half mile away.  I continue down the road, stop again, hit the box call, and after a couple of seconds, a gobbler responds within 200 yards.  I scramble for my gun and vest, move off the road into the brush, move towards the direction of the gobble, and setup.  Call, bird hammers again.  Wait a couple of minutes, call again, bird hammers again, but hasn't closed the distance.  I venture back to the road, move up another 150 yards, cross a cattle guard, get back into the brush just off the road, setup again, and call.  He hammers and is within 80.  I shut up at this point.  He gobbles again and again, and I give him a couple reassuring clucks.  That's all he needed.  I see his huge white tipped tail fan coming my way.  I cluck at him to stop him where I want him, he stops and gobbles, and likely caught my pattern before he had even finished his last gobble. 

Took a nap, and went to another new to me area.  It didn't look promising.  The "creek" wasn't flowing.  The access road into it was extremely rough.  I made it about a mile and a half in before turning back around.  Just as I'm about to hit the cattle guard on the way out, I see a tom and hen sneak off into the brush.  I give half hearted pursuit knowing that he's likely going to be a tough customer in that he's seen my truck and he has a hen.  I attempt to circle around and call a few times, but no response except for a bird high up on the ridge to the south.  I didn't feel like hiking up to that bird, so I drove off and went back to the canyon where I had hunted that morning.  Drive up the forest service road past where I had parked and found presumably the same two birds I had heard earlier, gobbling their heads off down in the bottom.  I decided I'll go back the way I came, bail out of the truck and drop down into the bottom.  Appparently I got too far ahead of them and didn't hear them again until they flew up for the evening.  They were still several hundred yards away and further east than where they had roosted the previous evening.  The single tom I set up on also returned to roost gliding down into a tall ponderosa from fairly high up the opposite ridge.  I thought it was a hawk or something they way it seemed to have swooped down.  The single bird never gobbled once.  I decided I'd try another spot the next morning where I had missed a bird the previous week.

Got up onto a mesa this morning after a pretty steep hike up an old logging road closed to ATV traffic.  With last week's knowledge, I knew it was a good place to be and that it likely didn't receive a lot of pressure because it's a pretty tough hike and there are easier birds to get at for guys with ATV's.  Anywho, there are 2-3 birds roosted down in the canyon below and I know they tend to work their way up, especially on calm days like the one we had this morning.  I hear a faint gobble that sounds like its on my level, and easily a quarter mile or more away, so I don't pay it much mind with the morning just getting going.  It stays pretty quiet after fly down.  I set up at the edge of the mesa calling to the birds down at the bottom when I hear a gobble on my level back behind me.  I call again to confirm his distance and direction and then scramble to try to get to the direction I think he's heading.  I make it, get setup, call, and he gobbles within 100 yards.  After a ten minute chess match, he gobbles again, further to the left of where I anticipated he would appear.  I call to him and I can hear him drum.  Then he starts the nervous, "where are you, hen" clucking.  He appears at around 40 and I take a shot.  He staggers off slowly.  I pump another round in, move in on him, and put him down for good with the second shot. 

First bird weighed in at 20.3 pounds.  Solid 9ish beard and 5/8 spurs.  Beautiful white tips.

Second bird weighed in at 18.1 pounds.  Dinky little 7.5-8 inch beard at maybe 1/2 inch spurs.  More buff colored tail feathers, which seems to be more typical of the Lincoln birds I've killed. 

[JMalin]

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[tomstopper]

Congrats

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