A group of us headed to Colorado for an end of season turkey hunt last week. It startted with a tornado that took the tree tops out of the oaks at my house, removed a few shingles, and then took out 1/2 of my neighbors house. This was the very beginning of an F-4 tornado that then went 44 miles and killed 20 people.
I packed in the dark and we all left for Atlanta at midnight to get on a 6:30 flight to Denver. To go from 90 degres when you get on a plane and then 45 and windy when you get off is crazy. When we drove through the mountains there was still 7 foot of snow at the pass.
we were hunting with a friend of mine that leases several ranches out in the Silt area. The turkeys are usually thick in the creek bottoms around the hay fields and pastures, but they all left about a week before we got there. Just our luck.
Thursday evening I was 1/2 hunting, 1/2 calling and checking on neighbors and my Church Family since the tornado went right past the Church. I did not find and turkey sign on the ranch I was hunting and did not see or hear a turkey. I did see a giant chocolate phase black bear. I have killed several bears and I know this one would be close to 400 pounds or more. I watched him for 10 minutes with binoculars and then checked the yardage to him; 237. I also saw 74 mule deer. Another friend of mine was in the gobblers thick, he filmed 10 different jakes and gobbler fighting. He should have pulled the trigger instead of video taping.
The next morning was in the 30's and was beautiful, we had no clue what we were in for that day. My friend and I got into a group of gobbler roosted. They flew down and pulled a Houdini. My Friend had a shot at a strutter at 10 yards and passed because he wanted us to double. We thought they would walk right up out of the creek to us. They walked out of the creek, but thought the thickest stuff you could imagine. we worked our way back around to them, got set up and my friend missed.
About 9am it started to rain over the next hour it changed to sleet and then snow, We were hunting at an elevation around 7300 feet above sea level. To say my lungs were screaming at times would be an understatement.
That afternoon it was like white out conditions and I just called it quits and headed to the truck. A friend of mine killed one when he parked the truck and there was a strutter in the snow. He killed it about 5pm. By 8pm it was nasty out.
When we drove off the mountain back into Silt, it wasn't even snowing. The next morning we headed back up the mountain. A friend and I walked over 2 miles up a creek bottom trying to strike a turkey and heard nothing, We saw over 100 Elk and a dozen coyotes. Then I looked down and saw the biggest bear track I have ever seen in the snow. What made me go hmm was it had just quit snowing and hour earlier and there was no snow in the track. We hunted all morning and didn't hear or see a gobbler. We talked to the rancher and he said that there had been over 200 birds just around his barn and house until a week ago and they all left and went into the mountains. I laughed and said I thought we were in the mountains. He also said he had been there since the early 80's and never seen snow on April 30 before.
That evening I could have killed a jake, but I let him walk. I looked real close at his legs, but they were slick.
Sunday Morning it was COLD, 16 degrees when I got out f the truck and started hiking up a mountain to just hear something gobble, even in the distance. My friend got on one ion the creek bottom way below me and I listened to the show. He watched 5 hens walk to him and then they walked up the mountain about a mile from where I was.
It was a fun, but hard hunt. I didn't get to work a bird except the first morning, but had a great time. When I drove back to Denver, they had snow plows out and ice all over the road. It made for a fun, whit knuckle drive back in the suburban.
The coolest part was the young man I sat next to on the plane back to Atlanta. He was a navy Seal. 31 years old and joined in 2001. Very cool talking to him. He had to catch another flight and was running when we got in, I shook his hand and told him thank you for your service, I know freedom isn't free. As soon as he left I turned on my phone they were announcing that UBL had been killed and we had his body.
The last 2 days have been a blurr between work and storm help.
Here are a few pictures
Bear track, that is a 3" shell
The ghost
cold
Starting to snow
Nasty weather on the trip home
