04-28-2015, 09:47 PM
I spent 2 days helping 3 friends try and fill their SE Utah early turkeys tags. The weather was awesome for the rancher in me and slightly less perfect for the turkey hunting. We had wind and rain and even 2 inches of snow Saturday morning. We made a mad dash down to where I like to hunt late Wednesday night. Unloaded the wheelers at 5 am and hunted til noon, then set up camp. Found plenty of birds but most all the toms had henned up and didn't want to leave their gals for my seductive calling. We did put one down that was alone and looking. Wish I had a cool story about the set up, but he walked out of the oakbrush and stood in the wheeler trail begging for it. After he cleared the trail, Tim put the smackdown on him. He was a pretty 2 year old Merriam with a 7 inch beard. We put 3 birds to bed Thursday night and had high hopes for Friday morning. Turkeys had other plans. We set up on a big group, 3 different times, only to have them skirt our setup and keep on moseying along. Friday afternoon we headed out to stakeout a meadow and ran into 2 toms and 5 hens right next to the road in a quakie patch. Jon bailed off his 4 wheeler and made a great shot on a Rio Grande two year old with a 6 inch beard. That night we had a big Merriam tom with a paintbrush for a beard, walk past our meadow setup and give us a few glances. But the decoys must'a not been pretty enough as he just fed on through without a gobble. Saturday was rain/sleet/wind/snow but we had an awesome early morning encounter with a good tom I put to roost Friday night. He had 7 hens but started gobbling on his own way before light and didn't quit. We snuck in to about 75 yards of his tree and I felt like he HAD to flydown right in front of us. I didn't make a peep with my calls because we were so close I didn't dare risk spooking him setting out decoys. They had thick pines behind them and a perfect opening to fly down into. So, of course, they bailed off the limbs and through the limbs and went exactly where I thought they wouldn't! Dang turkeys. Tried getting ahead of them but couldn't with the snow and conditions. Maybe they smelled us?[
] (If turkeys could smell you'd never kill one) My friends had commitments for Saturday evening so we packed up and headed home by 10 Saturday morning. 2 out of 3 tags filled is pretty good. I have a few pictures but haven't had time to download them from my camera yet. Will try to do that soon.
Last night, my brother and his son and i took another quick trip after work, to try and fill his early tag up here where we live. We walked up the bottom of a canyon and tried a few crow calls and some yelps on my diaphragm call. Nada. We were starting to run out of daylight and decided to check a side draw where turkeys had been last week. We hiked up onto a point and my yelps turned up a gobble north of us. As we scooted down through the juniper trees we could hear several birds gobbling. We set up a decoy and tucked in under some trees with my Brother set up near a downed juniper ahead of us. I yelped once one my heartbreaker box call and purred a little with my mouth call and 3 birds popped up over the hill. They hung up at 45 yards but my Brother picked out the one that was clear of the other 2 and dumped him. He was just a jake with 2- four inch beards. I haven't ever saw multiple beards on a jake before. It was cool and a fun evening hunt. My 2 kids have general tags so we plan to get after them again in a few days. Sorry for the long epistle without pictures.[
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] (If turkeys could smell you'd never kill one) My friends had commitments for Saturday evening so we packed up and headed home by 10 Saturday morning. 2 out of 3 tags filled is pretty good. I have a few pictures but haven't had time to download them from my camera yet. Will try to do that soon.Last night, my brother and his son and i took another quick trip after work, to try and fill his early tag up here where we live. We walked up the bottom of a canyon and tried a few crow calls and some yelps on my diaphragm call. Nada. We were starting to run out of daylight and decided to check a side draw where turkeys had been last week. We hiked up onto a point and my yelps turned up a gobble north of us. As we scooted down through the juniper trees we could hear several birds gobbling. We set up a decoy and tucked in under some trees with my Brother set up near a downed juniper ahead of us. I yelped once one my heartbreaker box call and purred a little with my mouth call and 3 birds popped up over the hill. They hung up at 45 yards but my Brother picked out the one that was clear of the other 2 and dumped him. He was just a jake with 2- four inch beards. I haven't ever saw multiple beards on a jake before. It was cool and a fun evening hunt. My 2 kids have general tags so we plan to get after them again in a few days. Sorry for the long epistle without pictures.[
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