Turkey Hunt 2011

This week I went with Brent and Landon Buhler and several of their friend to Boulder Mountain to hunt Merriam Turkeys. The camping and hunting was great high in the Boulder mountains of Southern Utah, and he weather could not have been better.

The first morning was a text book hunt. We woke up early, threw down a quick breakfast of banana and granola bars, washed it down with Mt Dew, and moved out with hopes of bagging the hunts first birds. After a short 1/4 mile hike we heard our first gobble. The hunt was on! Four of us set up and began to call. I was out in front and was give the first chance to shoot if the bird came my way. I was hunting with my brand new Hoyt CRX 32 bow and my companions felt I needed to be first because they could always shoot after I would miss and bag the bird. They did not have much confidence in my archery abilities. Well a long story short, the Tom hung up and would not come in so we triad to move in on him. I did see him at about 70 yards and he was a big one. The big tom had only one thing on his mind and that was to move on out of there. It was an exciting morning and one I will remember well.

The rest of the hunt was hard and slow. Only a few gobbles and very few bird being seen on the mountain. So it was off to town to fill up with gas and pick up a few more snacks. While driving out of Escalante I saw what appeared to be turkeys along the lower edge of an alfalfa field along the river bottoms. Brent slammed on the brakes and we turned around to investigate. Sure enough we counted 11 turkeys, 9 toms and 2 hens. One of the toms was the grandaddy of all turkeys and we wanted it bad. After some door knocking a few phone calls we had our permission to hunt the fields and the river bottom.

The turkeys were moving toward a horse corral and we could make the perfect ambush if things continued as they were. We fought our way down a gulley full of brush and wild roses and popped out just where we needed to be. The big tom was almost where we wanted him, but like all plans something throws a wrench into the mix. Two small toms had busted us and ran into the bottoms and I decided to give chase. I should have stayed put the sight of 2 toms was more than I could take. The chase was short and I quickly came to my senses and move back to the fence line and set up for the bird in the field. The big tom walked into Brent's shooting range and he let one go. The bird just "looked stupid instead of flopping around like it should", Brent own words. He shot again the bird jumps up into the air and Brent sees his turkey fly away. He had missed both shots. One bird races by me but it was a hen, and Brent levels down on the next tom and blasts away. To his surprise this one takes to the air also, but this time the tom folds up and crashes to the ground. Brent thinks he has it in the bag and starts toward the bird. Up the tom jumps and starts to run. Brent has one shell left and lets it fly. The die hard tom takes to air again, and Brent sees his turkey flying away again. But luck is on his side and the bird crashes into a fence and tries to get into the brush. Brent dive on to the bird and Turkey MMA fight begins. The tom is flapping it wings and clawing with its feet, giving Brent all he has. In the end Brent is sitting on the bird with all of its tail feathers in one hand and most of the rest of its feather all over the ground. This one will not make a very pretty picture. Brent bags the first bird.

It is now the last day of our hunt and we all get up and head into the fields of Escalante to hunt. We spot 3 toms on our way in along the hills and I give chase. Those dang birds can run. I chased them up and over the hill and and took my first shot. Missed. The 3 toms took off over then next hill and I gave chase again. When I crested the hill I could see them going over the next and off I went on a fast sprint. My heart was pounding and it was all I could do the catch my breath. i could not find them in the next draw so I kept walking looking this way and that. Off to my right I could hear them making a putting sound. I had found them! I got ready for the shot and they busted out of a bush over the hill again. I shot at the last one and missed again. I really need to settle down but the way I was breathing there was no way I could even hit a barn at 10 feet. Last chance so off I go running again. This time I could see them standing next to a Juniper tree and I made sure I was lined up and blasted the closest one. Down he went in a puff of feather and dust. I got my first turkey!! It was so fun to walk back to the truck carrying my bird on my back. I'm glad my legs didn't give out.

After a few photo we were off to the river bottoms to fill the others tags. The birds were not in the field when we arrived but we could them in the bottoms and across the river. We split up and heading in. On the far side across the river and large field we found 20 birds at the base of a cliff. The tom were in full strut and we watched them for a good 1/2 hour. We called and tried every trick in the book but could not get them to come to us. Finally we watch four of our partner belly crawl across the field and into the sagebrush to where they could ambush the turkeys. But as things go the turkeys had other thought and flew up on top of the 200 foot cliffs and disappear into the pinyons and junipers. It was quite a sight to see all of these toms in full strut.

We finished the morning checking out some Anisai ruined we had spotted on the way down the canyon. We climb up to the base of the cliff and could not see how any one could have gotten to these ruins let alone live in them. They really must have been a strong people to survive down here. We also found some pictograph they had made. Wonder what they were trying to say.

All in all I had a great time and can't wait til next year. Enjoy the photos. Click on photo to view.