May 7, Day 3
New Mexico Merriam's Turkey Hunt
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A.M. Hunt This morning since I didn't have to set my blind up I got there at 5:15 instead of 4:15. Unlike yesterday morning, this morning it was 100% overcast, no light from the moon. I set up in a point of woods that the turkeys were moving past constantly yesterday morning. I found a little group of trees together that I could back up against with a little bush in front for cover. It was a little sparse, but I thought it would be okay. I was a little surprised when they flew down almost half an hour earlier this morning, even though it was darker because of being overcast. They flew down to the same spot, but instead of immediately wandering my direction (towards where I was this morning) like they did yesterday (when I was in my blind), they just milled around there for a half hour or so, within easy range of where my blind had been. At this point thoughts began to cross my mind that perhaps they had been a little leary of my blind.  the other side of the fence is the neighbors field  on the other side of the tall grass, but this side of the fence, is where the first tom stood when I shot Finally some jakes started wandering my way. When they got to about 10 yards they started looking in my direction pretty hard, like they noticed something was out of place. I started to think that perhaps I hadn't concealed myself quite well enough. I stayed stone still and they kept trying to see me. They were putting a little, but nothing serious. There was a group of hens behind them that got nervous because of seeing the jakes so attentive. The hens had pulled the boss tom in my direction and he was very close to making his permanent residence in turkey heaven. He had a hen right beside him that would have prevented me from shooting, plus he needed to come about 5 yards closer, but he never did. The jakes finally calmed down, but instead of continuing in the direction they were going, which would have taken them right past me, they went back in the direction from which they had come.  this is where he fell  After daylight came, it started misting pretty good and fog socked in pretty low. I could barely see the mountains. I'm not sure how the weather might have affected the turkeys, but instead of walking up and down the field like they did yesterday, they crossed the fence onto the neighbors property and headed into one of his fields. I could see them at a distance. They were pretty scattered out, and I was hoping that I might be able to pull one of the toms over. No such luck. When they all moved out of sight over to his field, I changed my location back into the woods a little for more cover. I called intermittently, and saw the birds from time to time, and they were gobbling, but still not coming to me. Then I saw a few crossing the creek and getting ready to come back into the field I was on, so I changed location one more time, moving into a big clump of tall grass on the edge of the field.  here's the spot where I made my set-up for the second bird  the hen I called in Slowly 8 turkeys worked their way back into the field, a group of hens and what looked like a group of young toms, I couldn't tell if they were jakes or toms. They were all feeding, and I continued to call every now and again. Slowly, one of the jakes/toms started working towards me, but instead of coming straight at me, he was coming towards the edge of the tall grass, about 40 yards away. I couldn't see a beard until he was almost in range. Up until then I had thought it was a jake because I couldn't see anything. When I saw the beard, though, I brought my gun up as slowly/quickly (how's that again?) as I could, got on him and dropped him. He flopped around a little, messing up his tail feathers nicely. Wet and flopping - not a good combination. He had a 7 1/2 beard, with a very unique light brown coloring near the end. I hadn't seen that before. His spurs were were about 3/8 long and completely rounded off on the end. Perhaps the rocky soil? I didn't have a scale, but I guessed him in about the 18 lb. range. Not an old mature tom, but I was very happy with him. I killed him at about 8:00, plenty of time to try and get on another tom this morning.  the 2nd tom was standing just on the other side of and to the right of the bush when I shot I went to an area where I had seen several toms while scouting, and also saw a few turkeys yesterday while looking around. Each time we saw them they were in a natural funnel about 75 yards wide between two hills. A perfect place to wait for them. I parked about a mile away from the spot, so as not to spook any birds that might be within sight. Within 50 yards after leaving my vehicle, I spotted a group of 8 turkeys out in a big flat, walking in the opposite direction. Looking through my binoculars, I saw at least 3 toms and I couldn't tell for sure what the rest were. I made a big circle to get situated in that funnel, and hopefully intercept the birds working that direction. Within about 15 minutes of getting situated, I heard the gobblers in the group I had seen sounding off, but they were pretty far, at least 300 yards or more. They talked quite a bit, but never moving closer, they weren't interested in leaving their hens. Once I heard a single gobble behind me and what sounded like on the rim across the creek. I just heard it that once, and never saw the tom. I did manage to call in a hen looking for some company, but she left disappointed. It was quiet for awhile, except for me calling every so often. About 11:00 I heard a single gobble up on the hill to my right, sounded like a couple hundred yards away, and then I didn't hear anything else for about 15 minutes. Then I imagined a few times that I heard some clucking up on the side hill, but didn't see anything. After a few minutes I heard a rock crack and looked up to see a tom about 80 yards away, looking down in my direction. I called to him and he didn't answer, just moved slowly along the top, out of my sight. He was out of my sight for about 10 minutes, then all of a sudden he reappeared again, and this time he started coming down and towards me. I let him get to about 40 yards and then I couldn't wait any longer. He was about to go behind some bushes, and I didn't have the patience to wait him out and hope he would come out on the other side. So I dropped the hammer and he went right down. He had a 9-inch beard, real small, rounded off spurs, and seemed to weigh about the same as my first tom. The hunt was over.  I would highly recommend this hunt. I saw a lot of turkeys and was able to hunt a lot of country. The accommodations in a log cabin were also very comfortable. I took care of my food. The cabin was just about 10 minutes from the hunting area. Monte Adams, owner of A&M Adventures, was raised in this area his whole life and he knows where the turkeys are, as well as the deer, antelope and elk. If you're interested in a good turkey hunt, you can find their contact information below. I hope you enjoyed the Live Hunt!
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