Sunday, May 25, 2008

Spring Gobblers

It was the second weekend of the spring Turkey season in Montana. I had just taken my wife to the airport on a beautiful, sunny, spring day.

I decided it would be an ideal day to hunt spring turkeys. I must confess that I have never called in a spring turkey I had shot one once before but it just happened to come by where I was sitting. I headed back to the house and got geared up and brought up the SportsmensAccess.com website. I signed in and went to the RAM maps area and turned on the Turkey Distribution layer.
I wanted to find a spot on public land that had turkeys within a 3 hour drive of Bozeman. I found an area and headed out. By the time I got to the area the sun was bright and the mountains looked glorious with a snow sparkling on the peaks. The area I was in looked like great turkey habitat.
I drove down the road until I found a place where I thought turkeys might actually cross the road. I shut off the pickup and glided to a stop. I waited a few minutes and put the slate call out the window (a tried and true turkey hunting tactic) and scratched out a yelp. Ok you probably don't see this on the Mossy Oak Classics. Nothing came back. I fired up the truck and went to the next likely looking saddle and repeated the process. To my surprise I got a resounding gobble back.

Having shut off the truck in the middle of the road I was forced to make a decision: do I leave it where it was or start up the rumbling diesel engine and risk scaring the turkey out of the country. I cranked it up and headed to the shoulder of the road. At this point I didn' t even have my camo on.
I scrambled to quickly put on my camo grab my shot gun and head out. I got to a place that looked good for a ambush and set up for to call. I scratched out some more yelps and the gobbler responded almost immediately. I waited not so patiently and could see nothing but every so often I would hear the turkey.
I got up and moved in a little closer circling the turkey to the right. I waited and then let out another call. He answered again right away. I waited and could see him coming toward me. I was in a good position and waited. He got to about 70 yards and hung up. Just wouldn't come any closer. Just call and pace back and forth. After a while he moved away and I circled him for one more try. Same results....humm.

So I got up and let him see me. I thought he would move away from me and cross a saddle back behind him. He did exactly that. I moved away and out of sight ran to the other side of the saddle and carefully peeked from cover to see if he was on his way. I ranged a spot where I thought I could get a shot, 48 yards. I was shooting 3.5 inch turkey loads and new I could make this shot. The turkey came walking down the saddle. I slowly squeezed off the shot and I had my first turkey spring turkey that I had called to.
Hunting spring turkeys is one of Montana's fastest growing hunts. So get on the RAM maps find a free place to hunt or get on Ranches Fee and look up some ranches that are loaded with turkeys.