My sons Derek and James are out in UT trying to fill a couple tags -- James a rio tag, and Derek a Merriams tag.
On day one, Saturday, they heard 265 gobbles on the roost (Derek claims he actually kept an accurate count), from three birds, a tom and two jakes. The gobblers had a hen with them, which wanted no part of the newcomer nearby and took the toms off in a different direction. After a bit, they decided to move off down the creek to get in front of the birds. Unbeknownst to them, the tom had left the party, and had flown across the creek onto their side, perhaps heading back towards them. But they bumped him.
They ended up bumping two birds, hearing over 300 gobbles, but not being able to get one into gun range.
On day two, Monday, they went after merriams in a different unit. The upper roads into the area they had wanted to hunt was covered in several feet of snow, so they were forced to come in from the bottom via ATV, potentially having to walk a few miles uphill to get there.
On the way up in the dark, my brother discovered that the snow had melted completely off one of the roads that had a couple feet on it 10 days ago, and the side of the mountain had only patches of snow, so they took that road which got them much closer to where he had originally wanted to be. They ended up not having to walk much at all. At gobbling time, they could identify at least 4 different birds in a familiar roosting area, possibly as many as six or eight, making quite a ruckus. They were gobbling and double gobbling and triple gobbling at every sound they heard and at each other, and the report is that they heard even more gobbles than Saturday at the rio unit, which got them up well over 300. There were plenty of hens with the gobblers and the first set-up was not a good one because it was too light to get where they wanted to be, and the birds ended up flying down and heading in a different direction. After two more quick moves, and a bunch of gobbling later, they got positioned well and an old sharp spurred merriams came in nicely, gobbling and drumming on the way. Killed him at 7:22a.m. I don't have the measurements yet, but will share them and pictures once I get them.
That was Derek's first merriams.
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Tues. 5/17
Just got a phone call from James in Utah. He filled his rio tag today.
They heard tons of gobbling early again, but it turns out that it was about all jakes. He passed on several jakes, getting some good video footage of them at very close range. James decided to pass on them as they had good expectations that a tom was nearby. and finally at 11:30 they called in a hen dragging a 2 year old in with her. I'm anxious to see how good the video turned out. After them going all day on Saturday without getting one to come in, I was worried a bit.
I am particularly glad for him since he got skunked in FL and NC this year. This is James first rio. I'll get some pictures and the tale of the tape in a few days and post it up.
The boys had a pretty good trip. Two turkeys (one merriams and one rio) in three days of hunting, and several hundred gobbles. They killed one up high in the snow, and another down low near cultivated land. Ought to be something they'll look back on fondly for a long time.
two boys kill two subspecies on one trip
