RE: scouting in snow
HEY if you run into snow - I still hunted several times. This is what I did and in Colorado should work for you.
Located my Tom - the tree I picked was a fir tree - one was a cedar and on another set-up it was a white pine. Because of heavy snow I was worried in my camo I would stand out like a black blob - with all that camo on a white background.
Well I found fir trees with snow laden branches hanging low and was real carefull to cut a few openings to leave most the snow in place. With my camo and sitting back against the trunk - I stayed dry and was invisible to both Toms I shot at. The one set-up had the Tom come to my decoy 10 yards away but it was snowing so heavy I really could not see the beard. He was with 3 other Jakes that stopped short. He gobbled heavily but so did the Jakes. Well since I thought he was a Jake - I decided to let him go - He never went in strut to help me see if he was a mature bird. The snow was too deep to see spurs. But when he turned to go back to his buddies he had a draggin middle leg! That was his beard!
So once he got back behind a tree - I clucked again softlyand he came back out to which I whalloped him. We had so much snow - my hen decoy looked almost white with all the snow on the decoy's back.
That other time - was again snowing real hard - but this Tom came in silent to my calling. I had no decoy out - just had to find the time to get the gun up - and I missed!
But why hunt in snow - well I had dated kill tags - and limited vacation - so heck ya I'll be out there!
JW