Had three gobblers gobbling first light before 6 AM Saturday but a hen came between us and scooped them up and headed off away from me. After an hour I figured they weren't coming my way and they kept gobbling on and off so I had a good idea of their location. My plan was to climb up to the ridge and drop over the other side, move closer to the tom and then climb back to the ridge top and call him uphill to me. The problem was the "ridge" turned into a bowl.
The upper portion of the bowl had been burned a few years back in a wildfire and was pretty open. I sat down in the middle and waited silently for him to gobble again so I could get a better bead on his location. He obliged me and I felt I had a good idea of where he was. I followed the bowl around and dropped down into the treeline not burned. I crossed a stream and was sidehilling some steep terrain. None of it looked like good turkey terrain as it was fairly steep and barren. Visibility was only about 50 yards due to washes forming rises and drains. I kept expecting the next rise would reveal a shelf or bench the turkey were on and I would slowly approach the top and peak over. My mind kept telling me to slow down but I was "sure" the turkey weren't in this type of setup. I had just peaked over the second rise and didn't think I saw any suitable situation so I climbed up the rest of the way. When I reached the top three things happened. A hen moved uphill to my left, the tom gobbled just as I came into sight, and 4 birds took to flight 30 yards downhill from me. The hen flew a few moments later in a slow level flight 15 yards in front of me, an easy shot if she had been legal. I followed her with my shotgun just for fun. The area they were in was a small opening. Not exactly what I'd figure for turkey terrain but I obviously don't know what I'm talking about. I should have slowed down once I crossed the creek and waited for another gobble to locate where they were. It just didn't look like they'd be there. After that I followed the stream downhill to the road. I had hiked about a mile and probably gained 600 feet elevation. I bumped the hen off a tree over the stream further down. I called it a day after that as rain was coming in. It started raining soon after I got home. This hunt and the last two have been on National Forest land which is why the hunters were walking around. The upside is I've got a better feel for where these turkeys are hanging out this year and afternoon hunting starts tomorrow. I have some unpressured private land with lots of good turkeys on it about 3 hours away but it doesn't look like my schedule is going to let me get there this season.