2013 Montana Gobbler

[PFUNK]

So here's the story behind by bird. I'll warn you in advance, I get long winded so if you don't want the play by play skip to the end. It really was an interesting scenario though, so I gotta describe it the best I can.

I made it a priority to try to get my girlfriend her first Montana gobbler this year, so that is what I have been doing, except for a few days when she couldn't tag along. So far we had come up empty with a few close calls. Last night we went out to the area where I got my bird last year and my buddy shot his earlier this spring. It was a quiet night, with no birds spotted nor heard, but it was windy, cold, and crummy out. We took some time before hiking out to build a ground blind in an area that seems to be the "strut zone" on occasion. We planned to be back bright and early.

This morning, we cozy up into the blind and after a few soft yelps the mountain comes alive and we have gobblers going in three different directions. We stayed put for almost 5 hours, calling periodically, but nothing ever showed up and the gobbling never came from anywhere on the public. The birds seemed to be holding on the adjacent private ground. We packed up our gear, and crossed over to a parallel ridge and nothing was going over there either. We hadn't packed a lunch so we started the climb back up to the pickup. We had climbed about 650 of the 700 vertical feet, and were almost back to the pickup when we looked back to glass once more. I spotted a big group of elk and we watched them for a bit, and that's when my girlfriend says "You're gonna hate me, but you'll never believe what I see down there." You guessed it, back down below us and almost exactly a mile away are two birds and they are heading down a maintenance road under a set of powerlines... on private land but headed towards the public. She said to me, "Well what's the plan now?", to which I replied "We are gonna go kill one". With that, we took off back down the mountain and along the way stopped several times to glass them and keep tabs on their movement. There ended up being 5 more turkeys that had emerged and were slowly working their way in the same direction the others had gone. We made double time as far as we could go, but then reached a point where the road would drop down towards the bottom of a draw where we had seen the first two birds travelling towards. We got to that high point and started glassing the bottom where we saw 4 toms/jakes strutting around and chasing each other. It looked like there were two dominant toms running the show, with the other birds being younger. The other birds were above them still making their way down, but we couldn't tell for sure what they were. We got off the road edge and ducked into the timber and began our descent towards the toms in the bottom. I knew the property line was somewhere near the bottom, but wasn't quite sure how far we could get before hitting the boundary line. Turns out the line was about 200 yards above where the toms had been strutting, and by the time we reached it, the entire group was now making its way back up where they had come from. Not looking good at this point.

We can see now there is a mix of jakes, toms, and hens and the hens are talking like crazy but the boys aren't gobbling back. The birds start to head away from the road and back into the timber, and at this point it is a hail mary. I tell Ashley the next time a hen talks I am going to cut her off. This gets the gobblers fired up, and after my yelping they are gobbling. They all disappear into the timber a few seconds later and it is silent.

I'm kind of stumped as to what we can do now, as we are at the property line and we can't follow these things. I call again and they gobble back, and about a minute later I see them on the edge of the timber headed back down in our direction. Ok... they're interested now. Once they hit the bottom of the draw in a couple hundred yards, we knew they would be out of site for a few moments. As soon as they disappeared, I grabbed a hen decoy from my pack and staked her down right next to the road. We ducked back into the timber and climbed back up above the decoy about 25 yards and got behind a couple of trees along the road. At this point, they are letting out gobbles before I can finish my calling sequences. They don't come straight up the road though, but instead travel to our left and seem to head into the timber.

Here's when it gets interesting. We are a mile from the pickup and down an old, crappy, washed out maintenance road when suddenly from behind us a pickup comes driving down the road! A couple of young guys, one with a phone out the window who seems to be recording a video. They drive right by us as we sit 5 yards from the road and head right on past our decoy and onto the private ground, right down where the toms were. I about lose it at this point and am convinced our chances were just destroyed. As the pickup heads on out of sight, Ashley is trying to get me calmed down and is telling me to call again, so I do. To my surprise, they gobble right back and are getting even closer. If Ashley wants to get a shot, she is going to have to make a move so that she can see into the timber on our left. She gets moved over and I call once more and the gobbles seem to be on top of us. I spot a red head in the timber and let her know they are definitely coming. I hadn't realized it at the time, but he was still on the other side of the fence on private, and he didn't want to cross. Both toms end up heading back out onto the road and turn in our direction. They see the decoy and its like they are on a string coming right to it. Because she moved to the other side, Ashley no longer has a shot at the birds who are now back on the road. She lets me know she doesn't have a shot, so I click the safety off and let them close the distance. Once they crossed through the gate and onto public land, I let them go about 5 more yards and touched one off on the leading tom. The gobbler crumples right there and the deal is sealed!

I was really bummed that Ashley wasn't able to get the shot at this bird, but it was an exhilarating experience for both of us. I just started turkey hunting last year and the tom I shot had been gobbling like crazy so he lead me right to him. This was the first time we had called mature toms in to our decoys, and they had come from quite a ways off so there was plenty of time for the nerves to get going! I think the sight of those two puffed up toms with blood red heads coming straight for the decoy will be seared in my memory for quite some time!! Here he is....

[123fish]

Well that's a pretty cool story. Sounds like you have to be in pretty good shape to hunt the terrain you were in. Pretty amazing you can be in the middle of nowhere and still have somebody almost screw things up for you. That is a great looking fan on that bird. Merriams are cool for sure. Is there a lot of public land out there to hunt?

[PFUNK]

There is more public land than you could every dream to hunt. There is forest service land everywhere and a lot of state land as well. Not all of that land is good for turkey hunting, but it is very nice to always be within 10 minutes of land you can just go hunt. And yes, you get in shape pretty quick out here.