Merriam Tom

[Howieroch]

I shot this Merriam tom in Wyoming on October 2. My brother was drawn for an antelope tag, so we added in turkey tags just in case. I shot the bird at about 100 yards with a .223 rifle.

I didn't have a scale so I don't know a weight on it - I would guess 22 or 23 pounds. The beard is 10 1/2 inches and it has perfect tail fan. When I saw the beard and the full tail fan, I expected to see nice big spurs - no such luck. It seems that I managed to shoot a nice mature tom with absolutely no spurs! The locals later told me that some birds out there don't have any spurs due to the terrain.

I took the only tom in the flock, so my brother was forced to take a hen. We were very surprised by how small the Merriam hen was - much smaller than an Eastern hen. We were both very excited to get out Merriams - now it is on to Rios or Osceolas for me!