Colorado opening day....

[sneakem]

Well after all the hunting ended this last year, OSOK and I decided that we needed something to do this spring. About the only thing to do here in Colorado is chase the stupid turkeys. So we figured that we should get together and do just that. I mean those stupid birds can't be any harder to hunt than those wiley big game animals right???

The preseason scouting went well with several hundred turkeys roaming around on the public land we were going to hunt. With that many turkeys running around its sure to be a slam dunk, right?? That's exactly what we were thinking.

So a few months progress and we're getting pumped for the April 8th opener.... bought all our turkey hunting gear, tags etc. and we're ready to rock!! It was sure to be a slaughter.....

Well everyone rolled in to to meet around 9pm the night before season opened and we drove to our faithful turkey spot, set up camp and set down for a few beers. The night slowly progressed as everyone talked in anticipation of the upcoming slaughter. Surely all 5 of us would be packing out birds the next day....

Later that evening a good friend of ours, Jose showed up at the camp. Boy, ol' Jose sure is a lot of fun. He got the whole camp going...swearing, laughing, even a few camp games. A few wresting matches, a staggering competition, roast the soles off your shoes, pin the cactus on the dumbass... What a great time, Ol' Jose was sure a lot of fun.

Well as dawn drew near we all awoke to find that our friend Jose had left, but we all could feel his ugly presence there with us all. That nasty little dude had left us all with a little flu bug he brought across from south of the border before he parted....

Continued.....

 

[sneakem]

...... continued


.... Twilight found us walking down the road all carrying the remnants of that mexican flu bug. Its amazing how much your head pounds with that type of Flu, definitely not a bug that I would recommend catching. We cut arcoss deep canyons, up rocky hills, through nasty tangles of brush, only to find the hundred of birds that were once there were no longer to be found. There was very little sign most of it being old...

The few birds that were left in the area were running this way and that, flying across the canyons that we had just crossed and very little activity at all. How dissapointing it was!

We tried to call them, we tried to stalk them, every means that we could to get one of those birds. I guess that after all we're just not that good of turkey hunters, or maybe those stupid little birds are just smarter than we thought.

After a day of tromping around everywhere we decided to return to camp. On the road back to the camp we met the local game warden who was nice enough to give a few of us a ride back to the camp... although a few of us were to slow to meet up with her and ended up having to walk all the way back. The friendly warden proceeded to tell us that there were very few birds in the area this time of year and most move up to higher elevations and on to private ground. Who would have thought???

As we were sitting in camp that evening we happen to notice that back in the trees.... something was watching us. Armed to the max we proceeded to the edge of camp to see what was watching us and low and behold, it was that nasty little sucker Jose. We grabbed that little guy, tossed him in the fire and burnt him at the stake for his witchcraft.

Ol' Jose got what he had coming!!!

The next morning we awoke and headed to the woods, only to find that it was to hold similar results to the previous day. 7 am rolled around and in dissapointment with the way things were going, decided to pack up camp head to town and get some breakfast. I guess that in the end we're just not cracked up to be turkey hunters after all, being that we all left empty handed that is.....

 

[sneakem]

..... well empty handed meaning that 4 of us left with out tags for the remainder of the season....

 

[sneakem]

Not too shabby for 24 hours of birds hunting.... I thinks...

 

[carbonarcher]

Great looking birds, thanks for sharing. Opening weekend is the 15th here and I'm hoping to take a go at old Jose that night with a couple of birds already in the bag!

 

[JoseCuervo]

Nice, and sorry about that little incident.....

 

[ELKCHSR]

! ! ! E M P T Y T A G S ! ! !

That had to suck...

Way to go great looking birds and great story...

 

[Cameron Hunt]

Welcome to Turkey 101. Just when you think you got it all worked out... they like to change the rule book on you. Great story, Great pics! Thanks for sharing.

 

[noharleyyet]

Cool story..great pics, as usual Sneaks. Sounds like a good group to hunt with...wtg guys.

 

[SneakyJake]

I have met Senoir Jose a few times. He has spoiled many of hunts that I've attempted. You have rallied, though. You are brave, and it is Jose that is weak.

 

[Ultrahunter]

Usually it is Jack that ruins all of my hunts. I learned a long time ago that Jose is not to be messed with that mexican flu that you talk about is nasty. Come to think of it Jack has given me that same bug. Is Jack really from tennessee or is he mexican too??? good story Jose got what he deserved!!

 

[sneakem]

And another one bites the dust....

... okay maybe two...

First picture is of my buddy Shamus and his boy with a bird his co-worker shot last night. We took his boy along with us to experience the hunt. The bird came to with in 6 ft of Shamus, the boy and I which left Tom with out a shot being the bird was right on top of us. The bird saw us and spooked and ran back in front of Tom where he proceeded to full pattern the gobbler in full stride...

Take a kid hunting... Had to post the picture with the kid in it!! Crappy picture but oh well, he thought it was cool to be there...

The next one is the bird I called this morning for my buddy Billy.... Was a little too small for my likings so I let Billy have at em. Billy didn't want me to post his picture so you get to see my ugly mug...LOL

Hopefully here soon I'll be posting pic.'s of the big bird I'm after.....hump

 

[MarvB]

Way to get after 'em sneeks...a lot more luck than I'm having in this soggy SOB of a state.

I hardly recognized you without the diet soda, sandals, and gay necklace in the picture.....your almost looking, well, ahh, er, "normal".....

 

[BigHornRam]

Great story Sneaks,

So far it's Turkey's 2, BHR 0. First day I couldn't get them to cross the "border", from private to public land. Day two I couldn't get the Tom I followed for several miles to leave his 3 lady friends (3 in the hand beats one in the bush). Couldn't get close enough to seal the deal with all the hens and numerous whitetail blowing my cover. Round 3 is later this week!

 

[schmalts]

great hunt and pictures, congrats!

 

[Tom]

Man, that's awesome.

 

[sneakem]

Finally

Last night I found myself chasing "Muy Grande" again. I was bound and determined to get a great bird this year and set out exactly to do just that. I found this bird a little over a week ago... on about the 5th day of season. I passed numerous smaller birds in hope of smoking the grand daddy of them all.

Several mishaps lead to this bird eluding me over and over again, from Jakes dry humping my legs..LOL the 20 hens he had always on the lookout.... not to mention the incredible pressure on the public lands that had all but shut the birds up.

Last night I found myself in search of the monster again, but with short time to do so. I had to return to town for prior engagements before dark so there was no chance of me getting to roost the bird, which with all the hunting pressure, was the only time he would talk.

I snuck down to an area that I knew the birds liked to roost around. There was not a peep to be heard so I started searching frantically to see where the birds were going and if there was any fresh sign. I cut some fresh tracks, obviously no more than a day old and decided to follow them. I was pretty sure that this was the bird I was after due to the amount of hen tracks surrounding the big gobbler tracks.

I followed the tracks out across a clear cut that was a couple hundred yards wide to a little strip of trees centered in a little ravine in the middle of the clearing. As I walked into the trees I noticed that the ground was literally covered a couple inches thick in turkey droppings. It just blew my mind!! Merriam's are very nomadic and hardly ever roost in the same spot. But by the amount of sign within the trees I was sure that they were using this spot over and over.

As I sat amongst the trees, calling ever so sporadically, I couldn't get the thoughts of that big gobbler strutting out across the green grass right to me. Wouldn't that be a sight for sore eyes.... But it was not meant to be. My departure time arrived and still not a peep.

That night I decided that I would take another crack at the roosting sight the next morning. I knew those birds had to be in there, it just looked like too perfect of a spot for them not to be. I knew that there was no way I could make it across the park in any kind of light because surely the birds would see me coming and there was little chance of calling him across the meadow when he had all those hens (been there, tried that). I knew that I would have to crawl out across that meadow in the dark.

So this morning that's exactly what I did... I left a half hour earlier than usual and found myself belly crawling through the scattered shrubs, cactus and grass trying to close some distance on the roost trees. I crawled within about 60 yards and just laid there flat on my stomach waiting for light to approach.

As it got light enough to start seeing, suddenly a gobble erupted from the trees. As I scanned the trees, I noticed a shape I thought was a bird roosted near the top of a tree. A quick discrete glance through the bino's and sure enough it was him with that big rope beard dangling there in the skylight. He burst out a few more gobbles while strutting around on that tree branch but looked to me like he was thinking about flying down on the other side of the meadow.

So with a couple quick, very soft calls I drew his attention my way. He rotated right around on the branch and looked directly towards me. As the light grew I noticed that there were hens roosted all around in the trees. I called a couple more times very softly and watched in anticipation as he stretched his wings.... It was game time!!

He hoped off the branch and came from the tree like he was going to land 30 yards from me, but just before he reached the ground he spread those jumbo jet wings and soared directly over my head and landed about 60 yards behind me. I spun around on my stomach to face him but had to do it ever so slowly so the hens wouldn't see me move. As I turned to face him, I watched as he walked full strut right out of the clearing and into the trees towards the big canyon.

I thought to myself, wonderful, screwed again!! But why would he leave his prize possesion hens. I let out a few more soft calls and behind me I could hear the hens fly out of the tree and they landed about 30 yards behind me. How awesome was this... I was right between him and his ladies!!! A couple purrs and clucks later and the hens were talking it up in excitement. As I watched the tree line I could see that brilliant white tipped fan making its way back through the trees towards me. My heart started to race... I was in perfect position.

The gobbler cut through the trees strutting his way out into the park. As he entered the park I couldn't help but marvel at the sight of his iridescent feathers and white tipped sailboat fan catching the early morning light. As he reached 60 yards, I clicked the safety off. It was game time and I was about to pound him. I waited patiently for him to close the distance and present me with a good shot. I knew that he would eventually break strut and give me a good head shot.

As he closed to about 50 yards, a couple of jakes roosted across the clearing gobbled as they flew from their roosts. The big tom stopped, gobbled and outstretched his head high in the air. I took the shot!! I watched as the big toms head flopped over backwards, then back strait up. He just stood there, head wobbling from side to side, standing strait up as if he were on his tippy-toes. I had already chambered another shell, and although he was probably done I let him have another.

Birds went everywhere as the big tom set there flopping in the clearing. I couldn't help but laugh in excitement, as I had finally accomplished what I thought was seeming impossible... I had just smoked old "muy grande" after so many failed attempts!!

I never felt so good walking back out of the woods as I did with that big old tom over my back... I could hardly notice any weight at all I was so happy. As I returned to the truck to take pictures... I noticed that right by my truck door was a big pile of turkey poop. There were also fresh track that went right across where I had parked, and I hadn't even noticed them when I got out that morning (probably because it was pitch black outside). After I had left the previous evening that tom had walked right across where I had parked that night and took a big dump, as if he was insulting me for him outsmarting me once again. Guess that what goes around come around...LOL I couldn't help but laugh at the outcome and all that had happened, it was such a great hunt...

Now the pictures....

The bird has great spurs for the Merriam's around here... there usually worn down to nothing from the sandstone rocks....

 

[Bambistew]

Way to go man!!! Thats a nice bird! Great story too.

I hunted on Tuesday and all I got was the finger from Mr gobbler. Might try em again next weekend if I get a chance.

 

[MarvB]

Well you skinney azzzed SOB you...

Congratulations sneeks hump Great story and even a better bird!
We might just lighten up on you a little if you keep posts going like this one!
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Yeah right!!

Congrats again in your persistence in taking Muy Grande down (isn't that the same thing AZ402 tells ya ) and thanks for sharing ......ya homo

 

[noharleyyet]

Helluva bird Kelly. Nice presentation on the beard by the way.

I'll finish reading your novel later....just managed to get thru the first few chapters during lunch.