After 6-seasons in the chase I finally connected with a beautiful bird in Southeastern Colorado.
If you have followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I have spent the last three years
The hunt that almost wasn’t.
After five long seasons of chasing turkeys, and after a successful harvest during deer season, I was actually planning on taking this 6th consecutive spring season off to focus on my stand up paddleboarding and other activities with the kids. However, I was reading a post online from a friend of mine Bear Miller, he’s an avid outdoorsman and blogger, and was lamenting that he’d not be able to get out this spring due to a recent back surgery. I considered his situation and thought back to all of those mornings getting to watch the sun come up from some dew soaked ground blind, and knew I had to keep trying.
in the field, both solo and with my kids, in search of the elusive turkey. We have hunted what felt like “everywhere” in our region and I had only managed a couple of close calls. However, I figured if I just kept at it the opportunity would arise, and did it ever. The hunt that almost wasn’t.
After five long seasons of chasing turkeys, and after a successful harvest during deer season, I was actually planning on taking this 6th consecutive spring season off to focus on my stand up paddleboarding and other activities with the kids. However, I was reading a post online from a friend of mine Bear Miller, he’s an avid outdoorsman and blogger, and was lamenting that he’d not be able to get out this spring due to a recent back surgery. I considered his situation and thought back to all of those mornings getting to watch the sun come up from some dew soaked ground blind, and knew I had to keep trying.
We had a trip coming up to the Southeastern part of the state to see my wife’s family and so my plan began to take hold. Hunting in that part of Colorado has been tough for a few years due to an ongoing drought but I assumed the situation might actually help because it would keep the birds concentrated around the remaining water. I pulled out my maps, circled a few areas to scout, packed all my stuff, got my license, and hoped for the best. Because of other commitments, I only had one morning to scout and a single morning to hunt, so this was going to be an outside chances, outside chance, at turkey success.
Scouting for a bird
If there is anything I have learned over many seasons of turkey hunting it’s that you have to be where the birds are and so pre-hunt scouting is critical. In the first few seasons I didn’t know anything more than what I had read or watched online and so we spent a lot of time walking and looking for “any” sign of turkeys. In the last couple of seasons I have begun to understand what terrain birds like and to hone in on the local groups and where they tend to hang out. For this trip I would need to scout five state wildlife areas in just a few hours to figure out which one would bring the best possibility of success on opening day. Of the five targets on my map I had only hiked two of them so I had my work cut out for me.
I started the scouting effort at my primary hunting area south of Las Animas, Colorado. The area is called Purgatoire River State Wildlife Area and is a 913 acre plot situated along the river and crossed by a couple of irrigation canals. I had never been there before but thought it would be a great spot because it was relatively wooded for the high plains and had a lot of water compared to the other areas I’d be scouting. I left the house before 5 AM and drove 45-minutes to the south west to begin my day. I reached the SWA and began my hike, Purgatoire turned out to be a pretty dry place, as well. I decided to follow the trail about 2-miles and all of the way to the back of the property where an irrigation canal met the river. I kept my eyes on the ground and stopped at every set of trees looking for any sign of turkeys – nothing. However, when I got down to the river there were huge turkey tracks in the dirt along the Northside of the river. I scouted all around but didn’t find feathers, I didn’t hear any gobbling, and worst of all couldn’t tell how old the tracks might have been. I crossed the river and scouted the other bank for a while before returning to the Northside where I planned on covering the rest of the property off trail. I spent the next couple of hours looking for birds but found nothing but one additional set of tracks. I decided to pack it in so that I could scout the other areas and was also “itching” to get out of the high brush in my dress shoes – somehow I walked out of the house without my boots or even a pair of tennis shoes, whoops.
I started the scouting effort at my primary hunting area south of Las Animas, Colorado. The area is called Purgatoire River State Wildlife Area and is a 913 acre plot situated along the river and crossed by a couple of irrigation canals. I had never been there before but thought it would be a great spot because it was relatively wooded for the high plains and had a lot of water compared to the other areas I’d be scouting. I left the house before 5 AM and drove 45-minutes to the south west to begin my day. I reached the SWA and began my hike, Purgatoire turned out to be a pretty dry place, as well. I decided to follow the trail about 2-miles and all of the way to the back of the property where an irrigation canal met the river. I kept my eyes on the ground and stopped at every set of trees looking for any sign of turkeys – nothing. However, when I got down to the river there were huge turkey tracks in the dirt along the Northside of the river. I scouted all around but didn’t find feathers, I didn’t hear any gobbling, and worst of all couldn’t tell how old the tracks might have been. I crossed the river and scouted the other bank for a while before returning to the Northside where I planned on covering the rest of the property off trail. I spent the next couple of hours looking for birds but found nothing but one additional set of tracks. I decided to pack it in so that I could scout the other areas and was also “itching” to get out of the high brush in my dress shoes – somehow I walked out of the house without my boots or even a pair of tennis shoes, whoops.
On my way back through Las Animas I saw three decent sized turkeys and my mood began to improve, finally some proof that turkeys really do frequent the area. I stopped for a while to take pictures of them foraging along the Arkansas River on private land, now this is a situation I have a good bit of experience with. The next two areas I visited were Fort Lyon SWA and John Martin Reservoir SWA. Both of these areas had lots of dirt roads and so I was able to drive and scout in relative comfort. Though I found a great new spot to hunt ducks next fall, I didn’t come across any turkeys or obvious sign. So I turned back north to scout my final two areas in a really dry part of Prowers County. These next two areas (Ne Grande Reservoir and Upper Queens) I knew pretty well and had both hunted and kiteboarded around these lake areas previously. My father-in-law told me that he’d been watching turkeys cross the road recently and I had heard from another person that there were 50 or so birds that were roosting in the land between the lakes. I drove both areas but saw nothing but a couple of antelope. By 11 o’clock I had been at this for six hours and it was time to head home. So based on this quick survey of the area I decided to return to Purgatoire River the following morning, early.
After seeing tracks the day before, but no turkey, I decided maybe I should get an earlier start for a better chance of intercepting the birds. I left the house just about 4:00 AM and arrived at the trailhead well before sunup. I grabbed my coffee, gun, decoys, and other gear and headed off into the darkness. Along the way I heard some deer out in the fields but nothing else was moving on this still morning. As I approached the back of the property the distinctive call of a turkey gobbling broke the silence and my heart began to race. I didn’t have my gloves or my mask on, I still had a half a mug of coffee, and I hadn’t even loaded my gun at this point and worse yet, I was not exactly sure which set of trees he might be in or if he was already on the ground. As the turkey continued to bellow out his calls I pounded my coffee and prepared for what I hoped would be an unforgettable encounter. I hiked at a quick pace until I was about a half mile or so from where I thought he was but my view was still blocked. I just wasn’t certain of what I should do. Should I continue to approach or should I setup at the edge of the field and hope to call him to me? I decided to move in a little closer and hoped it would become obvious what to do next. As I came down the hill I caught my first view of the bird, he was at the top of the tree and silhouetted against the rising sun. He kept his gobbling up and was so tall and wide he looked completely out of place up in that old tree. I noticed that there were 8-10 deer in the field right below him and they had clearly seen me. “Crap” I said quietly, surely they were going to spook and he’d fly off the roost across the river. I stood still at about 100-yards considering my options.
I assumed by this point that he had seen me and so there was not going to be any element of surprise or a reason to setup my decoys. The deer had also just bolted from the field which only seemed to make his calling louder and more persistent, it was at this point I broke out into a cold sweat. I decided to approach the tree that he was perched in to at least check him out – since I had never been this close to a turkey I had no idea if this was the right choice. I walked right under him and he was magnificent. He continued to gobble and then abruptly stopped and hopped up to an even higher branch. Despite my obvious position I quickly realized that I don’t think he had seen me walking up previously and was now glaring down with a pissed off look in his eyes. I had no idea what to do now since I had let myself be lured in so close to him, I’m pretty sure he could have pull out a gun on me at that moment – I was completely transfixed at this amazing bird. I assumed he would hop the roost at any minute and that I had probably screwed up my chances to give him a spot to land near me. I knew it was about 10-minutes after shooting light and so I was in the clear to take him out. So I slowly backed up a bit and swung my gun up in preparation for the inevitable. In my five previous seasons I had never been so close to success and there was no way I was leaving without a bird today. Then suddenly he jumped of the branch in the direction of the river and I knew if I let him land he’d be 50-yards away on the other side from me, so I summoned up my dove hunting skills took him out on the wing. Now a dove compared to a turkey is like hitting a golf ball versus the side of a barn and so it was a pretty easy shot. As he began to drop to the ground he looked even bigger than before and I couldn’t believe what had just happened. Just a short time before I had been sitting in my car wondering why I had traded my precious sleep just to walk around in the woods and chase a ghostly bird, now I was just yards away from picking up my first turkey.
As I approached him I was taken by his coloring and beauty. “What a bird!” I said to myself and then let out a yell. I couldn’t believe that I had finally bagged my nemesis animal after so many years spent in the field. It was a huge bird as well with one distinct beard and two smaller ones growing out of his neck. I lifted him of the ground and was shocked at his weight, probably about 20 pounds or so, how the heck does this thing actually fly? I took a few pictures, sent a few emails and texts, and then packed up my bird and headed back to the car. I called my mom on the way out and we chatted for an hour about what had gone on. I don’t think I have ever felt as happy or relieved to have accomplished a long sought after goal, I just wished that one of the kids had joined me, especially Megan since she is the reason we started hunting turkey’s in the first place. When I reached the house it was just 7:30 AM and everyone was still fast asleep. I walked in the door and let out another yell to wake everyone up. I drug my bird in the house and showed him off to everyone like a proud parent, I was so stoked.
The best part about being with my family on his particular weekend was that I had a chance to share the bounty with everyone. I spent an hour preserving the fan, beard, and feet, then cleaned the rest of the bird of its feathers (or at least most of them). I then headed to town to buy everything I’d need to make Thanksgiving dinner on Palm Sunday. My friend Michael Malcosky suggested a brine made of salt, brown sugar, lemons, and oranges, and after a soaking him for several hours, I got the bird in the oven shortly before church. Once I got all of the potatoes and stuffing cooking I began to carve out my bird that had been cooking since mid-morning. I had no idea what a wild turkey would taste like but was pleasantly surprised that it had no gaminess at all – tasted like turkey. It was a blast to have had a chance to end this chapter out on the eastern plains and to have a chance to share it with our entire family as we hosted 9 for lunch that afternoon.
I do think that I’ll go for turkeys again but on the next go round I’m going to focus on a bow hunt and to try and figure out how and where setup so I can call one in. I am still in hopes that I can lure Megan back out for a few mornings of hunting, but at 13 her weekend rest has taken precedence over hunting in the cold with her dad. My only regret of the entire experience was that I didn’t pull my phone out to snap a picture or to even get a short video of all of his gobbling up on that roost – it was one of the most impressive sights I have witnessed in the field – but I don’t think I’ll soon forget him regardless. He had spent his entire life working to become the king of that hill and so I was glad to have seen him in his prime. I have his tail fan drying for a mount, and that special moment and his life will be remembered long after he would have expired naturally in the wild. He’ll be a constant reminder to me of the amazingly wild experiences that exist right at the edge of town. We only need to take the time to go out and participate in the adventure all around us – thank you Mr. Turkey, you’ll be enjoyed for years to come.