Came Back From My 2009 Spring Hunt On Saturday

Another spring turkey hunt has gone by for me. Yet again I have come back empty handed. It really is a wonder that anyone ever pulls out a Merriam's from public land in New Mexico. The weather was pretty tough this year, but that worked out in my advantage one morning. Usually we get up at about 4:30 in the morning make coffee and head out. If the place is within a few miles that gets us in our set up about 15 minutes before the sky starts to light up from the twilight. Thursday night was really cold. A guy I talked to said the temperature was about 12 degrees. I was cold inside my sleeping bag. I talked to my dad at 4:30 and he wasn't going to get up so I didn't get up either. At 5:15am I heard a turkey gobbling in his tree about a quarter mile from our tent. It was enough to stir me out of the bag. My dad made up his mind already and stayed in his sleeping bag. I worked my way up to about 300 yds of where the turkey was gobbling, but didn't want to get in closer because the lay of the land may have tipped the bird off. I sat and listened to him gobble over and over from his roost. At one point a truck drove slowly up the logging road about halfway down into the canyon. I could tell by the way they were driving that they were listening for birds. They drove back to were the road ended and turned around and drove back. That took them about a 20 minutes to drive the road and neither me nor the turkey made a peep the whole time. The very second that I couldn't hear the engine from that truck in the distance, the turkey started gobbling again (haha). Unfortunately the turkey when he came out of his roost went directly away from my set up. I gave it an hour or so before heading back to get coffee. Just as I was about to head down the hill I heard a hen yelping. I wasn't sure if it was a real hen or my dad down the hill. I yelped back for fun thinking it may be my dad and a gobbler hammered back at me about 100 yds. to the east. I worked my way to a good set up and tried to close the distance between me and the gobbler. I was in a great position but could tell by the gobbles that the bird was hung up. After waiting impatiently for a short time I moved a little closer to where the bird was gobbling and spotted the problem. A cow was standing around munching grass nearby and while I don't think that turkeys are particularly scared of cows I don't think they like to get too close either. To make a long story short, I moved around several times trying to get the turkey to come in closer and ended up seeing the turkey run away into the woods as fast as it's little legs would carry it. Lesson learned: Repositioning is very risky. You better have a good reason for moving and a conservative plan should be in place to minimize the chance of being busted.

(I started this post right after turkey season. Went ahead and finished it up today for posting.