Part 2

If your following my blog than you read part one of my turkey season in Wyoming. The next weekend of my turkey season was maybe going to be my last shot at filling my tag. I had a vacation planned smack dab in the middle of my season. I would be going to Jamaica for a week and left me no time to come home and get a bird. This weekend was all or nothing.

I was able to get out of work early Friday so on my lunch break I went home and packed my truck to stay there the whole weekend. It was a warm sunny spring afternoon when I got to the same spot I hunted the weekend before. I set up my decoys out in front my blind and waited about thirty minutes and started calling. No turkeys, but did I ever get the pheasants going crazy. Over the next three hours of hunting I must have seen over 50 different cock pheasants in front of my blind. I know where I will be pheasant hunting this fall! It was past shooting hours so I decided to pack up and call it a night. I never even heard the birds roost that night, not wanting to spook anything on my way back to camp I walked down a deer trail to the main road and headed to camp.

The next morning I was wide awake before sunlight. Hunting out west is very different than in the Midwest. We have mountains out here so even though the sun is not up it’s bright before it peaks the mountain tops. I put on my winter hunting cloths.. YES I said winter cloths. It was in the low 30’s when I got up. So dressed to go deer hunting, not turkey hunting I headed to the same spot I hunted the night before. I set up my decoys and sat in my blind waiting for shooting hours. I never heard a bird that morning. I used every type of call that I had with me. Mouth calls, box call, slate, locater calls, I even tried a gobble tube call. NOTHING! The first thing that came to my mind was that coyote is in the area. I sat there for about an hour not making a call, I remembered something I heard from a guy at a turkey seminar I went to a few years ago in Michigan. He was talking about hunting birds out west and he told us that the birds out west love box calls because the sound travels long distance. He also said slam your box call, make the loudest, craziest call you could ever think about calling. It was starting to get warm as the sun started to get to mid morning height, so I started to strip off layers. With nothing to lose I decide to break out my box call and let a nasty call yelp go. I didn’t even have enough time set down my call and these two gobblers fired off so close I thought they were inside my blind. I pulled up my gun and go ready. These two birds were close I could hear them spitting and thumping there chests. I decided to hit the box call one more time loud and crazy. They thundered off with everything they had, they were coming and coming quick. I heard them come through the trees and gobble one last time in the bush that was less than 20 yards from me. I saw them fanned out and strutting there way towards me. I gave them a soft cluck on my mouth call and gobbles rang out! Finally I see red heads waiting for them to clear some sage brush I was able to see the ones beard. I looked at this bird down the end of my barrel gave him one more cluck, Gobble BANG! He dropped right there. I racked a shell into my gun set the safety and flipped my pop up blind into the air. I was so excited and happy to get my first bird in Wyoming, well so I thought. As soon as I got out of my blind that bird got up and took off across the field. I was stunned .I fired one more time and rolled him. I racked another shell into my gun and slowly headed towards him. I got up to him and he was dead with that shot. I paced off the distance of both shots. The first one was 30 yards from my blind shooting 3 ½ mag. #6 shot that bird should have been done from that shot. The second shot was 60 yards from where he laid. I was amazed in that shot, but I think it was nerves that made him run like that. Reason I think that is they was a hole the size of my fist in his neck when I picked him up.

My first bird in Wyoming was a 2 year old Rio with about a 6 inch beard. No spurs just some nubs it didn’t surprise me that he didn’t have spurs because of the mountain terrain that they live in the spurs tend to break off or wear down to nothing. This bird was about 17lbs.
I was excited to kill my first bird in Wyoming and my second for my quest for my grand slam. I have a Merriam and the Osceola to complete my grand slam. Wish me luck I hope to finish spring of 2011.

Thank you for taking the time to read my turkey hunting experience in Wyoming. If you have any questions or comments feel free to post or email me. If you really like reading my blog and care to join click on the follow my blog to the left. Thanks again and check back soon for my next outdoor adventure.