I've copied and pasted the following that I posted on a turkey hunting forum earlier this week:
I did not hunt on the opener because it was snowing sideways. The sun came out yesterday (Easter Sunday), so I pulled all my stuff together after watching our church service online. I hunted a couple areas with snow, then hit some lower areas on my way home where the snow had mostly melted.
I stopped at a spot where I've hunted before to send out a few yelps "just in case". I heard a bird gobble while I stood there before I made the first sound. I grabbed my gear, pulled an extra fleece shirt on, and took off up the mountain. I stopped twice on the way up to check him. He gobbled but sounded like he'd moved over the crest a long way. I continued my hike up out of the blowdowns and onto somewhat of a bench. The Tom sounded 300 yards or so but cut the distance in half pretty quick. I stayed on him fairly regular with the call. At one point I shut up for maybe a minute or so then when he gobbled again he was 75 yards. I spotted him at 40 or 50 yards through the trees strutting and drumming. He moved behind some stuff and I was concerned that he was going too far left so I yelped again and he gobbled at about 40 yards then strutted in left to right for an 18 yard shot
I've included an unedited 9 minute video of when I'd finally made it far enough up the mountain to set up. You can here my fat out of shape butt still trying to catch my breath. The bird shows up far left under the dead limbs after my final move of the camera at the 5:20 mark. I could not zoom in filming on my own. I'm a video rookie, so lots of room for improvement.
Looking back while on my way up to the bird.
This bird doesn't look like a Merriam's. I typically argue about the range of color for a Merriam's, but I'm pretty sure someone has introduced Rios to this area. There are just too many birds right around here that look like Rios. Farther south in this mountain range and they look like Merriam's.
I did not hunt on the opener because it was snowing sideways. The sun came out yesterday (Easter Sunday), so I pulled all my stuff together after watching our church service online. I hunted a couple areas with snow, then hit some lower areas on my way home where the snow had mostly melted.
I stopped at a spot where I've hunted before to send out a few yelps "just in case". I heard a bird gobble while I stood there before I made the first sound. I grabbed my gear, pulled an extra fleece shirt on, and took off up the mountain. I stopped twice on the way up to check him. He gobbled but sounded like he'd moved over the crest a long way. I continued my hike up out of the blowdowns and onto somewhat of a bench. The Tom sounded 300 yards or so but cut the distance in half pretty quick. I stayed on him fairly regular with the call. At one point I shut up for maybe a minute or so then when he gobbled again he was 75 yards. I spotted him at 40 or 50 yards through the trees strutting and drumming. He moved behind some stuff and I was concerned that he was going too far left so I yelped again and he gobbled at about 40 yards then strutted in left to right for an 18 yard shot
I've included an unedited 9 minute video of when I'd finally made it far enough up the mountain to set up. You can here my fat out of shape butt still trying to catch my breath. The bird shows up far left under the dead limbs after my final move of the camera at the 5:20 mark. I could not zoom in filming on my own. I'm a video rookie, so lots of room for improvement.
Looking back while on my way up to the bird.
This bird doesn't look like a Merriam's. I typically argue about the range of color for a Merriam's, but I'm pretty sure someone has introduced Rios to this area. There are just too many birds right around here that look like Rios. Farther south in this mountain range and they look like Merriam's.
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