Seeking Advice for a Backpack Turkey Hunt (NM)

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Dec 29, 2020
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I am currently planning a backpack hunt for mountain turkeys in New Mexico (spring), and was hoping for a few pointers from someone that has been there and done that. I am a fairly experienced backpacker, but this will be my first backcountry hunt, as well as my first hunt for turkey. I am going with a buddy who is in a similar situation, currently looking at 3-5 days away from the truck. I have read every post on the subject I could find on Rokslide, if anyone has the time for a few of these more specific questions I have, I would really appreciate it.

1. Locating birds - I know there are no hard and fast rules, but what elevations should we be crusing in late April and early May? I'm curious about the higher ranges of the Gila National (7-8K), but should we be looking lower? I've read a lot about following the snowline, but don't know how vital that is. If you have a recommended locator call, I would love to hear about that as well.

2. Calls + Decoys - both me and my buddy have little experience calling, and want to cut as much weight as possible, given that we are hiking in. What calls would you recommend we take given these handicaps, and is a decoy worth the weight?

3. What am I forgetting? My pack list currently basically looks like my shoulder season backpacking list, except that I have added my shotgun, ammo, and a gun cleaning kit. I have a lightweight tarp that I was thinking of using as a portable blind. If you have gone on this adventure and have any must-brings I should add, I am open to any suggestions. That goes for tactics and anything else I missed as well, of course.

Thanks a lot in advance, this forum has been an awesome resource for a newbie western hunter.
 
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1) Those elevations sounds about right. There could also be birds higher or lower but I'd say you will be in the zone. If there are good numbers of mature Ponderosa pines around you are probably in a good area.

2) I'm not am expert here but I would bring a good box call at a minimum. I have inflatable decoys that are lightweight and very packable but for saving pack space you probably don't need decoys for unpressured Turkeys.

3) Since you won't be packing out big game you should be ok with typical backpacking gear for that time of year. Cold nights and mild days I would guess, but watch the forecast for spring storms prior to the trip of course. Sounds like fun good luck!
 
OP
S
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1) Those elevations sounds about right. There could also be birds higher or lower but I'd say you will be in the zone. If there are good numbers of mature Ponderosa pines around you are probably in a good area.

2) I'm not am expert here but I would bring a good box call at a minimum. I have inflatable decoys that are lightweight and very packable but for saving pack space you probably don't need decoys for unpressured Turkeys.

3) Since you won't be packing out big game you should be ok with typical backpacking gear for that time of year. Cold nights and mild days I would guess, but watch the forecast for spring storms prior to the trip of course. Sounds like fun good luck!
Inflatable decoys didn't even cross my mind, that's definitely going on the list. Thanks!
 

hobbes

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I'd get some experience hunting turkeys before I did a backpack hunt for them in NM. Do you live in NM? If so, then that's different.

I wouldn't venture far above the snowline but there will be birds below it. They like the fresh green grasses that are coming up right below snowline. There is nothing to eat above.

Merriam's, especially mountain birds, can require covering a lot of ground to locate. I call a lot to locate and to kill them. Merriam's are somewhat nomadic, especially in the mountains, and often cover a lot of ground.

Start practicing calls now. A box call is the easiest to learn. I primarily use diaphragm (mouth) calls, but some folks just flat out suck at using them. Find some good video instruction on calling. There are some terrible guys out there giving instruction so do your homework. Don't be surprised if the guys giving you the lessons have a southern or Midwestern accent. Turkey hunting has been a tradition there for decades (more so farther south) so they know how to kill turkeys, period. That doesn't mean there aren't some knowledgeable guys in the West because there darn sure are. Besides, I live in MT :) I'm just not from here. Two suggestions are Joe Slaton with Motherlode Calls (California)for some good calling instruction and Dave Owens with the Pinhoti Project (Georgia). Dave records hunts all across the nation each year. Another good one is Shane Simpson

The first thing that I would lose from your list is the blinds and decoys. They aren't necessary.
 
OP
S
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Dec 29, 2020
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I'd get some experience hunting turkeys before I did a backpack hunt for them in NM. Do you live in NM? If so, then that's different.

I wouldn't venture far above the snowline but there will be birds below it. They like the fresh green grasses that are coming up right below snowline. There is nothing to eat above.

I really appreciate the detailed reply, and will take all that to heart. I most likely will not get a chance at a second turkey hunt this upcoming spring, but I'll start with the calling practice immediately. If I'm understanding you correctly, walking+calling is better than sitting in one place with a decoy for Merriam's? Do you use the diaphragm as a locator as well? TIA
 

Austink47

WKR
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Dec 1, 2018
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Turkey is the perfect first backpack hunt. Here are some random lessons I have learned.
Personally 90% of my calling is done with a diaphragm call, it is very advantageous to be able to call hands free.
Take some kind of locator call, crow, peacock, elk. Something sharp and loud. There are times they will shock gobble but not respond to turkey calls.
cover ground and call mid day. You will hear lots of gobbles at first light, but the birds that gobble from 10-2 are very killable.
decoys work but are not at all essential, certainly don’t get busted setting up decoys if you have a bird coming to calls. I personally don’t carry them.
As others have said mature well spaced preferably recently burned ponderosa areas are gold. Most of the birds I have killed I am sitting at the base of a big fat Ponderosa.
Good luck and have fun.
 

hobbes

WKR
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I really appreciate the detailed reply, and will take all that to heart. I most likely will not get a chance at a second turkey hunt this upcoming spring, but I'll start with the calling practice immediately. If I'm understanding you correctly, walking+calling is better than sitting in one place with a decoy for Merriam's? Do you use the diaphragm as a locator as well? TIA
In my experience, walk and call untill you find a bird that responds. Sit down and call him in afterwards.

I'll use coyote howler and owl call early morning and late evening, but I do 99% of my locating with a mouth call once they are on the ground.
 
Joined
Aug 12, 2020
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New Mexico
Swamp - There are a lot of burn scars in the Gila that are worth checking out, like mentioned above. Spend some time on OnX to find burns and water since there is typically not much snow left in April. Don't get too focused on higher elevation stuff, they can be down lower in draws and riparian areas as well. As others also said I'd ditch the blind, unless you're going to use it to sleep under. Welcome to NM amigo.
 
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Feb 23, 2021
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Just saw this reply, I appreciate the input. I'll be ditching the tarp and following the water.

How did your hunt go? Me and a buddy are planning on backpacking into 16B near Mogollon this year for gobblers. I will definitely bring my fly rod as I’ve read there’s some decent trout fishing in those tributaries down there.


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dtrkyman

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Oct 2, 2014
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Start your scouting near water, and work out from there. A coyote howler is your friend. As stated not much of a snow line down there, however hunting close to the last elevations that had snow should have some fresh green for the birds!
 
OP
S
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How did your hunt go? Me and a buddy are planning on backpacking into 16B near Mogollon this year for gobblers. I will definitely bring my fly rod as I’ve read there’s some decent trout fishing in those tributaries down there.


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Didn't see your reply till just now - this hunt hasn't happened yet, looking at late April of this year. I will be sure to put up a detailed report here as soon as I'm back, though, and would like to hear about yours as well. Crossing my fingers that COVID doesn't throw a wrench in my plans.
 
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Didn't see your reply till just now - this hunt hasn't happened yet, looking at late April of this year. I will be sure to put up a detailed report here as soon as I'm back, though, and would like to hear about yours as well. Crossing my fingers that COVID doesn't throw a wrench in my plans.

Yea I figured I originally read the date wrong... Our plan as of now is to go about 6 miles in. Good luck!


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OP
S
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I wanted to post quick update to this thread, to avoid being one of those jackasses that asks a billion questions for a hunt, only to drop off the face of the earth without reporting back on the results.
Unfortunately, I am staying overseas for work for the next few months and I will miss this year's turkey season. COVID restrictions are making it impossible for me to come back to the states this spring, I guess the turkeys got lucky this year.
I feel double prepared for next year through everyone's help, though, and will report back as soon as it happens. If I don't draw for muleys this year, I'll most likely be back asking for fall turkey tactics here...and if I do draw, I'll be asking about muleys =)
I really appreciate everyone's time and how helpful this community is.
 
OP
S
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I got to make this hunt happen this year, and wanted to update this thread accordingly.

Because I ended up in Northern NM for work during the season opening, I backpacked into the Pecos Wilderness instead of the Gila as originally planned. I did spend a few days in March scouting around the Gila, but was only able to find a single track over the span of 3 days. I climbed around and hit the crow call a lot, but neither saw nor heard any birds in that area.

As for the actual hunt, I got into the Pecos area around 10AM on opening day. Access was really limited because of seasonal closures, and I ran into quite a lot of other hunters on the few NF roads that were actually open. A were on their way out already, and told me they hadn't seen anything. I didn't let that deter me too much, though, since I planned on getting away from the roads anyway.

I wasn't more than 200 yards from my truck when I ran into a major problem: I couldn't open OnX. I've used the app without issues for 2 years now, and I'm careful about downloading way more of an area than I could ever need in advance. For some reason, the second I started on my first multi-day backpack hunt, the app refused to open. I walked back to the trailhead and took a picture of the (very general) map on the info signs and from there on out, I navigated by that picture and a compass.

I climbed up to around 11,000 ft without seeing or hearing anything. I stopped periodically to call and listen, but no results. I did see and hear a lot of hooting grouse, though, so that was cool. I got up to a large exposed meadow with the plan of calling and glassing from there, but the winds made the former impossible and the latter uncomfortable. It was close to dusk by the time I found the seep by which I wanted to camp. I set up my tent, rested for a little bit, and then spent an hour creeping around the little meadows up there. I was hemmed in by deadfall in three out of four directions, so I didn't see a lot of the area. There was still a lot of snow on the ground, I'd guess the overnight lows were somewhere in the 20s.

Because of the deadfall, there was nowhere for me to go but back down the mountain. I wanted to get around this big patch of dead timber somehow, but without OnX or some kind of detailed map, I wasn't sure of my ability to do so. I didn't want to risk getting so far into the weeds that I couldn't backtrack. I hiked back to the truck, calling, stopping and glassing all the way back again. At this point I think I made the biggest mistake of the hunt. I easily could have gotten into a different area via an adjoining trail to a promising area, but instead chose to switch to another trailhead a few miles away. I had been in this second area just 6 months before and knew that it was unlikely to hold birds, but I felt better going somewhere I had been under the circumstances.
Also, the way to what would have been the more productive area were still snowed in, a perfect setup for my second major mistake: not taking gaiters. I had sent back a pair of OR Helium just the week before because they were too flimsy, and as a result I didn't bring any at all. Really stupid, because I spent a ton of time navigating around big snowdrifts to keep my feet dry instead of just stomping through.

As you can probably guess, there were no turkeys in the area that I had suspected of holding no turkeys, and the next 24 hours were fairly uneventful.
Although I was set up to go in for up to 5 days, I ended up pulling the plug on the morning of day 3. With most of the area closed and OnX still not working, the prospect of finding a third area to get into just seemed too remote, and I had frankly lost a lot of confidence at this point.

Despite the setbacks and not catching as much as the whiff of a Merriam's, I still had a lot of fun of the Type 2 category, and came away with a lot of lessons. I'll definitely be taking gaiters from here on out, as well as a small laminated map of a hunt area as a backup to my phone. These two items could have drastically increased my mileage on this foray. Additionally, the shotgun, camp shoes and closed foam mats I took made my pack too bulky, which made me less agile than I could have been in the timber and deadfall.
The main lesson for me was definitely in the psychology department. There was a point where I began finding justifications to bail out rather than finding solutions to my problems. I could have rigged up a pair of gaiters from trash bags and ductape, I could have driven the couple of hours to re-install OnX (that ended up fixing it), I could have driven to the other end of the Pecos and tried my luck there. I didn't do any of those things because I ran into issues that I didn't expect to deal with, and I'd like to do better next time...and you know, maybe see a turkey as well. I'll be sticking with turkey and other small-ish game until I feel I have a handle on this, don't see that working out well on a solo elk hunt or something.

Don't know who'll read this long-winded post, but I wanted to contribute to the Rokslide hive mind and share my experiences with y'all. Thanks again to everyone who gave me advice for this hunt, I'll be back at it soon.
 

dtrkyman

WKR
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Oct 2, 2014
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Thanks for the update, I hunted the Pecos opening day after seeing a strutter scouting the day before season up there.

The opener was a mix of wind and a crazy amount of hunters!

I left for greener pastures in a different part of the state.
 
OP
S
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Dec 29, 2020
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Thanks for the update, I hunted the Pecos opening day after seeing a strutter scouting the day before season up there.

The opener was a mix of wind and a crazy amount of hunters!

I left for greener pastures in a different part of the state.
That wind was no joke!
 
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