Tough Washington turkeys

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After a successful Rio hunt in Oregon I was looking forward to getting back over to Eastern Washington to hunt Merriam’s turkeys in May with Joe from Double Barrel Ranch again.  We loaded up the new trailer on the 5th and did the long drive across the state and set up camp in Riverside State Park along the Spokane River.   The plan was to hunt one and a half days, if needed, then drive back home while Catherine did some foraging in the park.  The campground and park were amazing, probably the best state park we’ve visited and we will be back.  Tons of trail, an amazing stretch of the Spokane River and a nice quiet campground made for a great spot.

The turkeys had different plans. Monday morning I was up at 3 am and heading into Cheney to meet with Joe, the Birdman.  We headed out to a ranch not far out of town and walked in while it was still pretty dark.  After getting in the blind the waiting began and so did the gobbling in the trees up on the ridge.  I had my hopes up, there were quite a few gobblers up there and I was anticipating getting one in early.   After the  birds flew down we could hear hens and gobblers in the woods but they started moving in the wrong direction and then stopped talking altogether.   No one came in to our calls and so after a few hours we moved overt to the other side of the ranch in hopes that they had moved in that direction.   We did see a few hens in the field below us but even they didn’t stick around or head our direction then quickly ran off.

On the other side I had hopes, I’d gotten a turkey here last year and pretty quickly we called in a hen that went up and began fighting with the decoy.   I was watching the area the hen came in  from and suddenly two mule deer bucks came in and were milling around with the hen.  The deer would go up and sniff the decoy and jump back but didn’t spook off totally.  We watched the hen and buck show for quite a while and kept hearing one lone gobble far off.  The gobbler started moving towards us and got about 100 yards out but then turned and started zig-zagging around in the woods at 100 yards.  Finally we heard him moving off to our right and never heard from him again.   We waited another hour or so after the gobbling stopped and then decided to move on.

We moved to another ranch west of town and on starting to walk in spooked a herd of elk which went stampeding through the  field, not too conducive to turkey hunting.   We got set up anyway and then had a coyote move in.  Come on.  We tried calling but heard nothing at all and finally gave up for the day.  I headed back to camp to go on a hike with Catherine and Lira while Joe went to scout out a spot on the other side of that first ridge to set up in the morning, of course two Toms were there when he showed up, argh.

The next morning we set up against some rocks and brush on the other side of the ridge while dark.  Soon gobbling started but it was directly in back and in front of us.   As dawn progressed we could see turkeys in the trees pretty much looking at us.  We’d been busted on the setup.  It was fun watching turkeys gobble in the trees and watching them fly down but once they hit the ground they scattered away from us.  We gave it a good try but got nothing to respond or come our way.

We hit the blind again where we had seen the hen the day before, nothing at all today.  No gobbling, no hen, no deer, not even many songbirds.   We finally packed up and headed to the other ranch.  We got deeper in to a nice blind there and it was pretty much the 9th inning by now, I had an hour or so left to hunt so I could get back and get the trailer out of the campground.  We called and pretty quickly a turkey appeared about 500 yards away moving our way.   Once the bird got to about 100 yards it was clearly on a mission to get whacked and I got ready.  The bird was moving fast through the field and when it got close I glassed it and saw no beard.  I told Joe it was a hen and he was “no way” until he pulled out his binos and sure enough it was a hen doing her best gobbler impression.   She came in and ate a bit then moved on, never bringing in a gobbler with her.

So two days of hunting and we never saw a Tom or even a Jake on the ground.  Joe said he could get me in on the 22nd but I’ll be in LA then so it looked like my season was over. We headed back home and I was figuring out Plan B to go over on my own.  Joe called me up a few days later and had a cancellation on the 13th and 14th so I decided to do the drive again and hope that the turkeys were a bit more cooperative.

I took off on Sunday afternoon and arrived in Cheney around 4 pm and almost hit a turkey on the 904 while driving in.  At least they were out and about, a good sign.   I debated hitting some public land that afternoon but was hungry and tired and knew I needed to be up by 3 am so decided against it.   The next morning we headed off to a ranch I’d hunted last year and got set up in the dark.   There were birds gobbling shortly after we settled in and started calling a couple of hens came in from our right.  A few minutes later a few more hens joined and now we had four hens pecking around in front of us.  We kept an eye on the lane to the right for the gobblers to appear when I looked over at the hens who had moved to the left and noticed there were six birds, not four.  Then one went into strut and I whispered “gobbler”.  Joe was looking around and I pointed, just then another bird went into strut.  I had to wait since they were all bunched up but the big Tom finally stepped out in front, I shot and he dropped like a brick, never even flopped.   I tried to acquire the second Tom but tails were down and I couldn’t quickly tell which was which before they started to run.   A nice two year old Tom on the ground, good way to start the trip.

The rest of the day was tough.  We heard nothing and saw nothing.  As it warmed up we decided to call it around noon and hope that the morning would give us a repeat of activity.  We saw one nice gobbler by the side of the road but on property we couldn’t access.  I decided to strike out on my own in the afternoon and hunted a slice of public land from 2-5:30, working basically the whole section of land.  I managed to elicit a few distant gobbles way back in there but never got the bird to move or gobble again.  There was a lot of old turkey sign but nothing fresh, definitely elk and deer sign though so maybe a good place to go in the fall.

The next morning we met at the I-90/904 interchange at 3:45 am and headed back into the blind where we had called in that hen from 500 yards the week before.  This time as dawn approached we had gobbling all over the ridge across from us as well as some gobbles off to one side.  As it got light birds started to fly down but we didn’t see anything.   Glassing the hillside finally a bird appeared, then two, then more.   There was a group of hens wandering around and then a group of five nice gobblers started strutting on a bare ledge.  More birds were flying down and we started calling.   Within a few minutes a group of hens started down the hill but the gobblers stayed put with the other hens.   Hens got down the hill and started paralleling the marsh and finally started coming our way.  There were a few Jakes in back of them.   Gobblers were still up on the hill.  By the time the hens got to us the Jakes were at the marsh and three gobblers started down.   The Jakes arrived and I held off in hopes of a mature bird.  The gobblers marched around the marsh and up the hill.  I waited until they stopped and fired at the lead bird.  The bird went down and got up and took off for the marsh.  We ran out of the blind, I grabbed a few more shells on the way, and took chase.  The bird hit the marsh and crossed but never came out the other side so we waded in.  The water was cold and deeper than I thought, at mid-point we were thigh deep in it.   We found the bird at the edge of the marsh flattened out and he got up and tried to run. I fired a few shots and missed totally at close range, I was a bit flustered at this point.  Finally the bird got behind a tree and sat down but had his head sticking up and out, I fired and subdued him finally.   Another two year old Tom, soaking wet.

Amazingly I somehow broke the birds one leg on the first shot but there were zero pellets in the leg or breast, I have no idea how the gun could have been so off.  I understand missing at very close range on a running bird, my pattern is the size of a tennis ball at 16 yards so at 10′ was probably the size of a half dollar still.   Tagged out at 5:25 am, turkey season had come to a close.

This was the first year I used my new Benelli Super Black Eagle 3 12-gauge with a Burris FastFire3 red dot.  Previously I’d used my 20-gauge and did well but had missed a few birds so hoped the red dot would help.   I choked the gun with a Carlson turkey choke and was using Federal Premium 3rd Degree shells.  I patterned the gun and it seemed right on but I did have a near miss in OR and a total miss here so I’m not so sure it is set up properly yet.  The one bird dropped hard and the second shot in OR and on the second bird connected totally.   I need to play with this thing in the off-season and get it 100% before fall turkey season.

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