How would you kill this tom?

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hobbes

How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

Seems like someone was doing these in the past. If I remember correctly there was a good discussion that followed each, so I thought I'd post one myself since the actual turkey hunting talk should be picking up by now.

In this case we did kill this bird, but it wasn't because we did everything right to start with. I suspect there was more than one way to kill this tom. Here is the screen shot of where we ran into this tom and the scenerio is layed out below.

Kill this turkey!

Image

This is ponderosa pine breaks country and this is a Merriam's tom. This is our first day to hunt this country other than driving along the dirt road located south of the photo and running east/west the previous evening.

We got a response from this tom an hour or so after daylight. He responded to some loud yelping as we stood at a higher elevation almost a mile to the east/southeast (the blue arrow in the upper left points north). The terrain didn't allow for a good approach from that direction, so we drove around and hooked back in on the two track you can see crossing the levee of the reservoir. We parked at the red square, loaded our shotguns, and hoped we were in the right spot.

The red dashed line shows the path we took and the first two red circles show where I called from to try and get a response. I called from the top of the rise at the first red circle with no response. We followed an old road around the edge of the trees and I called again from the second circle with no response. At that point I was starting to question if we were in the right spot or not. We continued along and I called a third time from the end of the red dashes where I was just starting to see into the basin for an immediate response.

The tom sounded like he had gobbled from somewhere within the red circle uphill from us. The middle of the circle is approximately one quarter mile away.

The narrow yellow lines indicate the lower edge of the knobs that protrude into the grass field. They each rise up sharply toward the spine of the ridge that is indicated by the heavier yellow lines. Generally speaking, the terrain rises from west to east (left to right in the photo). The location of the reservoir's levee indicates the lay of the land also. The blue line running east and west is a 3 or 4 strand barbed wire fence.

How would you have tried to kill this tom?
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Hoobilly
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Hoobilly »

it would be easier for me if you told me how you killed it..

then of course I would say thats exactly how I wished I would have killed it lol

the halfway point from your parking spot to the gobble, is the fat part of the yellow line that drops down into the basin.. if I could, without being seen, would try and sneak to that point and set up
Don't start none, won't be none!

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crenshawco
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by crenshawco »

It's hard to say with the information given. Depends on where I could move without being seen. If I could get to the north patch of woods and circle around on the north side of him that's probably what I would have done.
hobbes

Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

Both good plans so far, but I know there has to be more guys with input than just two. Here is a screen shot from Google Earth that show the lay of the land a little better from a bird's eye view and more accuratly depicts where we were standing (yellow marker, I was a little off on first path) when the tom gobbled. Of course I didn't have either of the two views shown here, so I had to make some assumptions based off of what I could see from my position.

Image
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crenshawco
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by crenshawco »

I still stand by my first plan
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Hoobilly
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Hoobilly »

I want to change my plan... slither down the barb wire and shoot him when he is close but won't cross the fence to me.. isn't that how turkeys work? lol

I actually like my first plan with the different picture. if possible to get to that ridge overlooking the basin... be able to see the woods and to the pond/lake and be in the middle?
Don't start none, won't be none!

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hootn
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hootn »

Real dimple. Corn..... :angel4: :angel4:
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Hoobilly
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Hoobilly »

hootn wrote:Real dimple. Corn..... :angel4: :angel4:
Or a 26nosler?
:LMAO:
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HunterGKS
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by HunterGKS »

I'm surprised that Billie hasn't responded but I can tell you what he'd say:

CHUTE EM HOBBES!! CHUTE EM IN DA FACE!!!!
George

YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR BODY STILL. YOUR HEART JUST HASN'T CAUGHT ON.

.17 = NITRO OF THE RIMFIRE WORLD USAF 1969-1973


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appalachianassassin
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by appalachianassassin »

crenshawco wrote:I still stand by my first plan
exactly what I would have done.
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How would you kill this tom?

Post by turkey_slayer »

appalachianassassin wrote:
crenshawco wrote:I still stand by my first plan
exactly what I would have done.
Same here

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alpha burnt
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by alpha burnt »

How would you have tried to kill this tom?
Shoot him in the head. LOL> Is this one of those "which weighs more a pound of steel or a pound of feathers?"
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by GobbleNut »

As most of us that have hunted them much know, Merriam's will come a long ways to a call,...if they decide they want to. I agree that ultimately, if the gobbler did not start on his way immediately after he responded at the placemark, I too would have looped around the ridge out of sight to the north.

Before doing that, however, I would have eased up a bit closer to a spot above your placemark, set up, and called from there. You would probably pretty quickly know if he was going to come,...or not. The first time you called from your set-up, if he gobbled that would be a good clue that you might be in the game right where you are. If you called again, and he gobbled again closer to you,....it probably all over but the shootin'. He is going to come and that is that.

Now, if he did not respond at the first set-up (bad sign,...but unlikely) or did not start moving toward your calling within a few minutes, I would then have looped around to the north under the ridge and eased up close to the top without risking being seen, and called from there. If he is at all interested, he would very likely gobble back at that point. If he does, and is not too far away, I would set up right away in an appropriate spot, and try him again.

If he doesn't respond and start coming at either the first or second set-up, I would know that things are probably not going to be easy. To move again without having some sort of confirmation about where he is will be too risky. I would wait him out for a bit, then hit him with some real aggressive cutting/yelping to try to get him to gobble to let me know where he is at again. That is typically an effective method to get them to sound off,...even if they are not really interested in coming to investigate.

After that, it is a chess match. Move closer without being seen, try some different calling tactics, or change calls and hope for the best. If calling doesn't eventually work, in that kind of open country you can often find some way to ambush them, as well, if you are willing to resort to that tactic.

Much of whether this particular Merriam's gobbler will make it tough on you to kill him will be based on whether he is a truly wild, heavily-hunted, public-lands bird or not. If he is one of the private land, barnyard Merriam's that so many Easterners hunt such that the Merriam's gets the reputation of being easy to kill (which those most certainly are), it may not be much of a challenge.
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by alpha burnt »

Seriously though, if this is public, I would have hugged the fence, dropped into the valley of the lake and moved to within a few hundred yards in the pines, close to the ridge. Locator called to pinpoint and then make a set on the ridge between his position and the lake. Chances are he had been pressured and possibly called to before on the route you indicated?
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Treerooster »

Sounds like it is just getting to be a bit later in the morning when you start to move on this bird?

If I can get close to the water that's where I am going to go. As a general rule, and IME, Merriam's water between 8 and 10 in the morning.
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crenshawco
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by crenshawco »

So how did you kill him hobbes?
hobbes

Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

Just got home from work. I'll post it up before too long
hobbes

Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

I'm an engineer, so I have to push myself to not over analyze the situation while I'm hunting, so if this is too much detail.........forgive me. In addition to that, I can practically relive my hunts every time I tell a story, so I can get wrapped up in them. My buddy at work accuses me of telling hunting stories in real time. :oops:

This is public land. However, this is so crazy remote that we only knew of two other hunters anywhere near us and they had not hunted this bird to our knowledge. The birds here are spread very thin over a huge expanse, so if you find one.........don't quit trying to kill him.

First..... I hunted him pretty much exactly like Gobblenut suggested. Merriam's will travel crazy distances, so unless there is a crazy obstacle between us, I check their temp for a few moments to see how bad they want to play. Also, I was locating with loud yelping and cutting and this was the third time I'd called in 10 minutes or so. I thougth there was a good chance he was already on his way. This was also the first time I'd stepped foot on this place and I did not have the birds eye view of it, so until I peeked around the knob ahead of me, I didn't even know what it looked like. Even after the hunt I couldn't fully appreciate the lay of the land until I got on Google Earth when I got back home. It really demonstrates the importance of knowing your hunting area.

Second...........when I peeked around the knob with the two X's by the #1 I wanted to make it to where hoobilly suggested, but I wasn't certain where he was. I thought he may already be in the open at the top of the basin or on the top of the ridge in the open ponderosa and he'd see me as soon as I set foot around the knob and into the open.

Third........we ended up killing him by doing what crenshawco suggested, but not until after I'd called him just to the edge of shooting range where we started at #1. I sat back around the end of the knob and the shooter at the end with the plan that the tom would come down through the basin and have to come past the end of the knob to see where the hen was yelping.

The hunt..........When he gobbled we waisted not time moving forward and setting up at the first two X's with me in back calling. My buddy is just ahead and to the left 15 to 20 yards just outside of the frame of the first photo. The tom would respond just about every time I called and he didn't waste too much time beginning to move beginning at the T and following the white dashed line. Once he started moving I realized he was likely across the fence and that could be a problem. He moved to the white circle which is inside the timber just behind the tree my gun is pointing at in photo 1 and strutted back and forth gobbling at everything I did but not wanting to walk into the open.

Image

He finally moved down toward the fence after 20 minutes or so, but stayed hung up there and wandered back and forth between there and the white circle for another 10 minutes or so. I decided to stop calling to him. After 5 minutes or so he started gobbling on his own and began to sound closer. We finally spotted him on our side of the fence slowly working his way across the field going back and forth between walking, strutting, and half strutt. He worked towards us between the two patches of trees you can see just a hair right of my barrel following the white line in the aerial.

Once he got to about 80 yards or so he slowed considerably just walking and really looking to see where the hen was. I knew it was looking sketchy at best. He made it to about 60 to 65 yards from me which put him 45 to 50 yards from the shooter and he stood there for a few moments started looking nervous, clucked a few times and started heading up the basin toward where he started. I was glad my buddy didn't take the shot because he was shooting my 3" 870 with #5 lead and I knew what the outcome would likely be.

My buddy thought it was over, but as soon as the tom made it far enough (first white dot) that I thought we could drop back behind the knob.......I said lets go. My buddy wasn't sure what I was talking about so I explained as I dragged him up hill and to the back side of the ridge. By now I had been able to look at the terrain enough that I understood that we could drop behind the ridge and run to try and get ahead of him at the top and call him into a place that he was obviously already comfortable in. We followed the red dashed line as fast as we could go huffing and puffing the whole way.

At the first red dot along that line I called to check him. He gobbled immediately from about the second white dot and fartherst to the east. We rushed forward toward the top which makes somewhat of a saddle between the two ends of the yellow lines. I sat down and urged him to run foward 25 yards and hurry up and sit down. He went a lot farther than I intended, more like 50 yards, and disappeared around some smaller trees. When he disappeared, I yelped and the tom gobbled not more than 50 yards from where I'd last seen my buddy. I waited a minute or two and yelped again and got nothing. I really thought my buddy had bumped the tom. I called again and got nothing. Then a few moments later..........BOOM!

I hopped to my feet and could immediately hear the bird flopping. He killed the tom at the white X with the red circle around it.

We may have killed him immediately if we'd made crenshawco's or hoobilly's moves to start with, but neither of us were complaining.

This is looking up and west at the saddle near where the tom was killed
Image

I posted some of this along with a photo a few years ago (2013) without quite as many details.

Image

Not too far from where we first called him (almost) in.
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Back at the truck.
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Hoobilly
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Hoobilly »

Awesome... you can text me or crenshaw on your next hunt... just send us google earth pictures of where you are and where the tom gobbles.. we will be sure to trip you up and come hunt there later as we will know where to go lol

Lord willing I will get to hunt out west one of these days!
Don't start none, won't be none!

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hobbes

Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

I'd have needed a satelite phone on that hunt because there wasn't a single bar of signal. If I got on top of a hill about 2 miles from there I could get just enough signal to get a text out occasionally.

I should have drawn the white dashed line straight between the T and the circle instead of the arc, becasue I do recall wondering that whole time which side of the fence he was on.

hoobilly, a good Merriam's hunt in either the ponderoso hills and breaks or in the mountains is the way to go. There is nothing wrong with a riverbottom bird (that was my first Merriam's), but big rough country just seems more natural for a Merriam's hunt.
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GobbleNut
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by GobbleNut »

Great read, Hobbes. Thanks for putting this scenario together,...I could picture the whole encounter in my mind as you explained it.
Hindsight, as they say, is always twenty-twenty, but I think you might have killed him at the first location had you stayed positioned where he would have had to come into range before he could see where the hen (you) were calling from,...or if you had stuck a decoy there somewhere where he could see it. Even Merriam's are smart enough to realize that something is wrong when they hear a hen calling out in the wide open but can't eventually see her. :D
...I wish I could say I have not done the exact same thing a few times myself, though.
hobbes

Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by hobbes »

I think you are right Gobblenut. I had assumed that he'd come from the left and wouldn't be able to see where the hen should be until he was well within range of the shooter which is why I sat around that side of the knob. However, he had a different idea and came in from straight ahead. Once he started across the field, I shut up and didn't say a word for that very reason. Like you said, even a "dumb" Merriam's knew there should be a hen standing there.

I can't wait to get after them again...........come on April 9th.
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crenshawco
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by crenshawco »

Thanks to take the time to do that hobbes. That was a fun little exercise to get the turkey mind going. Beautiful spot and bird too
Last edited by crenshawco on March 11th, 2016, 8:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How would you kill this tom?

Post by Bustinbeards »

Great hunt. Thanks for the hunting what would you do scenario
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