JFT Turkey Tour 2022

[Lee230]

Glad to see all the success a lot of folks are having, congrats to all so far!

[eradicator]

There’s been some success here lately. Congrats to everyone!

Just now getting back in Texas from the New Mexico opener. We had to call a last minute audible and head to a different area of the state than we had originally planned. At 6 am we found ourselves on the rim of the canyon. I let out one little soft put, and immediately got cut off by a gobbler. We set up about 175 yards from him. He was yodeling at anything that would make any noise. Once he flew down, he went dead silent. It was 15 minutes later, when I heard the unmistakable drum about 60 yards out. It took him a while to close the gap, but he put on one hell of a show. Finally at 12 yards, JoAnn could hardly breathe from the adrenaline so I called the shot. The .410 smacked him in the lips and she had her first turkey ever. A public land OTC Merriams!





It was a long hot rest of the day. Finally at about 6 pm I got another bird fired up. He was a good ways up the mountain. I figured we’d listen to him go to roost and we’d come up with a game plan to get to him in the morning. About 5 minutes later he gobbled 50 yards out. He was coming quick! I let him get 15 yards and let him have it. A very exciting opening day!


Saturday and this morning consisted of running into tons of people. It’s kind of frustrating, but part of that type of hunting. Regardless, Friday made it all worth it.

Was audible due to the fires?

[ClayW]

There’s been some success here lately. Congrats to everyone!

Just now getting back in Texas from the New Mexico opener. We had to call a last minute audible and head to a different area of the state than we had originally planned. At 6 am we found ourselves on the rim of the canyon. I let out one little soft put, and immediately got cut off by a gobbler. We set up about 175 yards from him. He was yodeling at anything that would make any noise. Once he flew down, he went dead silent. It was 15 minutes later, when I heard the unmistakable drum about 60 yards out. It took him a while to close the gap, but he put on one hell of a show. Finally at 12 yards, JoAnn could hardly breathe from the adrenaline so I called the shot. The .410 smacked him in the lips and she had her first turkey ever. A public land OTC Merriams!





It was a long hot rest of the day. Finally at about 6 pm I got another bird fired up. He was a good ways up the mountain. I figured we’d listen to him go to roost and we’d come up with a game plan to get to him in the morning. About 5 minutes later he gobbled 50 yards out. He was coming quick! I let him get 15 yards and let him have it. A very exciting opening day!


Saturday and this morning consisted of running into tons of people. It’s kind of frustrating, but part of that type of hunting. Regardless, Friday made it all worth it.

Congrats again....glad the backup plan worked out for you guys

[J-Bone]

Was audible due to the fires?

The area I typically hunt wasn't directly affected. I just felt it would be best to stay out of that area. With smoke, aircrafts, and fire crews doing what is needed to be done, I just felt I had no business being anywhere around that. More or less, I just wanted to make sure I stayed out of the way.

[Aggiebush]

Just a few more days, and hopefully some Easterns will hit the ground. Our DU banquet is Friday night, poor planning I know. Getting up early Saturday morning, and heading NE. Going to do everything I can to get my son his first Turkey.

[Passthrough]

Just a few more days, and hopefully some Easterns will hit the ground. Our DU banquet is Friday night, poor planning I know. Getting up early Saturday morning, and heading NE. Going to do everything I can to get my son his first Turkey.

Come on Friday!!! After a couple year hiatus from Red River County….I will be back this year! Hope to have one roosted on Thursday night!! Can’t wait to hear those thundering gobbles ripping through the big pines!!

[ClayW]

Just a few more days, and hopefully some Easterns will hit the ground. Our DU banquet is Friday night, poor planning I know. Getting up early Saturday morning, and heading NE. Going to do everything I can to get my son his first Turkey.

Good luck to you guys!

[Aggiebush]

Passthrough, give me a shout if you want to drink a cold one this weekend. Hate I’m missing Friday, but we’ll give ‘em heck Saturday.

Clay, thanks we’ll need it. lol Want a bird for the man child bad. Jake or tom, if one comes in, it’s gonna flop.

[Passthrough]

Passthrough, give me a shout if you want to drink a cold one this weekend. Hate I’m missing Friday, but we’ll give ‘em heck Saturday.

Clay, thanks we’ll need it. lol Want a bird for the man child bad. Jake or tom, if one comes in, it’s gonna flop.

Gonna be a little warm sounds like. Main priority is to get my buddy that has the place on a bird. I’ll text ya how it’s going the first day. We looking for a double and calling it good Sounds like he has good population of birds this year….so we shall see!

[Aggiebush]

Nothing wrong with that, hope they cooperate. Ours have been down a few years, but seem to be getting better again. Had a great hatch last year, lots of Jakes and Jenny’s running around.

[MooseontheLoose]

Easter Bird Recap:

Saturday afternoon I had the one bird going early, but the rest of the afternoon/evening was very quiet. I saw a hen, a few jakes, and a ton of deer, but no big birds and nothing was talking. I spent all afternoon hunting a mile and half long stretch of creek bottom and couldn’t get anything going. At sunset, I backed out of the bottom to just listen and roost a bird for the morning. I was hoping the active bird from earlier in the day would roost close so I could hunt him in the morning, but it was dead quiet on that whole stretch of bottom.

Further down the creek, in the area I spent 6 hours in though, a bird got going and was just flat getting after it. He gobbled from a little before sunset until about 30 minutes after dark. Hadn't made a peep all day but easily gobbled over 50 times that evening .

Sunday morning was really overcast and took forever to get light. On Saturday there were birds gobbling all up and down the creek, but Sunday only one was talking. The same one from the night before. Two groups of jakes gobbled twice, each, but the bird that was so vocal Saturday night picked up right where he left off bright and early on Sunday morning. I snuck about a half mile in until I figured I was about 120 yards or so away from where he was at. They use a few different roost trees in that bottom, and I wasn’t sure exactly which one he was in, but he wasn’t far.

I let it be quiet for a bit and let him talk to himself. Gave him some soft yelps and he immediately cut me off. He turned and was facing my way, and with no wind and still conditions, it was that much louder. He stayed on the limb a lot longer than I thought he would. He cut me off the couple times I called to him and no other hens were talking. I figured this was going to happen quick, right after flydown.

He gobbled facing my direction most of the time, then randomly turned around and gobbled once, jumped off the limb, and flew for two hundred yards, across the creek, and in the complete opposite direction from where I was. He gobbled a couple more times when he hit the ground over there.

I knew exactly where he went at that point, so I picked up my stuff and as fast as I could, hiked the half mile back out, crossed the creek, and made a big mile and a half loop all the way around him to try to cut him off. Last weekend hunt for the year. Send it!

I spooked a lot of deer on the loop and some of them ran into the bottom where he was. Luckily, I didn’t see, come across, or spook any turkeys. Figuring he would get spooked by the deer running everywhere and with nothing to lose at that point, I set up in the exact same grove of trees where I shot the coyote on Saturday.

He was still gobbling on his own down in the bottom and hadn’t worked his way out yet. I beat him there. I let everything settle down for a few minutes and just listened to him talk on his own. He cut me off on my first calling sequence. After a little bit I called to him again. He cut me off again but wasn’t coming my way. I could tell he was just pacing back and forth in the bottom, gobbling in different directions. At one point, it sounded like he was on the other side of the creek again, where we started the morning. I laughed to myself figuring he might have flown back to where I was earlier when there weren’t any hens in this new spot.

After two sequences I shut up on him, and after 8 or 10 unanswered gobbles with no response from me, he came looking for me. One more gobble let me know he was on the way and closing fast, and it wasn’t long before the blue and red head peeked up over the rise.

He was a big mature 3+ year old bird. One of his spurs was chipped at about 1”, but the other was 1.25” long. Nice 9” beard.

I walked from camp that morning for the whole hunt, and in between the hike to the first set, out, across the creek, the big loop around, and all the way back, my watch said it ended up being just over 4 miles. I shot him right before 8 AM. Between the 9 miles Saturday and 4 miles Sunday, I walked/hiked/ran half a marathon to get this bird.

I spent 6 hours in this bird’s living room Saturday afternoon and couldn’t get a peep out of him or any other bird in that bottom with any call in my vest, all afternoon. After that exercise in torture, he gobbled on his own like crazy all evening and into the night. He gobbled at me Sunday morning, then turned around and flew down in the complete opposite direction, on the opposite side of the creek. The ensuing track meet to get around him scared the fire out of every deer in the county as they watched a running, leaf-suit wearing sasquatch set a new world record in the deer lease chicken dash.

It was personal with this bird and felt great when it all came together, especially after a grind of a hunt Saturday.

Better pic of the Saturday dog and the Sunday LDP.

[ClayW]

Easter Bird Recap:

Saturday afternoon I had the one bird going early, but the rest of the afternoon/evening was very quiet. I saw a hen, a few jakes, and a ton of deer, but no big birds and nothing was talking. I spent all afternoon hunting a mile and half long stretch of creek bottom and couldn’t get anything going. At sunset, I backed out of the bottom to just listen and roost a bird for the morning. I was hoping the active bird from earlier in the day would roost close so I could hunt him in the morning, but it was dead quiet on that whole stretch of bottom.

Further down the creek, in the area I spent 6 hours in though, a bird got going and was just flat getting after it. He gobbled from a little before sunset until about 30 minutes after dark. Hadn't made a peep all day but easily gobbled over 50 times that evening .

Sunday morning was really overcast and took forever to get light. On Saturday there were birds gobbling all up and down the creek, but Sunday only one was talking. The same one from the night before. Two groups of jakes gobbled twice, each, but the bird that was so vocal Saturday night picked up right where he left off bright and early on Sunday morning. I snuck about a half mile in until I figured I was about 120 yards or so away from where he was at. They use a few different roost trees in that bottom, and I wasn’t sure exactly which one he was in, but he wasn’t far.

I let it be quiet for a bit and let him talk to himself. Gave him some soft yelps and he immediately cut me off. He turned and was facing my way, and with no wind and still conditions, it was that much louder. He stayed on the limb a lot longer than I thought he would. He cut me off the couple times I called to him and no other hens were talking. I figured this was going to happen quick, right after flydown.

He gobbled facing my direction most of the time, then randomly turned around and gobbled once, jumped off the limb, and flew for two hundred yards, across the creek, and in the complete opposite direction from where I was. He gobbled a couple more times when he hit the ground over there.

I knew exactly where he went at that point, so I picked up my stuff and as fast as I could, hiked the half mile back out, crossed the creek, and made a big mile and a half loop all the way around him to try to cut him off. Last weekend hunt for the year. Send it!

I spooked a lot of deer on the loop and some of them ran into the bottom where he was. Luckily, I didn’t see, come across, or spook any turkeys. Figuring he would get spooked by the deer running everywhere and with nothing to lose at that point, I set up in the exact same grove of trees where I shot the coyote on Saturday.

He was still gobbling on his own down in the bottom and hadn’t worked his way out yet. I beat him there. I let everything settle down for a few minutes and just listened to him talk on his own. He cut me off on my first calling sequence. After a little bit I called to him again. He cut me off again but wasn’t coming my way. I could tell he was just pacing back and forth in the bottom, gobbling in different directions. At one point, it sounded like he was on the other side of the creek again, where we started the morning. I laughed to myself figuring he might have flown back to where I was earlier when there weren’t any hens in this new spot.

After two sequences I shut up on him, and after 8 or 10 unanswered gobbles with no response from me, he came looking for me. One more gobble let me know he was on the way and closing fast, and it wasn’t long before the blue and red head peeked up over the rise.

He was a big mature 3+ year old bird. One of his spurs was chipped at about 1”, but the other was 1.25” long. Nice 9” beard.

I walked from camp that morning for the whole hunt, and in between the hike to the first set, out, across the creek, the big loop around, and all the way back, my watch said it ended up being just over 4 miles. I shot him right before 8 AM. Between the 9 miles Saturday and 4 miles Sunday, I walked/hiked/ran half a marathon to get this bird.

I spent 6 hours in this bird’s living room Saturday afternoon and couldn’t get a peep out of him or any other bird in that bottom with any call in my vest, all afternoon. After that exercise in torture, he gobbled on his own like crazy all evening and into the night. He gobbled at me Sunday morning, then turned around and flew down in the complete opposite direction, on the opposite side of the creek. The ensuing track meet to get around him scared the fire out of every deer in the county as they watched a running, leaf-suit wearing sasquatch set a new world record in the deer lease chicken dash.

It was personal with this bird and felt great when it all came together, especially after a grind of a hunt Saturday.

Better pic of the Saturday dog and the Sunday LDP.

Great write up...Thanks for sharing (Reading a story like that kinda makes me wish I'd do better at that)

I wonder how close you were to him saturday afternoon and how many times he heard your calls?

Congrats again

[Smart]

Great write up...Thanks for sharing (Reading a story like that kinda makes me wish I'd do better at that)

I wonder how close you were to him saturday afternoon and how many times he heard your calls?

Congrats again

Yea slacker!![emoji23]. Especially popos last bird

[Smart]

Great read Adam! Thanks for taking the time to share it with us in detail. Sounds like a great hunt!

[slayr]

I agree, awesome write up and thanks for sharing.