JFT Turkey Tour 2021

[ClayW]

PoPo opted to sit at a spot with lots of tracks instead of coming with me. As of now, He made the right choice as I have nothing to show for my 7+ mile hike

[ClayW]

8 1/2 miles payed off

[ClayW]

[J-Bone]

8 1/2 miles payed off

Save some for seed! Glad y’all are having such great success. Already ready to get back out there.

[.243 WSSM]

Yall are making it look easy. Nice going! Seeing any other hunters in that area?

[basschump]

Great work! Looking forward to the write up


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ClayW]

PoPo hunted this morning while I packed up. Our original plan was to stay til Thursday but we decided to head home after yesterday’s success

[ClayW]

Looks like we left just in time

24 degrees this morning in the mountains...we wouldn’t have been too prepared for that one!

[ClayW]

Quick recap from our time in North Texas

On our way to New Mexico, we stopped by my buddy’s (Tyler and Colton) 43k acre family ranch to visit and hunt a little bit.

Last Wednesday the ranch got a little over 2” of rain and my buddy told me that it is going to be a slippery mess. Well…he was right and we had quite the time making the 10+ mile trip from the cattle guard to headquarters! We finally made it a little behind schedule and opted for a few beers and a good meal.

The next morning (Friday) had us leaving camp a little before daylight. The plan was to hit a few high spots and find some birds. We put about 35 miles on the Can-Am and found several flocks of birds. PoPo had a few options for his first afternoon sit. He opted for a big mesquite flat bordering a small, dry creek.

We got the popup set and PoPo & Colton were sitting by about 3:00. They had nonstop action until 6:30. Long story short…they had 4 differnet gobblers in the decoys but never shot The first excuse was they were small but then it was just that he didn’t want to shoot on the first evening. I don’t follow any of this logic but he had 2 tags….. Rather than hunting, Tyler and I chose a little booze cruise around the ranch. We drove around for a few hours and only saw “a couple sections”

That next morning, (Saturday) all 4 of us were in the blind expecting action like the night before but we got blanked!

In typical PoPo fashion, rather than sitting in the same area that afternoon, he wanted a change of scenery. Our 2nd favorite spot was a large valley towards the back end of the ranch. Best way to describe it is a large meadow tucked between a couple of mountains. One side of it was littered with large (for this area) hackberry trees. I say large for this area because they are only about 10’ tall. This spot was a 40 minute ride from headquarters so we left plenty early to get them setup.

Similar the previous evening, they were covered up in birds from the start. However, this time the gobblers showed no interest in the decoys as they had 20+ hens. They hunted all evening and then wathed all 25+ birds fly into one of the hackberries. The only problem was that they had to drive within 100 yards of the tree to get back to camp. They sat til about 9:15, attempted to leave, and blew the turkeys off the roost. PoPo was a little upset when they got back to camp.

That same evening, I played cat & mouse with a few birds and ended up missing one at about 35 yards.

Sunday morning came and we would be leaving for New Mexico around noon. PoPo was convinced that he scared his turkeys out of the county but I persuaded him to make the trip to the back of the ranch and give it a shot. As I expected, they didn’t go far and were still roosted within 150 yards of the blind. They had a heck of a hunt but none of the gobblers came into the decoys.

My morning was a little better. At daybreak, I found myself within ear shot of 10+ gobblers sounding off to a nearby coyote howl. Due to the timid nature of a particular tom the evening before, I only set out a lone feeding hen. I thought he gave me the slip but he came strutting in unannounced just as the sun was coming out. Watching him come in with the sun at his back is a scene I’ll never forget. He came in full strut, turned away from me, and I drew back.

We had one heck of a time at the ranch but our turkey hunting trip was just beginning. We left headquarters about 11am and headed west to New Mexico

[ClayW]

[ClayW]

PoPo’s Saturday evening setup...you can see the roost trees behind the popup [emoji2371][emoji2359]

[ClayW]

Some beautiful country

(Tyler invited me to spend a few days in the dead of winter and said I’d prolly change my mind)

[ClayW]

I could have taken pics all morning long but we had to hit the road

[ClayW]

[Kenner97]

Awesome!!
Great Pics and Nice Bird!!