Yes, yes, I know it has been a while since I’ve written last. It’s not due to my lack of wanting to write – in fact, I even have some articles that are partially written, but I have been so busy that I haven’t had the time to write or edit pictures. Between working 2 jobs and being in the process of moving, literally all of my free time has been taken within the past 2 months or so. I can assure that I have some pretty cool articles coming up, this one included.
Today I am going to tell you about my Fall 2019 turkey hunt, which took place in unit 12a. For those of you that don’t know, 12a is the Kaibab plateau, home to one of the most legendary mule deer herds on the planet. The Kaibab plateau is a high elevation span of land that holds the highest quality mule deer in Arizona, along with the highest densities of turkeys in the state. So why am I so willing to share this information with you?
Well, because Kaibab is 5.5 hours away from the valley, and it’s not a nice drive either. Much of the drive is through brutal reservation land that will put even the most active fellow to sleep. There are also very little services on Kaibab, and phone service is little-to-none. All in all, you’ve got to be committed to hunt Kaibab for a mere turkey, and most people are not.
We (my Pa and I), had 5 days for the hunt; a day to drive up, set up camp, and hunt with the remaining time, 3 days to hunt, and one more day to break down camp and drive back. So, with that said, we had 3 full days to hunt.
We completed the long and grueling drive in roughly 5.25 hours, which isn’t bad time for hauling trailer. We quickly found a campsite and began to setup camp, of which stood amongst aspens, fur, and spruce trees, making the scenery picturesque as soon as one left their tent for the morning.
I should also mention that there were many squirrels barking and yelling at us as we set up camp. I finally had enough and took my shotgun to one of them – the harassing from the squirrels stopped after that (for a short time), and I had my first bagged animal of the trip straight out of camp.
We finished camp, drove around for a short amount of time, and went back to camp for a brief dinner before bed. But was it brief, or was our dinner long? What seemed like 30 minutes was 90 minutes, and I was confused, but perhaps the high elevation took its effect on me.
The evening was very cold, and our quality of sleep that night was not good. Because of this, we slept in on that morning to try to make up for it – by sleeping in, I mean that we slept until about 7:15 instead of 5am or so. Once again, the squirrels were yelling at us as we awoke, and so I silenced them by harvesting 2 more squirrels out of camp.
We spent the next 2 and half days looking for turkeys. We just couldn’t find them. We searched tanks for tracks to no success, we sat tanks even if they didn’t have tracks (water was very scarce), we searched possible roosting areas, and much more. We just couldn’t find birds. For those of you that don’t know, fall turkey hunting success is very low for this reason. During the spring, turkeys can be located using many different methods, including evening shock-gobbles, overall gobbles from toms, calling in family groups using a variety of calling methods, and more. In the fall, though, none of that works. It’s just a matter of covering ground and, in my opinion, covering ground quickly and efficiently. Many turkeys also move into large family groups, decreasing the overall amount of land that is utilized and, in turn, making them more difficult to find.
On the last huntable day, we made the decision to go into town to get gas around the early afternoon part of the day. We were driving somewhat quickly along a dirt road and, sure enough, a turkey ran across the road.
Me, being the passenger, jumped out of the truck before it even came to a stop. The turkey was walking quickly parallel to the road, roughly 50 yards from the road. I matched its pace and walked parallel to its path, roughly 5 yards off the road. We walked together for about 25 yards before we hit a clearing and he stopped. I pulled my gun up, aimed, and pulled the trigger.
My 3” number 4 shot dropped the bird – it was about a 30 yard shot. I was absolutely stoked. We had sort of given up on the hunt due to our inability to find birds, and this was a miracle of an opportunity.
I walked up to the bird and there lay an immature male bird, called a Jake ironically. I was successful with my first ever turkey, and amongst the few that have success during fall turkey season.
I brought him back to camp and butchered him out. His crop was filled with nothing but seeds that smelled of sweet grass (it actually smelled quite good). Gutted out the bird weighed 2lbs 14oz, which is very small. Luckily my tag was for any turkey, and with our luck I had no issue harvesting such a young bird.
Unfortunately, the keys got locked in the truck, which essentially ended our hunt. We spent hours upon hours trying to unlock the truck with no success. We finally ended up having to break a window to get into the truck to retrieve the keys.
All in all, I have to say that the trip was a success. Granted, I would have preferred if both of us would have shot turkeys, but I’d rather one of have gotten one than neither. We also went home with 10 squirrels – we would have had much more if we spent time devoted towards squirrels, but these we are just side opportunity shots that we had. The amount of squirrels we saw was unmatched to anything else in the state in my opinion.
I should also make a side note in saying that the bird did not have a beard, so how can I be sure that it’s a male? It did have spurs that were literally just bumps on the legs. If you look at the wings of the bird, you can see how the first 2 primary feathers are pointed, and that the barring does not go all the way down. This, combined with its size, is how to tell of a juvenile bird. As far as male or female, the presence of very small spurs tells me that it’s a male. Additionally, the presence of all black breast feathers tells that it’s a juvenile male – females have black feathers with white tips.
I also want to say that if you decide to do this trip, you should use steel shot. We used nothing but steel shot, even for the squirrels. The Kaibab plateau is home to California condors, which are an endangered species list due to lead poisoning, much of which is contributed from hunters.
Finally, I want to say that that you all will see chapter 2 of this story, as I was just drawn for a spring turkey tag in the same unit. I’ll see you then…