I was graciously invited to a ranch in Montana between Billings and Bozeman by a member of a different BB. The trip took place the third week of April, but I have to had enough time to sit down and share the adventure. He invited two crotchety Easterners out to try for Merriams turkeys. After a LOOOOOONG day on the trip out (our flight was delayed by a maintenance paperwork issue for 45 minutes, causing us to miss our connection in Denver by seconds and adding 8 hours to the day) we finally arrived at the ranch around 12:30 CMT or a little over 24 hours since we woke up. We woke up the next morning around 6:30 and had some breakfast and coffee. We were gearing up to look around when Brad (my shotgun toting companion) heard a gobble across the river from the house. We spotted a tom and it was game on. We threw some camo on and grabbed vests guns and bow and hopped in the car to go around by road since the river was too high to cross. We snuck in and set up. I sat with my bow alongside a big cotton wood tree while Brad an Alex (our host)set up two trees down the line with the decoys in front. Our goal was to get Alex his first turkey, and since he is not an archer he used a shotgun. Even though our goal was to get the host a bird, since I was using a longbow they decided if I could get a shot they would let me, and if I couldn't we wanted Alex to try and get his first bird.
This is my view from my tree to theirs.
Some calling and he came in. We heard him gobble a couple of times and I got the signal that they could see him coming. I heard foot steps behind my tree and the turkey steps out 15 feet behind me. I can't move and avoid eye contact by looking at his legs with my eyes squinted because he is so close. He goes into a half strut and decides he does not like the decoys and starts to walk away. He gets out a bit and I still can't move so Brad has Alex take the bird. His first turkey!! We were all super excited. Awake less than an hour and a half and we have a bird on the ground and Alex has killed his first turkey ever!
We got a great tour of the ranch. I really love the west and was in heaven with the grand views and wildlife sightings. The ranch is 1000 acres, which is small for Montana standards I guess, but it was huge to two guys from back East.
View from the high point of the ranch looking over to the snowy mountains.
The rock formation the ranch is named for
When we got back to the ranch house we saw some turkeys in the field across the river. We could not drive around because the birds were within site of where we would have to park. Alex stiffened our eastern spines and we took the UTV across the river. It made it, and only seemed to float a couple of feet downstream at the deepest part :D . We got out and set up. our calling got some occasional gobbles, but he birds did not seem to move much. We relocated, near where Alex had taken his bird earlier. We all set up. Brad center,
me on the right and Alex to the left. We called and got gobbles. Finally I could see three different strutters in the woods, but they would not budge. Finally I saw the hens.
(the dark spot in front of the tom is one of the hens)
They would not move from their girlfriends. We got the girls involved in a conversation, we worked them for over an hour switching locations and calls, but they decided to take their boyfriends and leave. We drove back across the river. Unfortunately Alex had to leave after dinner due to some issues at work. Brad and I truly appreciate the time he gave us despite everything that was going on back at the job.
After Alex left Brad and I took a drive around to look for the turkeys. We saw them in the field they had left earlier in the day, headed back towards the woods we worked them in earlier. We decided to cruise past the ranch road and view some more country. We ran into a bachelor group of nine Pronghorns. I really loved all the wildlife in the area.
Around 8:30 we stepped out on the deck of the ranch house and gave an owl hoot and had a bird gobble back from just across the river. We could see it in the cottonwood. We went to bed confident we wold have crack at them in the morning.
The next morning we woke to a skiff of snow and headed over to the other side of the river. We parked and set up between to spots where fallen cottonwoods had knocked the fence down and the turkeys had crossed the day before. If they used either one they would see the dekes and hopefully come in. After a couple of hours the birds appeared across a small slough to our right. They proceeded to cross the slough by flying up a 15' embankment onto the mowed state land. They were closer to our car than to us. They moved west on the short grass and out of sight. I don't have any pictures of this segment as I was busy with the camcorder. We spent the rest of the day looking at the views and rock formations around the ranch. As well as looking for cottontails or porcupines that might make suitable targets for the bow.
After not finding birds on a roosting trip at last light we went to bed.
Topic: Montana turkey hunt goes to the rabbits (Read 233 times)
