My UT 3toe

I posted my bird already in the UT forum since I actually harvested my bird there opening morning of the general hunt. I just wanted to post here also to share with my fellow NV folks that don’t frequent the UT forum threads.

Great turkey!
If that was a Mule Deer he would be a 40 incher!
You are obviously a very good hunter.
Thanks for posting.

Thanks buckhorn! He was a nice mature bird. I just measured his spurs this morning, 1 1/4” on one leg & 1 3/16” on the other.

Wow. Thank you for sharing! What a beautiful bird. May I ask what load you used?

BroadHead said:

Wow. Thank you for sharing! What a beautiful bird. May I ask what load you used?

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Thanks Broadhead. I shoot the Apex TSS ammo in straight 8’s out of a 12ga Stoeger Condor with 22” barrels & Sumtoy .665 (bottom barrel) & .675 (top barrel) chokes.

Awesome! Tell us the story of how it went down. They're always fun.

I went into the area relatively blind as I have never been in that part of the state. I arrived Saturday & set up camp at Mill Meadow reservoir. I did some driving & scouting on foot of a few areas that looked promising for the next day and a half. By Sunday evening I had bumped a flock of birds while scouting, but I really didn’t get a chance to see if there were any gobblers in the bunch. On Monday morning I went in the area early to listen for any gobbling & it was dead. I slowly walked the side of the mountain doing some blind calling in hopes of getting one to sound off... nothing. By 11:00 I was back at the truck and headed down the mountain intending to head to camp for lunch. As I turned a corner, I saw a wad of birds in a field on private land that butted up to the National Forest moving toward the back of the pasture. I pulled over to glass them and saw one gobbler strutting in the group. I then turned the truck around, found a place to park & headed in their direction. There was a small creek that paralleled the fence line extending beyond the private property. The wind was gusting around 25mph so I thought there was a chance the birds may drop down into cover near the creek to get out of the mid day sun & wind. I set up near where I thought the birds may end up and started calling. I could get the hens to respond, but the gobbler never made a sound. After maybe 2 hours, I got up and slowly started walking the creek. I spotted the gobbler strutting in a small open area along with 4 hens & 7 jakes. I sat down and tried to call to them & they were silent. I then backed out and circled wide & high of the birds to reposition. I lost track of a landmark I was using due to the trees & accidentally found myself within 60-75 yards of them. I honestly have no clue how I didn’t get busted, but I think the wind blowing worked in my favor, masking my noise & movement because the trees were blowing all around from the wind. I immediately sat down against a large tree & let out an aggressive cut on my pot call & the gobbler sounded off. I switched to a mouth call doing some soft yelps & purrs, then before I knew it I saw the gobbler slowly moving my direction in an attempt to locate the hen he heard. He was extremely cautious & you could tell he didn’t want to stray too far from his hens & leave them with the jakes. By the time he reached the 40-45 yard range I knew it was probably the only chance I would get before the hens towed him away. I let out a loud cut with my mouth call that made him come out of strut and stretch his neck out. I lowered my bead on his waddles & pulled the trigger.
I was blessed to locate those birds on my drive back to camp & can thank only the wind for covering up my blunder of stumbling in too close. After locating the only Tom that I had seen in 2 and a half days, him being henned up & hearing just the one gobble, I can say that it all boiled down to just being in the right place at the right time. ??

Great account 3TOE! Thank you! It seems the harder we work, the luckier we get.

eelgrass said:

Great account 3TOE! Thank you! It seems the harder we work, the luckier we get.

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Thanks man! Yep definitely... That being the only gobbler I had put eyes on for the time I had been out there, I wasn’t going to give up on him until I blew it or it got dark on me. Lol

That is a great story........but....did you infect anyone while in the great state of Utah????....lol

Homer said:

That is a great story........but....did you infect anyone while in the great state of Utah????....lol

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Thanks! Lol... I didn’t infect anyone, but I did inject a little money into the local economy. This Corona crap has made things rough all over, but the small towns have been hit really hard. Hopefully the craziness ends soon.

3TOE said:

Thanks Broadhead. I shoot the Apex TSS ammo in straight 8’s out of a 12ga Stoeger Condor with 22” barrels & Sumtoy .665 (bottom barrel) & .675 (top barrel) chokes.

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I appreciate it, thank you. If I ever draw a turkey tag here in Nevada, I will strongly consider those shells.

BroadHead said:

I appreciate it, thank you. If I ever draw a turkey tag here in Nevada, I will strongly consider those shells.

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No problem at all. They are pricey... very pricey & you can no doubt kill a bird at an ethical range with #5’s lead. I just personally like the results I’ve had ever since I switched over to TSS loads.
Good luck to you in next years draw. ??

Nice spurs!