04-15-2011, 11:51 PM
The wife and I drew early season tags and headed to our area in the Basin Weds. afternoon, ahead of the storms. We got our camp set up and headed out to see if we could locate them for the next morning and set up a ground blind. We were just in time for the wind to hit and rain showers, we trudged on. Got in my favorite patch along the river and let out some yelps, 4 toms answered from 4 different locations. We quickly set the blind up and secured it with stakes and tied it off as well to some limbs and a fence. Headed the 1/2 mile back to our warm camper and a bite to eat. The wind howled all night and into our morning hunt, no problem as we had delt with this before and ended up both getting our toms. I escorted the wife to the blind and set up our decoys. I left her with her call and back tracked down river to see if I could locate some birds. By 10 or so with no response to my calls I decided to work up toward the wife thru our favorite patch, whamo, there are two toms strutting off to my right about 75 yards. I pull out my Primos diaphragm and let them have it as loud as I could to be heard above the wind, gobbles came from several directions. Several more exchanges and the pair headed my way. 35 yards away they stopped and started to strut, I eased the Benelli around the big cotton wood I was standing behind and rolled the closest one. The other tom ducked his head and headed up river toward the wife on a trot. I picked up my tom with a 
and headed back to the tree to pick up my pack. Bang, a shot went off, could it be the Mrs? I couldn't wait to head her direction and find out. When I walked up she was grinning from ear to ear. She said it was just like a deer hunt, she heard my shot she was ready in case something was scared her direction, sure enough here come the tom moving toward her and when he came thru the brush and saw the decoys he stopped and that was it for him. We took several pictures with her cell phone of both toms and noticed that the one I killed had white tips on his feathers instead of the creamy color of a Rio, we are not sure if mine is a Merriams or not as we had never killed a Merriams. They were both young birds with 7 inch beards and 3/4 in. spurs. We had a great time and enjoyed hunting these guys.
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and headed back to the tree to pick up my pack. Bang, a shot went off, could it be the Mrs? I couldn't wait to head her direction and find out. When I walked up she was grinning from ear to ear. She said it was just like a deer hunt, she heard my shot she was ready in case something was scared her direction, sure enough here come the tom moving toward her and when he came thru the brush and saw the decoys he stopped and that was it for him. We took several pictures with her cell phone of both toms and noticed that the one I killed had white tips on his feathers instead of the creamy color of a Rio, we are not sure if mine is a Merriams or not as we had never killed a Merriams. They were both young birds with 7 inch beards and 3/4 in. spurs. We had a great time and enjoyed hunting these guys.[signature]
