Montana Merriams and so much more!

Fellow IDO Gold Member "little g" and my friend (Jeremy Gruber) was kind enough to invite me out to Montana to hunt some Merriam turkeys. I’ve always wanted one of those white tipped tail birds and I immediately seized the opportunity and plans were set to arrive there a couple of nights before the opener. Jeremy has family out there (an Uncle and some cousins) who were kind enough to help us out and get us permission to hunt several private properties. In fact, they did such an awesome job we actually had too much area to check out – like 30 square sections!

Well after scouting and driving around for over 250 miles during the day on Friday, we ended up only seeing one tom! We knew that we had our work cut out for us but that didn’t discourage us to forge ahead. However, our day was still awesome because we saw some beautiful country and seen over 75 muleys, 25 antelope and 6 elk! That was worth coming to MT right there!

That night we scouted yet another farm that was located along the Yellowstone River. It was here where we were finally able to hear some turkeys up on the roost right before dark and even got a visual of their location and where we would be setting up on them in the morning.

After about 3 hours of sleep (we had to do some bonding with some of the locals) we entered our blind and the temp was a mere 18 degrees. Needless to say, it was a little chilly and we were laughing at each other due to the frost that we had on our facemasks and eyelashes. Three toms gobbled off the roost but as soon as they hit the ground they went silent.

We sat a couple of hours but then decided to check out the area some more. It didn’t take us long and we spotted a tom and a hen about 200 yards away and most likely the same ones we saw roosted. After covering some ground, we finally found a good spot to call and settled in. As we waited for a response, another tom gobbled at us from the opposite direction. He quickly covered ground and was spotted about a 150 yards out in a pasture. He responded to us but then we realized that he could see the other hen and tom and eventually bee lined in their direction. We had to get ahead of these birds so we quickly gathered our things and repositioned 200 yards down. After a few calls, I spotted a turkey coming into our set up. It ended up being a jake and little g passed him up. Soon after the hen responded to my calling and we talked back and forth for awhile. Shortly after the toms were spotted but paid no attention to our calling. It was pretty cool watching these turkeys while the hen dusted herself in a shallow dusting bowl. To make a very long story short – we spent over 9 hours sitting, stalking, belly crawling and repositioning ourselves for a shot but we could never get a tom in view of the camera and the shooter at the same time. However, we didn’t get busted either and therefore we were hopeful that these birds were not going to go too far. That night we set up under the same roosting tree where they had roosted the night but only one hen made her way up.

The next morning our goal was to be very mobile and move towards any gobble that we heard on the roost. Finally we heard a tom gobbling down by the river but once we got down there we found out that he was on the other side of the river. In fact, there were 3 toms over there!

We decided to go back to where we had spent all of our time the day before and sat patiently in some pretty thick cover hoping that the turkeys would revisit the dusting bowl. About an hour later we caught some movement and shortly after we were surrounded with 6 jakes! They walked within 5 yards of us and it was great to capture them on video that close!

After they left we decided to cover some more ground. We had about 5 sections to hunt in this area and we hadn’t even covered half of it. As we made our way to the other end of the property, we spotted a tom quartering to us in an open field. We made a dash to get into position but he ended up busting us. This would be the only turkey and the only time that we would ever get caught by a turkey (except for one other one – more on that later).

In the same opening and about 300 yards away we saw 3 more toms and a hen at the edge of some thick cover moving from our right to our left. We quickly decided to go after them. This is very hard to do when you don’t know the terrain. We eventually saw them again and we were in a pretty good spot. Then all of a sudden the hen started cackling, the toms shock gobbled and turkeys started running in every direction. I thought how did we get busted? Then I spotted a huge bald eagle flying directly over them and then it all made sense to me. What are the chances of that? We saw them one more time but they changed their route and slipped away. This hunt took over 3 hours and ate up a lot of our time.

It was late afternoon now and we were running out of time if we wanted to scout and hunt those other turkeys across the river that we heard earlier that morning. We decided to go for it, drove the 30 miles around and it ended up being our best decision of the weekend. As we made our way to the river from the other side, we caught some movement and saw 3 toms in full strut deep in the wood line about 200 yards away. We closed to within 100 yards, set up against a tree and started calling. It didn’t long and we saw a turkey break off from the group. Eventually it got within to 30 yards but it was another jake!

We decided to reposition once again to see if we could get a better look at the strutting toms. We belly crawled the remaining 100 yards and eventually got a visual. There was 3 toms, 6 hens and the jake. We got behind a deadfall and tried to break away one of the strutting toms to no avail. At one time the 6 hens came to within 10 yards of us but the toms did not follow. Little did we know that this was also a deer crossing. As we sat there for the next 4 hours, we saw over 30 whitetails. Many of them would catch our scent and stomp and blow at us. We waited it out hoping to find out where these toms would end up roosting so we could set on them for our last morning’s hunt. Finally darkness approached and it was a good thing because we could no longer feel anything in our legs. The good news is that the turkeys roosted to within 100 yards of us and we could still sneak out down the logging trail without being detected. After it was dark, we made our way back to the truck, grabbed the blind and all the gear that we could carry. We then made our way back to where we were, quietly set up the blind and the decoys that night so we could slip back in the morning without a sound being made. We finally made it home, ate and went to bed at midnight.

The next morning the toms gobbled off the roost and then we watched turkey after turkey fly down. Once the 3 toms made their way to the clearing they strutted and never gobbled again. They paid no attention to our calling and never closed to within 100 yards. Eventually they followed the hens back into the cover and just like that our morning hunt was over. However, we both knew that there was a good chance that these toms would show up again and make their way back to where we had set up and where we had seen them strut the night before. We were smart and packed food in for an all day sit. We also decided since it was our last afternoon, that we would put away our bows and break out the shotguns. About 10am, I decided that we needed to change some things up a bit and I suggested to Jeremy that we should start calling really aggressively. He agreed and he followed my yelps and my cackle. Shortly after, we got our first gobble response of the weekend about 200 yards away. We kept pestering him yelping back and forth (I was on a box call and Jeremy was using a slate call) and he was closing the distance. Finally we spotted him and he was searching high and low for those 2 hens making all of those calls! It took awhile but he finally made his way to the logging road and towards our decoys. Jeremy got to watch the tom come in ever so slowly in full strut. I was behind the video camera and couldn’t see him until he was within 20 yards! Finally he entered my view and I captured about 5 seconds of video of him and then Jeremy put him down with one shot. And just like that – we finally had a merriam on the ground!

After a quick high five, Jeremy quickly whispered, “let’s get back on those calls” because we both knew there were 2 other toms around. We yelped aggressively back and forth and wouldn’t you know it we got another gobble response! We quickly switched spots, Jeremy now was behind the camera and I was the shooter. This tom also made his way out to the clearing but lost interest and went back to the yelping hens inside the woods. We decided to stick to our plan and hunt till dark not moving an inch.

Over the next couple of hours everything was pretty quiet. The lack of sleep (3-4 hours per night) was taking its toll on us and we decided to take turns taking a nap. Jeremy went first and finally it was my turn. After about a half hour, I woke up and told Jeremy to start calling again. He ripped off an aggressive call and smiled. He then decided he needed to go to the bathroom, casually checked around the blind for any turkeys and opened the back door of the blind. About 15 yards to his left he then came eye to eye with a tom that was approaching our decoys from our blind side! He yells at me to get my gun and he dives for the video camera. . At first I thought he was playing a joke on me but then soon realized that this was game on! The tom was on the move and the getting the video camera into position was useless. Jeremy said “it’s up to you” on whether or not I should shoot the tom without the video camera. As I got into position, I caught movement and this tom was leaving in a hurry. I took aim and fired a shot. The tom folded over and just like that we had our second Merriam on the ground! As we made our way out to him, I actually thought the tom was a lot closer (he was 45 yards out). I guess it happened so fast and then I felt fortunate to make the shot.

All of our hard work paid off! Being patient, persistent and changing our calling approach was the keys to our success. A thank you goes out to all of the land owners that were so gracious to let us hunt on their land. We met so many wonderful people and it was great to hear their way of life. A special thank you goes out to Jeremy’s cousin – Damien who showed us around and he’s the one who got us permission from the land owners. Without him, there’s no doubt we would have no place to hunt.

Montana is truly a wonderful place and I will never forget it. There’s so much to see and it has so much to offer in regard to hunting opportunities. We also found 2 whitetail sheds and one muley shed! If you’ve never been there, you should consider it! However, to me what really made Montana so memorable is the people that live there. They are so proud of their state and their way of life. Every single person we met was so kind and showed so much interest in us. “ Dorit” was my favorite. She was a little old lady that tended the local bar where she had worked for over 40 years. She left Berlin at age 16 and moved to America with nothing after exchanging letters with a pen pal and hopefully her future love. She left her family and everything else behind looking for a better life. She ended up falling in love with her pen pal, they married and they had 3 children (and two grandchildren). Her husband passed away but Dorit lives on with a smile and an attitude that is simply unmatched. She was so full of life! It was easy to tell that she didn’t have much but I knew her spirit was so much bigger than mine could ever be. When I showed her pictures of my wife and my children she just glowed and commented how beautiful they were. She made me feel special and grateful for what I had. Thank you Dorit – from now on when I hear the word Montana, I will think of you and smile.