Frigid temperatures are not what I typically think of when it comes to an enjoyable spring turkey hunt. But, it will not stop me from going after those hard headed birds, and it shouldn’t keep you from hunting them either. As most turkey hunters know, you are typically expecting to wake up to an eventful morning of gobbling as the warm sun rises, and the beautiful colors of spring come to life. Nothing seems to excite me more than listening to the whippoorwills’ song carrying through planted pines in the heart of the southern United States. Often this leads up to a pretty eventful day of working fired up toms, as well as swatting hungry mosquitoes.

However, not all exciting turkey hunts have to come from the picture perfect mornings of a South-Eastern planted pines style hunt. This past week I found myself in a small portion of the Black Hills in Story, Wyoming.  Now for anyone that has ever hunted in the western states you know the chance of cold weather moving in is always a possibility.

The first day of the hunt I found myself at the base of the mountain listening to birds gobble their heads off, all while I was standing in shin deep snow. With all of the commotion that these birds were causing, I couldn’t help but get fired up. All the birds pitched down straight toward me but came up short and lit on a small shelf just above the base of the mountain.  There were at least 30 birds roosted in this flock and as I glassed, I realized that there were only two mature toms. I knew that it was not going to be an easy task to kill one, as I watched the two birds strut their hearts out for all the hens.

With the large selection of ladies for the toms to choose from, I figured by best bet was going to be to try and just glass these birds from a distance until I could pinpoint where they may be going.  Not once did these birds throughout the entire morning move far enough to get a game plan in a definite direction nor did they ever break up and go their separate ways. It was an incredibly exciting morning just to watch the white tipped fans strut in figure eights all while paired with a snow white backdrop of the mountain side.

After getting some lunch and nearly sticking my toes into an electric heater just to attempt to get some color into them other than purple, I decided to head back out and give an afternoon attempt at the flock.  Glass calls, mouth calls and gobble calls were going to all be used this afternoon unlike during the morning hunt. The purple heart striker and glass nearly started a fire, and the reeds of my mouth call had all but been blown out after I yelped as much as I possibly could. I even threw in a gobble during some of the 10-second breaks I took from my mouth call.

During the duration of all the calling, I could hear the hens in the flock began to get fired up and start yelping themselves which got the toms fired up as well. Within just a few minutes after this calling, I finally laid eyes on a hen as she topped the hill, followed by the rest of the flock. It’s still snowing at this time, and the two big toms are cautiously working their way into range. At this point, I am extremely fired up as the birds finally step into range. Just as I turn to get on the lead Tom the last hen of the flock busts me and putts, which alerts the toms but the hammer on my CVA Apex was already cocked, and the red dot scope had already found its mark. I dropped the big Merriam tom at 70 yards, and I finally had my first Wyoming bird down.

This hunt assured me that even though most of us turkey hunters enjoy the beautiful warm spring mornings, you should never count out a morning when the temperatures began to plummet and the snow begins to fall. Even though this doesn’t sound ideal, at any time the level of action could sky rocket.  You may want to change up your tactics when hunting birds in different areas and different weather conditions. As this hunt turned out the birds were flocked up and a ton of calling was the name of the game.  I called more than I normally would while hunting most turkeys in other areas but it resulted in me heading back to Georgia with another fan for the wall and two breasts for the skillet.

By: Dakota Russell, CVA Prostaff