Ep. 20: A Colorado Merriam's and a Pile of Elk Sheds

On this episode of Keota Outdoors, Luke and Max sit down to recap Luke's recent Colorado Merriam’s turkey hunt—an unforgettable mountain adventure that ended with a pile of elk sheds and his very first Merriam’s gobbler.

Luke shares the story of a camping trip to the Colorado mountains with his dad, where long days of hiking and covering country resulted in a great collection of elk sheds and plenty of memories. The turkey hunt started with an exciting first morning that featured a close encounter with a gobbler that never showed himself, leaving Luke wondering what could have been.

Determined to find more birds, Luke made a move to a new area the following day. That decision proved to be the turning point of the hunt when he located a gobbler late that afternoon and managed to get him roosted for the next morning. What followed was one of the most intense turkey hunting experiences of his life. With more than 100 gobbles heard at 150 yards and closer, Luke finally made an aggressive move that paid off, ending with a beautiful Merriam’s gobbler standing just 15 yards away.

The conversation then shifts to an important topic for sportsmen and women across Colorado. Max discusses a proposed amendment to the Colorado Constitution that would establish the right to hunt and fish, helping protect outdoor traditions, conserve wildlife resources for future generations, and ensure wildlife management remains rooted in sound conservation practices. Supporters are currently gathering signatures to place the amendment on the ballot, making public participation critical.

If you're passionate about turkey hunting, shed hunting, mountain adventures, truck camping, conservation, or simply hearing a great hunting story, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody, welcome back to Kyoto Outdoors. I've got with me again today Max, uh my buddy from Colorado, and we're gonna talk about my Colorado turkey hunt. Um, I would just like to give a big thanks to Max. He kind of helped me get on a bird, kind of at least gave me a few pointers and pointed me in the right direction uh to just have a successful hunt, kind of a last minute plan. Didn't have a lot of time to put a lot of thought into it, just kind of went and did my best and ended up bringing home a bird and some elk sheds. So uh it was a pretty cool, pretty cool adventure. Uh I got I did get my dad talked into tagging along with me. He didn't want to go at first, but finally was like, you know what, why not? So he tagged along. And like as Max, as you know, we we've gone out there shed hunting a lot in the last few years. Seems like we make a trip about once a year to go elk shed hunting, and my dad really enjoys that. So his reasoning was he was gonna go elk shed hunting, and he said if there's tons of turkeys, he'll buy turkey tack.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

But yeah, he texted me. I don't know if you knew that. He was like, Hey, I'm going with Luke, I think. You think I'll find some sheds? Like, maybe, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

Yeah, like that's all he was worried about, which is funny because he loves a turkey hunt, but he just wasn't concerned about it out there. He wanted to find elk sheds. So anyway, uh, we get out there, like our first day out there. We got out there by about noon, middle of the day. And like for me, turkey hunting starts at daylight. Like, if I'm starting in the middle of the day, I'm like lost. I don't know what to even do, you know, especially being in a new place, new state, never hunted Merriams before. So our goal, like the first day, was just to go shed hunting. And I did pack my shotgun actually, um, which turned out to be a mistake. Like there was no turkeys found, and it was just heavy, you know, and just packing a little extra gear, but wasn't that bad. But anyway, we split up, did a little shed hunting that first day. I think I walked five miles and he walked four, and we ended up with 10 sheds, um, like two small mule deer sheds and eight elk sheds. I think three were brown and the other few were older, but still in decent shape. Um, so that kind of like exceeded our expectations, you know. It was an area we'd never been. This was kind of an area you pointed us in. Uh thought you might we might run into a turkey there.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

But either way, turkeys there, but um never found sheds. So when you text me that, I was really surprised. You'd be like, no turkeys, ten sheds. I'm like, I usually find three gobblers and no sheds.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

Right. So, and it was you know, we didn't do like a lot of e-scouting for these sheds. We just like I just kind of looked at them on X real quick. I'm like, you know, this hillside looks pretty good, or like we can walk down this area, let's try it. And I mean, we run into them pretty quick, and we were both pretty surprised. I even spotted one, like I was up high on a hill and spotted one down right next to the road. It was like 50 yards from the road, but it was just over a little knob where nobody had seen it, obviously. Uh so that was kind of neat. But anyway, we were real pleased with the first first day, just finding sheds. Um I did a little bit of listening that evening, hoping to maybe hear a bird gobble from my camp, but no luck there. Uh any sign?

SPEAKER_00 3:29

Do you see any?

SPEAKER_01 3:30

No, I did not see any sign. Like I was looking for like actively looking for tracks and looking for you know, poop, honestly, and just never saw anything. And I don't like here in Missouri, you look for scratching, like in the oak leaves and stuff where they're picking up acorns, but out there I didn't know that I would see anything like that. Uh but anyway, we set up camp, had a nice camp, grilled some food, you know, just like that's half the fun right there. It's just camping. Uh and I kind of copied you this year. I built a little bed in the bed of my truck, like in my camper shell. So I camped camped in there. Me and my dog slept in the back of my truck, and dad slept in his tent, and like it just worked great. Like, I really like sleeping in my truck. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

It saves a ton of time at night.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah. Yeah. I like setting up a tent's not bad, but it's not fun either. Like and sleeping on the ground, it's okay, but it can suck if things aren't just perfect. Like, yeah, you can be hurting the next day from sleeping on the ground, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Anyway, the next so I know you built like a little cot. Did do you have like a sleeping pad on top of it?

SPEAKER_01 4:39

Or yeah, so like I actually had this sleeping pad laying around from a camper, actually come out of a camper, and it's like it's a like a foam pad. It's almost got like a leather or like a vinyl exterior, like it's kind of tough. It's like 28 inches wide and whatever, six feet long. And I I built the like just out of wood, built a framework in the bed of my truck over to one side, so just just the size of that, and then like there's room next to it to set stuff. There's I made it just the right height to slide some totes under it. Nice. I think it was I put it together really slip quick, but it worked really, really good. Uh and it was way more comfortable than sleeping on uh the floor or on the ground. And uh as you know, it gets cold up there at high elevation in the springtime, like down in the low 40s. I think one night we saw 37, and I took a heater with me, never used it. Like I was super comfortable in that camper shell, and I think my dad got a little cold and he had lots of sleeping bags, you know, and stuff. So it definitely kept me warm. Having a dog in there probably helped too. But uh anyway, next morning I got up at whatever, got up at before daylight and took off, left camp right about daylight, and my plan was just to listen from the truck, you know, stop every quarter mile, step out of the truck, do some hoot out calls, whatever. And actually, the second spot I stopped, I got a bird to gobble. And like I couldn't believe it. Because dad and I talked the day before, like, he's like, There's no turkeys here, you know. Like, we don't really know what to expect, but we've been shed hunting out there multiple times, and I've never seen a turkey while we're shed hunting, you know. So here we are, had like a successful shed hunt day, and it's like there's no turkeys here, but anyway. So I heard this bird gobble, and I couldn't believe it. And I think it was the second spot I stopped, and he was way up above me, and like I put a pin on Onyx where I thought it was, you know. I got him gobbled two or three times, and then I was like, okay, I think I know where he's at. Like, I just need to go, it's just go time, you know. And unfortunately, I wasn't like super prepared. I didn't have my boots on yet. I didn't have any snacks packed in my backpack or wasn't full on water, you know, so I kind of rushed around and got ready and got everything I needed, and from where I could park the truck closest to this bird, he was like 500 feet elevation above me. Which for you that's like a hop, skip, and a jump. But for this Missouri boy who's not used to elevation and that's great, you know.

SPEAKER_00 7:28

That's a climb. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:30

So like it was a like I knew it was gonna be tough just right off the bat. I was like, oh, this is gonna suck, you know, first thing in the morning. Anyway, I take off up this hill, and probably took me 45 minutes to get there. And like on the way there, I run into three bull elk that were, you know, had antlers this long and their brow tines were starting, and like I didn't want to bump them and scare them, so I kind of I had to stop and kind of let them work through, and I kind of enjoyed watching them anyway. And I get to this knob and like I go to the highest point, and I had him marked on a pen a little bit lower, but I wanted to get up above him, and there's a little bit of an opening up here, and I thought, well, maybe he's he'll pitch down and hang out in this little opening up on the top of this freaking mountain, you know. And I kind of get up there and I get to where I can see this opening, and he's I'm not seeing him anywhere, but I'm real careful, and I crow called and he gobbled like 200 yards down the hill, like at the end of this little opening patch. And I'm like, oh my gosh, he's still right here. Like I was real accurate with my pen on Onyx, which was pretty good because I was a long ways away from him, you know. And so I just sat down and started calling, and I don't think he ever gobbled to my call. Like here in Missouri, like things are right, you sit down, and the second you make a peep, this bird's gonna gobble at you. And it this bird would not gobble at me. And I just yelped a few times, you know, and I realized he wasn't liking it, so I just waited and I crow called again and he gobbled again, and he'd worked off just a little bit. So I got up and tried to make a little move on him, and I don't know, didn't nothing really happen. He never gobbled again. I couldn't find him. I snug up a little closer, couldn't see him, like, don't know where he went. Um, I did find a deadhead spike bull while doing that, so I had to stop and hook it on my backpack. And while doing so, I found some like real big pine trees, which is kind of like what I was expecting them to roost in. And you know, you and I talked about that. Because like I don't know, where we're at, there's not a lot of huge pine trees, right? A lot of smaller stuff, yeah, yeah. And so like I identified these few like really big ones, had some big limbs. I'm like, man, if I was a turkey, I would roost here. It's real close to where my pen was, you know. Like I'm guessing he roosted in here, and I kind of walked around underneath them looking for some droppings or something from being on the roost, and I didn't find nothing, but either way, I backed out of there. Thought he's not responding to a call. There's not a lot I can do with this bird.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

So I head back down. What how far were you from the last gobble? Like 200 yards?

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Yeah, probably 200 yards. And I and I waited a little while. Like I didn't just get get up and leave.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

But did you suspect he pitched down already and was moving?

SPEAKER_01 10:40

Yeah, because you know, it this was probably an hour after he would come off the limb. I just kind of figured well he's probably got some hens with him, and he's not like he don't care about me kind of thing. Uh so anyway, I go back to camp, meet up with my dad, planning on doing some shed hunting, and find out he's like super down in the back. I don't know if it was the four miles he'd hiked the day before or it was sleeping in his tent, what it was, but like he was worthless. So I was like, well, let's get in the truck and drive around. You know, maybe we'll get lucky and see a turkey from the truck. And we did quite a bit of driving around, which my one-ton truck on them mountain roads is like was probably worse on its back than anything. Like, I mean, it just throws you around in the truck. It's miserable. Like driving like two miles an hour, and you're just getting tossed left and right in this truck. He thinks something's wrong with my truck, but it just got a stiff suspension. But anyway, we didn't find any turkeys doing that.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

So remember that uh three-quarter ton I had the silver auto? Yeah, stiff suspension docked on those roads, and now I've got a half-ton Cushy suspension, it's like so nice. Yeah, but no, you're right. Those roads they never get maintained, like they're they've probably been like that for 40 years, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:07

Yeah, like you need like a Jeep or like some off-road setup with some aftermarket suspension parts, but I didn't have that. But I don't think you need that. I mean, it would be more comfortable, it would be comfortable, yeah. Yeah, it would ride a lot better. But anyway, so we decided, you know, we found quite a few sheds in this one area, and we picked up three Browns, and we probably didn't cover it as thoroughly as we could have. So we're like, let's go back in here and just make sure, you know, we covered everything. Yeah, fairly close to the truck. We knew dad could do that hike, you know, without hurting himself anymore or whatever. So we did, and I think we found three more of doing that, and I found the biggest brown of the trip, like a just real nice five-point side.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Oh, yeah, yeah. I saw that video you posted.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

Yeah, and uh actually my dog picked it up. I think she picked that one up. She she picked up a few for me. Uh always enjoyable to watch.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

Was she catching on to the smell? Or no, she wasn't.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I've I've had her doing that, like I've seen her do it before, but she did not this trip. Like it was it was all eyesight, and like one was like 50 yards away. She like it was pretty open. Uh-huh. Yeah, and like like I saw it too. Sure. And she locked onto it and run straight to it, grabbed it and brought it back. It was a small three-point brown, but yeah. Cool to have have her with me.

SPEAKER_00 13:35

Sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

It was cool to have her with me. Like, just I I could leave her at home and leave her in the pen and someone could come feed her, you know. That's I hate doing that. So I I just took her with me and figure if it's a situation where I'm gonna go chase a turkey, she can sit in the bed of the truck and she'll be fine. Or honestly, like while we were shed hunting, I had a leash with me. I was gonna just tie her to a tree if I had a turkey come up or and honestly, I would she just sit there? I I think I could probably get her to sit next to me and call a turkey in. I really wanted to try it. She trusts me pretty well.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

You ought to do that next year at home.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, I I really thought about it this year. Thought about trying to kill a turkey with her by my side, just just because, you know. I don't I don't know if it'll happen. I hate to mess up a hunt too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:25

But that's I don't even know the laws either. You can't hunt with dogs, but that wouldn't be using them, you know.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Right, yeah. Like I'm not like killing a turkey with a dog. I just want a dog to be with me, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Huh. That's interesting though. But you weren't carrying when you guys when you were chasing those gobbles, you didn't have her.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

No, no. I because dad stayed at camp, so I left her there. Yeah. Um and anyway, we picked up a few more sheds. Um and my plan for that evening was to go right back to where this turkey roosted. Like, that's just the most intel I had was he roosted somewhere right in here. I'm gonna get back in there and uh see if I see if he won't come back to roost in the same tree, maybe, or close, and I can make something happen right here at dark. And didn't work out. Uh I got up at I sat like two or three hours up there before dark, you know. And I had a it was funny, I had a grouse like come in perfect, like come right in front of me, like five yards, and then he pitched up into a tree like right next to me. I was like, well, grouse roosted. I had a bull elk come in on me too. That was pretty neat. Um seeing lots of elk up there, nice. Yeah, and actually, yeah, earlier that morning I'd seen a like a group of like six or eight cows. Cows and calves, but uh but yeah, so no luck that evening. So the plan the next morning, we actually we moved camp closer to that spot so I could hear this bird gobble from camp if he was there. And that next morning, actually, shame on me, I overslept. And I got up right after daylight, but it had been raining and the wind was blowing, and I think I woke up and I was like, it's raining, you know, and I fell back asleep. But anyway, got up, didn't hear any gobbles, and I told dad, I was like, let's move spots, let's go somewhere completely different. And so that's what we did. I spent we got there like mid-morning to the next spot. I did a lot of walking. Uh there was a little bit of turkey droppings in this spot, so that was promising. And the weather got really bad. I actually ran into a bunch of wildlife, seen a couple antelopes, seen a big group of mule deer, seen a few elk, like saw all kinds of stuff. It was really cool. Didn't see any turkeys, and I it looked money for sheds, especially when I was running into all these critters. Maybe somebody had hit it already, you know, who knows? Because it's pretty easy access, I guess. But um, the weather got real bad and the wind was howling, I mean like blowing hard, like knocking me off balance when I was out in the open. And it got kind of cold, and I'm like, I'm not gonna kill a turkey in this weather. So headed back down. Um like I said, we've been camping, but my dad wanted to get a motel this night. So we go back all the way back into town because he wanted to sleep in a real bed, hopefully help us back. So like, whatever, you know. I didn't really want to camp, but he said he'd pay for it. I was like, sure, whatever. And we we get into town, we take a little nap because we're both wore out, and uh I decided to head back out. And I was gonna go back to that spot we've been this morning, but I was like, you know what, I'm gonna go check another spot. And kind of like what I saw there, and I thought, you know what, I'm just gonna spend a little spend the evening in here. Might get lucky, run into a turkey, might not. Either way, it was it the weather turned out to be really nice that day.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

So this is a sorry, completely different area, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Like yeah. This is the spot. This is the spot where I end up killing.

SPEAKER_00 18:16

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

And so what I did there, I just like I don't and you'd send me some pens too of places you'd seen turkeys before. And so I got in there and just kind of went on a little walk and started yelping every once in a while, you know, just acting like a hen turkey. I mean, that kind of works here at home when you you don't have anything to go on, so you just spend time in the woods yelping and scratching around and doing stuff. And I did that for a while and finally I got to a spot that I liked the setup, like I liked where I was. Um I could only see maybe 40 yards, which kind of means if you're bringing a bird in, like he's gotta come within 40 yards to see you, so he's kind of within range. So I just sat down and started calling every once in a while. You know, every five minutes I just let out a couple real loud yelps, and I was just hanging out and enjoying being outside and just being in the mountains. It was really nice. And uh so ended up I hadn't I it'd been a few minutes since I yelped and boom one gobbles like 200 yards from me, and I was like shook, like wasn't expecting it. Well, that's awesome. And this is like late afternoon, probably I'm gonna say an hour and a half before they'd be flying up to Roost, I think. And I was like, oh my gosh, he's coming. Like, why else would he gobble that close to me? Like he had to have heard me yelping. He's come close to check me out, and he just gobbled, he's looking for me. And I just I'm like, I'm getting ready. Put my gloves on, pull my face mask up, and pick my gun up, and my okay, here we go. Like, he's gonna be coming. I'm gonna see him here in a few minutes. And I waited and waited and waited and nothing. I thought, well, maybe he doesn't have me pinpointed good. So I let out a yelp, nothing, like no response right to my yelp.

SPEAKER_00 20:17

And it's weird they aren't responding. Yeah, like like late season, because this was late May. Or no, early early May.

SPEAKER_01 20:27

Middle May, yeah, middle May, I think.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Yeah, I don't know. I feel like I haven't had the worst luck with Miriam's responding, but I will say, like, when I'm traveling a lot and trying to locate, crow calls always strike them off. And yeah Yelps sometimes don't.

SPEAKER_01 20:47

Right. I uh I started doing the crow call a lot. I can do it with my voice pretty good. And I swore, so I didn't wear my turkey vest. I've got turkey vest that's got all the turkey things in it here at home, but I didn't bring that. I just brought the bare necessities and put them in a backpack so I could also pack some sheds and water and whatnot. And I thought I forgot my crow call. Well, at the end of the trip, I found it in the bottom of my bag. But I'd been like crow calling with just my voice, and like it kind of hurts my throat when I do it, you know. But anyway, uh I yelped at him. I kind of want to hear it. No, I'm I'm out of practice, it's been like a month or so. But uh it is pretty good though.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

I know you can owl hoot, I've heard that, but all and that's what got the Midwesterns can do that, right?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

I can't do that. That's weird to me that like someone can't. Like it's just common here, I feel like. I have a whoops, I have a coyote how tube thing. It's like any coyote call would work, like mouth call. But Drury Outdoors come out with this one. It's got like a little horn on it, like that makes it louder. And like it takes a lot of air and like hurts your ears. It's so loud. And I just I don't use it a lot. I did try it out there once, but I didn't get nothing from it. But uh anyway, this bird, I yelped at him thinking he's gonna, he's still coming, you know. And like a few minutes after my yelp, he gobbles and he was further. I was like, dang it, you know, he's working away from me. I'm like, well, I gotta keep up with him. Like he's obviously going the other way. So I start heading that way, and I don't want to push too far and spook him, you know. I'm trying to be cautious, but also trying to be aggressive. And I don't know, I kind of give up. Like he wasn't wasn't responding. I'm like, he's not here, like he's he's probably just moving quick, moving away from me, headed to roost is what he's doing. You know, we're talking at this point, we got an hour till time to roost. And what ended up happening, there's a pretty decent trail going right through there. And I got down on this trail, like you just kind of see the beaten path, and he walked right down that trail. I I saw like a toe print, just the little toe in the dirt, and I'm like, I think that's that turkey track. I'm like, uh, I don't know. And I took like two more steps, and there I could see one plain as day. Big old goblin track. And I tracked him for a days.

SPEAKER_00 23:29

People tracks too, right?

SPEAKER_01 23:30

Like there's kind of been people hike this trail, I think.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Granola people.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

Yeah. And I'm like, you know, I should have set up on the hiking trail. I I'd have had him killed. But anyway, I tracked him down this thing for a while and I lost, like, I lost his tracks. I wasn't seeing it anymore. So I'm like, okay, he obviously veered off. And to one side of the trail, or like just the way the slope is, it starts to get steeper. I'm like, he's probably going uphill to roost somewhere. So I just kind of waited, like, the hunt was over. Like I knew I wasn't gonna kill him, but I wanted to get him roosted for morning. Like roosting a bird for the next day is like a ticket to success, if you ask me. Like, if I don't have a bird roosted, I'm lost. Not really, but it just helps so much to have a bird roosted for the morning hunt.

SPEAKER_00 24:19

It's probably easier to wake up too.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Oh, yeah, definitely easy to like be there 30 minutes before daylight versus rolling out of bed, like, oh, here we go again. But yeah, so I ended up uh I just stood in the same spot and listened, and I did a hoot out call. I I heard him gobble once on his own, and sure enough, he was up his hill a ways. And I actually thought he might have got on some private. There's a chunk of private there, you know. It's weird to me out in Colorado, there'll just be all this public land, and then like here's a rectangle of private ground right smack in the middle of it in the middle of nowhere. It's like, what why? But anyway, I'm thinking he's probably on private, but you know, not that far. Like, I'll still be able to hunt him tomorrow. He get him to come back across or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Because he was on public the day before. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Like, yeah, if he does much traveling at all, he's gonna be back on public. So I heard him gobble once on his own. I let out a pretty loud hoot out call and he he gobbled at it, and I kind of had a good idea. I was like, well, I want to get closer and figure out, you know, just pinpoint him better. So I cut the distance quite a bit, and I got up like to where I could see the private property line. I wasn't up against it, but I was probably 50 yards from it. And I hoot out called a couple times and nothing. So I was like, Well, I know he's in this area anyway, you know. So the next morning, get back in there. I'm pretty excited. It was cold that morning. It started spitting snow right after daylight, like I think it was like 35. Like I was cold after being there a while, but I go right up in there and he gobbles, and he was way closer than I expected. And it's no wonder he didn't gobble the night before when I was hoo-do calling at him from the fence because he was very close to that line. Like when I cut the distance the evening before, I was probably within a hundred yards of him on the roof, and I didn't intend to get that close. But either way, he got he gobbled. It was actually kind of late, like it was pretty light when he first gobbled. You know, here at home we had some birds gobble this year that were like it's still dark out and they gobble, like you can barely see things and they're gobbling. But it got good and light, he finally let out a gobble. And so I made a move and had a lot, like a hard time this year picking the right tree. Like setup's really important, and like I look around like I don't want to make the wrong decision, you know. So I'm weighing different options. Like if he comes through here, will he see me? Will I have a shot? If he goes over here, will I have a shot? Like if I need to call him in, how far he can he see? Stuff like that. And so I was like frantically like, where do I go? Where what tree do I sit on? Finally I picked a spot, had real good cover, like kind of in a pine tree, you know. And I wasn't gonna call at him either until he hit the ground. Uh that's a thing that I've done here at home. Some like you give them some tree yelps, and sometimes they don't like it. I don't know if they know like you should be in the roost and you're on the ground, or if they just know there's not a turkey roosted there. Either way, I like to wait till they hit the ground for a yelp. And he gobbled and he gobbled and he gobbled so much. Like he should have been on the ground in 15 minutes and started gobbling, but no, I don't know, 30 minutes into this hunt, into him gobbling, he's still in the tree for sure. And like I'm pr he's on private, but I'm probably within 150 yards of him, I'd say. And all of a sudden I hear a yelp come from the distance that or the direction that I parked the truck. So, like the easiest access, I hear someone yelp or something yelp down there, and I'm thinking, oh, it's another hunter. Like he's gobbled so much, another hunter has heard him and is coming in and just started yelping, you know. So I instantly yelped back, thinking, well, if it's a hunter, he might hear me yelp and be like, That's not a turkey, you know, that's somebody hunting, and maybe they'll lay off. Yeah. Well, they yelped back, and it sounded way too good to be a hunter. And like I knew Miriam sounded different, but I didn't really know what they sounded like until I heard that, and I'm like, Yeah, that's not a person, that's amazing vocals by this hen turkey is what it was. And so at that point, I shut back up once I realized it was a turkey, and this hen came right into my lap. Like she heard me yelp the one or two times, and she was like coming straight to me, and she came yelping the whole way in, like it was beautiful, like making some awesome sounds that I cannot do on a turkey call.

SPEAKER_00 29:21

Like high higher pitch, higher pitch, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

Like an Eastern hen typically has some rasp to it, and Miriam's have no rasp, or at least this one, zero rasp. And I have like two turkey calls that I like to run. I typically run the raspier one. Well, I have this other one with me, and and actually that morning I'd switch to the other one. I wanted to sound different, like I'd called at this bird the night before, and it he didn't like it, you know, he didn't come in. I'd switch calls thinking I want to sound like a different turkey. Like I don't want to be the same turkey he didn't come to the night before. And once I heard this hen come in so high-pitched and like no rasp, I'm like, okay, I've got to call different. Like and so I I just had that in the back of my mind. Either way, this hen comes in yelping, come to like 20 yards and come right by me. I couldn't believe she didn't spook, really. Like she could see me. Like, I I don't know. I was just surprised it worked. Anyway, he's still gobbling, and she obviously makes her way over to him, and like that's nature, right? Like a gobbler gobbles to bring a hen to him. And so at that point, I was kind of like, this is over. Like he just called in a hen. Like, why would he come to me, you know? Anyway, I stayed on him and did some yelping, and like I said, I was yelping like higher pitched, like that hen sounded, and she was still yelping over there, and I never could see him, but he was still right there, and he did finally fly down after like an hour after I felt like he should have flown down. He was finally on the ground gobbling, and like he gobble, you know, the an opposite direction and be quieter. And anyway, I actually gobbled at him a couple times. Like, I've got a gobble call, and I thought, you know, like I gotta try something here, you know. Let me imitate like a hen and a gobbler over here making some noise. And I didn't that didn't really work. Uh and finally he gobbled and I felt like he had worked away a little bit. I was like, okay, I'm gonna make a move. If he's not coming, I'm gonna make a move. So I dropped down the hill and kind of start moving around, and I I probably only made it a hundred yards, and he gobbled again, and I felt like he was still in the same spot. I was like, crap, maybe I shouldn't have moved. And so I yelped right where I was and I worked back up the hill towards him, probably 50 yards. So I yelped down at the bottom of the hill or lower, you know, worked towards him and found a good tree to hide in, had a real good hide, had some brush right in front of me, could shoot left or right, and I got to that spot, and I'm like, okay, I'm just gonna shut up and be quiet. And sure enough, I don't know how long it was, probably five minutes. I hear and like it wasn't a putt, like a nervous putt, it was a more like a cluck, I guess. And like I would assume it was a hen, or I did assume it was a hen coming. I'm like, I'm I'm hearing something, you know, and it just slowly got louder. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna pick my gun up just in case, get ready. And I'm like, oh yeah, there she is. I'm like, wait, that she has a red head. That's not a she. I'm like, that she has a beard. I'm like, that is him, and he came in clucking, like looking for me, I guess. So he had crossed the fence on the public and was coming looking for me.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Silent like he knew something, like he's being cautious.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

Yeah, he's being pretty cautious, walking real slow, just clucking, you know, looking for an answer. And I've also always heard like you should always get above turkeys, like you can't, it's harder to call a turkey downhill than it is to call him uphill. Yeah. But but I'm downhill, and he was coming. So that was kind of neat. But either way, he came perfectly. And like I said, I could shoot left or I could shoot right. The right opening was much better. Like I could force a shot left, but I really needed to be right, and dude, he came right at me, and at 15 yards he turned to my right and just started walking like broadside across this opening. Had no clue I was there. Just I mean, perfect. And of course I shot and dropped him, and like I was pumped.

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Strutting? Just walking.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Just walking. Yep. I'd have loved to see him strut or gobble close. I know.

SPEAKER_00 33:52

Snow now, those white snow.

SPEAKER_01 33:54

I'd love to see that white tail feathers, but you know, I hated to call or anything. I mean, I had it dead to rights at 15 yards. I just wasn't trying to mess things up. So that was awesome. You know, called my dad, and he'd actually come that morning. He was just waiting in the truck, and he'd actually gone and listened for me a few other spots. And so I called him. I was like, I got him. He's like, You gotta be kidding me. Like he couldn't believe it. And that's awesome. Like it was cool. Of course, little spurs, little beard, like compared to an Eastern, what I'm used to. But but either way, like, so cool. They're such a beautiful bird. Um, yeah, the feathers are crazy. It was it was awesome. Like, super thankful. My first Merriams. Um, it was tough, like could have hit it harder, I guess, but still, like what we did was tough. Like, I was sore, like walked a lot of miles, and um and yeah, ended up finding that one and got them groosted and killed. So, like it was picture perfect, yeah. It was a good hunt. For sure. Heck yeah. And I'm gonna have to come do it again or something. Like, I I don't know. It'd been a few years since I'd done the traveling turkey hunting, and I don't know. I enjoyed that a lot.

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Western turkey hunting is really fun because the amount of public and just that time of year in the mountains is fun. You know, you get out of the heat, you're up in the higher altitude, find some sheds. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

Me too. It was it was a good time. I'd like to do that.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

I would have joined you this year, but I was on that bear hunt.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

But that was fun too, though.

SPEAKER_00 35:30

Glad you tagged out.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

So um there's one other thing we're gonna talk about. Um Colorado just what I don't even know how to say it. They can you talk to that what Colorado's doing right now?

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Yeah, so pretty recent news. So Dan Gates, he's the one that kind of led the charge in the fight against the they were gonna try and ban Mount Lion, Bobcat, and Lynx hunting last or two years ago on our ballot. Um, and they failed. Uh I think we won that vote like 55 to 45 percent. Anyways, Dan Gates and um a couple other partnerships in in the industry, you know, they've got a lot of backing now because of that win and a lot of support from just all the outdoor you know companies and the whole industry as a whole. But um, this year we're taking the offense and trying to amend the Colorado Constitution to uh other states have done this, it's the right to hunt and fish, and you know, there's other details like providing your own food, you know, protecting the culture. Um but yeah, this November. So they need 125,000 signatures on this petition before it can go on the ballot. Um, and so right now they're collecting those signatures. So if you live in Colorado, uh go to I think it's save the huntcolorado.com. I think you'll be able to find some information on locations. They're at grocery stores and um you know, Cabela's, Batscrow, all that stuff, Shields, um, collecting signatures. Once they get all their signatures, then um they're gonna go through the whole legal process to get to get this thing on our ballot. So if we win this, um it's gonna protect us in the future from from anti-hunting, trying to steal, steal what we love, and trying to ruin the state of Colorado.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

And like Colorado is like at high risk of that. Right. Of all the like it's what, right behind California, basically.

SPEAKER_00 37:42

California, Washington, Colorado are the front runners for you know, it's all blue states. Um, our governor and his husband are very pro-animal, and um they don't see the value in sportsmen and outdoorsmen, unfortunately, and even ag producers, like they don't support ranching, any of that stuff. Um, so it's it's pretty sad to see. But yeah, his term's up this year, and then we're getting this on the ballot, so we're trying to trying to hand it to him on a plate.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

So I I just want to read too a little bit about that proposal, uh, just like a definition here, I guess. But so the proposed constitutional amendments for Colorado is the fight to secure outdoor traditions in a major topic in the state with efforts such as Constitutional Right to Hunt and Fish Initiative, Initiative 302, 303. This initiative aims to establish the hunting and fishing and harvesting of wildlife as a constitutional right and designate it as the preferred method for managing wildlife populations. So, like that's something that I feel I think like California has lost that battle on. Like, you can't hunt mountain lions in California anymore. So instead I think that's true. So instead, like the game agencies just go shoot them, like shoot nuisance ones rather than letting hunters do the managing, they just and pay for a license. Yeah, and pay for a license and generate revenue, they're instead paying whatever, uh wildlife guide, yeah, hitman to go take them out. You know, there's it just seems silly. So, like what this is doing, like if if there's too many elk in Colorado, which not gonna happen, but if that were the situation, game of fish isn't gonna come in and just shoot them all, they're gonna create more tags or whatever. So definitely a good thing, like to have in writing like you have a right to hunt, like this is your guys' thing. To have that in the Constitution certainly would be a win for all outdoorsmen.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

100%, man. Yeah, it's uh growing up here, you know, is interesting because half the state doesn't understand it. And I met you in college and it was crazy in the Midwest. Just everyone hunts, every everyone that's just part of the lifestyle. And here it's just it's crazy. It's not you know, people don't really understand it as much. And um, but that's why we're trying to make our voice heard, and I think we can run it this year, and so you can keep coming back, and we can keep deer hunting and elk hunting and turkey hunting and all the all the awesome stuff that yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 40:27

And yeah, you're best days of our lives, so you're right. Like I remember in college, like we talked about like social media, and like here you kill a big buck, you post it on Facebook, and everybody's like, oh, you know, great. And like I remember you talking about like none of your people that you know like care. Like, or not not, I don't want to say none, but a majority of the people like just aren't hunters or don't care about it, or and it's just it's weird.

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Um They don't understand it, and that's why I'm always preaching, like posting stuff I'm eating and stuff, because it's we do that too, you know, it's not just about right trophy. And that's where I think their disconnect is because to them it's just like, oh, you just shot Bambi and hung it. Like it's not they don't see the value in it like we do.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

And here it's just part of life. Like if you don't deer hunt, you used to, or something like that, you know. Like everybody's been deer hunting or turkey hunting or knows people that do, or their kids do, or their brother does, or something, you know. So and there, I mean, there's a lot of outdoorsmen in Colorado too, but there's just a lot more people that aren't, right? Like that's that's what it is. Like the the non-hunters just are outweighing the outdoorsmen.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Exactly, man. And but yeah, like you said, the I think it's they're calling it Initiative 302 right now, but once it's on the ballot, it'll have its own ballot number. And so that's not established yet. Um, just know, you know, if you're in Colorado or know someone that lives here, tell them to vote yes um when it reaches the ballot this fall. And uh and uh yeah, that's that's really all we can ask for. So hopefully, hopefully this never happens to Missouri.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Hopefully you never I don't see it happening, but you things can change, of course. You probably people probably didn't see it happening 20 years ago in Colorado either, but here here we are.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

So we used to be a red state, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

So yeah, man, thanks for sharing that. Uh that's some good information.

SPEAKER_00 42:28

Yeah, so but yeah, um, are you getting out anymore of this? I mean, are you on to food? What are you doing now?

SPEAKER_01 42:36

Yeah, so been doing some bass fishing. Uh actually, like as soon as me and dad got home from that trip, we run some trot lines. So here in the lake close to where we live, run trot lines, caught some flathead, caught some channel cat, like caught a couple flathead in the 20, like 25, 26 range, which is nice. Great eaters, a lot of white, delicious meat from those. Um so that's fun. And then yeah, I've done some bass fishing too. I caught a four-pound, six ouncer the other day. That's my best for this year. Uh, I haven't I haven't got to go as much this year, but like that's a good that's a good bass. I don't that was one when you set the hook, your initial reaction was, oh, I'm hung up on something. And then it comes, and then it comes a little bit, and it's like, oh, this is a big fish. I instantly said I was with Ryan. I said, Ryan, this is a big one. Like, help me come here. Kind of all gets pretty chaotic there for a second until you get a big one in the boat. But uh, that's kind of what I've been doing. Yeah, food plots a little bit. Um I've got a couple trail cameras out, got a couple pictures of some bucks, you know. I don't know, they're six, eight inches long right now, or out to as wide as they're getting kind of deal. Nothing too crazy yet, just uh been busy. Um, on the deer topic, though, I don't know if you saw this and I haven't done. much much research on it but I did see that it passed they passed the non-resident uh buck tag change so before non-resident could buy two buck tags just like a resident could and then now they've dropped it back to one so it they did okay but it's not a draw it's not a draw yet um I in their survey in the initial survey they posted the discussion for draw was like 2027 or eight I think 2028 and beyond like so it wasn't going to be this year and I don't think it was going to be next year either so that may still be up for discussion or it may have changed with it. I don't know I don't think so I don't think they've made that official change yet I also like on that topic so and I kind of want to talk about it some more but I just haven't really had a chance to but I sat in a CWD meeting a while back I got invited it's a small group like 30 people somewhat locally like basically local to North Missouri to talk about the problems around CWD and I got to talk to I forget his exact title but like the deer and elk manager like the the guy that's in charge of the deer and elk population in Missouri he was there talking to this problem of CWD and I asked him about I said are these proposed changes to the non resident bag limits and the potential for a draw are those being proposed like in accordance with the CWD problems? Like are those related or are they completely unrelated? And he said they're actually unrelated. And I forget the exact numbers he spit out but something like in the last five years there's been like a 50% increase in nonresident hunters in Missouri. And maybe it was 10 maybe it was 10 years maybe it was 10 years something like that. So like what he's saying is like he gets a lot of calls like I don't have a place to hunt anymore things are getting leased out you know there's there's social pressure on all this public ground there's out of state license plates everywhere when I try to go hunting like stuff like that. So it's those changes are an effort to give the residents more opportunity to just prioritize residents over non-residents. And like I think that's good. Like most other states do that too. And yep we did it with health in Colorado. And it just like it does kind of seem silly to say yeah you have the exact same access to the deer population here as the residents do. It just it does seem a little silly when you compare it to other states. So I think it's a good move. I mean I hate it because like you're my buddy from out of state that I want to want you to come hunt here and now that limits you a little bit but I don't need two deer. Yeah I don't think that many people are killing two deer. Although it's the people that like come here and bought ground or come here and lease ground like that are close to state lines you know that like like Iowa there's a lot of people from Iowa that own ground in northern Missouri drive 30 minutes and come hunt and they got their two tags just like you know just like everybody else but so yeah I don't know that's a interesting change for Missouri.

SPEAKER_00 47:31

So I need to do some more research on it and honestly talk more about it I guess but get the get the details ironed out so that'll probably be coming on a future episode but I never thought you can probably relate I never thought I would get into like politics but when they start to try and take hunting away and and make changes you don't agree with you all sudden you're like fired up.

SPEAKER_01 47:55

Yeah like that's that's our lifestyle man like this is what we enjoy this is what we live for like I don't know I wake up every day thinking about hunting or fishing or something. So uh you gotta protect what's ours and what we've grown up doing and protect that for future generations too. Like it's not just us like there's years of this to come and like I can't it's would it scary to think about like you know 40 years from now things could be completely different. Maybe you can't kill an elk very often because there aren't very many or the the regulations have limited you to where you can't hardly hunt elk or something like that. Like that's just awful to think about so and I think I think that mountain lion thing like you said was a big win and like it has brought everybody together and everybody kind of understands what we've got to do. 100% so good info there.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Appreciate it absolutely thank you.

SPEAKER_01 48:55

I think that's all we got today. So if you're still here thanks for listening and we'll see you on the next episode. Thanks Max