Zona

Thanks everyone for the kind comments. I do feel lucky and blessed to not only be able to hunt them once but twice in my home state. The goulds population here is really booming and expanding. A true success story for sure. Brian

I was very fortunate this year, as the draw gods blessed me with my second Arizona goulds turkey tag in three years . Both times permit #5 of 5. The plan from the beginning was I was going to shoot one with my bow. Well as most good intentions, the plan didn't go that way. My brother and I got to my unit Thursday afternoon. We got camp all set up around three o'clock and headed out to do some scouting and to try to roost a bird at dark. We found fresh turkey sign everywhere we checked and also drove up on two big toms with 5 hens. Finally right at dark we were able to get one to gobble out of his roost so we had a plan of attack for the morning. Opening morning we arrived at our spot well before daylight with windy conditions. Not good. As a matter of fact the forcast for the weekend was not good at all wind wise. We finally got the tom to shock gobble. We set up on him, me carrying both gun and bow, and started giving him our best impression of a love sick hen. However, with the increasing winds he did not want to talk much at all. He would basically only gobble when my brother would cackle at him. We heard him fly out of his roost and the last two gobbles we heard were of him going up and over the mountain he was on. We decided to go hit some other spots where we knew birds were but with the increasing howling winds getting a tom to talk was not going to be easy. For the next 3 1/2 hours we were running and gunning trying to get any kind of noise out of a gobbler. Nothing. The wind now blowing so hard that hearing one was going to be a chore. We kept at it when finally around 9:15 we got a tom to answer. Problem was he was probably only 125 yards away. He was down off in a creek bottom and the next time he gobbled we could tell he was getting closer and moving down the creek. So I decided that with the weather conditions and the high wind forcast the best thing was to just take my shotgun and ease down to the side of the creek. Just as I got set down I could see a hen coming right to me, and then another, and then the gobbler. I have yet to call once at the turkeys and they were coming right to me. As they were getting closer the one hen and the tom vered off to my left into some really thick stuff. As a matter of fact all I could see is pieces of them walking through the brush. As the one hen walked through the tinyest of holes I knew the tom would be right behind her. So I eased my gun up, scrunched down and leaned over as far as I could to be able to shoot the hole. The tom stepped into the hole at 12 yards and all I could see was his head which was enough and I rolled him right there. I was tickled pink with my second goulds turkey. I was also glad that I had my shotgun because where he was going through I would have never had a shot at him with my bow. It's not everyday you kill a goulds turkey with a shotgun and a release on your wrist lol . He is a big mature tom, quite a bit bigger than my first one. He has a heavy, 10.5" beard and spurs that measure 7/8" and 1". It was a great, fun, exciting hunt with my brother. The only thing that could have been better was the wind. Did I mention it was bad. Here are a few pictures. Brian

Thanks everyone for the congrats. I have done very little rattling for coues. I do know people that have had good success rattling and calling coues bucks. Their tactics are to glass a buck up and then close the distance to within 150 yards and then rattle and call. Their success rates are a lot higher doing this than just rattling and calling without having the buck spotted first. Brian

Here is my 2011 AZ archery coues buck. I have been sitting on a scrape line since Jan. 1 off and on till yesterday morning. Passed up a lot of little bucks but just couldn't get my karma right on a descent buck. Finally yesterday morning this buck came through and offered a perfect 20 yard shot from my blind. I made a perfect shot and the buck piled up in about 70 yards. He is my 9th archery coues buck. Brian

Yeah, I feel pretty lucky. This will be the last one I put in for. Kinda feel bad about getting two when most people won't get any. One with a shotgun and one with a bow is enough. Will be time to let someone else go. Brian

Well I just found out that I was drawn for goulds turkey in Arizona for spring of 2011!! I am permit #5 out of 5. The amazing thing is that I drew the same tag two years ago!! I never thought that I would draw the tag again and low and behold!! I am so stoked. This time it will be archery only. Here is a pic of my goulds from two years ago. Yee Haw! Brian

Thanks again everyone for all the compliments. The season ended a few days ago with our group taking 4 out of 6 on coues deer. My dad wasn't one of them but that is alright, he will be back at in December when the archery season opens back up. Thanks again. Brian

Thanks everyone for the congrats. It has been a great weekend and I am still on cloud 9. Brian

Here is my 2010 Arizona archery Coues deer. After spending 36 total hours in a blind, the buck I wanted finally came in. He came in with another nice 3x3. He passed in front of my blind at about 12-13 yards. I came to full draw and released. I saw the arrow pass through him perfectly. After a few seconds passed by I heard him fall. A short 80 yard tracking job later, he was mine. The great thing about the situation was that my dad was able to sit with me in the blind when I killed the buck. He was going to shoot any legal buck that came in and when we saw this buck coming in he set his bow aside and told me to get mine ready as he was the one I was waiting for. So thanks to him I was able to take my largest archery buck to date. He is my 8th and largest archery coues deer. He grosses 108", even with the short side. It looks like the short side got injured somehow which caused it not to grow right. If the short side would have matched the other, he would of grossed around 116". I am tickled pink to say the least. Brian

Arizona Juniors-Only Turkey Hunt Had the priviledge to spend two days helping on three junior turkey hunts. Birds were very vocal on the roosts but nearly silent once they hit the ground. We could get them to shock gobble on the ground but not gobble at the turkey calls, but that didn't mean they wouldn't come in silent. . Here is Sam. He is the son of my brother's business partner with his third tom. My brother and I were able to get this tom into about twenty yards at 11 a.m. opening moring. Sam smoked him for his third bird. My uncle and two cousins were not supposed to be up until Friday night so we spent the rest of the day scouting and roosting birds. The next morning Sam and I took my cousin Bryant out, while my uncle and brother took out my other cousin Tyler. Sam and I were able to call two toms in at 8:15 a.m. for Bryant. Bryant made a heck of a shot as the birds hung up and he put him down right there. My uncle and brother were able the call a tom in for Tyler the same morning and he made a great shot on him. I don't have pictures of him as all the pics are on my uncle's camera. What a great weekend!! Three for three the first two days of the season. Everyone had a great time, and all of us can't wait till we get to do it again. Brian

Thanks again for all the congrats. Ever since I killed my bird I have had a lot of people ask me what the difference is between and Gould's and all the other turkeys. A lot of you may already know but I thought I would post a little info on them for those who don't. So here you go. Gould's Turkey The fifth recognized, but least known, wild turkey subspecies is the Gould's (Meleagris gallopavo mexicana) found in portions of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as northern Mexico. It was first described by J. Gould in 1856 during his travels in Mexico. Like the Merriam's, the Gould's is a bird of the mountains. It exists in very small numbers along the U.S./Mexico borders in Arizona and New Mexico, but is abundant in the northwestern portions of Mexico. The Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Forest Service, the Centro Ecologico de Sonora, the National Wild Turkey Federation and other agencies are working cooperatively to reintroduce a strong Gould's population into Arizona and eventually other states where suitable range exists. The Gould's turkey is the largest of the 5 subspecies and resembles the Merriam's turkey. They have longer legs, larger feet and larger center tail feathers than any of the other wild turkey subspecies in North America. Gould's differ by having distinctive white tips on the tail feathers and tail rump coverts which usually separate to show an "eyelash" appearance. Lower back and rump feathers have copper and greenish-golden reflections, not like the faintly iridescent velvety black found on the Merriam's. Gould's body plumage is said to be somewhat blue-green in coloration. Adult females have a less pronounced metallic greenish and reddish sheen and are more purplish. The Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains in Mexico are the center of the Gould's turkey Mexican range, extending south from the U.S./Mexico border. Populations exist in Chihuahua, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco and Coahuila. In the United States, Gould's turkeys are found in the Animas and San Luis mountains of New Mexico and in the Peloncillo Mountains of New Mexico and Arizona.

Thanks everyone for the welcome and the congrats.It truely was a great experience to be able to finally get to hunt these birds. I really hope to get to do it again someday. The odds of drawing a tag ever again is not in my favor but you never know. Thanks again. Brian

Ever since the first time I saw my first transplanted Goulds turkey in the Chiricauha Mountains, I always hoped that some day I would be able to hunt one of these beautiful birds. This past November when spring draw results release, I found out I had drawn one of the five tags for the second hunt in Unit 29. My dream had come true and I was on cloud nine. Knowing the unit real well, and have seen lots of turkeys over the years I figured I had an idea of where to start looking for turkeys. My brother and I traveled 5.5 hours the day before the season started to get to our camping spot. After setting up, we had a few hours before dark to try and located some gobblers and hopefully roost a few birds. The country was extremely dry and we knew that the turkeys had to be around water. We started working some of the creeks checking for sign and there was no problem of finding where the goulds were. Anywhere there was water there was turkeys. I was walking into one spring late in the afternoon and I walked right up on a strutting tom not twenty-five yards away from me. I just eased out of the area without spooking him. About a half hour before dark we got another tom to gobble. Then right at dark we drove up on another tom heading to roost. We sat there till dark till he roosted and we knew exactly how we were going to work him the next morning. We were up at 4 am the next morning and then headed to out to set up on the tom we roosted the night before. We waited in the dark, wanting to him to start gobbling on his own. He finally started and we headed up the draw to get in position to start calling. We set up and started calling to him, and he would just hammer back at every call we made. Sometimes even double and triple gobbling. There was also another gobbler gobbling further up and to the east of us. Finally the tom gobbling six times in a row and flew out of his roost. Problem was he flew off in the opposite direction and to the bottom of the opposite canyon. His gobbles kept getting farther and farther away unil we couldn'thear him any more. To our supprise thoug the other gobbler who was quite far away to begin with was now getting closer and closer until I could finally see him up the draw. He was with a hen and in full strut. coming right for us. He never stopped and continued straight at me until he was 20 yards away. He finally stretched his neck out and I let him have it with a load of #5's from my twelve gauge. He was down and I had my first ever Gould's turkey. My hunt was over at 5:40 a.m. on opening morning. What an experience. One of the greatest experiences of my hunting career.. The tom had an 8 1/4" beard and spurs just over 1". I hope I will one day get another chance to hunt the Goulds turkey again. Thanks for reading and looking and I hope you enjoy the pictures. Brian