Trio of Rios

Rhino

By Rhino
in Turkey Hunting

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Rhino Monster Buck

Rhino

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All I can say about my Texas Rio hunt is…WHAT AN AWESOME TURKEY HUNT!!! I couldn’t begin to guess how many birds we had in range but I’ll bet excluding the 3 birds I killed and the 4 birds killed by my turkey hunting buddy, we both could have killed close to double our limit of birds. I held out with my last tag to try for a bigger bird than I already had hoping to bag an exceptional bird to mount. I never did find that magic long spurred big boy but sure had a fantastic time hunting south Texas Rios even though the temp hit the 90 degree mark both days. Here’s my Trio of Texas Rios.

MyTrioofRios.jpg

1st Day The day began with my hunting buddy and I setting up near a roost area before the 1st pink tint of dawn approached. Thanks to a full moon, for about 30 minutes we glassed black blobs in the distant tree tops. As the 1st hint of dawn broke a strutting long beard was revealed on the top of the highest limp of a tree about 100 yards to the east with him silhouetted against the 1st light of dawn. cool.gif It sure made a beautiful picture to behold. He put on quite a show for the girls roosted around him. The 1st birds began gobbling due south while we were enjoying the limb strutting show. The limb strutter only gobbled once opting to strut for the girls. More and more gobblers chimed in both around us and in the distance. A virtual choir of many birds gobbling. A little soft clucks and yelps brought the 1st birds sailing down to the ground. All hens. They proceeded to the east with the limb strutter sailing down to court them. Then I see the 5 southern gobblers sail down and touch down about 75 yards in front of us. Unfortunately they headed east toward the girls too, 3 sturtting the whole way. 2 more gobblers appeared out of nowhere behind us with a few more girls. I don’t have a clue where they came from. Just a bit too far to consider risking a shot though. Even our most seductive calling couldn’t compete with those real hens either.

We eased out of there to move around where we heard birds gobbling in the distance. About 20 minutes later we are set up on 2 lonesome gobbling birds. A few sweet calls brought both inside the 25 yard line in less than a couple of minutes. I know you’ll think I’m nuts but that early into the hunt I decided to pass on what I’m sure were 2 year old birds with sorta thin beards. One of them put on an entertaining strutting show. cool.gif After they eased off we cut some distance between us and another gobbling bird. We managed to get around on this trophy size bird but he was also courting a hen. 2 more sets trying to get in front of them had me about 50 to 60 yards from him in full strut. Beautiful show from a thick long bearded gobbler but just a little too far away and that dang hen carried him further away again. frown.gif With another bird gobbling in the opposite direction we decided to leave this bird alone for later. Hightailing it about 1/4 of a mile had us where we wanted to be near the next hot gobbler. I issued a courtesy greeting to him that was met with an immediate response that had me hitting the dirt. Before I even had my gun up a red head pops up about 100 yards away. This bird is coming in on a string. Like reeling in the fish. grin.gif When he hit the 30 yard line, he paused with an outstretched head that was met with a load of hevishot at 8:30 a.m. My 1st gobbler ended up being the biggest of my 3 birds. This bird has 1 5/16” spurs and a 10 1/8” beard.

Best2006Rio.jpg

My hunting buddy’s turn to shoot now. Off we go in search of the next shot opportunity. After he made the mistake of busting 2 gobblers we were trying to move in on, along with my ragging him in fun for his mistakes, he made me lead the way on the next bird. Now my buddy is no rookie by any means with 40+ years of turkey hunting experience but he followed about 15 yards back as we moved in close and circled around to get in front of several gobbling birds late that morning. I know he was looking for a payback opportunity to rag me. He even admitted to it later. Taking our time and using cover we managed to get right in front of the birds too. Another little courtesy call had us hitting the dirt set up on mesquite trees that weren’t as big as my forearm. That’s all there was. Those birds came in drumming real close but no clear shot…yet. Not seeing sweet thing they eased off to our right out of sight again. A little more seductive calling had them coming in toward an open area and the 1st gobbler to step in was a real thick bearded sucker that had his lights put out instantly. My buddy’s 1st bird was a double bearded gobbler with a 9 1/2” beard, a 3 7/8” beard and sported 1 1/16” spurs.

With a high wind kicking up we took a lunch break and picked up some lunch for our other 4 buddies on other parts of the ranch that were still birdless at that point. They more than had their share of fun that afternoon killing 6 birds between the 4 of them. After dropping off their lunches to their guides, we caught these 3 gobblers taking a break on the side of the road under some mesquite trees on our way back to our hunting area. My buddy gave these ol’ boys some inspiration to gobble for the pic. You will notice a red wing tag on one bird. Our guide explained that this was one of the wild Rios they had recently caught and tagged for some management information program. This was the only tagged bird we saw.

TagRios.jpg

We spent about 4 hours trying to locate another vocal gobbler and set up on a couple we saw that wouldn’t work before coming across 3 gobblers (one strutting for a couple of hens). I swung around in front of where they were headed and set up. My hunting buddy went with the guide to scout out a place to set up east of the roost area for the next morning while I worked on these birds. Shortly after setting up I had those birds gobbling and heading my way. The 1st birds to appear were the 2 hens. Next was a thin bearded 2 year old bird that I passed and then the thick bearded strutting bird came in. A loud cluck raised his head and I rolled him over. As I was putting away my calls my flopping bird got to his feet and ran about 5 steps before falling over again. ooo.gif I figured I better high tail it over to him. He managed to get to his feet and ran into the mesquite. smirk.gif I looked for about 10 minutes before the guide and my buddy showed up. After about 30 more minutes of searching we found my bird again. He was still on his feet now slowly walking away in the open grass but another load of hevishot put his lights out for good. I’m amazed we were lucky enough to find him. My 2nd gobbler has a paint brush 9 1/2” beard and 1 1/16” spurs.

2nd Day Once again we were set up in the moonlight near the same roost area but this time my buddy and I are about 250 yards apart. My buddy is on the east side and I’m on the west side. Ol’ limb strutter was back on the same limb strutting for the girls on the roost again. At flydown all the birds headed east toward my buddy. I’m glassing 3 strutting gobblers in the distance in front of him patiently waiting for him to take the big one out. Finally a shot rings out followed by a 2nd shot. confused.gif I’m thinking, this doesn’t sound good. Then a 3rd shot. What the… crazy.gif A gobbler appears northeast of me so I hammer him with series of cuts from my diaphragm. He comes in to the 20 yard line on his way west but he’s another thin bearded 2 year old with about an 8” beard so I pass him. When he clears I see my buddy in the distance walking toward me. We meet up and this is what happened. He had the 3 strutting birds about 35 yards from him but with the grass and a slight incline in front of him, he wasn’t sure which one was the big one. While he’s waiting for a closer look, suddenly a coyote comes by him and stops about 10 yards away, between him and the gobblers. Obviously he was looking for a meal but got 2 shots of hevishot instead. Another gobbler then appeared behind him so he tried to quick draw that bird and flat missed him. The bird ran about 50 yards before stopping to look back momentarily and then just walked off. Must have been a thank you gesture. grin.gif

Off we went in search of some more birds. After calling in and passing 2 jakes, messing up another golden opportunity on a big gobbler, and working on 2 birds that went silent real quick, we located a group of gobblers strutting for some hens. We got them to come into about the 60 yard line through the trees but they eventually moved away. We swung around to get in front of them again but even though we kept them gobbling they didn’t quite make it into view before they headed back toward where we came from again. New plan…my buddy swung back around to get in front of them again while I eased in to where they just were. After getting them to gobble again I made my final move using cover and caught a glimpse in the distance of the top of a fan. They were slowly making their way toward my buddy. About 20 minutes passed with us getting them to gobble every now and then before....my buddy fires…then he fires again. I'm thinkin..not good. smirk.gif I begin cutting hard and 2 hens come running in and stop. They ease on and a thick bearded gobbler appears. A loud cluck raises his head and I put out his lights. I mean he went down and didn’t move a muscle. 4 more 2 year old gobblers run up to him and start circling the wagons so to speak. smile.gif Then one gets up on top of my gobbler and starts whipping his dead butt. shocked.gif Nice show but enough is enough. I run those birds off and retrieve my 9 1/4” paint brush bearded, 1 1/16” spured bird and carry him out to see what the heck the 2 shots were from my buddy. Turns out he rolled his bird with the first shot but his bird got back to his feet, hit the air and my buddy immediately put him down for good with a 2nd shot. His bird had a 9” beard and 1” spurs. Time to break for lunch again but this time we opted to enjoy it at a table in the AC. That afternoon we split up with my buddy going with another guy. His partner had quit at noon to catch an early flight home.

That afternoon I saw 3 gobblers together in one area (they were pretty close too), 2 in another with a couple of hens and then 4 in another area but none of those came close to what I wanted for a big bird to mount. We radioed the guide with my buddy and the other guy and they both got on that 4 bird group. The guy he was with killed one of them while my buddy passed on killing another 2 year old bird. Later my buddy got on 2 nice gobblers by himself that he had the pleasure of watching come in from 200 yards way. Another one of those reel them in type of hunts. Those 2 birds finished out his limit and both birds had beards over 10” with spurs in the 1 1/4" range.

Out of our group of 6 hunters, 17 gobblers were killed. 3 were double beards and one was a triple bearded bird with 1 5/8” spurs. Sorry I didn’t get a picture of that awesome Rio. One guy hunted just with his bow (no blinds used) killing 2 gobblers (1 of the double beards) and he missed 7 other gobblers. I’ll definitely be back there again next year. That turkey hunt was just too much fun! wink.gif

BTW the guide stayed in the truck while we worked turkeys. grin.gif

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Rhino Monster Buck

Rhino

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Re: Trio of Rios

Thanks everyone, glad to share. This place sure is an awesome place to hunt Rios. Only thing is, you have to cover a lot of ground but they sure have plenty of it to go around. Just takes a little adjustment in thinking to cover as much ground as possible to keep encountering more birds. wink.gif

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Rhino Monster Buck

Rhino

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Re: Trio of Rios

[ QUOTE ]

Sounds like your having quite the season!

[/ QUOTE ]

You can say that again and it ain't over yet. I'll tag along with a good friend this weekend to try to help him out. He's still 0 for the season and getting pretty frustrated. The following weekend I'm off to Missouri for about 3 days.

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Gus Monster Buck

Gus

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Re: Trio of Rios

[ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]

Sounds like your having quite the season!

[/ QUOTE ]

You can say that again and it ain't over yet. I'll tag along with a good friend this weekend to try to help him out. He's still 0 for the season and getting pretty frustrated. The following weekend I'm off to Missouri for about 3 days.

[/ QUOTE ]

You want to come back to Texas and help me get at least one bird tongue.gif. By this time last year, I had killed one tom myself and called up 3 others for friends. Not giving up yet, still have till May 14 to get some birds, but I am thinking I might have to find a few other places to hunt, which will not be that hard to do.

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