Utah Thunder Chicken

[sdolan617]

Took a couple seasons to figure it out but I'm finally on the board with my first Turk. Ended up driving to Southern Utah on the early LE tag to make it happen. Now its time to see if I can put it all together here in the 16.

Hunted basically sun up to sun down on Fri/Sat with pretty minimal action - saw plenty of birds on private but only struck up one stubborn Tom on public. Heard this guy gobbling from the roost early Sunday and was able to sneak in pretty close. He flew down and put on a good show but hung up at about 45yrds. Luckily the TSS 7/&9 blend did its job and it was lights out. Beautiful first bird: 15ish lbs, 7.75" beard, <1" spurs.

 

[skinnyjimmy]

congratulations

 

[Loosenutswelding]

Way to go man. Congratulations

 

[ilovesprig]

Congrats on a fine bird....Sadly, southern Utah ain't what it used to be....I'll be roaming those mountains in about 2 weeks....Did you see many other hunters....Last year was a zoo....

 

[Dawnandusk]

A job well done.
if you are in San Diego next week come to our NWTF San Diego Charter monthly meeting and share your experience with the gang!!

 

[parkermann]

Nice job. Was hoping to run out to Utah this weekend for the first time to do some scouting on some spots I’ve found on google earth/ onX. As long as work lets me I’d like to hunt the general season this year.

 

[sdolan617]

Congrats on a fine bird....Sadly, southern Utah ain't what it used to be....I'll be roaming those mountains in about 2 weeks....Did you see many other hunters....Last year was a zoo....

First time hunting turkeys in Utah so I don't have a great baseline to compare it too but I definitely ran into more hunters than I expected for the second weekend of the early LE season. I had figured most of the locals would have been tagged out already. Had my Saturday morning plans scrapped when another hunter beat me to the punch on a small chunk of public.

 

[utahduckhunter]

Congrats on the bird