Colorado is well known for its abundance of elk, deer, lion, and bear, but you don't hear much about the huge population of Meriam turkey that roams the Uncompaghre plateau. After the rip roaring winds of spring have settled, and the high snows have started to melt off, the turkeys begin to move back up country from their low wintering grounds, spreading out up the wide aspen covered bottoms, headed for the dark timber ridges on the plateau. May is prime gobbler month as the old long beards begin to gather up their harem of hens.

Local outfitter fren, Conrad Wygant [ http://www.conradsoutfitters.com/ ] is a turkey hunter extrordinare. During turkey season he thinks like a gobbler, walks like a gobbler, and talks like a couple of pretty lil hens looking for a bit of fun on the side. During the season hes up at 3 AM daily and off for the 1.5 hr trip up the mountains to turkey heaven. Conrad revels in the chase , the calling, and luring the ole birds into video range to strut their stuff. During the season he will take frens along to keep him company and try to bring to bag a big tom.

For 3 days in mid-May I got an invite to join him and looked forward to the hunt with anticipation. Sure were hoping to bag a nice one to mount for the Hacienda trophy room. On Sunday the 14rd , I loaded up the 4-wheeler on our trailer, got out all my hunting gear, sacked up my shooter, and set my clocks for a 2 AM wakeup.

After early coffee, Conrad met me at 3 AM, hooked up my trailer , and off we went on the climbing switchback gravel road heading up to the plateau divide road some 2000 ' above the Uncompagrhe valley. By 4:30 we were unloading the 4-wheelers to the lite of the bright waning moon. Loaded up, Conrad took the lead down the divide road and off we sped until we ran into 3' snow drifts that blocked the road. Backtracking we turned down an open trail and wound around thru towering spruce and aspen stands, losing elevation as we went. After a 20" bumpy ride we eased into an aspen grove, shut of the 4-wheelers, and prepared to hike the ridge. Half hour later the first hints of morning were lightening the eastern mountains.

Pretty quicklike we begin to hear far off gobblers greeting the new day, but none were close enough to work. Moving down the ridge slowly , we would stop at intervals for Conrad to make turkeytalk, hoping to get a close one to gobble. Sometime around 8 AM one sounded off fairly close, so I settled down in the shade of a big aspen and Conrad moved back behing me to call. He carried on a conversation with the big bird til I heard some low putting behind me and caught site of a young jake coming between us from behind. The young gobbler moved on out of site knowing something seemed fishy with the setup. The old bird just shut up and drifted away. By 9:30 it looked like our wad had been shot for the day, so we loaded up the machines for the trip downhill and hopefully a good nap in preparation of the next day.

Next AM we worked a ridge some 8 miles south, and early gray of morning found us easing along a ridge seeking answers to our plaintive calls. Not a bird answered until around 8:30, after we had made a big sweep, crossing a couple ridges and heading back upridge. An ole bird answered Conrad's call and we quickly set up an ambush. Sounded like multiple gobblers headed our way. A few minutes later one bird slipped into view, followed by three more about 45 yards off to our right. The trees were thick and I could only get brief glimpses of these aspen ghosts. Finally the big tom showed himself clearly, but he was surrounded with his buddies and I dared not shoot. With no hen in sight, they knew something were up and drifted off downhill. That pretty much blew the hunt for that day, so we determined to try again next day. Before the crack of gray next AM we were back were we started two days previous. Off the divide to the west we motored down the western slope of the plateau some several miles. Crack of lite found us in beautiful turkey timber, but not a gobble did we hear. Backtracking uphill we stopped to call into several valleys with no response. By 7AM we were back into the area we hunted first morning, easing along and stopping for a response to our plaintive calls. 'Bout 7:15 we stopped to call and a gobbler answered CLOSE by. Quickly loading up we eased into the timber quietly and Conrad made a soft call. The gobbler hollered back right off, somewhere just downslope from us.

I settled down by an aspen and Conrad backed under a spruce and began to make his magic seductive turkey sounds. Right off the gobbler anounced he were on the way to see us. I started hearing his harem of hens leading him uphill, and in less than 3 minutes hens started materializing out of the brush some 30 yards in front of me. They were the ole Tom's vanguard, checking out the lay of the land for him. One jumped a big log to look for anything out of order and I was afraid my pounding heart would betray me. Then, in a matter of moments , the big Tom strod into view strutting his stuff with wings dragging the ground in display. Onliest trouble were that his hens were walking all about covering any clear shot. Damn! Looked like a repeat of yesterday! But, just as I were about to despair the fates, Big Tom stepped into a clear opening all by his ownself and my trusty Benelli gun boomed seemingly of its own accord, as my first Meriam gobbler went down under a hail of 6's.

At the shot, all was pandemonium as hens flushed like quail, disappearing quickly into the timber. Ole Tom moved not a twitch. He looked to be a 3yr bird sporting a 9.5 beard and good spurs. Conrad figured him to be packing about 25 pounds. And all this action occurred within 100 yards of our 4-wheelers.

Moving out into the open aspen meadow, Conrad shot some video and we took some stills of this magnificent bird. By 8 we were loaded up for home with a successful hunt behind us. Now I needed to get the Tom to taxidermist buddy Gerald for a good full body mount for the Hacienda trophy room.

Hunting with Conrad was a blast! We saw some beautiful country and had a ball. Already I'm trhinking about those gobblers for next year!