Turkey Hunting Colorado
April 9th, 2006 by Administrator
Tough turkey Colorado hunters likely on trail of frustration
About the time this paper hits your front porch, provided the weather holds and the roads aren’t quagmires, close to 12,000 hope-filled hunters will scatter about the hills and valleys of western Colorado, trying to talk turkey to a frustrating quarry.
As sure as it’s spring, Colorado’s turkeys are out there, you just have to figure out how find them.
Thanks to the generous expansion a couple of years ago of this state’s spring turkey season, you have through May 21 to figure out where and when you might encounter a wild turkey, but in many cases even that length of time won’t be long enough.
Colorado isn’t one of the nation’s prime turkey-hunting states but thanks to an active trap-and-transplant program by the Colorado Division of Wildlife and the National Wild Turkey Federation, conveniently accompanied by a series of mild winters, there are turkeys just about every place the habitat is right.
Nearly every canyon and draw between Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs has a turkey or 10 and there’s a healthy but unhunted population along the Colorado River between De Beque and the Utah border.
In spite of the success the DOW has enjoyed in expanding turkey numbers, success for hunting the elusive birds comes down to advance preparation, including some preseason scouting of your favorite areas.
Those mild winters have allowed more turkey poults to survive and grow along with the state’s turkey flocks, particularly in the premier turkey-rich areas in southern and southwestern Colorado.
The top five counties in terms of turkey harvest last year were Garfield, Dolores, Montezuma, Fremont and Pueblo.
Mesa County made the second five along with Montrose, La Plata, Archuleta and Las Animas counties. Delta County, although not in last year’s top 10, also offers excellent turkey hunting.
A DOW hunter survey revealed hunters last spring bagged about 2,500 birds. Of those, 84 percent were taken by hunters purchasing over-the-counter tags for use in general license areas.
That’s mostly public-land hunting, with the accompanying increased hunting pressure and more disruption from other hunters. Hunters fortunate enough to draw limited spring turkey licenses fared much better.
Although only 16 percent of the harvest was taken on draw-only game units, 57 percent of the hunters in those units were successful, compared to 24 percent in the unlimited areas.
While Colorado’s harvest continues to grow, it pales in comparison to Missouri, where hunters in 2003 harvested an all-time high of 58,421 birds. Biologists from Georgia, the nation’s leader in turkey harvest, estimated that 75,000 turkeys were harvested last year from a population that ranges between 300,000 and 400,000 birds.
Still, Colorado’s general turkey licenses are good for most of the state’s prime turkey country, and these tags allow you to maximize your opportunities.
Can’t find an amorous tom that will answer your calls on the Uncompahgre Plateau? Head off to the Dolores River canyon in southwestern Colorado or along the border between La Plata and Montezuma counties or go north to the forested canyons above New Castle and Rifle.
If you’re diligent and lucky, you can test your wiles against two subspecies of turkey, the Merriam’s and the Rio Grande. Most hunters only see the Merriam’s subspecies, an upland-type of turkey that roams from the foothills to as high as 10,000 feet in the heat of summer.
During the spring greenup, hungry for the new growth and looking for suitable nesting sites, these native birds can be found in at mid-elevation areas, particularly near the retreating snow line.
A few Rio Grande turkeys, a bird more commonly found thriving along the riparian areas in eastern Colorado, might be found along the Colorado River after wandering into the state from neighboring Utah.
Merriam’s are considered the tougher quarry, primarily because these seriously nomadic birds can travel 25 miles or more a day.
That puts added incentive on early scouting and learning the day-to-day habits of these birds. A series of nice days will have these birds edging right up to the snow line, feeding on newly emerging vegetation. But unsettled weather like we’ve been experiencing this week might push Merriam’s back to their wintering areas.
Which brings us to another leading question about spring turkey hunting: Do you go early or late?
Early season offers the chance to get out in the woods and catch turkeys as they engage in the fervor of their initial courtship behavior, when toms and hens are actively calling and somewhat off-guard to the presence of two-legged predators wearing camouflage and making sounds like other turkeys.
However, you might be wearing a snowsuit one day and shorts the next, given the changeable early season weather.
But late season is good, too. By then, the weather generally is better, the hens are on the nest and still-amorous toms are wandering lost, theoretically making them more likely to be fooled by less-than-expert calling.
And do you call a lot or a little?
That’s another question to ponder, all while trying to remember that every situation and every turkey is different.
If nothing else, there is no better way to spend time in Colorado’s forests than listening to the hearty gobble of a tom turkey and reveling in the dawn of another spring day
By By DAVE BUCHANAN The Daily Sentinel