Eastern Colorado Outdoors has access to some magnificent country that holds many a good number of turkeys. The species of bird we hunt in Eastern Colorado is the Rio Grande. These magnificent birds have feathers with a green-coppery sheen to them. The tips of the tail and lower back feathers are light tan color. The area we hunt is known as The Big Sandy, which is a dry creek bottom most all the time, and travels on a winding route from west to east across Colorado. The big sandy provides plenty of semi dead mature cottonwood trees that provide ideal roosting habitat for the turkeys. Turkey numbers in Colorado are steady, if not on the rise, offering hunters an opportunity at a big mature tom. Hunting pressure if very light in the area, which is great news for the young turkey hunter, or hunters with kids, because these birds respond well to the decoys and calls. Another great asset we have at Eastern Colorado Outdoors is our ability to put you on several different birds a day. We can travel along the creek and glass for birds out feeding, allowing us to see what direction they are moving and feeding toward, and then get out in front of them with a spread of decoys and a setup!
In addition to the Big Sandy turkey hunting, ECO has access to hunt turkeys out further East along the Kansas line in units 102, 103, or along the Arickaree & Republican River drainages. These areas are very similar types of habitat as the Big Sandy. The primary difference in terrain is this in not dry river bed. Most of the time there will be a small flow of water in the bottom, along with cottonwood and elm trees. The river bed holds tall grass and red sapling brush with meadows on each side of the creek. Quite a few of these areas will have a tilled field coming close to the creek bottom on either side, with corn, wheat, alfalfa, or a sorghum feed crop. Talk about a bird magnet.
Spring Turkey 2020, April 11-May 31
Fall Turkey 2020, September 1-October 23
A Great Turkey Hunt
Just 2 weeks ago I took my 3 boys out along with another young man that is the same age as my oldest son. We found 40 plus birds working along the edge of the bottom, with several male birds in strut all around the perimeter of the group of hens. We quickly decided a quick stalk out of view of the birds to get within 300 yards of them. Once there I quickly set up a couple hen decoys along with a Jake working one of the hen decoys. Backed off 25 yards and setup to do some calling. I had my 2 younger boys and myself 25 yards away from the gun to keep the calling away from shooter a bit, and due to what little concealment cover we had at this particular location. All 5 of us were in full camo, but I also know getting away with 5 bodies isn’t an ever an easy task no matter how much cover you have. I hit the call once everybody was settled in and had a gobbler fire off in response that wasn’t but 200-250yards off. That big bird didn’t need much verbal assistance, because I caught a glimpse of him shortly after calling and he was literally running right to us. He would stop and gobble, look a bit, and run again right toward the decoy spread. I motioned to my oldest son, the shooter on this stand, with a quick point of a finger toward the direction of the Tom so they could also get eyes on this big ole boy. My son understood quickly my hand signals because we have done it thousands of times while calling predators, to keep from spooking something. They too quickly got their eyes on the bird and the 5 of us watched this old bird run in and put on a show. We let him strut around as much as possible, and when he began to get a little nervous, Hauk my oldest son put him down. I couldn’t have instructed Hauk any better if I had been sitting right beside him. He took the bird just as the gig was about to be up! You could see the bird’s nervous body language just beginning, due to the fact that I think he had just made me and my 2 younger sons. One to my left, “Tate” and one to my right, “Tuck”. It is a proud moment for a father to get to go to the field with his family, but a very special moment to get to see his son use his experiences and gifts in the field, like reading our called in preys body language! Watching all the predators we have called since he was 6 yrs old to now 18 and a senior in high school has taught him many valuable lessons, most important of them all, when to take the shot!
