Number Five: The Final Arizona Governor's Gould’s Hunt

For many hunters around the country, spring turkey hunting is viewed as “something to take up time until fall.” For me, this couldn’t be more inaccurate. Turkey hunting is what I’m counting down the days to, whether I’m chasing screaming bulls in September or rut-drunk desert bucks in January. Turkeys are always on my mind.

This past summer, the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) passed new legislation doing away with auction governor/commissioner tags. Each year, the AZGFD Commission would award a few tags to select conservation groups to be auctioned off. This tag gave the lucky winner the freedom to hunt 365 days, in any legal unit, with any legal weapon. Not only did these tags generate hundreds of thousands of dollars for conservation, but they also opened the door to the hunt of a lifetime. This specific tag was sold at the “NWTF: Superstition Stutters” banquet in August 2024. It was the last-ever tag to be sold, and therefore the bidding reflected that.

I was fortunate enough to be bidding for somebody over the phone, and wouldn’t you know it, he won. The next morning, I texted him to congratulate him and offered to help with the hunt. He took me up on it, so the first chance I got, I hit the hills.

Gould's History

Now, one important thing to note is that Arizona is a special state in the aspect that we have three wild turkey species: Merriam's, which are found throughout northern Arizona; Rio Grandes, which have a very small population on the Arizona Strip; and Gould's, found in the southern part of the state. The Gould's turkey is a bird with a story. It was extinct in Arizona until the early to mid-1980s when the AZGFD and NWTF began working with the Mexican government to relocate birds from northern Mexico into riparian areas and the large mountain ranges in southern Arizona called “the sky islands.”

Forty years later, here we are with a healthy population that a few lucky tag holders get to hunt every spring. With the Gould's being such a sought-after bird and tag allocation being as difficult as it is, naturally, that’s where we set our sights.

Scouting

Scouting started in September. We weren’t just after any average tom, most having 7-8 inch beards and ½ inch or smaller spurs (if they even have both spurs). We wanted to find a bird that dreams are made of. After countless hours spent sifting through jakes and many average toms, I finally found a spot that had multiple birds that got me excited. We planned to start hunting in mid-March, which presented a new set of challenges. The birds would still be in their winter flocks, and they wouldn't really be susceptible to calling yet. But this spot, being an open river bottom holding 100+ birds, would provide an extreme challenge but also an experience like no other.

Jake, Jake, Jake…

My good friend and hunting partner, Tyler, and I arrived at camp on March 21st, picked up Kevin, the tag holder, and headed down to the spot to watch the birds roost and make a game plan for the morning. The birds did the same thing I’ve seen them do many times before, with some slight differences. Regardless, I had hope that the plan I had in mind for the morning would still work.

The morning of the 22nd rolled around, and we got up at 3:00 AM. We would have to walk through the completely open, swampy river bottom and set up at the only cover we had, about 90 yards away from a pair of sycamore trees that had roughly 100 birds in them. We needed to be set up well before the birds started to open their eyes. At 3:45 AM, we arrived at our makeshift blind, set up the decoys, and the wait began. At 5:15 AM, as the sun began to change the sky from black to gray, the first hen hit the ground. Shortly after, the river bottom was filled with the thunder of all the birds leaving the roost simultaneously, and here came some bright red heads through the grass, making a beeline to our decoys.

Jake, jake, jake… roughly 30 jakes came in and beat up my decoy for about 20 minutes until they had their fill. In the meantime, I could see the toms, 80-100 yards away from us, just strutting and not coming any closer. No matter what we did, or what tricks I could pull out of my sleeve with calling, it was still too early. The toms didn’t care. Eventually, the flocks began to split up and work into the thick hillsides, disappearing for their midday siesta. That evening, we decided to change angles a bit so we could be more in line with the path the toms had taken every evening.

We set up at 3:00 PM and started hearing the first hens yelping in the distance at roughly 5:45 PM. One by one, birds started to appear in the distance, and they read the script. They read it so well that they decided to change it! All the birds came in from behind us, and from that angle, we were sitting ducks. One hen picked us out, putted, and they all flew into the tree from wherever they stood. We had one tom come into the decoys about 15 yards away from us, but due to the crossbow being on a tripod, not only was the bird safe due to his average beard, but moving the tripod would’ve been impossible without spooking him, as well.

Slow Strut

At 3:00 AM on Sunday, March 23rd, we decided to leave the decoys in the truck and set up where the toms had spent all morning strutting the day before. We went in quietly and slowly, putting us only 30 yards away from the roost tree. We thought we made it in there like bandits in the night, but as the sun started to rise, I noticed something. A tom roosted 10 yards behind us, about four feet off the ground in this little thicket of downfall that we were sitting in. Soon, all the birds began to fly down. The tom behind us flew down and walked in front of us at about 15 yards, but never stopped for a shot. He joined up with the rest of the flock, and they all sat there feeding and strutting about 80 yards out.

We had the same group of jakes and hens from the previous morning walk past us at six yards, and all the toms decided to take a path I had never seen them take before. They weren’t spooked or scared–just strutting, slowly working off in different directions. The other challenge of mid-March: they’re just starting to slowly transition into their spring habits, and their patterns are changing little by little.

On our way back to camp, we came by a spot where we had a bird fire off one time the day before. Lo and behold, there were birds, and a lot of them. It was thick and nasty, so the crossbow wasn’t an option. I threw out a few quiet yelps to test the waters… nothing. With the birds not responding to calls, that left us with one option: We loaded the shotgun and began our stalk. We could only see about 10-20 yards, with a few windows where we could see farther. We spent a few minutes sorting through hens and jakes until we laid eyes on a mature tom, and he looked big.

Chess Match

We got a shot opportunity in a small clearing at about 50 yards, but without enough time for Kevin to get settled and execute a good shot. We looped around the birds and got a couple of small shot windows at him, but still couldn’t make it happen. Finally, around the 20-minute mark of stalking these birds, we came to a spot on the canyon edge. Looking down, there were two hens. Tyler said, “Shoot that bird, he’s got a rope.” I said, “Don’t shoot that bird, it’s a hen. I’m looking at it through the binos.”

After a few seconds of bickering like an old married couple, I was quickly corrected as I saw this tom step into the small window, 40 yards away. I got Kevin in front of me and told him to take his time, but make it count. He shot, and there was no bird. Tyler and I took off running down the steep hill, worried that the bird might’ve just been rolled. We got to a roughly 20-foot cliff, and the bird was at the bottom with his head up. Before I could even say anything, Tyler was sliding down the cliff. He grabbed the bird, and the hunt was over.

After a lot of cheering, high-fives, and hugs, we looked at the bird, and he was way bigger than we thought. He had both spurs, right at one inch, and the beard was dang close to 11 inches. We took pictures, got back to the truck, and measured. 10.5 inches was the final length of the beard. After official scoring, the bird was a whopping 63.79 points, the new #5 typical Gould’s ever taken in the state. A hunt everyone will remember. Thank you to Kevin for letting us help out on the hunt. Thank you to Tom Hinski for the photos and video. Thank you to Tyler Stein for helping out as always, and of course, Greg Koons for the connection and advice.

Gear List:

• Shotgun: Stoeger m3500 12 gauge
• Sight: Vortex Viper Shotgun Enclosed micro red dot
• Choke: Carlsons Longbeard XR .650
• Load: Federal Premium TSS 3.5” #9
• Calls: Woodhaven Ninja Ghost
• Decoys: Dave Smith Decoys
• Vest: Tidewe
• Bino harness: Marsupial Gear
• Binos: Vortex Vulture 15x56
• Maps: OnX Maps