Jason Parrish's Story

I have to say the only thing about Brett Valdez that's bigger than his physical presence is his imagination.  But it all makes for a good story.

I was paired with Jason Ashley of Live Oak Outfitters to hunt Rio Grande Turkey, while Brett and Patrick and Brian did their “thing.”

As Brett described, the first night we (all five of us) were able to crawl up to some turkeys that were walking along an almost dry creek bed. We might have been able to harvest one of those toms had Brett "Elephant Man" Valdez understood the quiet aspect of stalking.

Nonetheless, the following morning Mr. Ashley and I returned with high hopes since we had seen exactly where the turkeys had taken roost the night before.  Walking along the path we were both caught off guard by a solitary turkey flushing from above our head as we walked down the dusty road to our "spot."  With the sun rising, we got into position and prepared to enjoy those serene minutes of dawn when some animals are settling down and other animals are waking up. What a beautiful way to start the day.

It was not a long wait.  Soon we started to hear hens clucking and toms gobbling. Jason Ashley started to call using a slate call with a wooden stick.  They weren't responding to our call.  We called in a jake.  We called in a couple of hens.  But we couldn't call in a tom.  After some debate, we decided to check a clearing in the path behind us where he had often seen turkeys.  As we quietly approached, we saw several large toms and a group of Whitetail does walking away from us casually.  Jason tried to turn them but our calls were to no avail.  A shot broke the silence and with our game gone from sight and not responding to calls, we decided to return to camp and see if someone was able to harvest a tom.

Jason's Morning Turkey Hunt
This is a 22.4 Mb video file, and may take a very long time to download, depending on your Internet connection speed.

No turkey back at camp.  Someone missed his shot.  After breakfast Jason and I returned to put out decoys and throw corn in the creek bed hoping to attract more turkeys since they were not responding to the call.

That afternoon we got dressed to kill (I thought that was funny) intending to harvest a tom.  Jason Ashley wanted to wear the IT Suit (by Cross Gear Outfitters).  He was pleasantly surprised by the quality, mobility, and lightness of their camouflage "poncho."  I had the camera and video at the ready and didn't know if I wanted to shoot in unison with Jason or film him doing the act.  As we approached our spot we were surprised to see cows and sheep everywhere.  I guess animals other than turkeys like corn.  We threw sticks & stones, I even got up and ran them 300 yards off but like a rising tide they would not be driven from the corn.  We tried to ignore them and hoped the turkeys might ignore them also, but again we returned to camp empty handed.  I will say, I have never heard of a cow "killing" turkey decoys.  Either the cow was very territorial or he was really hungry or maybe just really stupid but you have to watch this video clip.

Cow Attack!!
This is a 5.6 Mb video file, and may take a long time to download, depending on your connection speed.

When Jason and I approached camp, we were happy to find Brett and Patrick beaming with two Rio Grande Turkey’s in their hands.

The next morning everyone slept in except me, I woke up at 8:45am.  The others began to pack but I came to harvest a turkey.  What would my family eat tonight if I came home empty handed????  The solunar table on my new Garmin Rhino 530 said it was a good time to hunt and in my opinion, it’s always a good time to take a walk with a gun, so off I went - solo.

This time I decided to walk very, very, very slow.  Maybe one step every two seconds.  I approached the clearing in the path and saw several deer.  I entered the mesquite brush and started to crouch down and glass through the brush to the creek.  I saw sheep and cows and was about to give up when I saw a lone tom walking in the middle of the creek at about 60 yards.  Even though Brett and Patrick had told us their story of harvesting a tom at such a long distance, I was in the midst of thick mesquite brush with no clear shot.  I dropped my pack, took my gun, and started to crawl on all fours. There was fresh cow dung all around me, but I really didn't care.  The thought of harvesting a nice tom was more important to me than rattlesnakes and cow dung.

Closer, closer I crawled until I was behind the last wall of mesquite on the edge of the creek with the tom exactly in front of me about 25-30 yards.  I caught my breath, realized I had never shot the gun in my hand, and said to myself, "NOW!"  I stood up and took a shot and the tom dropped and flapped his wings.  To my surprise, a group of turkeys that I never saw until now ran and took flight 15-20 yards to my right on the edge of the creek.  I looked up thinking maybe I would get a second shot at a tom but couldn't distinguish one from the other in all the ruckus, and chose to be happy with what I had on the ground.

As I approached, I saw my nice bird, looked around at the sheep and cows who didn't know what to do with me, picked up the bird and headed back to camp.  As I walked back to camp I thought to myself what a nice way to end a wonderful trip.