{"id":128277,"date":"2020-05-04T18:22:29","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=128277"},"modified":"2025-12-18T06:51:03","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T12:51:03","slug":"hunt365-jake-time-a-land-filled-with-rio-grande-youngsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/hunt365-jake-time-a-land-filled-with-rio-grande-youngsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Time: A Land Filled With Rio Grande Youngsters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 20\nyears of turkey hunting, I\u2019d never heard or seen so many jakes. Or been so fooled\nby so many of them. Big, brawny jakes, their gobbles loud and booming like\nmature toms. Many of these jakes strutted, too, had hens with them and at a distance\nlooked and sounded just like their fathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once\nmy hunting partner, Eddie Stevenson and I, eased in closer or pulled them in\nwith calls? We saw the skinny necks, minimal snoods, tiny waddles, and stubby\nbeards sticking out of their breast feathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake<\/a>
McCombie saw dozens of Rio jakes, similar to this Rio jake decoy made by Avian-X on his recent West Texas hunt. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We were hunting Rio Grande turkeys in West Texas, just north of Rotan with Hargrove Hunts<\/a>, on over 40,000 acres of private ranch-lands straddling various forks of the Brazos River. The lands were a mixture of mesquite flats studded with prickly pear cactus, large cottonwood \u201cparks,\u201d the tall trees shading clumps of tall, willowy grasses, and rock-strewn hills and gullies sporting cedar and stunted oaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
On a recent West Texas hunt for a Rio Grande tom, McCombie found himself in the middle of the largest number of big, brawny jakes he\u2019d ever seen. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The\njakes started fooling me right from that first morning, their booming gobbles\nechoing through the mesquite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet\nready,\u201d Stevenson told me, that morning, and numerous other times during our\nthree days of hunting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RemingtonI brought up my Remington 870 DM<\/a> Predator 12 gauge, made sure the new Trijicon MRO HD optic was set at the right illumination and scanned the underbrush for my Rio tom.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
McCombie\u2019s friend and fellow turkey hunter Eddie Stevenson calling a West Texas Rio Grande. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By\ntheir gobbles, many of these turkeys simply moved in a different direction. A common\nenough situation for turkey hunters. But several times, I saw that flick of\nmovement, the turkey head bobbing in the brush, felt my heart rate accelerate\nas I tightened my grip on my shotgun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only\nto watch a red-headed jake pop out of the underbrush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At\nfirst, I figured these jakes were in the lead, with a big tom or two trailing. So,\nI kept myself ready for Big Tom. But he never showed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
Big Rios were here, though they seemed a bit jake \u201cshy.\u201d <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Stevenson and I figured out that we were smack in the middle of the largest gathering of Rio jakes we\u2019d ever seen.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it\nwas getting damn frustrating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the third morning of our hunt, a bright and clear dawn, with Stevenson and I set up on the edge of a swath of cottonwoods. We\u2019d found a roost tree a couple of hundred yards from the edge of the trees the day before, figured this was our chance at a tom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And he\nand his fellows seemed to be there that AM, booming away in the dark on the\nroost tree, and then swooshing down as the sun rose over the horizon. We couldn\u2019t\nsee the big birds, but they were noisy and easy to locate, a hundred yards\nahead of us and behind a screen of grasses and brush. Stevenson called to them,\ninterspersing clucks and with the occasional yelp. A Rio hen answered, her clucks\ngetting closer until she appeared and made her way towards us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind\nher, I saw the edges of tail feathers held high, the male Rios strutting. I brought\nup my shotgun, expecting the strutting toms to follow the hen and give me a wide-open\nshot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I had the shot opportunity. At three big jakes, each of them strutting and following the hen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDamn,\nthis really sucks,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve\nnever seen anything like this before,\u201d Stevenson admitted. \u201cWhat the hell?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was in West Texas at the invitation of Trijicon<\/a> which had recently introduced the company\u2019s newest optic, the MRO HD 1×25 Red Dot Sight with a 3x Magnifier. Trijicon launched its reflex-style MRO a few years ago.  However, Trijicon re-engineered the objective lens on the MRO HD to produce a refined 2.0 MOA center dot surrounded by a 68 MOA segmented circle reticle. The ambidextrous reticle and brightness control allows the user to choose between a full reticle or center dot only.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
For this hunt, McCombie used Trijicon\u2019s new MRO HD red dot, upgraded with an improved reticle, and optimized for use with a magnifier. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The MRO HD was also optimized for use with Trijicon\u2019s 3X magnifier<\/a>. And the two work very well together (I am working on a formal review of the combo now), but I didn\u2019t really need the magnifier for turkey hunting<\/a> and left it off for this hunt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In preparation for West Texas, I mounted the MRO HD on my Remington 870 DM Predator and zeroed the rig at my local range. The MRO HD provided very clear images, while the optic\u2019s controls moved my 12-gauge\u2019s point of impact easily. The reticle features eight brightness settings, and I was able to adjust the illumination just right whether I was shooting in overcast conditions, bright sun, or in between. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I began my shooting with the MRO HD reticle set on the single center dot but soon found that the 2.0 MOA center dot surrounded by the segmented circle was my best option for turkey hunting. I was using Primos VisiTargets and I discovered that all I really needed to do (once I was zeroed) was to place the inside top of the segmented circle atop the turkey\u2019s head and the pellets patterned right into the bird\u2019s head and neck vital zones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
The reticle on the MRO HD can be either a single red dot or a red dot surrounded by a segmented circle, as shown here. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 870 DM Predator was introduced by Remington late in 2017, a magazine-fed version of the workhorse 870 pump-action shotgun in 12 gauge. It sports a Kryptek finish, was available with three- and six-round magazines, and came with an extra-full turkey choke and a \u201cBoar Blaster\u201d choke for use with buckshot. Mine has accounted for a handful of tom turkeys.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, Remington<\/a> recently stopped production of the 870 DM line, I was told recently by the company\u2019s media manager. Which surprised me, as the 870 DM hunting and tactical models are actually first-rate shotguns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
The Remington 870 DM Predator is a magazine-fed version of Remington\u2019s workhorse 870 shotgun platform, shown here with the optional six-round magazine. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For ammunition, I relied on Federal Premium\u2019s TSS shells, the three-inch version holding 1 \u00be-ounces of #7 tungsten pellets. At my practice sessions, the TSS, 870 DM, and MRO HD combination put an average of # 20 pellets into the vital zone at 25 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
Federal Premium\u2019s TSS 12 -gauge turkey loads put approximately 20 pellets into a turkey target vital zone at 25 yards. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The last afternoon of the hunt, Stevenson and I set up in a mesquite flat several hundred yards up from the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River. Stevenson placed a hen decoy on the rough two-track road some 25 yards ahead of me, and we sat back-to-back against a clump of gnarled cedar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
The last day of his hunt found McCombie set up in mesquite and cedar near the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos River, waiting on a tom. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Stevenson made occasional calls into the mesquite\u2026while I fought to stay awake. In addition to the Five AM wake-ups for turkeys, I\u2019d been hunting hogs at night, well past midnight, and the few hours of sleep was taking a toll. In fact, sitting in a very low hunting chair and quite comfortable, I was drifting off when Stevenson whisper something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHen coming up from behind,\u201d\nStevenson replied. \u201cStay sharp.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m ready,\u201d I lied,\ntook a deep breath to try to wake up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, I heard clucking,\nand the hen moved past me on my right, not ten yards away, heading right for\nthe decoy. Which she took an instant disliking to, began pecking at the decoy, then\nswooped up on the decoy\u2019s back and raked it with her clawed toes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHere they come,\u201d Stevenson\nwhispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I kept craning my neck around\nto my right, figuring the toms would be following the hen. Nothing but grass\nand mesquite trunks. Then Stevenson began frantically hissing at me, \u201cTake \u2018em!\nCome on!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take what? I thought to\nmyself, the area the hen had come through open and clear of birds, the hen herself\nstill beating on the decoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhere are they?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYour left!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I turned my head left, slowly. A tom was strutting his way down the two-track and aiming for the live hen and the decoy. He was flanked by two jakes.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I raised the 870 DM off my knees and put the MRO HD\u2019s segmented reticle on an open space between branches where the tom would pass. But just before he got there, the tom stopped and gobbled loudly, and then sprang ahead, giving me no time to shoot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shifted my shotgun\nover towards the hen and decoy, just past the black trunk of a mesquite tree,\nwaited for a few heartbeats. The tom stepped into the open, stood broadside, but\nwith his head tucked down into his shoulders. He pivoted a bit, right then\nleft, unsure of the situation before him as the live hen kept beating the heck\nout of the decoy. The two jakes behind him had their red heads extended, also\ncurious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then the tom turned and\nfaced me. His head was still tucked in, hunkered down towards his breast. But remembering\nthe practice I\u2019d done back home, and figuring the distance at just a little\nover 20 yards, I placed the top of the segmented circle just over the head of\nthe tom, let out my breath and pulled the trigger on the 870 DM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
McCombie with his Rio Grande tom at the end of a long hunt. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several seconds of chaos\nensued as the hen and jakes squawked and yelped and launched out of the area, while\nthe tom flapped and flopped and kicked up a whirling cloud of West Texas dust. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And damned if my tom wasn\u2019t\nsome sort of jake-tom cross. Yes, he\u2019d strutted and boomed like a mature tom. Had\nthe head and neck colorations of a tom, too. Yet, his spurs were nothing but\nnubs. He also sported a dink main beard, not even four inches long. At the same\ntime, though, he had three beards,<\/em> a first for me, tiny though beards #2\nand #3 were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
None of the tom\u2019s beards were very long, but he had three of them\u2014a first for McCombie in 20 years of turkey hunting. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat the heck is going\non with these toms and jakes?\u201d I asked.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have no clue,\u201d Stevenson\nsaid. \u201cBut I can tell you one thing for darn sure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMake it good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith all these huge jakes\nrunning around here? Next year is going to be tom turkey bonanza when those\npunks put on another year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No doubt, Stevenson was\nright. Which will likely have me back turkey hunting West Texas Rio Grandes next\nspring with Hargrove Hunting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jake
Given the huge crop of big jakes he found here in West Texas with Hargrove Hunts, McCombie expects to be back next year to chase what should be a booming population of mature toms. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n