Photo by Burt Carey

I've been impressed by the wild turkey's resilience over the past several years. Despite drought and myriad environmental factors that have sent deer populations plummeting and emptied quail coverts, turkeys have been doing especially well. So well, in fact, that New Mexico hunters may tag two birds again this spring, and success rates continue to top 50 percent in some areas. And though I don't especially like the idea of taking two birds from a single canyon, let alone from a single flock, it's nice to know that a single trigger pull or arrow release won't end all of my springtime fun.

I've begun to see numbers of turkeys in places where I've observed only the occasional bird in years past. Be that as it may, the best areas are those you can depend on for success rates of more than 40 percent year in and year out. Here are three of the best The Land of Enchantment has to offer.

GILA WILDERNESS
Generally, 50 percent of the hunters who travel to the vast and remote Gila National Forest get a turkey. I bump that figure up to 100 percent by investing a little extra effort and trekking into wilderness despite the fact that I hunt with bow and arrows.

Yes, I always get my gobbler. Of course, I often have a bit of assistance from my buddy, Billy Lee of Mimbres Taxidermy & Guide Service, who's an outfitter and has mules and horses and always seems to know a good place to find birds. When Billy's busy I simply strap on a backpack and hump it into one of several places where I see only the occasional backpacker who has taken a wrong turn somewhere up the trail.

All of Billy's hotspots, and the ones I backpack into, have common traits. They are remote, involving at least 10 miles of hoofing, and there is permanent water. Consider five miles a minimum start to get away from the general public and discover undisturbed birds. Water need not be one of the major rivers like any of the three forks of the Gila River, though these are good starts. Anything even remotely attached to these waters, good-sized side canyons with springs at their heads, are good bets. This means spreading out a map and poring over it until something jumps out at you. The possibilities are limitless.

Reliable access points through Forest lands and into wilderness includes Snow Lake, trekking downstream into the headwaters of the Middle Fork; Willow Creek to get you into Iron Creek and adjacent areas including Turkey Feather Pass; Cooney Prairie and the Black Mountain area (look for springs on your maps); or the lower Gila River near Cliff and Gila to take you into places on the southern tier of the wilderness.

SACRAMENTO MOUNTAINS
The Sacs don't offer the shear wilderness desolation of the Gila, but hunters here still enjoy some of the highest spring success rates in the state, some years topping 50 percent. It can be awfully difficult to get away from roads and the modern bane of four-wheelers in this area, but that's still the best way to find an unmolested gobbler willing to respond to your best calls. Getting away from it all is often what it's all about.

High and low, fir forest to piñon foothills, you will find turkey here, so don't be afraid to look in fringe areas to find productive hotspots away from crowds, including Rio Grande turkeys in the southern reaches of the unit, as well as the lower Hondo Valley region. Higher elevations surrounding the Mescalero Apache Reservation are the best bets for Merriam's gobblers.

Private lands around Cloudcroft and Cloud Country and the Mescalero Reservation offer access dilemmas for those unwilling to walk, so look over maps to find places where a little skirting can get you into productive areas that the public cannot access with motorized vehicles. The old trick of calling someone else's bird across a fence always does the trick near the reservation, setting up near the boundary and calling birds across to you. The Sixteen Springs Canyon area outside of Mayhill is a great place to ply this trade.