Hunting Ocellated Trurkeys in the Jungles of the Yucatan Bill Cooper As much as I love the Ozarks and turkey hunting, I still can not resist the urge to chase turkeys in other locations. The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is one of my favorite places to hunt pavos. Two weeks ago, Brandon Butler, the executive director of the Conservation Federation of Missouri, his wife, Melissa, and I flew into Cancun, Mexico, where a driver for Maya Amazing Adventures delivered us to Merida to meet Pancho McManus. Pancho and a student intern from Austria, led us on a three day tour of Maya ruins, cenotes, haciendas and villages. I will cover the complete story later. In the meantime ,check out: www.mayamazing.com. McManus dropped us off in the beautiful Spanish Colonial town of Campeche, where we were met by Snook Inn Hunting owner Roberto Sansores. Roberto is a jolly individual who partners with his father Jorge, who has been in the hunting business fro over 50 years. Roberto was eager to please and stopped at the fabulous Edzna ruins on the way to turkey camp. This huge complex of temples and other buildings are among the grandest in all of Mexico. From the ruins we continued through the countryside of farms and jungles to the village of Carlos Cano Cruz, where Sansores runs a hunting lodge. Everyone proved eager to get to to the hunt. Experienced guides Jorge and Meno drove us to remote soybean fields surrounded by vast stretches of jungle. The eager pair quickly carved out a hunting blind from the dense jungles with large machetes. Soon all of us were kicked back in comfortable camp chairs while we waiting for pavos to show up. The hunt was short. No pavos showed up. Eagerly, we all laughed and joked with the guides as we headed back to camp. A hot meal of the largest shrimp I had ever seen, cold drinks and getting acquainted with everyone in camp consumed our evening. White-winged doves cooed loudly, while local roosters announced the coming of the evening. Sleep would be sparse for all of us as we anticipated the morning hunt. I had planned to film Butler’s hunt, but too much shrimp the night before brought about Montezuma’s revenge, so I stayed in camp. Brandon, Melissa and their guides returned to camp around 9 a.m. Brandon’s broad smile echoed his success. His first ocellated turkey soon hung on the scales. The bird weighed in at 10 lbs. with spurs 1 5/8-inches in length, a very nice ocellated gobbler. The birds are small in comparison to our Easterns. Ocellated turkeys seldom go over 13 pounds. Completely recuperated, I headed to the jungles the next morning. At first light, Meno spotted turkeys still on the roost at one end of the field. Soon a half dozen birds flew down and began feeding in our direction. We watched intently as the small flock fed closer to our blind. The flock fed to witting 40 yards. Menos gave me the signal to shoot. I had been holding my gun up too long and missed. Everyone empathized with me for having missed. After a good lunch and a siesta we returned for the afternoon hunt. Ten minutes after we entered the brush blind, pavos began clucking and putting 15 yards behind us. Everyone froze. The birds wandered off and eventually entered the harvested soybean field 1000 yards to our right. A huge gobbler flashed its white wing patches and fed towards us. Minutes later another flock emerged from the jungle 150 yards to our left. Meno whispered, “senor Bill, bird close to left, shoot.” I slowly turned my head and watched a beautifully colored pavos feeding nearby. By the time I raised my gun, the bird had walked behind bushes. I slowly swung my gun to the right while the bird cleared the brushpile. It stood out less than fifteen yards away. The Remington 1187 roared and my third ocellated bird and 89th turkey of my turkey hunting career lay flopping on the ground. We continued photographing and filming turkeys and visiting ruins over the next few days. One of the highlights of our trip was being blessed by a Maya religious troupe. The ceremony removed ill from our bodies and replaced it with renewed energy. We became one with the universe in the Maya jungles of the Yucatan.