Turkey Slam.

[Elkpiss]

Ya i think that would be the best way, get the easy ones out of the way first..  .. then get the Eastern...  You have to Kill your Marriam and Rio pretty dam quick to give yourself a good chance at the Eastern..  Ive killed a few Easterns and hunt them every year and have honestly seen a decline in numbers in the last 5-8 years.. I still have some good spots, but killing a Eastern Tom is the equivilant to killing a 180 Mule Deer, 350 Bull, 60 inch bull moose, ect.. You get the point No Easy task.. 

[Wacenturion]

Ya i think that would be the best way, get the easy ones out of the way first..  .. then get the Eastern...  You have to Kill your Marriam and Rio pretty dam quick to give yourself a good chance at the Eastern..  Ive killed a few Easterns and hunt them every year and have honestly seen a decline in numbers in the last 5-8 years.. I still have some good spots, but killing a Eastern Tom is the equivilant to killing a 180 Mule Deer, 350 Bull, 60 inch bull moose, ect.. You get the point No Easy task.. 

Interesting comment......................

 "Ive killed a few Easterns and hunt them every year and have honestly seen a decline in numbers in the last 5-8 years."

I would also suggest that the time frame you mention is just about right for the habitat they prefer and are using to change enough for them to move somewhere else in proximity that replicates what they were in the previous several years.  It always amazes me how quickly an Eastern honey hole can disappear and reappear somewhere over the hill or down the valley due to changes and growth in the habitat they are using.

Of interest is the harvest in the Turkey pamphlet.  Looking at the western Washington Eastern areas, P40 and P50, you'll see harvest is actually increasing, particularly in P50, the southwest areas .  Figures below are 1996-2010.  Considering the difficulty to take an Eastern in Washington, and the probable increase number of those trying, it appears they are still doing their thing.  Only it may just be as I said...over the hill or down the valley.

P40  4   1   1   0  1   2   7  9 15 10   8   9  3   5 10
P50 26 36 40 46 48 47 54 52 54 53 77 62 50 65 89

[turkeydancer]

  
I agree wholeheartedly.

But I kind of wonder if due to the recent economy causing more hunters to stay closer to home if the numbers might be slightly skewed.  Maybe not as much as I think, because I see more sign and more birds each year (especially since I first started hunting them).  Then again, maybe I'm getting better at knowing where to look and finding their sign ... ie:  even a blind squirrel can occasionally find a nut or two.
 

[Wacenturion]

Dancer.....good point.  That's obviously part of it now that you mention it.  The more time one puts in, the better they start to understand how to hunt the toughest Eastern in the country.  Just like with any game species.  What frustrates folks is that hunting Easterns in western Washington is so different from hunting turkeys anywhere else in the state or elsewhere for that matter.  It's mostly no see em, no hear em....just got to walk one's behind off month's before the opener behind gates to find droppings.  Then you have be patient enough to hunt that sh***y spot from dark to dark...literally.

I have said for years that Washington's Eastern Wild Turkey is the hardest turkey to kill in the country, but at the same time it is also the easiest.  Folks with multiple Eastern kills in western Washington know what I'm referring to.  Just ask Turkeyman.   

What I mean specifically is that if you spend the time, burn the boot leather, find droppings, kick them off the road so no one else see them (called being paranoid), stay on them until the opener, and have the patience to believe in and hunt the droppings without sight or sound of a turkey, you will become experienced enough to eventually kill one.

Once you have done that, you realize that because of what you have invested, you are essentially hunting without competition on a pod of birds, that tend to be in small bunches here and there and you have their number.  i prefer soft infrequent calling with the mindset of initially for the first hour or so trying to convince any turkey within hearing distance that I'm are the real deal...a turkey.   Eventually and more times than naught, this will pay off sometime during the day if you don't screw it up.  You may have to relocate, improvise, go to your bag of tricks, etc., just like with any turkey hunt.  When it does happen all you generally see is two black sticks walking through the brushy understory coming torward you.  Harvest usually occurs at point blank range.  Of course that varies by terrain and cover, but this has been my experience.  Maybe I just like close encounters.

[Elkpiss]

Those Easterns are definitely out there, and your right they do just move a hill over or what not.. I have killed a few of them, and have choked many times on them but that's what makes it fun.. Lots of variables in hunting those ghost's, I think your right though you have to call soft at them, I have only really had couple encounters with them that was a all out gobble war and they come right in, and usually you hear a gobble and work it for hours, its like a bull moose sometimes, they will circle you..  Its the ultimate challenge in hunting WA in my opinion.. that's what makes it fun too, its a good accomplishment killing a WA Eastern.. The first bird i called in and killed myself was a Eastern right behind my house in the pooring rain, and i was out in the woods for 15 minutes called twice and it went nuts gobbling and came right in.. I thought it was going to be easy after that... lol I was 17 when i got that 1, i am 28 now and hunt them yearly & religiously and have only killed 2 more... I think i have jumped more Eastern Toms on the logging roads walking to my spot, or walking out from my hunt and bust one right in the road right as i call it quits.. Patience is my biggest advice hunting Easterns, I can tell you how many times i have said, Why didn't I wait 10 more minutes.. 

[yelp]

Easterns are easy!  In 1998..I went out to a spot sat down called one in and shot it???  Just saying..I am batting 100%.  I haven't been back yet.  Someday.  Wacenturian keeps telling me of the cougar hole I don't know if I want to go back!    

[Wacenturion]

Easterns are easy!  In 1998..I went out to a spot sat down called one in and shot it???  Just saying..I am batting 100%.  I haven't been back yet.  Someday.  Wacenturian keeps telling me of the cougar hole I don't know if I want to go back!   

Yeah....but you almost left early and blew it if I remember right....been awhile.

[BOWHUNTER45]

yeah it seems the easterns were pretty easy back in the 90s especially around the early 90s ... They have gotten alittle tuffer now ... I think a few of those birds shot in the early 90s were banded ....but not sure   

[Wacenturion]

yeah it seems the easterns were pretty easy back in the 90s especially around the early 90s ... They have gotten alittle tuffer now ... I think a few of those birds shot in the early 90s were banded ....but not sure   

No they weren't easy back in the 90's.  Not many banded ones that I recall except for one or two harvested by other folks.  Even then, those banded birds I was aware of had been out there for a couple years.  Took tons of time as I explained above.  Hope I'm not taking it wrong but somehow I sense a note of sarcasm, like someone was hunting planted birds.  Perhaps you didn't mean it that way and if so I apologize.  I just get defensive as I've heard it all over the years, most of it untrue jealous rhetoric from people who don't know what the hell they are talking about.   

[BrushChimp]

Oh man! I woulda-coulda-shoulda had a slam back in 2004 when I was 16. I had been hunting this wily old Eastern tom for a couple years when for some reason Jason Phelps and I decided to take a mutual friend (who had never turkey hunted in his life) out and let him have first shot on opening morning. We had little faith until just after daylight when this tom flies 300 yards across this draw right into our lap and our friend shoots him. I went to Eastern WA later that year and shot a Rio and Merriam. I may have been the youngest person to get the WA Slam. I was definitely on my mind at the time. Single season. April 15-May 15. I think that is probably the only way to do it. Single spring season or bust. That is probably the worst mistake I've made in my hunting career to date..... dang. 

[Turkeyman]

Finding fresh sign and strutting area's is the key then have a ton of patience trust your set up. soft calling is better you don't here eastern hens calling loud. i cluck and purr allot with a slate if its raining use a glass call. make a blind or use a ground blind it will allow you to stay longer. Try to find birds that aren't getting pressure makes things easier.

[yelp]

Finding fresh sign and strutting area's is the key then have a ton of patience trust your set up. soft calling is better you don't here eastern hens calling loud. i cluck and purr allot with a slate if its raining use a glass call. make a blind or use a ground blind it will allow you to stay longer. Try to find birds that aren't getting pressure makes things easier.

Squeal a lot too...right?

[yelp]

Easterns are easy!  In 1998..I went out to a spot sat down called one in and shot it???  Just saying..I am batting 100%.  I haven't been back yet.  Someday.  Wacenturian keeps telling me of the cougar hole I don't know if I want to go back!   

Yeah....but you almost left early and blew it if I remember right....been awhile.

Noo!???  I knew what I was doing!  LOL  Actually I thought it was a dog barking.  As got closer I could make out the gobble.  The salal and understory sucks up the sound for sure!

[Turkeyman]

Squeal a lot too...right? I don't give out all my secrets Yelp...

[Turkeyman]

Eddie Salter would be proud of you Yelp. You are now a pro squealer on video