I started at Worldwide Trophy Adventures in November and five months later, I was hunting ocellated turkeys in the Mexican jungle. It’s the kind of experience that brought me to WTA. WTA is the mecca of the hunting world right now. Any super-cool trip, we are handling it. We’re smack dab in the middle of it.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for years. I had a hunting show and hunting brand, owned businesses in sports nutrition and fitness, and was an outfitter guiding elk hunters. I’ve hunted all across the United States and in Africa, Canada, and Mexico. When I hit 40 I sold all my businesses and sort of retired for a couple years to think about what I wanted to do next. Boom. I landed at WTA and began a new adventure.
Have I always wanted to hunt ocellated turkeys? Well, I wouldn’t say it was a childhood dream, but I’ve always been into turkey hunting. I have my Gould’s, Merriam’s, and Rio turkeys, so ocellated turkeys were on my list. They’re cool and super pretty.
Have I always wanted to hunt in a jungle? Not necessarily. The ocellated being in the jungle is the reason I went and I’m glad I did. It wasn’t what I pictured at all. I expected it to be wet and dark rainforest, but it was pretty dry, more like a dense forest than a rainforest. It was a great trip from start to finish, visiting that part of the world and seeing the culture of Campeche and the jungle.
I was the host on this WTA hunt so I traveled with my fellow turkey hunters and videographer, Ian Breland. We flew to Mexico City, spent the night, then flew to Campeche the next day.
In the morning in Campeche, we were picked up at our motel and we drove to a little village just outside the jungle, then we jumped into Jeeps for the 2 ½-hour ride through the jungle to camp. The camp was great, very comfortable and welcoming. We stayed in bungalows with concrete floors, thatched roofs, and fans that kept it cool for sleeping at night. And the food was amazing.
I speak just enough Spanish to get by, and some of the guides and staff were about the same with English. We communicated well with hand gestures, like playing Charades, and got along just fine.
These guys are absolutely dialed in on ocellated turkey hunting. They have it down to a science. They are very, very good at it.
When we got to camp, we took it easy and settled in. We unpacked, had dinner, and made a plan for the next day so we’d be ready to hunt early in the morning.
Days started early, like 3:00 or 3:30 a.m. We’d grab something light for breakfast, have coffee, then jump in a Jeep and try to catch the turkeys in their roosts. If we didn’t find them before daylight and they were out of the roost on the ground, we’d try calling them until about 9:00 or 10:00. There is also the option to sit by water holes and wait for them to come in to drink. Then we’d come back for lunch and rest a bit before heading back out around 3:00 in the afternoon to hunt until dark and try to roost them.
That’s basically the procedure. Roosting them at night is the traditional way of hunting ocellated turkeys in Mayan jungles. They don’t gobble, they sing. You listen for them to sing so you can locate the roost. Then you quietly clear a path to make sure you can sneak up to them early the next morning. You’re up very early, sneaking in the dark, no lights, very quiet, trying to get close. As soon as it gets light enough, you take the shot. That’s been the traditional Mayan way of hunting for hundreds of years. Calling them is difficult, because once they hit the canopy floor they don’t make any noise.
I say it’s difficult to call them in, but we did it on the first morning. We were filming and though Ian is experienced at videoing hunts, having a videographer along adds a wrinkle that makes hunting a little tougher. Sure enough, when the turkey came in to our calls, we didn’t get him on film so I didn’t take the shot. After that we struggled a bit, blowing some stalks, and having a hard time roosting them. But, spoiler alert, I got my turkey on the last morning.
As I walked up to my bird, I saw how beautiful it was. It’s hard to describe. They’re kind of ugly-beautiful. Their heads are blue with some orange and wart-like growths with bright iridescent colors in their feathers like a peacock. It’s something you should see for yourself. And when I grabbed him I saw his long spurs. They are relatively small turkeys, weighing only 10–12 pounds, but they have the longest spurs of any turkey. Just a gorgeous, gorgeous bird.
As you’d expect, the jungle is alive with other wildlife. I also shot a crested guan, a curassow, and a coatimundi. And we saw a bunch of monkeys, an anteater, and toucans.
In summary, this was a very cool hunt. Cool and different. It was tough for me to not be able to see a long distance, because I enjoy glassing while hunting. Visibility in the jungle is extremely limited. I did a bit of glassing, not so much to find turkeys, but to differentiate the sex of the birds. Everyone asks about the bugs in the jungle. There were a few ticks, fewer mosquitos than I expected, and not as many insects as I thought there would be overall.
What was really cool was finding Mayan ruins as we hunted in the jungle. There were quite a few old pyramids that have tumbled down. And we found some pottery that was somewhere around 1,800 years old. Besides shooting my ocellated turkey, the Mayan ruins rank up there as a highlight of the trip.
Hunting the jungle the traditional Mayan way was a great experience for me, and I’m glad I did it. If you’re looking for a unique adventure, I highly recommend it.
