- Banned
- #1
jm1607
WKR
1st Ever Turkey Hunt.... SUCCESS!
I could probably write 10 pages on the trip but I’ll make it fairly brief.. This was both my buddy and I's 1st ever Turkey Hunt..
My buddy and I were lucky enough to win a Texas Parks and Wildlife Public Land Turkey draw this year. It was a Rio hunt located on Choke Canyon Reservoir in South Texas. Had to leave the bows at home because it was a shotgun only hunt. We also had to camp in designated campgrounds since we weren't allowed to stay overnight in our hunt unit. Very scrubby habitat, right outside the Chihuahua Desert. Temps got into the high 80’s during the day and high 60’s at night, so it was a little warm. Mosquitoes were outrageous, but between Deep Woods Off and our Thermacells we managed. It's nice being able to hose down in Off, unlike deer season..
1st afternoon after scouting for most the day we decided to hunt the last couple hours of daylight together and wait to split up till the next day. We found some grassy fields on the low side of our unit near the reservoir. We setup both our hen decoys and sat tight right behind the bush line (I wouldn't call it a tree line lol). About 20 minutes of calling we heard a gobble off to our left in the thick stuff. At that moment I thought "Wow, Turkeys do exist!". We kept calling and it came within 10 yards of my buddy who was sitting to my left, but it was too thick behind us to take any kind of shot. He then made his way right behind me and I had the same problem. I turned around and laid prone because there was this really small alley I could shoot through, but he never showed.
He kept moving the same direction and was well beyond me to my right when we heard a gobble from straight across the field! A huge Tom ran out in full display, pissed off at the Turkey next to us. He didn’t even care about our hen decoys. I let him get to about 25 yards then carefully squeezed the trigger of my 870 that was resting on my knee. One shot and he was done. We then spent the rest of the day stalking the Turkey that was behind us. He finally popped out of a bush giving my friend about a 2 yard shot, but he realized it was a Jake and let it pass.. What was nice was now that we had 1 tag filled, the pressure was off and now I could just leave my shotgun in the car and help my friend get his bird. We didn’t have to split up or anything.
Next day was really windy and quiet. Probably put 15 miles on the ground.
Day after that was our last day. Had to be out of our hunt area by 11am sharp. When we enter the gate to our unit we heard a gobble. Same gobble we heard the night before right at sunset, so he was hoping he was still around. To make a long story short, we stalked this bird for over 4 hours and with literally 10 minutes left of hunting (10:15 but about a 35min hike out!) we got the job done. It was a Jake, but it was very dark and had a long beard.
Out of 17 total hunters on all sub-units, 4 turkeys were harvested and 2 were ours. This was the first time either of us ever hunted turkeys and now we’re pretty addicted! Gear all worked great, especially the EXO pack. FL tops kept me cool and the Valhalla pants felt like I was wearing pajamas. We decided to do this hunt pretty hardcore, no blinds or anything. One decoy each so we could move well. Hope that wasn't too long of a story. Here’s some pics, haven’t had a chance to filter them or crop them or anything. Apparently most of them are of us lol, but in one pic if you look very closely you can see the Tom strutting in:
Arrival
Getting the SL5 ready
Preparing!
And we're off!
My buddy looks scary with the Sitka face net lol
I could probably write 10 pages on the trip but I’ll make it fairly brief.. This was both my buddy and I's 1st ever Turkey Hunt..
My buddy and I were lucky enough to win a Texas Parks and Wildlife Public Land Turkey draw this year. It was a Rio hunt located on Choke Canyon Reservoir in South Texas. Had to leave the bows at home because it was a shotgun only hunt. We also had to camp in designated campgrounds since we weren't allowed to stay overnight in our hunt unit. Very scrubby habitat, right outside the Chihuahua Desert. Temps got into the high 80’s during the day and high 60’s at night, so it was a little warm. Mosquitoes were outrageous, but between Deep Woods Off and our Thermacells we managed. It's nice being able to hose down in Off, unlike deer season..
1st afternoon after scouting for most the day we decided to hunt the last couple hours of daylight together and wait to split up till the next day. We found some grassy fields on the low side of our unit near the reservoir. We setup both our hen decoys and sat tight right behind the bush line (I wouldn't call it a tree line lol). About 20 minutes of calling we heard a gobble off to our left in the thick stuff. At that moment I thought "Wow, Turkeys do exist!". We kept calling and it came within 10 yards of my buddy who was sitting to my left, but it was too thick behind us to take any kind of shot. He then made his way right behind me and I had the same problem. I turned around and laid prone because there was this really small alley I could shoot through, but he never showed.
He kept moving the same direction and was well beyond me to my right when we heard a gobble from straight across the field! A huge Tom ran out in full display, pissed off at the Turkey next to us. He didn’t even care about our hen decoys. I let him get to about 25 yards then carefully squeezed the trigger of my 870 that was resting on my knee. One shot and he was done. We then spent the rest of the day stalking the Turkey that was behind us. He finally popped out of a bush giving my friend about a 2 yard shot, but he realized it was a Jake and let it pass.. What was nice was now that we had 1 tag filled, the pressure was off and now I could just leave my shotgun in the car and help my friend get his bird. We didn’t have to split up or anything.
Next day was really windy and quiet. Probably put 15 miles on the ground.
Day after that was our last day. Had to be out of our hunt area by 11am sharp. When we enter the gate to our unit we heard a gobble. Same gobble we heard the night before right at sunset, so he was hoping he was still around. To make a long story short, we stalked this bird for over 4 hours and with literally 10 minutes left of hunting (10:15 but about a 35min hike out!) we got the job done. It was a Jake, but it was very dark and had a long beard.
Out of 17 total hunters on all sub-units, 4 turkeys were harvested and 2 were ours. This was the first time either of us ever hunted turkeys and now we’re pretty addicted! Gear all worked great, especially the EXO pack. FL tops kept me cool and the Valhalla pants felt like I was wearing pajamas. We decided to do this hunt pretty hardcore, no blinds or anything. One decoy each so we could move well. Hope that wasn't too long of a story. Here’s some pics, haven’t had a chance to filter them or crop them or anything. Apparently most of them are of us lol, but in one pic if you look very closely you can see the Tom strutting in:
Arrival
Getting the SL5 ready
Preparing!
And we're off!
My buddy looks scary with the Sitka face net lol
Last edited:
