Mev002
FNG
My family and I made a quick trip to our lease for a little turkey action and shed hunting.
The grass was so tall, it made shed hunting impossible. We were more focused on turkeys.
We arrived at the lease late Saturday about 5. Got unloaded, and spent the next 1.5 hours working on the Can Am. A mouse decided to chew up some wiring on the engine… After getting the buggy back up and running, we set out to look for some birds. It was extremely windy that day so hearing them was unlikely. We checked a few areas and only found one set of turkey tracks that were at least a day or 2 old. Nothing recent. As the sun went down, I figured we would try and locate the birds in the morning.
Well, that didn’t work out as planned… we woke up to wind blowing even harder than the day before, and temps dropped to the upper 40’s. We weren’t quite prepared for that chilly of a morning so we slept in. That afternoon we spent the day shed hunting and arrowhead hunting. That evening the wind started to die down so we went out to see if we could find a roost.
it was getting late, and were checked a pond we have seen turkeys roost on in the past. As we are getting close I see fresh tracks and wing tip drags. It could have been more than a few hours old. We kept moving and across the other side of the pond i end up seeing 2 hens. We back out and circle around so they can’t see us. At this point it’s getting dark. I can see a few birds and they are starting to fly up and roost. My son wanted to shoot one out of the trees, but it was too dark, and I couldn’t identify if they were males or females either. I told him, let’s put them to bed, get up early and get close. We will call them off their roosts to us.
Monday morning, Eclipse day, we make our way to the roosted birds, we can already hear them gobbling in the dark. We set up about 75 yards away, decoys out. As it gets light I let out a few calls, the gobblers go crazy. They are fired up! 15-20 minutes later I hear them fly down from their roosts I make a few more calls and get a few more gobbles. I figured any time they should make their way over to us. 30 minutes passes and no birds. I make a few more calls… no response. These birds gave us the slip. They went the other direction. I decide we will chase them. We start moving. We walk a few hundred yards and I call. I hear a faint gobble to the Northwest. They are far, but I have an idea on there they are headed. A big pasture about a quarter mile away. We try and cut them off, but we’re not successful in relocating them. It was the end of the hunt as we had to leave. It’s an 8 hour drive back home.
We get back to camp and load up. And started heading out of the property. We get about a mile away from camp and turn the corner next to another pasture and sure enough I see a gobbbler strutting about 800 yards down along the wood line.
we drive around and I say I think we can kill that bird. So I go park out of sight, told my son, “let’s go kill that turkey ,” and off we went. We jump out make about a 500 yard run through the brush towards the fence along side the pasture. We slow down, as we are getting close. I peak out and see the Tom about 80 yards away. We start creeping in slowing. I see 2 hens with him. We get inside 50 yards from him and pick a spot to sit. We crawl to the edge and wait. They are feeling towards up. About 3 minutes goes by and they are getting real close, about 30 yards away now. Then I catch sight of 2 Jake’s that have crossed over to our right, and we have a clear shot about 25 yards away. I move the gun and told my son shoot the one in front. He lined up and smoked him. Bird dropped, and 6 or 7 other turkeys bust out of there. I was planning on make a follow up shot on a second bird for myself, but it wasn’t possible, too much brush. That didn’t matter, My son Luke killed his first turkey!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The grass was so tall, it made shed hunting impossible. We were more focused on turkeys.
We arrived at the lease late Saturday about 5. Got unloaded, and spent the next 1.5 hours working on the Can Am. A mouse decided to chew up some wiring on the engine… After getting the buggy back up and running, we set out to look for some birds. It was extremely windy that day so hearing them was unlikely. We checked a few areas and only found one set of turkey tracks that were at least a day or 2 old. Nothing recent. As the sun went down, I figured we would try and locate the birds in the morning.
Well, that didn’t work out as planned… we woke up to wind blowing even harder than the day before, and temps dropped to the upper 40’s. We weren’t quite prepared for that chilly of a morning so we slept in. That afternoon we spent the day shed hunting and arrowhead hunting. That evening the wind started to die down so we went out to see if we could find a roost.
it was getting late, and were checked a pond we have seen turkeys roost on in the past. As we are getting close I see fresh tracks and wing tip drags. It could have been more than a few hours old. We kept moving and across the other side of the pond i end up seeing 2 hens. We back out and circle around so they can’t see us. At this point it’s getting dark. I can see a few birds and they are starting to fly up and roost. My son wanted to shoot one out of the trees, but it was too dark, and I couldn’t identify if they were males or females either. I told him, let’s put them to bed, get up early and get close. We will call them off their roosts to us.
Monday morning, Eclipse day, we make our way to the roosted birds, we can already hear them gobbling in the dark. We set up about 75 yards away, decoys out. As it gets light I let out a few calls, the gobblers go crazy. They are fired up! 15-20 minutes later I hear them fly down from their roosts I make a few more calls and get a few more gobbles. I figured any time they should make their way over to us. 30 minutes passes and no birds. I make a few more calls… no response. These birds gave us the slip. They went the other direction. I decide we will chase them. We start moving. We walk a few hundred yards and I call. I hear a faint gobble to the Northwest. They are far, but I have an idea on there they are headed. A big pasture about a quarter mile away. We try and cut them off, but we’re not successful in relocating them. It was the end of the hunt as we had to leave. It’s an 8 hour drive back home.
We get back to camp and load up. And started heading out of the property. We get about a mile away from camp and turn the corner next to another pasture and sure enough I see a gobbbler strutting about 800 yards down along the wood line.
we drive around and I say I think we can kill that bird. So I go park out of sight, told my son, “let’s go kill that turkey ,” and off we went. We jump out make about a 500 yard run through the brush towards the fence along side the pasture. We slow down, as we are getting close. I peak out and see the Tom about 80 yards away. We start creeping in slowing. I see 2 hens with him. We get inside 50 yards from him and pick a spot to sit. We crawl to the edge and wait. They are feeling towards up. About 3 minutes goes by and they are getting real close, about 30 yards away now. Then I catch sight of 2 Jake’s that have crossed over to our right, and we have a clear shot about 25 yards away. I move the gun and told my son shoot the one in front. He lined up and smoked him. Bird dropped, and 6 or 7 other turkeys bust out of there. I was planning on make a follow up shot on a second bird for myself, but it wasn’t possible, too much brush. That didn’t matter, My son Luke killed his first turkey!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
