Montana 2018

[hobbes]

I've stepped away from forums and Facebook for the last month or so to allow more time for things (people) that are more important. I've deleted a few accounts, intended to delete them all, but this one hasn't went away. I've worked quite a bit this weekend around the house but have kicked back for today, so I've got some time this evening to post up my 2018 MT turkey season.

While it's clear that this site is for the most part a big game hunting site (that's why I joined), if you've not hunted (really hunted) gobbling, strutting, drumming, spring turkeys..............you don't know what you are missing. If you are making assumptions about hunting turkeys because you've watched local yard birds wander through yards chasing cars, or you've watched some of the latest methods for "hunting" turkeys on YouTube.............again...........you don't know what you are missing. I've ambushed and put the sneak on a few birds (and I'm not beyond doing it again), but if you really want to experience spring turkeys........learn to call birds in gobbling, strutting, and drumming. If you want to make it an even better experience, learn to call in public land toms that have been pressured. It's not September by any means, nothing compares to slobbering, bugling, chuckling, mud caked 700 lb bulls, but it's a heck of a lot of fun. I've done it every spring since 1990 and I have no plans to quit anytime soon.

The opening day was spent with my teenage kids in the snow without much success.

I got out one morning during the week with a friend who had one day to hunt before he had to go out of town for a couple weeks. I had a tom roosted that gave us the slip after gobbling and drumming from above us for 30 minutes, but we found a jake that strutted into the call on our way out to the truck that my friend was all too happy to kill.

The following week I had to make a work trip to the eastern part of the state, so I drove my personal rig and stayed a couple extra days to hunt. The riverbottom country wasn't going to be much of an option, so I tried out some new country in two locations that resulted in nothing more than an early morning collision with a deer. I had a moose try to run over me back in September, the moose survived just fine............the deer wasn't so lucky.

 

[hobbes]

I took a buddy that is new to turkeys on the following weekend for a two day hunt. We found a few birds, but all the toms were on neighboring private land and I couldn't pull them onto public land.

I had to spend the next week and a half or so either working or on family/fatherly/grandfatherly duties, so I had to cancel on a Colorado buddy that was meeting me in the South Dakota Black Hills. I thought for a little while there that I may need to abandon the rest of the season.

 

[hobbes]

Work slowed down and family duties were under control, so I took some comp time to chase turkeys. On May 7 I found a tom on the opposite side of a canyon at 10 AM. I got wet to my knees trying to cross the swollen creek, but had the bird strutting, gobbling, drumming, and flopping on his back at 27 yards by 11 AM.
Antelope bucks preparing to cross the road.

My youngest son and I got on a tom the following day, but after 3 hours of moving on him multiple times I could not get him to close. We left him with plans to find him on the next weekend.

On May 10, I called in 5 young birds that I believe had a 2 year old in the mix, but they all had short beards and I wasn't planning to fill a tag with a jake. I roosted a bird that evening and was on him the next morning, May 11, but he pitched down off the mountain with 5 hens to a field well below us. I kept tabs on them from the treeline while trying to stay dry during the occasional rain shower and moved on them three times before he finally started losing his 5 hens. He followed a curious hen into 32 yards at 10 AM.

 

[hobbes]

My son and I were supposed to hunt on Saturday, but teenagers don't always have the same priorities as we do. Since he wasn't going, I took my buddy that was new to turkeys. We hiked in and found the bird that my son and I had tried to kill on the 8th. The bird pulled the same maneuvers on us from the same locations. However, at about 8:30 AM a hen that he'd apparently been following decided that she didn't appreciate my smart mouth. I moved back and kept pouring it on and he strutted right in behind her. But...............my buddy being new to the game didn't capitalize on the opportunity and moved at just the wrong time and the game ended quickly with the hen spooking and the tom racing off behind her not really knowing why.

I didn't know if they'd play the next morning, but knew they probably wouldn't go far since the hen likely had a nest close by. The next day started pretty slow with him gobbling two times from the roost then going quiet for an hour. We were about to hike out to the truck to drive to another bird that we had heard when he just gobbled on his own. I positioned my buddy and moved behind him again. He didn't let the second opportunity go by. He let the hen walk past at 35 yards and when the tom's fan appeared he was waiting for his head to appear.

I hunted a new location on the following Tuesday and Wednesday of the last week with a friend (same friend that killed the jake). We stayed in an old hunting cabin of someone he knew and hunted adjoining state land. The plan was for my buddy to get first shot since I had two toms and he only had a jake, but the one bird that came in showed up from a direction that I hadn't expected. Luckily he gobbled just over the rise giving me time to shift my gun in his direction before he showed up on top of me. If I didn't kill him, no one was going to, so I bit the bullet and killed my third tom of 2018 late in the evening of May 15th.

Montana traffic jam:

 

[hobbes]

I did get my son out mid day on the last Saturday of the season, but we could not find a bird. We should have hunted the last day early morning before church and then that evening, but..............teenagers and their priorities.

I had a good season even though it started slow and my out of state travel was down to none (although filling multiple MT licenses requires its fair share of travel). While a little earlier than I had expected, the best thing about this spring is this:

 

[deerhunt1988]

Very well said in the first post. Enjoyed the read and pics, thanks for sharing!

 

[rcfireninja]

Great pics and story! Sounds like you had an awesome season.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jimss]

Looks like you had a fantastic gobbler season with family and friends! Congrats!

 

[philos]

You are right in that a true turkey hunt- calling them in-is an experience that all hunters should have at least once. Nice write up

 

[howl]

So that's where you went. Nice pix as usual. Enjoyed the report and congrats!

 

[Randyb1969]

looks like a great season got my first turkey this year

 

[ttucci16]

Great pics and sounds like an amazing season.