THWAK1
New member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2011
- Messages
- 787
Hello All. I'm pretty new here, 1 month, and figured I'd finally start a thread of my own. It was going to be on coyote hunting as that was the start of my 2011 season (my dad and I called in and killed 26 this winter using my Foxpro) but I decided on my turkey hunt instead.
My dad and I arrived at the property we hunt 2 nights before the season opener to set up camp and to scout. That night is snowed about 8 inches of cold, wet snow and we woke up to a caved in tent roof laying on us as we tried to get out of our sleeping bags and off of our cots. We spent the day glassing and listening for turkeys with little success. The birds were just plain laying low and keeping quiet.
Opening day found us in my Double Bull blind with our bows and the turkey decoys set up 5 yards from us, all within a 100 yards of where we had put some turkeys to bed the night before. The birds flew out of their roost and after a couple of hours of little talk and little movement, they moved away from us. It was obvious that they were not liking the snow any more than we were. The remainder of the day was about the same; change location, set-up, call, nothing. On the bright side, it was warming up and the snow was melting. That night, my dad and I sat on a high ridge listening to distant gobbles and planned the next morning hunt.
Day 2, we abandoned the bows for shotguns and decided to run-n-gun instead of setting up as a team. I grabbed one hen decoy as an after thought and stuffed it in my Badlands Diablo and we left camp before sunrise, in opposite directions, in an attempt to cover more ground. I was staying to the high ground, listening and glassing with zero luck. All I had going for me was the direction of a distand lone gobble from the evening before. About 10am, I finally spotted 4 turkeys, 3 hens and a big Tom, at about a half mile, as the sun shined on them as they fed near the edge and shade of a large meadow. I figured out which way they were slowly moving, made a quick plan and headed to cut them off. After maneuvering through the timber, I arrived at the edge of the meadow, about 100 yards in front of the turkeys and out of sight, just over a slight rise between us. I crawled into the meadow about 15 yards and set my hen decoy out in front of my set-up and crawled back. As the hens crested the rise, they spotted the hen and steadily moved in to check her out but the Tom stayed back a ways and farther from the edge than the hens. I was laying in the grass next to a large tree running my video camera that I had placed atop my tripod as they all approached. As the 3 hens fed away from me, the big Tom was in tow and came into range. One shot from my Browning Gold Hunter and I had my Spring turkey along with some good video. After tagging my Tom and taking a few pictures, I headed back to camp to see how my dad had done.
About half way back to camp, I spotted a shed elk antler laying next to a large bush. I walked over and picked it up to find that it was a fresh 7 point shed. I set down my turkey, backpack and shotgun and started searching for the other shed. About 30 minutes later and lots of circling around where I found the first shed, I found it's match, an 8 point shed, about 200 yards away! After attaching the sheds to my backpack, I shouldered the pack, threw my Tom over my shoulder, grabbed my shotgun, and headed back to camp.
Dad was there when I arrived. He didn't get his Tom but had a good morning. We told each other our stories, took some more pictures and prepared lunch. It was just noon on the second day of season and I had had a great morning hunt!
My dad and I arrived at the property we hunt 2 nights before the season opener to set up camp and to scout. That night is snowed about 8 inches of cold, wet snow and we woke up to a caved in tent roof laying on us as we tried to get out of our sleeping bags and off of our cots. We spent the day glassing and listening for turkeys with little success. The birds were just plain laying low and keeping quiet.
Opening day found us in my Double Bull blind with our bows and the turkey decoys set up 5 yards from us, all within a 100 yards of where we had put some turkeys to bed the night before. The birds flew out of their roost and after a couple of hours of little talk and little movement, they moved away from us. It was obvious that they were not liking the snow any more than we were. The remainder of the day was about the same; change location, set-up, call, nothing. On the bright side, it was warming up and the snow was melting. That night, my dad and I sat on a high ridge listening to distant gobbles and planned the next morning hunt.
Day 2, we abandoned the bows for shotguns and decided to run-n-gun instead of setting up as a team. I grabbed one hen decoy as an after thought and stuffed it in my Badlands Diablo and we left camp before sunrise, in opposite directions, in an attempt to cover more ground. I was staying to the high ground, listening and glassing with zero luck. All I had going for me was the direction of a distand lone gobble from the evening before. About 10am, I finally spotted 4 turkeys, 3 hens and a big Tom, at about a half mile, as the sun shined on them as they fed near the edge and shade of a large meadow. I figured out which way they were slowly moving, made a quick plan and headed to cut them off. After maneuvering through the timber, I arrived at the edge of the meadow, about 100 yards in front of the turkeys and out of sight, just over a slight rise between us. I crawled into the meadow about 15 yards and set my hen decoy out in front of my set-up and crawled back. As the hens crested the rise, they spotted the hen and steadily moved in to check her out but the Tom stayed back a ways and farther from the edge than the hens. I was laying in the grass next to a large tree running my video camera that I had placed atop my tripod as they all approached. As the 3 hens fed away from me, the big Tom was in tow and came into range. One shot from my Browning Gold Hunter and I had my Spring turkey along with some good video. After tagging my Tom and taking a few pictures, I headed back to camp to see how my dad had done.
About half way back to camp, I spotted a shed elk antler laying next to a large bush. I walked over and picked it up to find that it was a fresh 7 point shed. I set down my turkey, backpack and shotgun and started searching for the other shed. About 30 minutes later and lots of circling around where I found the first shed, I found it's match, an 8 point shed, about 200 yards away! After attaching the sheds to my backpack, I shouldered the pack, threw my Tom over my shoulder, grabbed my shotgun, and headed back to camp.
Dad was there when I arrived. He didn't get his Tom but had a good morning. We told each other our stories, took some more pictures and prepared lunch. It was just noon on the second day of season and I had had a great morning hunt!
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