Ben's 2026 semi-live hunt thread

[TheBenHoyle]

It is time to start my 2026 hunt thread. I lost my job in November of 2025 and I have been pretty preoccupied with replacing it. This is not the place for that story, but it was rough and now it is over. I accepted a new job yesterday and I start on 3/30.

That being said, I am going to try to get out on a coyote hunt in the next two weeks, which will double as a turkey scouting expedition. Right now, I have two Illinois turkey tags. One is a private land hunt where I shot my buck and I will be hunting with my dad. The other is public land and I will be hunting with a buddy.

I could pick up another tag for private land, but I need to take a closer look at the calendar. Sadly, the turkey season is smack dab in the middle of Easter/birthdays/Mother's Day/end of semester move out from college for my oldest daughter. With a new job, my vacation time might be limited so I may be limited to only weekend hunts. It's some complicated math, so we will see how it goes.

Other than turkey season, my only plans are the fall archery deer/turkey season in Illinois and an archery rut hunt in Ohio. My buddy and I have gone 3 years now and I've gotten a couple does and he took a button buck. This year I would really like to put an arrow through a big Ohio buck.

And of course, this year I would like to get some waterfowl hunting on the books. And I might put in for the fall shotgun turkey season. It bumps right up against the end of the marching band season, so that might be tough to get to, but it was very productive last year.

 

[noharleyyet]

Congrats on the new job Ben...good luck with your efforts afield.

 

[duckhunt]

Looking forward to a new season.

 

[Lmartin5]

Following...best of luck!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Let me just share with you the key need for success in a mid-March coyote hunt: a weapon.

That's right, I got all loaded up and ready to go this morning. I was heading out the door on time if not before. I made great time on the way to the spot I was planning on hunting. Everything was going great. Until I got there and realized, I left my gun at home...

I wasn't terribly upset since I wasn't expecting to see a coyote and considering my weapon is a Remington 870 12 gauge with buckshot, I'd have to call it in pretty close. This was really just a turkey scouting trip with the possibility of a coyote as a bonus.

Strike that from the list, settle in for some turkey scouting I guess. I hustled out to the northwest corner of the field where I could observe the woods as well as the woods on the property to the west.

Well nothing came out of the trees I will be able to hunt, but just before full sunrise I saw a flock of 25ish birds coming out of the north end of the woods to the west. There was about 5-7 toms strutting amongst the hens. It was fun to watch and even though they were over 150 yards from me I could see some long beards on a couple of them.



Since the birds weren't in the woods I can hunt, I took that opportunity to hike around in there. I also hiked about 200 yards south of there to check a small stand of woods that I can hunt, but I saw no turkey tracks in the snow, so I moved on.

The snow was spotty and past its prime, but I found a few neat tracks.



All in all it was a fine morning, but it does leave me wondering if I should get proper rifle to hunt coyotes with. Perhaps if I had a rifle I was confident I could use effectively I would have been less likely to have left it home. I am not a rifle shooter at this time. I've never had one and I haven't spent much time shooting them. But it might be nice to get a .243 or a .270. I mainly like archery hunting, but I may decide I want to go out west for an elk or antelope hunt with a rifle one day. Food for thought I guess.

And now I'm on the bench until April 17-19 when I have my first Illinois turkey tag.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I'm headed west tomorrow at 5pm to get out by my parents' house. I might try to roost a couple of birds at sundown, but there is an expected severe weather alert for that area from about 5pm to 1 or 2 in the morning. So depending on the weather I might just skip the roosting attempt.

Saturday and Sunday my buddy and I will be on public ground trying to double up. We did it back in 2018 and I managed to get a tom by myself from this property last Spring. Let's hope it all works out.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I'm just about to leave the house and I got a nice picture from the game camera I have on the property I am hunting with my dad next weekend.



Hopefully he and his buddies will make this a habit.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well, the weekend hunt was eventful. My buddy and I were driving separately and planning to meet in a small town in Northwest Illinois about 10 miles from the public hunting ground so we could hop in one car and drive the rest of the way and try to roost some birds for Saturday morning.

About an hour or two before my buddy and I went through there, an EF2 tornado ripped through Lena, Illinois and we both drove by the descending funnel that eventually became an EF2 that went through Rockton, Illinois.

The power was completely out in the town we met up in and it wasn't restored until late Saturday night.

By the time we were out trying to roost birds, the rain had passed and we could see the string of thunderstorms that were spawning the tornadoes all across the Eastern horizon. It was an impressive lightning show. Unfortunately, we heard no turkeys.

Saturday morning, we set up in a spot that I have had some good encounters in the past. The wind was whipping at 20-30 mph and we couldn't hear a thing... We sat over the decoys for a while and then we hiked around a little looking for sign. We saw a turkey, but it was too far away and it didn't stick around.

We moved to a different parking lot and spooked a couple of turkeys that flew away. Did a bunch of exploring to see if there were any places we might want to try on Sunday.

After lunch and naps and a trip to Wisconsin for cheese curds and New Glarus beer, we went back for Sunset to try to roost birds for Sunday morning. We heard a bunch hen clucking in one wooded draw and decided we would try to set up there at sunrise.

Sunday morning was so calm. Like night and day from the day before. We thought we were in business, with at least 3 gobblers going off about 150 yards from us and a couple more to the south of those and 1 to the north and maybe 3 more west of us across the road.

We eventually pushed in to the draw and found a nice place to set up and had some good responses to our calling. But the toms didn't seem to want to come our way. So I told my buddy to cross the little clearing to see if he could get a glimpse of the birds. Unfortunately, an unseen hen busted him and she went put put put all the way out of the trees headed north. The toms didn't follow her, but they stopped making noise. We waited a little bit to see what might happen, but eventually backed out and headed to a different parking lot.

My thought was we would just see some new spots for a potential different time when we get these tags, but once we got into the woods and I hit the slate call we had a gobbler calling back.

we pushed forward and found a spot to set up in hopes that he would come in to our calls. It was very exciting and we had a lot of gobbling action, but he seemed reluctant to close the distance and we couldn't get closer since he was on private. Eventually, he stopped responding and we were running out of time, so we hiked a little further just to see what was there and then we each headed home.

It was a lot of fun hanging with my buddy and Sunday was very exciting with so many toms around. I think I am going to run back out there on Thursday, which is the last day of my season. I just can't stop thinking about how close we got on Sunday and thinking it is worth one more try.

After that, I will be hunting with my dad over the weekend near where he lives on some private land we have access to. I'm getting some good pictures from my trail cam of turkeys so hopefully he and I will have some success.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

OK, sorry it has been so long since I updated you. I couldn't stop thinking about how close my buddy and I got to sealing the deal on that public land tag and I had until Thursday to hunt it, so I left straight from work on Wednesday and drove out there to roost a bird at sundown.

The sun set was beautiful, but I only heard one gobbler and it seemed faint. But I decided I would sit in the corner of the field where I had been last year when I got a turkey. There were so many gobblers the next morning. Probably a dozen stretching from behind me and wrapping around to the left all the way back up to the road.

But after waiting 2 1/2 hours I wasn't seeing anything. SO I decided to do some sneaking to see if I could get closer to the gobblers I was hearing. I ended up sneaking through about 250 yards of hardwoods, several times I thought he was just around the corner. It turns out he was on the other side of a steep draw that I had to cross and then on the other side of a woven wire fence that I had to find and opening to crawl through.

At last I felt like I was within 25 yards of him, so I sat down and called hoping he would come my way. But after 45 minutes of him gobbling at me but not getting any closer, he just stopped. I eventually snuck closer to where I thought he was but he must have already wandered off.

I tried looking in several other places, but the only thing I found was one hen. However, I feel like I learned a lot about the terrain and different features of the area.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Friday my other tag opened. That tag was on private land about 30 minutes from my parents' house and my dad had a tag to go with me. We haven't chased turkeys since like 2010.

He is 79 and honestly he is in great shape. I need to get my act together if I want to be able to keep hunting that late in life.

We went out for a short hunt Friday morning before I had to work. Heard some gobbles, but didn't see anything other than a hen very far away. We scouted that night and saw what we thought was 3 hens and a strutting tom next to a block of woods that we had permission to hunt.

We snuck in Saturday morning and got set up on the corner and figured we would be set to have that tomorrow fly down and strut right past us. And that is almost what happened. We heard a lot of gobbles, but nothing close. And then we heard like 2 gobbles on the other side of our block of woods.

A couple of hens appeared and then the strutter was there on the other side of the narrow field we were looking at. He was strutting slowly our way and we were ready to be patient. And then a mushroom hunter comes walking across the field... I asked the property owner about it later and he said the neighbor is a mushroom hunter. It would have been nice if he would have waited until the afternoon to look...

We ended up sitting there for a while and then we got out to check some other places we had permission for. NO turkeys were harmed on Saturday.

More scouting Saturday night and the gang was back in action in that same spot 3 hens and a strutter. The plan was to be right back in place Sunday morning, but the twist was we had found a nicer spot to set up a little closer to where the tom had appeared.

I also thought it would be good to have a prone hen and a strutter decoy, with the idea that the big man on campus would be ready for a fight. I set my dad up to have the tom strut right in front of him for a chip shot. And boy howdy did the turkeys read the script. Kinda.

We had two hens fly down out in front of us and then a strangled little gobble and there was a tom walking past dad. Now the twist is that it wasn't a longbeard. It was a Jake, but he was rushing in to the decoys. I should have had the forethought to ready my gun, but I thought it would be an easy shot. I think dad rushed his shot and he missed. The turkey started running and I whipped up my gun and shot. And missed. Dad shot again. And missed. I shot again and missed. Four shots, all within 20-30 yards. The Jake unscathed.

I just had to shake my head. It was crazy. But wait, it gets crazier. All of that commotion was not enough to clear the field. The hens were still within 40 yards and the Jake was about 40 yards out from them. For the next hour we watched them slowly walk out a little further, but they hung up at about 120 yards out.

I told dad that I thought I could sneak around to the back side of our block of trees and then crawl into range to try to get the Jake once and for all. He said go for it. And boy did it work, with a twist.

I managed to get through the woods and then out in the open using a rise in the ground to hide my crawling I got to within 40 yard, possibly less. I had to stop moving because one of the hens was about to flank me. SO I rose up over the top of the rise and pulled the trigger. And missed. He ran left. I shot. And missed. I racked my last shell, thinking he was gone, but he ran back right and I shot. And he flopped. Success! But wait. It gets crazier.

I get up and walk towards the bird and realize that I had no shells with me. I hadn't thought to grab any other than the ones in my gun. I was about 15 yards away when this bird gets up and runs. I tried chasing after him, but he was unbelievably fast for a dead bird...

I wave back to my dad and yell that I am out of shells, so he comes over and I can see that the Jake has ducked in to some bushes at the far side of the field, about 70 yards away. I can see him move back and forth a little but he's not going further in so I decide that dad and I will split the circle and each come in from an angle so that if he broke and ran for it one of us could shoot him. Dad gave me one of the shells from his gun.

Dad read the lay of the land a little wrong and he was converging on a point that was on my side of the circle. He was standing in my way and I had to step around him to be clear to shoot into the bushes to end the Jake. I shot and he ran to the right. He was in the open now and I realized he was unable to go forward because of a woven wire fence. I once again had no shells, so I told dad to shoot him, but his gun had jammed when he ejected a shel for me and he was trying to clear it. He ended up ejecting the shell that was jammed and I picked it up and put it in my gun and I shot. And the Jake died.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

It was both infuriating that we had spent 9 shells trying to kill a bird that had been almost within punching distance, but it was also exhilarating. I really felt like I had worked hard for that bird.

He weighed 17 pounds and had maybe a 3.4" beard. His spurs were just nubbins.



I like to think his name was Nubbins Nineshots.



I know there are a lot of people who look down on shooting jakes but I will absolutely treasure this hunt. I'd like to think I have many more years of hunting with my dad, but I know that I need to enjoy every one I can get.

I was hoping we could find another one to fill his tag and we spent the rest of the morning driving and walking. Putting sneaks on a couple different groups of turkeys, but not getting a chance at a shot.



Dad was a champ at walking. He walks about 2 miles a day, which is a big part of how he stays in good shape.



The nice thing about covering all that ground is that we were able to find some mushrooms.

Dad still has a few days to hunt and I would like to think that he'll get back out. I can't go with him, but I honestly think that he could set up in that same spot and have a different gobbler come by. If he does, I'll follow up with a post.