Ben's semi-live 2025 hunt thread

[TheBenHoyle]

I had been hunting from the ground but I felt like there was too much undergrowth for me to maximize the range I could get with my shotgun. So I hiked back out to my truck and got my saddle, platform and climbing sticks. I was afraid that being up in a tree would make me more visible to turkeys, but I was picturing the turkeys coming out of the corn on the south and I would be ready to pick them off before they would spot me.

I got up the tree and settled in for about 4 hours before the end of legal shooting light. My hope was that the turkeys would come back to roost in the trees. I also felt it possible that they could come back before then, just to see what was going on.

Sadly, the turkeys who did show up early decided to skirt the woods to the north and then drift off to the west. I had a lot of time spent watching that flock of 7 toms leave me behind. I was a little disappointed, but I knew that there were hens around.

with about an hour twenty left of hunting time I looked up to my shot window at the edge of the corn and I see 2 turkeys flit by. In my head I would hear something before they appeared but they just appeared. I got my shotgun ready in case they slipped back into that opening and sure enough one stepped right out. I shot and with missed or didn't kill that bird. It flew up in a tree to my left and I shot again and it dropped like a brick.

I looked around to see if there were any other birds in the open, since I had 2 tags, but they were all gone. So I took the last shell out of my gun and lowered it to the ground with a thought of getting to that bird, just in case it wasn't as dead as I thought. I start my process of taking down everything from the tree and I realize there is a bird standing in that same opening by the corn, but I have no gun at hand.

I decide I just have to finish the process and I get to the ground and watch that turkey fly up in a tree next to the tree I shot my first turkey out of. I bend down, grab my shotgun, chamber a shell and drop that hen out of that tree.



I am beyond excited about how this worked out. I have spent so much time hunting wild turkey and coming up empty handed. I can't believe I was able to pull off a double. It is almost exactly like I drew it up in my head, although in my head I would have gotten both with just one shot.

On my hike out I was happy that I didn't shoot a couple of toms, I think that together these birds probably weighed 25 pounds and they were very awkward to carry through the standing corn. I think I have decided to not hunt these trees again until after the corn is picked. I don't know how I would have gotten a deer out of there.

 

[duckhunt]

Thats awsome

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Packing up this afternoon so I can throw everything in my friend's truck tomorrow at 10 and head East for Ohio.

This will be the 4th season that he and I have gone out to hunt some family land. So far I have taken a young doe and he got his first deer ever last year, a 1.5 year old buck.

My buddy's uncle wants us to take 2 deer each this year because he says there are too many deer running around. I'm happy to try to oblige.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I had a job interview Wednesday morning so we couldn't leave until 10 am. It was more like 10:30. And then we had to stop at a Cabela's to pick up something for my buddy, so by the time we got to our spot in Ohio it was about 10 minutes after the end of legal shooting light.

We drove up to the edge of the woods and put up the ground blind my buddy was going to hunt out of and then we headed to the cabin we rented. On the way out we saw a buck and a doe by the edge of the filed. We hoped it would be a good sign for the next day.

Thursday was very calm and the weather was perfect, but my buddy only saw one deer way out of range in the morning. I was in the Northeast corner of the woods and I ended up being surprised by a buck who slipped in to 10 yards. I wasn't checking that spot since it was about 400 yards of open field and I figured I would see anything coming from that direction, but this dude slipped in undetected.

By the time I got my bow up, he was 25 yards and my shot opening was sub-optimal. Apparently, there was at least one branch that I hadn't seen and it deflected my arrow to the left, just in front of the buck and he ran away unscratched...

I had another job interview at 11 am so at 10 am I started pulling my set and started down the tree. At which point I discovered at there was a forky buck in almost the same place that the other buck had been. SO I guess it is super easy to cross 400 yards of open field without me seeing. He busted my movement and took off to the block of woods to the east...

 

[TheBenHoyle]

After my interview, I slid back into the woods. I was initially thinking I would move all the way south in the woods to be closer to the creek, but about 100 yards south of where I had been that morning I found a big crape surrounded by rubs and decided that was the place to be. Sadly, I didn't see any deer until about sunset when I saw a buck about 80 yards west headed north parallel to the woods edge I was on. He must have been following a doe, because before I could even try to grunt or anything, he turned tail and ran back south. It was a good first day, but we were both a little worried about Friday. It was supposed to be windy and rainy and I was worried it would be a wasted day.

My buddy said he would hunt in a little hunting shed on the property, close to where I had seen the buck the night before and so I opted to sit in the ground blind Friday morning. I was a good choice since I wouldn't have wanted to be racking in a tree, but sadly the deer weren't moving by either of us.

We went back to the farm around noon and talked to my buddy's aunt and uncle. They suggested that we try hunting the woods just across the winter wheat field from the farm. There was a box blind on a hay rack for my buddy and plenty of good trees for me to go up.

As we were walking up the grassy lane to the blind I saw 5-10 turkeys in the winter wheat. I have been hunting this farm for 4 years and they said there were turkeys, but this was the first time I had ever seen them. I love turkey, but sadly they were not in season. As they went into the woods to escape the perceived danger of us walking in their general direction, they spooked a doe into the field. I got low in the grass as my buddy tried to get his crossbow ready, standing behind the blind.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

As you can imagine, that didn't work out the way we hoped, she got nervous about something and decided to go ask the turkeys about it I guess. But my buddy was in the blind and I could go find a tree in the woods.

I went maybe 300 yards down the edge and found a game trail that cut into the trees at a spot where the field edge jogged north 50 yards, creating an inside corner. I felt like that would be a bit of a funnel and decided to find a tree not far in to the woods.

They do maple sugaring in these woods so there is a bit of a lane cleared just inside the trees and I decided to set up along the edge of the lane. These woods are much less brushy and I was pretty happy with all the open shooting lanes.

My wind was blowing north so I had my back to that direction and was scanning all the open shooting lanes to my left and right and straight in front of me. But not much was happening. The rain was over, the wind had died down and was continuing to abate, but no turkeys or deer were moving around.

I just happened to look over my shoulder in the direction that my wind was going and there's a little forky buck standing directly in my wind... I didn't have a shot where he was standing and he managed to walk a 1/4 circle around me ud=sing all of the brushy stuff to stay alive and by the time he was near my open shooting lanes he was probably 50 yards away...

About an hour later, a nicer looking buck came in from the direction that the little guy had gone. He was a narrow rack, but very tall. And he did almost the same thing in reverse, avoiding my open shooting lanes and circling into my wind. I took an ill-advised 25 yard shot through the brushy stuff and it deflected (I never recovered that arrow). I thought the jig was up, but that buck was receptive to a grunt and he came around in the open directly in my wind at 30 yards. I took the shot and I hear the string get caught up on my coat sleeve. The arrow went right under his chest... And he was gone.

At this point I had missed 3 shots on two bucks in two days and I was really wondering if I even knew how to kill a deer. It was demoralizing. I had spent a lot of time getting to this spot and I spent a lot of money on a tag and I knew my time was running out.

I spent the next hour and a half watching the world get darker and just hoping I would get another opportunity. I saw a buck chasing a doe super fast and well out of range. And then I had at least 3 turkeys fly up in trees all around me. And then with about 20 minutes left of legal shooting light I heard something coming from my left but I couldn't see anything. I got ready for a last second shot and kept my eyes peeled.

I saw 2 deer slipping my way and I pulled back to be ready as they stepped into the open lane to my left. I didn't have time to see what they were, I just aimed at the one that looked the biggest and let it go. Sounded good, but I was very confused when I saw 3 deer run off in 3 different directions. I started to worry that I had somehow put two deer into one deer form and shot between them or something. Where did that 3rd deer come from? But then I heard the crash. The deer that had run to the west must have been hit and was down.



I felt even better about it when I got down and saw my arrow.

Of course, by now it was fully dark and my headlamp was not picking up on the blood trail very well, so I was lucky that my buddy had a better head lamp.

It was a double lung hit that entered high on the should and exited low on the opposite rib cage. Shot was maybe 10 yards and she ran about 100 yards.



I really would have like one of those shots on those bucks to have been good, but I can't express to you how happy I am to have taken this doe. My buddy went and got his truck while I field dressed her and then helped my drag her about 100 yards to the field edge. I was exhausted and fully sweated through by the time we got her to the truck.

This has been an amazing hunting year for me with 3 turkeys and a deer so far. looking forward to some more hunts, but now I feel like I am playing with house money and anything success I might have will be gravy. I would like to get some ducks and geese yet this fall/winter, but I am not positive I will have an opportunity for those hunts. I should have a couple more archery hunts where I could take deer or turkey in Illinois. I'll update as those happen.