Even a newb gets lucky once in a while!

[Devil Diver Down]

Pix will have to wait until I get to a spot where uploads are possible but I shot this jake at 6:20 this morning, the opener. Big Fin has no love for turkeys but I'm happy to plug OYOA in any case. First turkey for me on my first shotgun hunt.

 

[MinnesotaHunter]

Congrats! Looking forward to the pics. My buddies and I like to call it poor man's elk hunting, and it is addicting.

 

[Biscuit Hunter]

Very nice. It's always good to hear about the AZ guys gettin' it done. Tell us the story, along with the pics.

 

[sbhooper]

I have at least one friend in Az that was going hunting today. Jakes are great. They are definitely better eating than the mature birds. They all fill a tag!

 

[JohnCushman]

Jakes are awesome!

 

[big28hunter]

Any turkey is a trophy! Congrats

 

[Devil Diver Down]

First shotgun turkey hunt - my archery turkey hunt last year was too embarrassingly fruitless to document - this time in the White Mountains of Arizona. This is a draw hunt because we don't have many turkeys in Arizona, period. Luckily, Unit 1 is one of the exceptions but the report was that all of the toms already had hens and were going quiet after flydown.

We arrived to high winds and snow flurries Wednesday night, set up tents, then I drove around 2 tracks until 9:30pm trying to elicit a shock gobble to no avail.

Thursday morning was the complete opposite: everything I tried between 4:30-5:25am drew a shock gobble - hen yelp, coyote howl, owl hoots, even slamming my door - many times from 4 or 5 different toms.All of the calling stopped from every place I tried by 5:30. I checked areas until 10 then I settled on a good looking spot (at least to me) for opening morning and spent the day goofing off with my oldest son, BIL and step dad at camp.

Friday morning was completely quiet. I couldn't buy a shock gobble anywhere, including the nice 2 track with tracks all over that I'd already traveled down a mile. I panicked and hauled my Tundra all over heck trying to hear one bird as light was coming on. I finally drove to one spot I'd seen the day before with a good seep, silent like everywhere else, but I jumped out and grabbed my shotgun and slate call. I left my pack, bladder, decoys, extra shells and everything else in the truck. Blind luck smiled on me after walking for about 5 minutes - nine birds with 2 nice toms of the side of the 2 track. They busted me when I tried to cut them off through the dry vegetation and took off running. I followed for a half hour, hearing an occasional gobble. I decided to head over the canyon top they seemed to be circling until I heard a gobble close. Four jakes were dogging the flock from a respectful distance when I spotted them all. I crawled on hands and knees to within 50 yards. The gobbler was a really nice tom, but he had hens bunched all around. I pulled out my slate call and yelped - gobbles erupted first from the tom, then from the 4 jakes in unison. I kept calling softly and the jakes turned my direction - then the lead hen would yelp and they'd turn back. The flock was leaving but the jakes came to investigate my call - 20 yards so I could see their beards plainly but they were too tightly bunched to risk a shot, so I just kept still, shotgun aimed. They circled some trees to follow the flock over a downed fenceline and I waited on the last jake, who was distant enough from the others for me to drop the hammer at 45 yards. He popped up over a log just as I squeezed the trigger, so my hit was low but dropped him anyway. He was flapping and I lost sight of him when my gun jammed trying to eject the shell. Took me a couple frantic minutes to find him when I reached the fence - he blended in with the burned out logs and stumps. Would love to shoot a big, fat longbeard someday but happy as could be with my jake.

Couldn't wait to get back to camp to show him off.

Nobody will confuse my pictures with those of MTMiller's - my camera died and had to use my cell phone - but I might be hooked on turkey. Hopefully I can draw a tag next year.

 

[chuckyd313]

Way to bring it on home for us Az boys.

 

[kansasdad]

Smooth thinking to follow up the bumped birds. In my neck of the woods, you would have to be Usain Bolt himself to catch up to a bumped flock (after about the first ten days of the two month season.)

I hope you never get over the "turkey fever"

 

[naturebob]

Congrats Fellow Arizonan! You will be hooked for ever. It doesn't get any better than unit 1. I allways found Elk sheds on the Spring hunt as a bonus to Turkeys.. Generally great weather, sometimes snow I been huntin birds there for 21-22 years and my buddies are still finding them in the same spots, as I been gone 3 years. Find a couple good places and birds will be there every year unless snow is too deep.. Cant wait to hunt it again. Every year My buddies email me pics from my honey hole with their birds. Gives Me chills seeing that spot where I killed My first bird and many more. Good job. Hope you draw it again soon.........BOB!.

 

[Biscuit Hunter]

Sounds like a really fun hunt. Congrats, man. Here's hoping that your luck continues throughout the season...

 

[Sytes]

Nice! Bad arse swag to boot!

 

[noharleyyet]

Thanks for the pics DDD...nice.

 

[Devil Diver Down]

Smooth thinking to follow up the bumped birds. In my neck of the woods, you would have to be Usain Bolt himself to catch up to a bumped flock (after about the first ten days of the two month season.)

I hope you never get over the "turkey fever"

I think they heard me but didn't see me because they only half-trotted off. I would never have caught up to them if I didn't go over the top to cut them off, while they worked around the sidehills. As it turns out, I'm not that fleet of foot at 9,000+ feet

I wonder if bringing my Montana hen decoy along would've been more helpful in getting the jakes in even closer and/or getting enough separation to shoot one when they came to investigate. My guess is that it would've over-complicated the impromptu set up and caused too much movement on my end. I'm hoping I can try a "real" set up next year - the fever has hold of me.

Nice! Bad arse swag to boot!

Thanks! I won that hoodie for giving the best response to angry fan mail sent to Big Fin. Who knew that trolling would pay off for me someday?

 

[junior88]

congrats on the bird. unit 1 is heaven on earth. they lost a lot of turkey after the wallow fire. nice to see the rebound. looks awfully dry up there.

 

[putm2sleep]

Way to go! Congrats! Love the sweatshirt too! Plug for OYOA!
(are you sure that's not Dink with that bird?)

 

[Devil Diver Down]

Really dry up there, Junior. Even with the snow storm they got the week before and the little bit we got on Wednesday.

The guy with that bird is wearing my drawers so I hope it was me and not Dink. I should ask him to sell me that screen name, though, since I specialize in shooting jakes and calves with antlers. Mature animals have no worries when I'm around. Maybe I should switch to Cradle Robber or Baby Killer.

 

[naturebob]

Devil Diver, You know what was always funny. Your at 9k ft in elavation, 30-40 degres some times snowing. Later that day when You get back down to the Valley its 100 and nice and warm..One of the few places in the country you can do that.Every where else they are stuck with the cold or the heat. We got both. Gotta luv it... To bad we didn't have a profesionall baseball team this year.........BOB!