JoseCuervo
New member
Since my Elk hunt won't start for a month, and deer for almost two months, I got tired of reading other people's hunting exploits (mainly just MTMiller's, damn that boy is killin' some nice chit
), so I convinced a buddy of mine to go Turkey hunting for Sunday.
We thought we knew which ranch we were headed to, but ended up not finding the "Plan A" spot. So then we tried to find a Plan B. The area we were in is a huge set of transitions, from Timber up high down to dry grass and sage in the bottoms.
Our plan was to hunt Turkey about like Mule Deer. Get on the ridges, and glass the creek bottoms along the water. This appeared to accomplish little other than getting us to drain our Nalgene bottles.
I finally dumped a Blue Grouse, out of a bunch of about 8. I passed a chance to whack 4 foot rattlesnake.
We just sort of came to a "handshake" agreeement, where he would go his way, and I would go the other way... I passed on lots of Quail, as my personal code of Ethics won't allow me to shoot them cute little buggers.
And finally, I found a bunch of Huns, and dropped one. So, by about 5pm, the score was 1 grouse, 1 Hun, and about 5 miles in 80 heat, with no shade.
My buddy told me we had 1 more hour, before having to drive home the 100 miles. So, one last try and finding the Plan A ranch, and it worked. From the house we could see two turkeys.
We came up with a plan, on how to trap the turkeys in between us, along the creek, and get them caught in the blazing guns.
Needless to say, the Turkeys dissappeared (can they swim??), and all we were able to trap was a big ol' cow. We passed on the Beef donor, and I mentioned to my buddy that as I crossed the creek, I saw 22 turkeys across the pasture, heading into the thick brush on the hill side.
So, stalk number two was set up. This time, I went to a natural funnel, where the pasture, and a trail/Chinese ditch came together, and sat myself down. And then my buddy went into the brush about 250 yards down, and started working toward me. He heard some clucking, and eventually jumped one up at about 20 yards, which he dumped with his second shot. (He doesn't read here, so he won't know that you know he missed...) At that point, all He!! broke loose, and we had Turkeys everywhere. 4 landed about 100 yards away, and ran back into the Timber/Brush. Then another flew across the pasture. And then another toward a tree in front of me. I had clucking and cutting all over the place. Finally a bird landed out in the middle of the Pasture, about 150 yards away, and just started marching toward me. The bird kept looking around, and thought about hanging up, but then kept coming. 75 yards... then 50 yards.... then at 40 it stopped, and then looked at me. I already had my gun pointed its' direction, and the safety off, so I lifted it, found the bead and the head, and with a bang, the Turkey dropped in its' tracks. Upon my shot, two more flew about 1/2 way between me and the dead bird, and two others jumped up about 7 yards away, on the ditch that I was watching. I had birds everywhere, for about a minute. Pretty fun!!!
Well, we found the first bird, and got the two birds for pictures. A long day, but a lot of fun. And my first Turkey ever!!!
When I cleaned my bird, its' crop was full of choke cherries, sage leaves, and grass.
Film is at Wal-mart, and due back on Thursday....
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 09-22-2003 21:02: Message edited by: ElkGunner ]</font>
We thought we knew which ranch we were headed to, but ended up not finding the "Plan A" spot. So then we tried to find a Plan B. The area we were in is a huge set of transitions, from Timber up high down to dry grass and sage in the bottoms.
Our plan was to hunt Turkey about like Mule Deer. Get on the ridges, and glass the creek bottoms along the water. This appeared to accomplish little other than getting us to drain our Nalgene bottles.
I finally dumped a Blue Grouse, out of a bunch of about 8. I passed a chance to whack 4 foot rattlesnake.
And finally, I found a bunch of Huns, and dropped one. So, by about 5pm, the score was 1 grouse, 1 Hun, and about 5 miles in 80 heat, with no shade.
My buddy told me we had 1 more hour, before having to drive home the 100 miles. So, one last try and finding the Plan A ranch, and it worked. From the house we could see two turkeys.
We came up with a plan, on how to trap the turkeys in between us, along the creek, and get them caught in the blazing guns.
So, stalk number two was set up. This time, I went to a natural funnel, where the pasture, and a trail/Chinese ditch came together, and sat myself down. And then my buddy went into the brush about 250 yards down, and started working toward me. He heard some clucking, and eventually jumped one up at about 20 yards, which he dumped with his second shot. (He doesn't read here, so he won't know that you know he missed...) At that point, all He!! broke loose, and we had Turkeys everywhere. 4 landed about 100 yards away, and ran back into the Timber/Brush. Then another flew across the pasture. And then another toward a tree in front of me. I had clucking and cutting all over the place. Finally a bird landed out in the middle of the Pasture, about 150 yards away, and just started marching toward me. The bird kept looking around, and thought about hanging up, but then kept coming. 75 yards... then 50 yards.... then at 40 it stopped, and then looked at me. I already had my gun pointed its' direction, and the safety off, so I lifted it, found the bead and the head, and with a bang, the Turkey dropped in its' tracks. Upon my shot, two more flew about 1/2 way between me and the dead bird, and two others jumped up about 7 yards away, on the ditch that I was watching. I had birds everywhere, for about a minute. Pretty fun!!!
Well, we found the first bird, and got the two birds for pictures. A long day, but a lot of fun. And my first Turkey ever!!!
When I cleaned my bird, its' crop was full of choke cherries, sage leaves, and grass.
Film is at Wal-mart, and due back on Thursday....
<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 09-22-2003 21:02: Message edited by: ElkGunner ]</font>
