TheBenHoyle's 2018 Fall hunts (Turkey, Deer, Waterfowl)

[TheBenHoyle]

Just a quick follow up. I do still have firearm deer tags and an archery doe tag, but I think I might be done with deer hunting for this season. I will try to get out after some ducks and geese and I'll keep my eye open for an opportunity to do some archery turkey hunting. I don't hold out much hope for the latter. I used to have access to some property with strong winter turkey flock activity, but there is new ownership and I don't have an in there anymore.

It will probably be a week or so before I get out for anything. But I hope everyone else gets a chance to hunt and be thankful next week.

 

[Crossbowguy]

Awesome!!!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Just a quick update. I am a gardener and I usually grow my own popcorn. This year I had a nice stand of popcorn and I was expecting a bumper crop, until the squirrels discovered it and in 2 days it was all gone. Pretty much for that reason only, I gave myself a standing order to shoot any squirrels that I can take a safe shot at with my bow in the back yard while they are in season.

Let me tell you, hitting a squirrel with an arrow is not easy. I have attempted many times but considering that the entire squirrel is smaller than the vitals on a deer I have been blanked every time.

Until yesterday: ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce my little pal Popcorn.



It was a pretty perfect shot, hitting heart and lung (and everything else...) but my broadhead was probably a bit of overkill.

A side note: this was the first time I shot my bow since Nov 11th when I got my buck, which really ups my batting average for fatal shots in November. Now I just need to get in bow range of some turkeys.

I am hoping to get out to a public hunting area on Saturday to find a gobbler. It will be my first time out there so I have little hope for success, but maybe I'll be better prepared for later hunts at that site if I go out now.

 

[duckhunt]

Awsome

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well I did get out to a public hunting area on Saturday morning. I had never been there, so I was going in blind and my biggest fear was messing up someone else's hunt. I got to the parking area before anyone else and headed back along the edge of some restored prairie grass and oak woods until I found a convenient break to get into some trees and find a place to sit that was brushed in behind to hide my outline.

As the sun came up I heard what I thought was other hunters moving around on the path I had come in on, but based on the fact that I was the only one parked when I came out, I think that must have been deer movement. If I had been up in a treestand I probably would have seen what was moving, but I was on the ground, so I missed it. Truth be told I was hoping to hear some turkeys and then try to move in closer to them and I figured a tree stand was not a useful tool for that plan.

As it was, I heard no turkeys. Which is bizarre to me since this would be prime turkey habitat, but in the winter they like to flock up and they could have all been a half mile away from me. I did see some squirrels coming down a tree about 40 yards from me and I watched them for a while, just to have something to do. I didn't really take it seriously until I noticed that the one was one as much of a beeline as a squirrel can manage right at me. If I had nocked an arrow when I first saw him I would have had a 10 yard chip shot at him, but by the time I realized he was coming my way he was basically looking right at me the whole time. And then he was 10 yards away from me, staring right at me. doing a lot of the same things that deer do, moving their head around, looking away and then looking back really quick, etc. It was a neat way to spend a few minutes, but then he decided I was not a good thing, whatever I was and he made another we'll call it a squirrel line straight away from me.

I got up around 9:00 and hiked around just a little in the immediate vicinity. Turns out I was at the head of a wooded draw that stretched away to the south and hooked up to another draw running to the east. I decided to get back into my car and drive around to the other two parking areas, to identify where they were and possible hike/scout.

The parking lot to the West had a truck parked in it, so I just got out of my car and stood there listening and glassing to see if I could hear and turkeys or see anything moving in the restored prairie. But there was no joy. So I got back in the car and drove around to the east as slowly as I could looking in the neighboring fields and pastures as well as the nature preserve area of the park where they don't allow turkey hunting. But I didn't see anything interesting.

The east lot was empty so I grabbed my bow and my chair and hiked in. It was all restored prairie with a nice mowed path with the bluffs and draws on all three sides covered in mature hardwoods. It was pretty nice and I am sure there are hundreds of places you could set up a treestand and catch deer cruising, but you would need to spend some time scouting to find the "spot."

I eventually found a little rise that created a pinch point between the woods on either side of the prairie grasses and I climbed up it and sat for a little bit to see if I would hear or see anything. I called a little bit to see if I would get any response and being down in the bottoms with tree-covered bluffs all around me my call carried very well, but I got no response. I am not sure where the turkeys are, but firearm deer season was last weekend and I am sure the park was overrun with Orange so the turkeys might have blown out of the area for a while. Next weekend is the second firearm season, so I have this sight on my list to go back to in mid to late December and see if I can get on some turkeys.

Interesting side note, when I was sitting in that last spot, the wind was coming over my right shoulder and I had some very strong wafts of tarsal glad smell for about 20 minutes. I didn't hear any movement and I couldn't see any movement in that direction, but I kinda think that there might have been a buck bedded down just a little further in from where I sat.

All in all it was a good experience. I'm glad I took the time to get out there. I also think it would be a great place to go in early October when the acorns are on the ground.

 

[duckhunt]

Sounds like a great day

 

[Northwoods Labs]

Nice job on the buck harvested with a bow. I know that I screwed up just about every way possible before I finally put things together. Looking back I chuckle at how I was going to be this big trophy guy with my bow, when in reality you need to see an arrow go through some deer to build confidence and figure things out.

 

[PrairieHunter]

I love stories like this. Well done sir and way to keep at it.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Nice job on the buck harvested with a bow. I know that I screwed up just about every way possible before I finally put things together. Looking back I chuckle at how I was going to be this big trophy guy with my bow, when in reality you need to see an arrow go through some deer to build confidence and figure things out.

That is exactly right. I realize I had to make mistakes to realize what the mistakes were and to not do them. But I'm sure there are mistakes I haven't made yet.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I love stories like this. Well done sir and way to keep at it.

Thank you. I am enjoying posting these stories. I love reading others' stories as well. This is a great community.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Little side note/rant: Last week in advance of going out to hunt a new public land location in Illinois, I called the office of the park and had to leave a message to have them call back. It was on Wednesday morning and I didn't get a call back by Thanksgiving, but I wasn't going out until Saturday and I figured I could try again on Friday. I wanted to ask about specifics in the check in/sign in process and I was hoping to gather a little intelligence about turkey movement if possible. I had spent a lot of time reading the available rules and regulations available on the state's Web site. But I always like to talk to someone on site in advance.

Anyway, I called again on Friday and had to leave a message. I did not receive a call back, and I was nervous about going out without a full understanding of the check in process, but I had also hung my weekend plans on this hunt so I went out anyway. It turned out that there was no need to sign in anywhere and the hunt went fine enough as I shared above. And I was feeling pretty good about trying to go back out there in mid December.

Cut to Tuesday morning. On my drive in to work I get a call from someone in the park office and so I ask him about the turkey hunting and he says, "Oh we don't offer fall turkey hunting in the park." This flabbergasted me. I am a very careful and cautious person and like I said I spent a lot of time reading the available literature posted on the state's public land hunting site. It clearly states that they offer turkey hunting there in the fall. So I told him that. And he said that it must be a mistake. I told him he should probably do what he could to correct that mistake, because they have an open invitation for people like me to go out there and hunt turkey and what happens if a conservation police officer stops someone who believes they have hunted legally... I also asked about another state property in the same area that is administrated by the same office and has fall archery turkey hunting listed. "Nope," he said. "Not allowed there either."

We had a decent talk, both cordial, and he promised to note this discrepancy all the way up the line, but the State of Illinois being what it is and the DNR being so poorly staffed and organized he didn't promise much.

Well, I couldn't let it lie, so I spent a little bit of time on the internet and sure enough the public hunting listing that shows the site specific rules and regs for that property (and the other one near there) had been updated with the current season dates. It wasn't a relic from years ago that was just hanging out there. So I kept digging and I found the Illinois DNR administrative code, where the specific rules and regs for everything that the DNR administrates from boat registration to extractive mining operations is listed in legalese. I found the section specific to turkey hunting and then the subsection specific to turkey hunting on state-owned or controlled land. And there it is in black and white: both of the properties listed as allowing fall archery turkey hunting...

So I have saved a copy of that on my home computer and I am printing it out to keep with my tags and licenses just in case I have anyone contest the fact while I am out hunting. I feel like I am vindicated and I learned a lot about the relation between the pubic-facing documents like the web site and the hunter's digest and the regulations that back them up administratively.

I believe that the person I was talking about was thinking I wanted to shotgun hunt for turkey, even though I stated very clearly on both of my messages as well as in our conversation that I was talking about archery turkey hunt, and also the fact that the fall shotgun turkey season in Illinois was over a month ago. And he is correct that fall shotgun turkey hunting is not available in either of the parks. But I still think that DNR staff should be aware of all regulations and they should be explainers/ambassadors to the public about what is and is not available or allowable.

All in all, very disappointed at the moment, but proud of myself for doing the research and getting the right answer.

OK, rant over.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Historically, I get invited to do some waterfowl hunting on the last two weeks of the season, which would be this weekend and next. I haven't received the invitation yet but I am looking forward to getting out this weekend. We are going to have a few days of subfreezing temps that shuld lock up smaller ponds and might concentrate them on the stretch of river we usually hunt. I hope everyone else is out there filling tags.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well, It's on. I have an appointment with some waterfowl tomorrow morning. If all goes well I will be posting pictures of a successful hunt soon.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well, Saturday's Duck/goose hunt was productive, just not as productive as I had hoped.

I was invited to hunt on a mostly suburban river that will probably lose hunting access in the next few years. This is the 4th or 5th year I have been to this spot and it is basically in the backyard of a $500K-$1M house next to a golf course across from an ag field that will probably start growing houses in the next 10 years.

The river was up and had been up a little higher recently. You can see the little ice bells in this picture that formed as the river level went down.



The nice thing is that most of the little ponds in the nearby housing developments were frozen up so we felt like there would be a lot of birds on the open water of the river. We got out before the sun and threw out just a few decoys and sat back to wait for legal shooting light.



In the picture the geese and ducks you see are decoys. As we were getting closer to shooting light those decoys were doing their work and we had a few fly in and then shelter on the far side of the river. Then a few more and a few more. There were about 10 on the other side of the river and then this train of about 30 ducks came swimming up the shoreline right at our feet. It was unbelievable. At 5 minutes to legal shooting light we had about 40 ducks in the water, some of which I could have scooped up with a net.

All of a sudden on my right (downriver) we hear a scolding sound of quacking and about 5 ducks fly off. More quacking more flying off. Then I see a busy little muskrat swimming up the line of mallards in front of me and he is literally scaring off all of the ducks. With one minute to legal shooting light we had 1 duck left... I took a shot at him, but he managed to get away due in large part to my poor shooting aided by my disbelief in what had just happened. It was very neat to see all of those ducks, but hard to swallow the fact that none of them ended up laying next to us...

We had several pairs come zipping past us over the next several hours but due to mixed signals and my poor shooting we stayed at 0 ducks for the day. There were plenty of ducks and geese up in the air though and we spent a lot of time trying to call them in, but it just wasn't happening. We could see wave after wave of geese flying to our right and it looked like they were landing in the golf course, but none of them seemed interested in our little stretch of river.

At one point, I got down into the river and hugging the bank I sneaked downriver to the edge of our hunting area to peek around the bed, just to see if anything had landed in the river and might come our way. I could see lots of activity around the bridge about 1/4 mile east of us, but nothing that was close. I was a little disappointed and ready t go back to my buddy and suggest we leave when a lone drake came zooming right along the water. I managed to get my gun on him and took him out of the sky, which is kind of amazing because I am not normally good at crossing shots.



That's my first anything that I have taken with that gun (Remington 870) that I bought last Spring. I took it out for Turkey season, but never got a shot.
I sent that picture to my wife and she asked me how the duck got my gun. I had to confess that the duck and bunny were arguing and I got confused, a la Elmer Fudd.

We stuck it out a little longer and then headed out. On my way back home I had to stop at the golf course to take a picture of all the unhuntable geese.



Could have gotten my limit with a 9 Iron...

 

[TheBenHoyle]

One more opportunity to get some ducks and geese tomorrow. We have had a little warm up and a lot of the smaller ponds might be open. There might not be as many birds on the river, but I love to be out so I'll take any opportunity that comes along.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

You get the chance...GO!Good luck,send us pics.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well I wrapped up my 2018 duck season with a single duck. We should have had more, but some bad shooting and missed communication foiled us again.

On the positive side, I shot a goldeneye, which is a new one for me.



That was a neat little bird. There were a few others of the same species with him, He flew right at us but the rest flew up and it looked like they were going away and then swooped over to us surprising us and we shot poorly...

I might get out for some late season goose hunting after the holidays and I have an invitation to take my bow out for some deer/turkey where I got my buck earlier in the season. I just need to figure out how to fit it all in and keep my wife happy. Wish me luck.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Well, I am headed out Sunday back to the place I got my buck in November. I have a few tags left in my pocket and I am hoping that maybe I'll see some turkeys too. It is hard to find the time to get out, but I know that if I don't go out half my mind will be wondering what I would have seen if I had gone out. This might be one of the last two times I can get out this season. Wish me luck.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I got out to the same place I took my buck in November. It was an afternoon hunt on 12/23 and it started out promisingly as I saw 3 tom turkeys down by the creek about 500 yards away from where I would be sitting as I drove in.

I also saw a pre-hunted doe about 5 yards away from my car. Note: I took these pictures on my way out so they are dark.


It was most likely a road kill, I was about 30 yard up hill from a highway and the doe didn't appear to be shot. It was frozen solid though so who knows how long it had been sitting there.

I was feeling pretty good as I hiked into my stand. There was plenty of fresh sign and it was a sunny but cold day. I figured I would see some deer moving and I was desperately hoping those turkeys would wander up the hill and into my set up.

I put out some calls and waited. There were a lot of squirrels and they were hopping in the leaves in just such a way that I kept thinking there was a deer approaching. But it was fun watching them so I couldn't complain about it.

I did hear some turkeys and for a while they were returning my calls and it sounded like they were getting closer and closer. It was windy so it was hard to hear whether they were really closer or not. I eventually got down from my stand and headed to the north side of my stand of trees to see if I could spy them.



Sadly, they were about 200 yards away on the north side of the creek and headed for a different set of trees. It was pretty clear they were going to be roosting over there and not be turning back to meet up with me.

On the plus side I know they are in the neighborhood and I am pretty sure that is the tom flock and not the hen and poult flock. I think I will have at least one more chance to get back out that way before the end of the season and I hope to make good use of that knowledge.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Sounds like a good day all around,at the very least you got out and enjoyed yourself.