Team 4=SPUR COLLECTORS

[sticknstring]

It's a closeup of a neat mount I was contemplating having done a few years ago. Fitting for turkey season I thought.

[Gordie]

that is a sweet mount

[mrklean]

that thing is pretty sweet, nice action mount

[DonBo]

Very cool. You'd need a big spot to show that off wouldn't you?

[sticknstring]

I'll just move my wife's full-strut mount to the storage room and proudly display mine in the den!

[DonBo]

Oh yea, we believe that.....

[harvey lee]

Thats a very nice mount.

[Nightcrawler]

South Dakota, a great time was had by all/. 3 turkeys for 5 hunters. I was not one if them. seen a ton of turkeys, behind me , behind the bushes, in front of me,to far ,one hen in the face- (two feet), all kinds of fun action.

one morning saw two cougers going across a ridge, thought that was cool to see( brain---watch back). around noon a trolling grobbler goes behind me,give him 80yd head start. then spent 3 hrs trying to put the moves on him.he heads up this mountion, ha ,( brain- go up rock face beat him to top). 15 ft from top, stick head over ledge and see a this den,(brain- couger den-babys?)a noisey 15 ft i was on top of the ridge . goobler was 80 yds away moving out east and ME moving out south.

in all was a great hunt and a good time with Son,daughter-in-law and friends and other brain dead stories.

[Gordie]

sounds like a great time along with the couger sighting. That would be cool.

Are you all done hunting or do you have a tag in Minn.

[sticknstring]

Sounds like you had a great hunt 'crawler. Everything but squeezing the trigger. My cousin dropped a nice 25 lb'er this morning on the same farm I'll be hunting in 3 weeks. It's going to be a looong wait.

[rundrave]

this has to be longest day of work ever. I am swamped but getting anxious for my first turkey hunt ever! I cant wait anymore, we were going to leave early early tommorrow morning but figured I wouldnt sleep tonight anyway so were just going to roll in tonight and salvage any sleep we can at the cabin.

We are heading west to Gregory county and will be hunting near the river and hopefully fill both my tags. We plan on being there until Sunday. I am not sure if I get the chance to shoot 2 birds right away if I will. If I do I will spend the rest of the time fishing.

Wish me luck!

[Nightcrawler]

Rundrave good luck and have a great trip.

I have the black hills lic.good for the whole season but is a 12 hr trip from here to go back. still have Mn. H season, was good for me last year.

deicded to pass the NY.trip

this year so gives the iron knees a rest till the H season, .

go get them.

[Gordie]

this has to be longest day of work ever. I am swamped but getting anxious for my first turkey hunt ever! I cant wait anymore, we were going to leave early early tommorrow morning but figured I wouldnt sleep tonight anyway so were just going to roll in tonight and salvage any sleep we can at the cabin.

We are heading west to Gregory county and will be hunting near the river and hopefully fill both my tags. We plan on being there until Sunday. I am not sure if I get the chance to shoot 2 birds right away if I will. If I do I will spend the rest of the time fishing.

Wish me luck!

Sleepless nights long days with your back up agaisnt a tree man I love turkey hunting Good luck rundrave

[sticknstring]

Good luck rundrave! I can't take it anymore - I just bought my permit and leaving for Nebraska! Have to be back for Sunday's Twin's game so it'll be a quick trip. Weather looked good and a baby in May could keep me out of the woods in for MN season. I need to get in the woods. Wish me luck boys!

[DonBo]

Good luck Stick! I happen to know how easy it is to get rid of those Twins tickets if you want to stay a bit longer.

[Gordie]

GOOD LUCK stick put one on the board

[Nightcrawler]

aaaaaah, the cost of turkey fever.

if stick left last nite he should be going to bed tonite with the turkeys.

[sticknstring]

Well boys, I'm back and happy to report I had an exciting and successful hunt in Nebraska! Forgot my camera this morning - report and pictures to follow. Spur Collectors unofficially on the board!

[DonBo]

Way to go Stick! Looking fwd to hearing the story.

[mrklean]

nice job stick way to put us on the board

[Gordie]

Can I get a BIG WOO HOO for sticknstring

way go stick congrats on the bird cant wait to see the pics

[rundrave]

Well I hate to say but after 3 hard days of hunting I am still birdless and with my schedule will more than likely not make it out again this year.

Here is a recap from my first ever experience hunting the almighty turkey. Just to set the setting, we were hunting on some public land along the Missouri river in Gregory county South Dakota.

Friday morning we started hunting around 5:45am, we walked no more than 100yds from the parking lot and made our first call. We had a tom respond to us immediately! We made our way through the dark in attempt to get as close as we could without him knowing we were there. We hid in some trees about 50 yards away from this bird. As daylight emerged we could see the turkey in full strut all fanned out and he was responding to every call we made. (I think this is when I first realized how fun this could be) This bird was slowly making his way closer to us. With my partner calling to hopefully distract the bird, I attempted to sneak around another ridge hoping to be able to pop over the top and have a shot at him. I could hear him still talking so I knew exactly where I needed to come back over the ridge. As I was getting ready to come over the top, I just happened to sneak up on a deer and she bolted on a run and in doing so alerted the turkey who opted to make a run for cover as well.

That hour of events turned out to be the only real action the rest of Friday. As we were calling in a bird later that afternoon I had a hen come with in 10 yards but I opted to pass on her, in hopes of shooting a tom. We saw several birds later that day but just couldn’t get them close enough for a shot. I did attempt a really long shot that day, but after counting how many paces it was after I shot, the bird had been well out of range. I don’t even want to know how many miles we walked but we hunted non stop from sun up to sun down. We were literally out there all day, and I was exhausted. However I was able to take a few naps out on a couple hills sides, and man that was great!

Saturday we started at the same time, same place in the dark. Made a call and got a Tom to respond right away again. We learned our mistake from the first day, and the guy I was with opted to go a different path than I did. I stayed and kept calling and watched as he got closer and closer to us. I wasn’t sure exactly where the other guy set up but I was able to call that bird with in 10yds of him and he blasted him. Finally a bird in the bag, what a great way to start the day and I as a rookie was able to contribute to a successful downed bird.

Well funny story is we didn’t want to carry the bird the rest of the day or go back to the truck so we decided to hide it in tree and keep hunting. Well long story short we hunted the rest of the morning and never saw or heard a bird. We hunted up to around 11am then made our way back to the tree which we thought was easy enough to pick out. Well we had a heck of a time finding that very same tree again, but after a while we eventually found the tree and the bird. I can only imagine how foolish we looked during the searching.

We went back out that afternoon and hunted again until dark and never saw or heard a bird. It was very windy that day, so I don’t think they were able to hear our calls, and we were not able to hear theirs. The wind also would have made it easier to sneak up on them, but we never located any way. After all the excitement we had right way both days started to make for some long days and I was beginning to get frustrated. I still had hope knowing we could start Sunday (our last day out) and hoped we would have the same success as the previous 2 mornings.

So Sunday we set out with the same plan as the previous 2 days, only that spot didn’t hold any birds (just my luck) so we set off in search of some others. The 2 of us decided to split up and meet at the top of the next ridge over in a couple hours. We both set foot in different paths hoping to be able to meet up on the next ridge. I hiked North to the bottom between the 2 ridges and kept calling as I went while he went south. Finally I was able to get a tom to respond and he was really close! I immediately located a spot that would provide plenty of cover, but leave me several shooting lanes. For over an hour I called this bird and the longer I called the closer and more vocal he became. Then I began to hear a hen call, and each time that hen called I could tell the tom was moving closer to that call, and then come back to me when I called.

Ironically I had to send a txt(is that cheating?) to the other guy I was hunting with, as I had a sneaky suspicion it was him. It turns out it was, and for the next hour we probably sent each other 50 txt msg’s trying to locate where each of us were, and if either of us could see the bird. The tom pretty much stopped talking so we decided that one of us should try to stalk and get closer to the bird. I made my way along as slowly and quietly as I could to where I believed the bird was. At one point I called and got him to respond and I was very very close. All it was merely 20ft that separated me and this bird. I could hear him snorting, and moving around and beating his wings. Unfortunately the brush and trees were just too thick for me to get a visual on him so I just stayed still. After a while I tried to call and I no longer heard anything. He was gone and after meeting up with my partner he told me that he had spotted bird but it didn’t stick around after I made that last call so he must have been onto us. We hunted a few more hours unable to find or locate any more birds and we both were exausted so we called it a day.

So that’s how my first turkey hunting expedition went. Of our group of 7 guys, 9 birds were taken, 5 were shot on private land (paid to hunt $$$$) and 4 were taken on public. Of the 4 taken on public 2 of them hens were basically shot not far from the road which I neglected to do. In all honesty I feel that the guys who put the least amount of effort in had the most succuss. But I am gonna take what I learned from this weekend and apply it all next year. So hopefully next year will yield better luck, but I definitely learned a lot and had a great time.

Hope you enjoyed and sorry I didn’t put any points on the board.

[sticknstring]

Great stories rundrave - sounds like you had an exciting hunt. That's turkey hunting - some times it can be easy and others, they'll make a fool of even the best of us and can be darn right frustrating. Sounds like it wasn't from lack of effort! Hopefully you gained some useful knowledge and were infected with the turkey bug. My first trip out to the black hills a few springs ago was much of the same, plenty of action, lots of effort, but in the end - we came home birdless. A memorable hunt, nonetheless. Thanks for sharing!

[dukhnt]

Thanks for getting us on the board stick. Congrats! I am getting the itch.

[Gordie]

Great story and sounds like you had a ton of fun rundrave hope you can get out another time but if you dont well theres next year.