"ThunderStruck" - Official Site for Team #5

[DonBo]

eric? CFD? Don't keep us in suspense.....One more day, good luck!

[CFD200]

Sorry to say your father did better than me this year. Great for him. I had to return to work today. I had a gobbler standing along hwy 5 on the way home from work that responded to the call and came toward the car? I could have shot at one but was not sure the hens around him were not in danger. I would prefer to be safe. I had some chances but not all the stars aligned. They were in the fields yesterday but not happy to leave the sides of the hens. Sorry I let the team down.

[DonBo]

Hey, no worries CFD, that's the way it goes sometimes. It's all about the enjoyment of the outdoors on a beautiful spring morning, and the gobble not the gobbler. The contest is just a fun place to share stories and memories.

And isn't that the way it goes, work getting in the way of all our fun?

[eric29]

Sorry for the suspense but i wasnt able to fill my tag this year. Definitively not for lack of trying, I spent all day every day out in the fields with no luck. Pretty sad but i was even too tired when i got home to get on the internet and check out how you guys did.

A couple of the adjacent properties from what i hunt got just slammed opening week. The other hunters filled 3 tags with nice toms on each of the two places. That pretty much turned them off to every call and decoy i had. I watched probably 15 different toms from a far just look my way and maybe a strut or two and the scurry away. I also had one come into bout 80 yds and strut but not any closer. One cool thing i got to witness for the first time was three toms mating at the same time about 150 yds from me. All of these toms were very tight lipped also. Not one gobble from them all week, not even in the roost.

On some other properties that i hunt i had 4 jakes come about 10 yds from me on two different days. I probably had them gobble at me about 300 times. I thought about it but i just couldnt get myself to pull the trigger on a jake. They hung out by me for about 3 hours each time no matter what i did i couldnt get them to leave. I even stood up a few times to relieve myself and that wouldnt even scare them. I took a few videos on my phone of them gobbling then i would play the video with the sound up and all that would do is make them gobble even more. At another spot i was able to pull a tom into about 10 feet behind me in the woods but i couldnt turn around and he wouldnt come out into the field. A hen that he was with eventually pulled him back away from me.

[DonBo]

Sorry about the tag soup eric, but sounds like you had some pretty good action, can't put a price on that.

2044mustang starts today. Good luck!

[2044Mustang]

Actually started yesterday, got a tom yesterday morning in the rain. I have to fill out the score sheet yet. Not a monster but a very old bird.

[Bowfin]

Good job Mustang - lookin forward to the pics

[DonBo]

Another opening morning bird. Good job! Can't wait to see the story and pics.

[2044Mustang]

My dad and I hunt turkeys together every spring we get drawn. This year was no different but we were hunting on different farms this year. Well let’s just say my turkey opener started out terribly, I went out Friday and set up the double bull in an area where I had hoped would be good. Fast forward to Friday night, rain and wind blowing like crazy. We stay in a pop-up camper on a farmer’s property. The camper is whipping like crazy and all I can think of is how far my blind has blown away/damaged or lost forever. Needless to say, little sleep for me. Get up at 4 head out in the rain, watching the woods edge all the way looking for my blind to be piled up. Well I get out to my spot and there it is, still set up just like I left it. Relief! I set out my decoys and wait for first light. With it raining and some wind still blowing I hear nothing. About 7 am I hear a gobble about 250 yards away. I call no response. About 15 minutes later I hear another gobble from the same area. I try calling again, and again nothing. 15 minutes later I hear another gobble this time a little closer, I call again and again no response. I decide to just stay quiet for a while, about 15 minutes go by, and about 100 yards out I see a turkey coming in the corn stubble. I check the binoculars and see he’s a tom, sneaking along. He’s about 15-20 corn rows below me (bluff country), he gets to a dip about 50 yards out and I can’t see him anymore. I’m just waiting for him to pop up from below. Time seems to be flying by and no sign of him. Finally I peek further to my right out the blind and there he is. He’s sneaking up behind my pretty boy, I let him come into about 20 yards and let him have it. Great end to a rainy morning. 21 pounds, 9 inch beard, spurs 1.25” and 1.3125”, he was an old wise bird. My dad struck out on Saturday but Sunday morning I went out with him and sat beside his blind helping him call. Had a nice tom come in and he put a load of #6’s into him. A great moment we shared together. And that was an end to another great turkey season for me. Thanks for reading my long winded story.

[DonBo]

Awesome hooks on that old boy. WTG! Congrats to your Dad too.

[pumper317]

Congrats mustang on a heck of an old bird! Sweet hooks!

[Borch]

I love hooks.

Congrats~

[DonBo]

Guys, I'll be off line till probably Sunday as we're headed to WS soon. Have a couple tags in my pocket and hope to fill one of those with my bow. Don't think anyone else is hunting this week, but let's not let ThunderStuck slide out of sight on the turkey forum.

[2044Mustang]

Our page sure is quiet with out Don on here. Hopefully he's having some good luck in Wisconsin!

[DonBo]

Dave and I both shot birds early in the week. I'm off to the lake for some fishing this weekend. I'll post a report on Monday.

[Archerysniper]

Congrats Don you had a great year. You get any with the bow yet?

[DonBo]

Okay guys, here's the story of my WS hunt:

The winter of 2010/2011 was extremely hard in the west central part of Wisconsin that we hunt. A bad ice storm late that winter along with a very wet and cold nesting season a year ago left the local population lower than we've seen it it the 15+ years we've hunted here.

Opening morning (last Wednesday), without warning 3 hens came into our set-up followed by a nice tom. At 6:30 I had my bird. Just over 20 lbs. 10" beard, spurs just under an inch and very sharp. Probably a 3 year old.

The whole rest of the day we saw maybe 3 or 4 more hens. Never heard one single gobble that day.

Day 2. We did hear some gobbles from pretty far away. Soon, one was much closer. After a brief call/answer session one came into the field we were hunting and walked well within range of Dave's gun. At 7:30 we both had a bird. His was a pound heavier than mine, but had shorter, duller spurs, probably a two year old.

Again, just a few hens today.

Day three found us at the same spot. This time I'm carrying my bow. Dave's only job is to use my rangefinder to tell me how far the bird is. (BTW, he is pretty hard of hearing and forgot his hearing aids today) Gobbling activity today is similar to yesterday, some pretty far off, but one definetly interested. Dave said "when do you want me to tell you the range?" "When I start to draw" Well the bird came straight into the decoys but stopped out a ways and was seemingly a bit unsure. I said "How far?".....nothing. How far?"......nothing. Louder. "HOW FAR?" By this time I'm drawing but the bird is turned around and headed away. "30 yards" he says. Dang. Anyway it didn't happen.

We stuck it out a bit longer, but my mind is now on the WS fishing opener and we called it a season. So, in three days, we saw exactly three toms, fortunately for us two rode home in the back of the truck. I was useing two new decoys on this hunt. The Avian X feeding hen and The Best Turkey Decoy (Dakota) Jake. They seemed to be a good combo as we had opportunities at every single tom we saw. (All three ) But I do believe these new lifelike decoys are starting a new era of turkey hunting, at least till the birds start to catch on...again.

[sticknstring]

Congrats Don! Great year for ya. Now you can start chasing those pesky walleyes!

[Shu]

Very nice, congrats! That is 3 more birds than I saw last weekend.

[Bowfin]

Nice job Don.

I start my season tomorrow. Hopefully they are still active and not too educated by now in the area I hunt.

[DonBo]

Good luck Bowfin! Keep us updated if you can. Looks like some pretty decent weather for ya.

[DonBo]

Bowfin and duckhuntr21 are both half way throigh their seasons right now. Come on guys, don't keep us wondering. How's it going???

We need you both to come through big to bring this home. No pressure though...

[mrklean]

nice job don

[Bowfin]

Sorry team - no birds shot by me. Hunted pretty hard 4 of the 5 days, saw quite a few birds but very little gobbling and absolutely no reponse to my calls. I was restricted to public land, had other hunter competition in 2 of my 3 spots and started trying to pattern a couple toms and hunt them like deer. My closest chance came Wednesday afternoon when I tried to get ahead of a tom coming off a private corn field heading toward a nice funnel between 2 swamp potholes - when I rounded the corner he was already in the funnel and I spooked him - would have been a nice set up if I would have gotten there 2 minutes quicker.

I watched a tom coming out with hens every morning and evening and moseying out in a private corn stubble field 30 yards out from the public land. I tracked down who owned the field, drove over and asked for permission to hunt the edge of the field and was turned down.

All in all I think the birds I was hunting were hunted hard all year and were wise to calling by now. I still had a lot of fun and will try again next year.

[2044Mustang]

Well Bow, like the old saying goes, it's called hunting and not getting. Sounds like you had a good time out in the woods and that's really what it's all about. I always love hearing the woods wake up around me on a spring morning. And on the bright side, there's always next year!

Mustang