TEAM 2: "HOOK HUNTERS" Official Site

[elevatorguy]

Well another on the board! I got a 2 year old bird. He ain't the biggest but a mature bird for the Hills!

[sticknstring]

Awesome job - congrats! Can't wait to hear the story and see some pics.

FrontenacPike & I both start Tuesday. We're 3-4 right now. One team is already 5-5, so we'll both need birds or at least one multi-bearded beast to make a run at this thing!

[Archerysniper]

One team is already 5-5,

[123fish]

Just remember FrontenacPike and sticknstring there is nothing wrong in shooting a skinny malnourished jake. All birds are a trophy especially in the eyes of Team 7.

[hugonian1]

I agree.

Better than a jake is a bearded hen.

There is somthing abouth their "funky chicken" stature and those smoooth legs.

[elevatorguy]

Here is my bird. Official stats are 17 lbs, 7 inch beard, 3/8" & 1/2" spurs.

And there isn't really a great story to this bird. Just some dumb luck. My buddy got his first Black Hills bird about 45 min before mine. So we were still celebrating and happy about his as we were headed into town. And then we came around a corner on a forest road and bam there was this guy with about 6 or 7 hens out in the middle of a clear cut. We watched which way they went and went down the road a little and bailed out to try and cut them off. We ran up a ridge and were able to get in front of them and as luck would have it they passed just at the edge of my gun range at about 45 yards and I was able to knock him down. I had to jump up and chase him down but none the less I don't have to come home with an unfilled tag. It floors me sometimes out here in the Hills we work our tails off only to get snubbed and then out of no where this happens. And the crazy part is we were talking about how we thought the logging chases them out then here they were out in the middle of it. Like we always say just when you think you have them figured out they do something totally opposite.

[123fish]

Congrats on a nice bird. Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. Keeping after them payed off for you.

[sticknstring]

Nice bird elevator! Being good don't matter if you don't have some luck on your side! I hope to have some myself tomorrow morning. If it's as beautiful out as this morning was, it should be a great morning to be in the turkey wooods.

[elevatorguy]

Thanks guys! For as long as I have hunted the Hills it means a lot just to come away with a bird. It was really a great year out there even though the birds were henned up bad. It was really fun when they were gobbling at anything. We were on birds every morning and they gobbled all day long. And every time it seemed we worked a bird we were cut off and shut down by the hens. It was definitely one of our funner years and we also saw a ton of Elk this year.

[sticknstring]

So close this morning! Had birds around for 30+ minutes and even watched a tom breed a hen @ 35 yds! Repositioned the blind for morning.

[hugonian1]

Turkey porn. Oh my.

[sticknstring]

Got the whole thing on film too!

Need to work on coverting the video format, but here's some stills from this morning's hunt! Just a little farther than I'm comfortable shooting with the recurve. I guess I can't blame him for not wanting to come check my dekes out!

[FrontenacPike]

Hey guys because of work I won't be hunting E season. I am either going out F or G season. I trying to maximize my time in the woods to my work schedule. I have 3 private properties lined up and now that the snow has melted and the suns shining the winter flocks are starting to disperse. Alot of my friends that hunted the earlier seasons got skunked. As luck would have it I forgot to apply for the early seasons, which turned out for the better this year.

Nice bird elevator, wish there was video of you chasing down the bird .

[sticknstring]

Good luck FP during F season!

I had one triple gobbling on the roost this morning, but then pitched down and went the opposite way. Sat until 11 and never heard another gobble after fly down! Beautiful darn day though. I may try an evening hunt tonight as I won't be able to make it out this weekend. Will keep you guys posted. Checked a cam card and had one video from my exciting Tuesday am hunt - good audio.

[sticknstring]

How did your hunt go FP? Been pretty quiet in here!

Today was the first morning I've been out since last Thursday - finally a beatiful day! Birds were fired up too. Hiked up to my first spot only to hear one 1/4 mile away. Walked around & setup on him (turned out to be them) about 125 yds away. Now that everything is canopied, you don't have to worry so much about blowing them off the roost. Turned out I had at least 4-5 jakes and at least one hen. They were pretty wound up, but nothing wanted to investigate. Had to bail for work at seven and while walking out, the whole group was stacked in my first spot! The jakes were strutting and gobbling like crazy. Didn't appear to be any toms around. Will head back out in the morning w/ a new plan of attack! I'm starting to get a little mad at them, so jakes are now fair game!

[FrontenacPike]

Went out on Friday to some public land and worked the heck out of a couple birds. They broke into my field about 100 yards away and we're coming in hot. Once they seen my strutter decoy they got scared and high tailed it atta there. From what I could make out and given how they reacted to a strutting decoy I'm assuming they were Jakes. Headed out to some private land on wed & Thursday. Sorry for the delay in posts... it's been difficult with this years work schedule.

[FrontenacPike]

Sorry for not posting sooner, I've been so busy with work. My season was full of disappointment. On my second to last day I thought I was working a done deal on a string. From what I could hear as it approached was a hen with a tom in tow. I could hear cutting and gobbeling as they worked their way through the woods right to me. However I was surprised to only see one bird enter the field within gun range. I kept thinking as I'm watching this hen.. where is the tom that was gobbeling??? She then gave me a surprise that I'll never forget. She was a "special" hen that could make all the common hen noises and gobble. She hung around my blind for about an hour...yelping and gobbeling away.

On my last day / last few hours of hunting I had 2 good sized toms walk by me at about 100 yards following some hens. They walked down to the other end of the field and were just loafing and strutting while the hens were eating. Since time was limited I decided a stalk and shoot had the highest probability to filling a tag. The terrain was perfect and the plan was to start a belly crawl at about 160 yards out and sneak within 40 yards and kneel and shoot. So I started the belly crawl...the grass was about 8 inches tall. On my approach I was able to peek up just enough to see the tops of their fans to keep my self going in the right direction. Once I got about 75 yards out I lost sight of them as there was a slight curvature they slid behind. I was able to keep the stalk going by the gobbles I could hear. My approach was working perfectly and once I got to 40 yards I knelt up gun drawn and ready to pop. To my surprise the only bird at the end of the field was the "stupid gobbeling hen" looking at me! I then stood up and scratched my head in disbelief. As I drooped my head and was about to take the walk of shame, I spotted the group in about the area I started my crawl. They seen me and bolted into the woods.

I got decoyed by a stupid gobbeling hen!!!

This year was a very weird and I hope I never meet another gobbeling hen in my life.

Sorry team!!!!

[sticknstring]

Quote:

This year was a very weird and I hope I never meet another gobbeling hen in my life.

I've be thrilled to encounter this - pretty rare! Got the 'ol ticker pumping a little faster anyhow!