Got one!

[gurkster]

I hunted the snow storm of Season A.

Three of us hunted a farm bordering my friends land to the south, his land has two large ridges with a valley in between them where a river runs through it.

We originally planned to leave on Wed night to Turkey Hunt season A from Thu to Sun. With the “blizzard” on Thu and the snow on Fri morning, we didn’t leave until Friday afternoon. We drove to our hunting camp, but could not drive in as there was too much snow, so we had to park our trucks on the top of the ridge by the road and carry everything down to our camp. Our camp is an old fish house along the river. Luckily we brought an ATV, trailer, and ice-fishing sled. We made several trips hauling and carrying our gear down to camp. Then we had to setup a bridge to get across the river. We used some old scaffolding my friend has. We are finally all unpacked and setup and ready to hunt this "private" farm to the south that we have hunted for years, and have "exclusive" rights to. We get all packed up with our blinds, decoys, guns, gear, etc and cross the river, climb up the ravine and get to the farm only to see another hunters blind right in our “honey hole” along a pasture edge., and as we scouted around in the 12”+ snow we found another blind in the area. So there are two blinds in our prime spots, with that the other guys decided to cross back over the river and hunt close to camp, rather than hunt the pasture edge with the other hunters. This wasn’t a bad idea as we shot birds from both locations in other years, and they are more wooded cover areas than the pasture edge we usually hunt. I decided to drop my gear and hike around the farm to scout out a new spot. As I walked around, I didn’t see many tracks in the snow in our normal spots along the pasture and field edges, so I kept heading south back into the woods deeper and towards the farm more and found what I thought was a decent spot to hunt, after seeing some fresh tracks in the snow and busting 3 turkeys from the tree tops around 4:30 Fri afternoon. So then I had to hike back about a mile to get my gear. When I got back to my gear I saw the other hunters heading to their blinds. I flagged them down and we talked a little. We do know these guys as they are locals and we have run into them a few times in the past. We both thought we had exclusive hunting rights to this farm for season A. We decided that being they were already setup they would stay put along the pastures edges and I would move to the south where I scouted. So I grabbed all my gear and made the mile hike in the snow back to my spot and setup. I was setup south of everyone else that I knew were hunting. To my east was a steep ravine where I thought the turkeys would be, as it was real sheltered. To my south was the farm area with cows and horses, to the west was some woods, a pond and then the large pasture area, to my north was all woods. I sat there until dusk and never saw a turkey. I did feel good about it though as I busted the three birds earlier and saw several sets of fresh tracks in the snow. I also felt that under these conditions the birds would not want to be in the deep snow and out in the open where the other hunters were setup. I thought they would be in a more sheltered area like I was setup in.

Sat morning we got up and I had a 45 min walk to my spot, so I left early. I took off in the dark, crossed the river, climbed the ridge and headed through the woods to my spot. I was almost there when I thought I saw a turkey, which turned out to be a decoy. I ran into yet another hunter, a third party that was hunting the same farm. He said he was alone and had other land to hunt so he just picked up and left. Now I finally get to my blind later than I hoped (about 15 min after legal shooting) as it took longer to walk it in the dark, the snow, and the delay by running into the other hunter. As I was settling into the blind I was a little disappointed in seeing yet a third hunter, getting to the blind late, the other 2 hunters in “our” spots and the bad weather conditions. It was 18 degrees out, 12” of snow and I was sweating like a pig with all the walking and clothes I had on (as I planned to stay out there all day).

I expected the turkeys to come to me from the east and almost right away I started to hear gobbles in the distance to the east, and some not too far away from the north, right where I had walked in from. I did only a few yelps about every 15 – 20 minutes apart, for about an hour and then I see a turkey to the northwest, it turns out it is a Jake. I watch him as he slowly heads my way. As he gets to about 50 yards I see 2 other turkeys with him, a nice Tom and another Jake. Jake#1 is in the lead and heading my way with the other 2 following behind him. I plan to let the Jakes walk by me and then take the Tom. Well the Tom keeps his distance at about 40 yards in the brush and doesn’t really come into the clear. Meanwhile the 2 Jakes are at 20 and 30 yards away. I am in position and ready to shoot. As I see the Tom start to turn away I decide to shoot the first Jake. He drops, the other Jake and Tom jump into the air and then just look around and continue on their way. Jake#2 comes right to the dead Jake, but the Tom keeps his same distance. They stay around me for another 5 – 10 min and slowly make their way out of my area. I stayed still as I didn’t want to spook the birds so my buddy's could hunt this spot if they wanted to too. After the birds left, I got out and picked up my bird, and headed back to camp. On the way out I jumped 3 more birds right next to my blind on the other side (east) that I didn’t know were there. Then I jumped another bird in the woods about half way back to camp. So I saw a total of 10 birds, 3 that I had in range working my decoys. I am the only one who saw birds all week, so I am happy with the bird I got, but wonder if I could have got that Tom if I were more patient. I hope he is around next year.

It was a fun hunt. Not your typical spring turkey hunting conditions for sure. I am glad I took the time to scout out a new place and didn’t just settle for old haunts that we know. The conditions were much different this year, our normal field edges and stuff didn’t work out. It was a bit of an adventure with all the snow and getting our gear in and out, crossing the river, and turkey hunting in snow camo for the first time.

[Borch]

Sounds like you had some excitement and got a turkey to boot in some tough conditions. Congrats as any bird is a trophy especially when you run it a situation like that.

The jake will eat good too.

[gurkster]

Yeah - he is tasty we ate part of him Sunday night.

[leech~~]

Way to go Gurk, and nice story. But post up the pic's!

[harvey lee]

Great read and congrats on the bird.