Team 1 "Dead RedHeads"

[mws4dux]

Scored on my first archery bird.Came in strutting and gobbling.

He gobbled a lot on roost and even more once he was on the ground.

We had a hen come out and head in the opposite direction of the gobbled.

We finally spot him bout a half hour later strutting on top of a hill to our left

About 75yards away.He stood up there for awhile before slowly coming in.

He was about 40 yards out when he fully committed and came jogging in and

strutted up and beat the heck out of the strutting jake decoy.

As he stood there looking over the decoy I let my arrow fly...He was 10 yards away.

The arrow connected and he jumped and walked over the hill.We found blood and followed it for about 150 yards and found him. Tough little bugger.Looks like I hit lung, bright blood with lots of bubbles.

#19.53 ......9 1/4" beard....1" spurs... The strutting jake over a breeding hen with a feeding hen decoy has

Been working great for us. Brother took feathers off a two toms on seperate hunts and he connected yesterday on a nice tom with 1 1/8" spurs 23# 9.5" beard Here's my bird

[IlliniWalli]

all right. congrats on a nice tom, dux

and 2 thumbs up on the bowkill

[monstermoose78]

great job! on a archery gear to boot awesome.

[Hoyt4]

Was on one of my toughest hunts ever yet. We ended up with four birds in WI. I will try and post some pictures today . I ended up with one Jake and got one long beard on my last morning Sunday. 21lbs 1inch spurs ,10.5 inch beard. Was a blast just some really tough birds and not too many to pick from.

[nbadger23]

8 days in two different states and I'm starting to get worn out. Add in getting a stomach virus the past few days and the crappy rainy/windy weather this morning and it was time for a morning off. I've had 4 very close calls w/o getting it done so the frustration is mounting as well.

I've been hunting completely new territory to me and am kind of scouting as I go. I almost put all the pieces together in WI as I had patterned some movement around the 9:00 - 10:00 time period 3 straight days. Unfortunately high winds kept me out of the setup spot that I wanted and I had to move down into a bit more cover which decreased my sight lines, which led to a bird getting in on me way too quickly.. lesson learned.

That hunt was the first time I'd ever seen birds glide close to 500 yards from the roost down into fields. So much for setting up close to the roost as they pitched down into the middle of the fields every day.

There seem to be a lot of birds on the property in MN but they have yet to roost on the 90 acres I have permission. They are roosting on a very steep side hill across the gravel road one side, on the edge of a field that has a creek and thick cover between it and me on another side, and then across another field that has had hunters on it on the third side.

I focused my efforts on the back corner of a small pine plantation where 3 logging trails come together. I had seen a hen in the pines while scouting and heard gobbling on both the top side of it and the bottom side (steep drop off to the valley but a good trail coming up the hill). Unfortunately they don't want to come back to my corner. They seem to like the field on the front side of it but I don't have permission to be there. I've had multiple gobbling birds around me 2 mornings on that spot but I can't get them to come to me.

I did call one across the road and to within 60 yards of me but couldn't get him to commit to coming into the decoys.

Oh well, hopefully get out tonight and put some more pieces together. "Sleeping in" until 6 did feel mighty good today :-)

[Hoyt4]

Sorry guys getting caught up at work do not have a ton of time to post too much.

Was lucky enough this last WI turkey season to take a couple birds. We took 4 birds and was some of the toughest hunting I have had ever yet. The birds were not helping and the numbers were really down. Was not too much to chase around or setup on. They were really hurting after this winter. We did have yote almost take a bite of my buddies face. I couldn't stop laughing. He was laying behind me and I think the yote thought he was a wounded animal or something came in stalking them pounced and missed him by inches. Was very maingy also.

We ended up with two Tom's and two Jakes was very good times and didn't even bother the hunt was tough we just got to stay the whole time we planned. Every year we have gone we have never hunted past Thursday night so we got some nice time away from home and got to out in this awesome spring time. Saw a lot of nice bucks already with some great head gear. Meet some really nice landowners.

Both Tom's weighed 21lbs. My bird had 10.5 inch beard 1inch spurs.Shot him the very last morning.

Some birds would just run at the sight of the truck coming down the road even when I yelped on two different setups they ran the other way. I must need to work on that.

Anyways it was another great spring 6 birds and maybe I can sneak away this week to WI and get one more tag.

I will get my NE posted this week I have the form all filled just need the pics of the beard and spurs once I can get to the freezer. Home remolding work has that blocked but I'm done now just have to move all back into the house.

Moon setting in our first setup. We had the decoys out cause we saw some birds act aggressive.The birds came out and skirted us and went into a swamp by us about 90 yds. We snuck out pulled the decoys and we ended up calling them back an hour later and getting a couple birds.

Picture of my bird Sunday I forgot my Avian feeder at camp and was not going to use a decoy but decided because we had one gobbler in this corner almost every day. Lucky my buddy had his decoy in the truck.

Birds just out of camp

Birds through the bino's

Great spring.

[Hoyt4]

Anyone still hunting?

Was thinking of getting a tag for WI this weekend but just think I will stick around home. Have my bird all registered.

[nbadger23]

Well, I'm done and unfortunately it breaks a streak of 6 successful years. I had multiple close calls but things just wouldn't come together. The birds "gave me the bird" for the last time Tuesday night. I was doing some things around the yard and thought I heard a gobble but there were a lot of dogs barking, lawn mowers going, etc around the neighborhood so I wasn't quite sure. 5 minutes later I again think I hear a gobble so I grab my slate call out of my vest as all of my gear is still in the truck. I make a few yelps and nothing so I chalk it up to bad hearing and go back to planting. A couple of minutes later I hear it again and it's unmistakable. He sounds like he's in the woods, on top of the hill, in my small food plot.

I had originally planned to hunt some nights in that foot plot because last year the trail camera showed a fair amount of activity in the later afternoon/evening but this year there were only a handful of turkeys on film early in the year and there had been no gobbling in the area or tracks in the plot in the past several weeks so it seemed useless.

I quickly changed into my camo in the garage, grabbed my vest and gun and tried to quietly get close. The buckthorn is pretty thick in our woods so even though he had elevation on me I had cover. I setup just off a deer trail that comes out of the plot and heads towards trees that they sometimes roost in and clucked a few times. He immediately answered which gave me some hope. I waited quite a while and then yelped softly and he of course answered. I could tell he was strutting in the plot because the volume of his gobbles would change as moved away from me and then closer. It started raining a little bit, giving some cover "noise" and I was going to try to sneak in closer but then I heard a hen calling with him. I knew I wasn't going to fool 2 sets of eyes so I stuck with the plan of trying to call them towards me. I had a conversation with the hen and thought there was a chance but just like that they both shut up and 10 minutes later I hear him gobble quite a ways off.. in the opposite direction.. ugh.

It seems like that interaction sums up my season. Lots of encounters with birds, a handful of belly crawls that came up just short, and just not being in the right place at the right time but that's the way it goes.

I am taking a friends daughter out in Wisconsin this weekend and if they haven't changed patterns too much since last week I'm hoping to have a good plan for her but it wouldn't surprise me if the turkeys simply laugh at that plan :-)

[IlliniWalli]

my final season ended 2 weeks ago but i still wake up every day at 330 rarin to go

what does the team have? 3 toms?

[totally_addicted]

I'm still going. I will hunt tomorrow morning, Saturday and Sunday. Maybe Monday morning too. So I still got some time. My hunt ever happened on Friday afternoon before Memorial Day about 8 years ago. Hoping I can still get the job done.

This is my first year chasing turkeys seriously with a bow. So far, it is a lot harder than with a gun!!! I have had 3 easy "gun" range opportunities. Yet I have not flung an arrow. I have seen birds every time out except for one and I have been out 7 times.

Even if I don't get one I will still try and do some sort of recap. It most likely will only include pictures if I am successful. I need to get better at taking pictures throughout my hunts.

[Hoyt4]

Good luck TA

Hope you get one in your bow range. I think if we can get one more we might be sitting ok then.

[Hoyt4]

Hi mws4dux

Did you get your bird registered? Looks like we only have two on the board but I know you got your archery bird.

[mws4dux]

I have to register it yet...should get it done this week

[totally_addicted]

Well guys with one day left and no chance to get out I have started boiling water for my tag soup. I spent a portion of 8 days in the woods mornings and evenings with no bird to show for my struggles. I however did see tom(s) on 6 of 8 of my outings. A little recap of each of my hunts.

Saturday, May 3: Set up in a field between 5 or 6 roosted toms. Had a great looking tom come in on a string to 35 yards. Didn't quite feel confident at that distance and he proceeded to skirt my set up at 35-40 yards.

Saturday, May 10 am: Set up in the field, but nothing came into the field. Did see a few birds strolling through the edge of the woods.

Saturday, May 10 pm: Set up near a roosting area. Had two hens come in before pitching up into trees at 30 yards. Tom came in too, but pitched up at about 50 yards.

Sunday, May 11 am: Had roosted birds from the night before. Set up near roost in the direction I thought tom would head. He flew down and headed my way, at about 50 yards he took an angle that lead him out of the brush at 50 yards. Strutted in field behind me at about 100 yards for 3 hours with the two hens. Another fired up tom headed my way around 9:00, but had to leave for Mother's day festivities....

Saturday May 17 am: THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN MY DAY! Had birds fired up in every direction. It was gorgeous out. One thing I left at home today was my patience... had 3 toms and a jake coming my way but still a ways off. Once I thought they were reaching the field edge I stood up to see where they were... big mistake one had broke off silently and was already at 20 yards behind me... bye bye. I watched them strut slowly across the field about 200 yards away for an hour. Picked up shop and moved to another field nearby where I had been seeing them. Sat down to call and listen on the edge of the woods. Hit the call once, response. Hit the call twice, response and I saw a bird coming through the woods. What I thought was one tom happened to be two. Second set of eyes caught my movement while preparing to shoot the first one.

Saturday, May 17 pm: Saw no birds.

Sunday, May 18 am: Saw birds, but nothing within a couple hundred yards.

Friday, May 23 am: Had two toms come in from a long ways away. They came into the field exactly how I had hoped. They saw my jake strutter and hung up at about 60 yards. They went back into the woods and came to about 15 yards from my blind in the brush. No shot. Had to leave for work at about 10 and still had birds responding to my calls.

Saturday, May 24 am: Went up to Frazee for the Memorial Day weekend. Have hunted there before many times, but not in a couple years. The last two winters and the changes in habitat on the land I hunt lead to me not seeing or hearing a bird. Did a lot of cruising the country side and only saw two turkeys in an area I used to see 20+ all season in a short drive.

It was a great time, with many lessons learned. The land I hunt has a great population of turkeys and should only be better next year. Hunting turkeys with a bow is a challenge, but man is it a rush! Thanks for a fun season. I have enjoyed reading all of the stories on the forum.

[sticknstring]

Sounds like a great season TA! Quite a few near-opportunities w/ the bow is about all you can ask for.

[IlliniWalli]

two thumbs up to you guys who dedicated the season to getting a tom with the bow

i've shot my share with a gun but still havent got a bowkill turkey. but this year both toms i got were well within range in what would have been clear bow shots

on the other hand, i had at least a dozen come in just out of gun range but get buggered for one reason or another. ya just never know what they're gonna do.