MN and WI birds down in some unconventional ways.

[rangerforme]

MN SEASON

My MN season started slow, not much gobbling in the 2 mornings I got to hunt so I was pretty discouraged. Nothing was interested in any decoying we were doing and I put in a 2 long days. Was about to call it quits on Sunday and took one last drive around some of the farms I had permission to hunt and wouldn't you know here are 2 Toms out in the middle of a 20 acres green hay field with a hen strutting around. I knew these two would be a challenge but I was able to sneak up to about 100 yards from them in the tree line and grabbed my strutter decoy and crawled it out into the field about 15 yards and snuck back into the woods and hit the gobble call. Both Toms looked up saw the decoy and decided they were gonna stay with the hen.

Side story just few weeks back my buddy send me this youtube video. I thought it looked cool so I ordered one for giggles.

So here I am watching these 2 Toms follow the hen across the field in the opposite direction of me so I decided to give it a go, grabbed my new Shoot n Scoot and started belly crawling into the wide hay field. I made it about about 20 yards into the field and both those Toms put their tails down and came charging right at me, I staked the decoy and got my gun up in prone behind decoy and smoked a big 24lb tom at about 15 yards. They would have jumped right on me I think.

I would not try this on public land FYI.

Ended up being a nice 24lb tom with about a ONE INCH beard, must have froze off.

MN Tom

FORWARD TO MY WI Season which ended today.

Dealing with wind/rain almost every day I could hunt we tried a new property on Friday after hearing about 2 gobbles all day Wed. Got there early and snuck to what looked like a nice open meadow on the map, just as we set the decoys down to start setting up 5 or 6 birds busted out of the trees 30 yards from us. I thought we blew it but we both decided to setup since it was dark and they didnt' know what we were and see if one would work its way back. We use one of those 360 turners on our Strutter decoy the strings which will into play soon. So we sit there for 4 hours no gobbles at all(assuming because we busted them). So we are sitting there and my partner falls asleep for about 10 mins and sure enough i'm sitting there and all of sudden about 5 yards in front of the blind shows up a big tom bright red head all strutted up. Of course he came in silent from my blind spot on my sleeping buddies side(he'd seem him coming from 50 yards). So here I am with my pants down, can't go for my gun as he is super close, anyway, I'm not worried he just needs to turn his back and check out the strutter decoy and I have him. Just as he supposed to do he turns and I get my gun up just as he is turning back so I can shoot he trips head over heels over the stupid string we use to give the strutter some movement. He did not like that and he runs off hard to my left, of course i didnt' have the window opened all the way up so I have to hang out the front of the blind, no problem I him walking at 30 yards, boom i shoot and he runs off. I'm like how did i miss. Here i smoked a little tree about 10 inches wide half way between us, ate up my entire pattern and i didn't see it.

Off to a new property come walking around the corner on a open trail and see a huge tom with 4 hens in a little cornfield. I had about 60 yards to the edge of the field/fence and he was about another 100 yards up into the field but I was stuck in a wide open grassy field pretty much. So figured why not, pulled out the Shoot n Scoot again and started belly crawling down the wide open trail at the cornfield. Sure enough he runs that 100 yards across the cornfield till he hits the fence and just stops and struts looking right at me. Either the 4 hens moving off into the woods or the fence he had to cross had him locked up but i needed him to come 10 more yards and he was done. But he came looking for a fight but i think the fence was enough he didn't want to cross and leave those 4 hens.

So I hunt Sun, had a few off in distance on property we can't hunt and I figure i'm done.

Well I talked myself into running over this morning for a few hours and figured I'd try were we blew it on Fri. This time i waited for a gobble so i could locate them before in went in. Got setup about 350 yards away out in a pasture so i could see them coming. Got one to about 80 yards and he hung out for awhile checking out my decoy then he decides to head to my right where the other tom was out in a field strutting. I could see the tops of both their fans over the little rise in the meadow. Decided to go for it and belly crawled 50 yards through wet/muddy grass behind a small tree i lined up between us. Got to about 40 yards and he was just starting to turn. Shot him at 40 and that was all she wrote.

5:50 AM my earliest turkey kill to date. Terrible picture.

Nice 21lb bird with 10.5 beard and 7/8 spurs.

WI Turkey

[ChrisT]

The scoot n shoot method really works. I almost hesitate to talk about it cause it feels like a secret lure does for fishing. Especially on late season birds who for a month has been called at without seeing any hens. I took a buddy out yesterday and had 2 toms hung up about 75 yards away over a ridge for over 2 hours. Finnaly I couldn't take it having this scenario play out countless times just waiting it out only to have the birds eventually wander off. I had him crawl out to my pretty boy decoy and he started inching it forward. After about 30 yards I could hear the two toms purring like crazy they were coming in for a fight he ended up shooting one in what could be defined as self defense. Obviously this is a boom or bust method but it is a game changer for birds that like to sit in huge fields.

[DonBo]

Good job, thinking outside the box. "Whatever works" I always say. That's a season not soon forgotten.