Team 8 - Snood U

[Cheetah]

Cheetah

Cooter

kevfish1 - M

Pumper317

bmc

Hi Team, post up with your plans for the season!

I'll be hunting in MN late in the season, and if I'm really lucky and my wife allows it I will make a run out to the Black Hills in SD to hunt a few days. Work projects might interfere a little, hopefully not blocking anything outright...

[pumper317]

Checking in here for team 8, last but not least.

I will be doing a little bit in the woods this spring. Taking my niece out for opener, my season is D in the metro, taking physically challenged person out, then possibly a WI trip to end the year. We will see how much my wife hates me by then, as I have a bachelor party, weddings, and a few other things to throw in the mix.

I'm good with any name. Lets have fun!

[bmc]

Hey fellow team 8 members, let's hear some chatter! LOL

I'll be hunting in Wadena County May 5-9 with my wife.

I'll be using my bow and she'll be using a shotgun.

Planning on getting down there mid to late April to scout a couple new spots we'll be hunting. Maybe hang a few trail cams to scout for us while we're away.

Gotta add a couple new hen decoys to the flock, do some target practicing, and we should be set.

How about suggestions for a team name?

Gob' Stoppers?

Brian

[Cooter]

Hey guys! Will be hunting late season here but might try to buy a leftover tag and make it 2 weeks.

team 3 toes?

[Cheetah]

Good news, my wife so far is OK with me going to the Black Hills to hunt the first weekend of May!

[bmc]

Great news Cheetah!!

Hope you can add a Merriams to our "victim's" list!!

Brian

[bmc]

kevfish1 are you out there?

Brian

[Cheetah]

Ordered my SD tag yesterday. One way or another I'm going. SD GFP has some improved maps online, so refreshing my memory of places I haven't been to in a couple years now, and also taking note of some new spots.

[Cooter]

Nice! I need to get out there someday......

[pumper317]

team name... ready go.

Watchin' the waddle

I'm a Snude

Spur me sideways

Or any other pun like name you can think of. Lets get in there. Going out Saturday with my niece to try her luck. Super pumped to get in the woods! Had a Jake strutting in my back yard with some hens today. Pretty in the sunshine. No Tommy boys though.

[Cooter]

How about Snude U? Is that even how you spell snude?

[bmc]

Headed down Wadena County way tomorrow to scout 2 new properties.

The one landowner said he saw a flock of 30-40 the other day at his place.

Got the trail cams ready and my wife and I are fired up!!!

Hoping to get more turkey pics than cattle pics! LOL

I like Snood U!

Should we fraternity sweaters with that logo on them?

Brian

[pumper317]

I say solidify it with Snood U (thanks for the spelling correction.) MN season is open now, so we should at least get that on the board. I have 2 weeks to wait, but am going out this Saturday with my niece to try and tag her a bird.

[DonBo]

Snood U it is.

[bmc]

Do we still have one team member that's MIA??

Scouting went good!!!

Now it's just hurry up and wait.......UGH!!!

Anybody been out scouting, any reports?

Brian

[Cheetah]

kevfish hasn't replied yet.

I haven't had time to get out at all. Leaving town Thursday afternoon for SD with my uncle and brother.

[pumper317]

Good luck Cheetah! I am heading out first thing Thursday am. Going local, so we will see what happens. I am excited, and just hope the stars align. I think our whole team starts this coming Thursday or later. We have some making up to do, but that just makes for a good challenge.

[Cheetah]

I haven't heard yet if I still have access to the same private land I've hunted the last few trips to SD. If that falls through I'll be chasing birds on public land, run and gun. Or maybe shoot one through the kitchen window where we stay.

[bigbucks]

Or maybe shoot one through the kitchen window where we stay.

Will you be on the inside shooting out or the outside shooting in?

[pumper317]

I am headed out in the morning to test my luck. Good luck team 8! We have some catching up to do, and are down one team member. Lets have some fun, and get it done.

[Cheetah]

Well guys, no luck here... Lots of miles were walked on public ground, but the few gobblers we could locate were henned up and would not commit at all. As the days progressed their willingness to make any noise after morning fly down diminished. It was painful in the end.

On Saturday a while after sunrise I had heard a bird gobble an a hill above where I was taking a break as he followed his hen(s). He would respond to my calling a little, but not come my way at all. They out-walked me as usual. I got the idea that they would come back that way to roost in the evening.

My brother and I went back in the afternoon and found a great choke point and set up. We weren't expecting anything til closer to sunset, so we were just sitting by some boulders and killing time and not ready at all. Then at 6pm I looked up as we were chatting and saw a gobbler and two jakes coming in fast! We didn't have time to get ready, and they caught some motion from us and the first two stopped out of range and started putting. We froze. I was next to a big boulder and able to edge my gun up in case they kept coming past us. The gobbler was curious and kept edging in closer but I couldn't see at all because of the boulder.

My brother was whispering to me that he was still coming closer, and finally he appeared where I could see. A few more feet and he passed a tree where I could shoot at 20 yards. Then he started putting again when he got a better look at my brother and quick turned back behind the tree. I strained hard to aim to the other side of the tree and shoot as he passed because I knew he was ready to run. It looked perfect, he lined up, paused, and BOOM! I saw him fall over as I jumped up to get on my feet and pump in another shell. Then when I stood above the boulder I saw him, RUNNING!!! As he started to take off I shot again at 40-50 yards, he kept going...

Somehow, I missed, at 20 yards... The only thing I can figure is that by straining like I did I must not aimed right down the barrel at the last second and the shot just clipped him enough to knock him over initially but not be lethal. Or maybe he tripped over a rock... He didn't struggle at all to run and fly out of there...

The third morning was dismal. We couldn't find a bird, and finally heard a distant gobble. My uncle wanted to check a different area, so my brother and I went running after the far off gobbler. It was a lot further than we expected, but we caught up to him. Calling was no use again, he was henned up, so we tried to ambush him. We came close, but a hen saw our movement. He shut up and we tried one last spot before leaving, as we stopped to call the gobbler and one hen came out from behind a boulder right in front of my brother at the edge of his range. We were totally surprised they let us walk up like that, but before he could get the gun up they were even further out and he couldn't get a clean shot.

That night I located a bird I thought was roosted for the night. I came back in the rain on Monday morning by myself and snuck up there but he was gone... The only birds I heard were on private land, and the rain picked up, so I left... My brother and uncle were hunting a different area, so I went to find them. They had no luck either.

When I got back to the house I had a flat tire and rolled on it long enough to ruin the side wall. So I had to spend $250 to get two new matching rear tires before we could leave Rapid City. Thankfully it happened there and not in the middle of SD...

[pumper317]

I also struck out and am done for the year:-( My season started last Thursday and I did not hear a gobble all morning. I had to leave at noon to get to work. Friday morning, heard a faint gobble about a half mile away, on private ground. Saturday morning I went out on Public turf that I had scoped out before and actually got pretty close to a bird in a tree. Problem, it was a clear cut. One upside, was that I could see the bird in the tree 125 yards away gobbling and puffing up in he tree. I sat by one lone tree that would conceal me and called after he flew down. He went straight to private ground with a hen. I called to pi$$ off the hen and she came closer, but he gobbled away.

About 20 minutes later I had a gobbler coming in, but it hung up on the private land and would not come out. I couldn't really move as I was in the wide open, so he ventured off. I set up my blind back in a more highly visible area and waited until noon, had one hen come in at about 10:30. That concluded that day. I had a wedding Saturday for one of my best buddies, so I was out for that evening. Sunday I spent the day with my family, and don't regret one minute of it.

I went out last night for the last hoorah, and set up where that tom and another had been, back in a corner. 1 week prior there were birds there too, and I knew they were coming back. At 630 gobbling started a long ways into the private land. It kept inching closer, so I got myself ready. The gobbler was going pretty good all the way in so I could keep tabs on him. He never got closer than 80 yards, through the trees, on private land. I heard him fly up very close, and called it my season.

My season consisted of 1 tom in the tree, and one hen. It was a rough season for me, and I was out there. Not all I could have been, but 30 or so hours, in spots that have produced birds in the past. I know they were there, it just seemed like the didn't want to come off the private land they were on. Sadly, another spring goes by without a bird. First one I haven't even had the chance to pull the trigger and at least screw it up for myself.

Next year, new spot, bow season. Go team 8!

[Cooter]

Sounds like you guys had some quality time in the woods, which is what its all about! I head out a week from tomorrow, feel pretty good about putting snood u on the board but time will tell!

[bmc]

My wife and I were both able to get our birds!

We had hung trail cams on April 15th on 2 new farms we were going to hunt.

We checked them this past Monday and not one pic of a turkey. Ugh!!!

I called the farmer from farm 2 and he said go to the SE corner of his property, he had been seeing turkeys there. So we went down there and set up the blind in a little clump of willow brush in a soggy area that had marsh marigolds growing in it.

At farm 1 we put up a blind in a narrow, long pasture that ran N/S. To the west was really thick pines and to the east, large popple trees and then swamp past that. The farmer told us he sees turkeys roosting in this area.

Tuesday morning we went to Farm 1 and crawled in the blind, What a beautiful morning and we had turkeys gobbling all around us for 2 straight hours. We only saw 2 hens though.

We come back in the afternoon and moved the blind to where the pasture opens up into a hay field, so the decoys would be more visible. We saw a couple of hens and while walking back to our vehicle, we saw 4 jakes out in the corn stubble.

Wednsday morning we came back to the Farm 1 blind and settled in. It was overcast, windy, and we only heard one gobble off in the distance. Where did they all go?? About 8:30 am I look out through the roof of the blind and see a strutting tom about 100 yds away in the hay field. There's also a couple other turkeys with him.

I let out some yelps on the box call and he immediately starts heading our way strutting and gobbling. He took his sweet time and we thought he had hung up. I let out a real soft series of yelps with my Primos Spring Hen push button call and he let out a gobble that scared the you know what out of us. LOL

Unfortunately, he wouldn't get closer than 40 yds and he circled our entire set up. My wife is shooting a 20 gauge and we decided on a limit of 20-25yds for shooting range, based on target practice. I didn't feel comfortable with that long of a shot w/ my bow either. Still it was a great show and my wife's first experience with a long beard that close.

All of the sudden the gobbler takes off running to the east and we hear all kinds of gobbling coming from the hay field. I look out and see 5 jakes headed our way. I tell my wife to get ready and the 5 jakes march right into the decoys gobbling like crazy. I told my wife to pic one out that is by himself so she doesn't shoot two. She waited patiently and BOOM! Her first turkey is on the ground. The other 4 jakes ran around and took off. We were so excited!!! This was her first harvest of any animal, so it was really cool.

We waited for a while hoping another turkey would come in, but no luck.

We then took a bunch of pics and took the afternoon off to relax and visit with our hosts.

Thursday morning we woke up to pouring rain and decided to sleep in.

We headed out to Farm 2 around 11:00 am and were set up by 11:30. With the heavy drizzle and rain, we weren't real confident, but you can't get them staying home. I let out 2 series of yelps on my box call and settled in.

At noon my wife's eyes get big and she points to the right, where I can't see. She says get ready! I knock an arrow and see a jake marching right into the decoys!

I put the pin on him and squeezed the trigger on my release.....THWACK......and he dropped in his tracks!!! I ran out to make sure he didn't get away and we were tagged out!

My wife's jake weighed in at 13 lbs and my jake weighed in at 12 lbs. Not monsters by any means, but we had a GREAT time and are already looking forward to next spring.

That was my wife's first turkey and my 2nd turkey.

Here's a couple pics.

brians bird.jpg

marys bird.jpg

Brian

[bmc]

I can't get the pics attached to my post. Stupid Apple computer! LOL

Anyone wanna help me out?

Thanks,

Brian