A California Turkey Hunt

[Scoot]

I thought I'd get the ball rolling on writing up a little story about a recent trip my family took to California. The impetus for the trip was that my son won an all expenses paid trip to hunt in the sunshine state's youth season. He won it by winning a photo contest run by what turned out to be two great guys, Chris and Joe. It'll take a few posts but I'll get the story done in the next couple days as time allows. The short version is we had a wonderful trip and I wish we could go back!

[mrklean]

Cant wait to hear about the trip

[DonBo]

Anytime.....

 

 

[Scoot]

After a long, difficult season that was filled with many close calls and "almosts", Ryan made a perfect shot on a huge gobbler in the final hours of Memorial Day, 2015.  We were thrilled!  I had actually put my deeks and turkey stuff away the previous Friday and called it a season, but we got home early from the Memorial Day weekend with enough time to hunt.  Ryan begged his mother and me to go, so I dug everything back out and we gave it one last hurrah.  I figured it was a beautiful afternoon and even though I thought we had virtually no chance to kill a turkey, I knew we'd enjoy our final day in the blind together for the turkey season.  I'm sure glad I was wrong! 

We took lots of pictures, as usual, and I was sure to have three key pictures for the contest I hoped to enter.  Required pics were: 1) the turkey coming into the decoy, 2) classic hero shot, and 3) a picture that included the words "Future of Hunting" in it.  The pics we submitted are below.  Other requirements were that it was an archery only contest and the person entered had to be 16 years of age or younger.  Long story short, Ryan won!

 

 

 

I talked about rough details with Chris and we tentatively planned to have Ryan hunt the youth weekend (3rd weekend of March) in Northern California, not too far from Sacramento. 

[Illini Walli]

lots of bases to cover there with the pix, but you did a fantastic job

congrats, guys

[mrklean]

I use to work in Northern California for 3-4 years and man that place has some turkeys wish I would have hunted them when I was out there.

[Scoot]

We turned Ryan's trip into a family trip, so the whole family flew out to Sacramento together on March 16th.  We had the 16th-18th to goof off, then met up with Chris and Joe on Fri, the 18th later in the afternoon.  The girls were going to "disappear" for a couple days and do their thing while Ryan and I got to take part in the CA youth turkey season on Sat and Sun. 

 

Once we landed...

...we headed for San Francisco.  We had a great time there!  We did all the standard touristy things there.

It was all good fun, but Ryan had only one thing on his mind- turkeys!  Here's some artwork that he colored while we waited for our food on Fisherman's Wharf.

On Friday afternoon, we headed to Chris and Joe's area and got dropped off.  Ryan did some shooting, we did a little scouting, and we got ready for the following day's events. 

It was a wrestles night of sleep, but we caught a little shut eye and then were up around 4:30 AM.  Ryan struggled out of bed not knowing what was in store for him.  I had a good idea that it was going to be a great morning based on what the guys were telling me and the fact that I had pretty clearly determined they were not blowing smoke with their past stories and tales of what we might expect. 

[Scoot]

I couldn't sleep so I showered up at about 4:30.  I got Ryan moving soon after and before we knew it we were headed out the door with Chris and Joe for our first morning of hunting Rio Grande turkeys in NorCal.  We got to our spot, which was private land that butted up to public land and Chris said "Looks like we'll have competition this morning."  There was a truck with an adult and two kids parked at a crossing next to the public land.  But... we were going to the private land and we were in the preferred location, according to the guys.  We walked out about 400-500 yards across a pasture, with what seemed to be open pasture to our left and trees to our right.  As we approached, the guys pointed out the skylined trees that we'd be hunting next to.  The "digger pines" about 60 yards from our blind were the ones that the birds usually roost in, they told us. 

We got there, and after Chris set up the decoys, we snaked our way into the blind.  All was quiet for a while, until a few coyotes sounded off around us.  In response to those yotes, the turkeys went nuts.  We listened to all the gobblers in the trees around us- it was great!  We also noticed that one bird sounded different than the rest- he sounded like a Russian bass, while all the others were tenors or baritones.  His gobble had a lot more oomph and it was lower than the rest. 

The view, just as it was getting light enough to see/shoot/video.

As it got lighter Chris simulated a fly down and we got set.  However, the several dozen birds in the trees around us sounded like they had flown down the opposite direction, away from us.  Just then, we heard the gobble of the bass- he was somewhere out in front of us, but we couldn't see him.  He had flown down in our general direction, but was on the opposite side of the hill that was just beyond our decoys. 

After he gobbled a second time Chris whispered to Joe, "He's comin'!"  Soon, Chis said "I see him".  He was just over the rise and very slowly making is way towards us.  Chris occasionally called to coax him in.  After what seemed like an eternity, Ryan, Joe, and I could see his colorful head, then his fan crest the hill just 50 yards in front of us.  He was moving and there wasn't a ton of light still, so the pics I got of him coming in and on the decoys were less than perfect.  We did get some GREAT video though, and I haven't done anything with that yet.  I'll get to it though...

As the bird came into view I could both see the broadhead on the end of Ryan's arrow start to quiver and I could feel him shake with excitement as he leaned back in his chair and against my leg.  The tom slowly worked back and forth trying to show off to the hen he'd heard.  Once he made it a little closer he spotted the jake decoy and his demeanor changed entirely- he went from working back and forth strutting and showing off to marching in to the decoy spread with conviction!  This is a picture of the tom just as he reached the jake decoy to put a whoopin' on it! 

He flew up and went after the decoy, swiping at it with his wings and spurs.  He walked to the side of it and I heard Joe whisper in an excited voice "Look at them hooks!"  The bird came back in and Chris whispered to Ryan to draw his bow.  Just when Ryan drew the bird lifted his head, stared at us, and turned to leave- he had caught the movement of Ryan drawing without a doubt.  However, the other jake (the decoy) didn't leave and when it swung back towards the tom he couldn't take it- he turned and pecked the jake.  He pecked again and lifted his head for a split second.  Ryan's arrow was on its way!  The lighted knock followed the Bullhead broadhead right to the exact spot Ryan intended.  The sound of that broadhead hitting it's mark was as impressive as the shot itself, "Thawack!!!" 

The bird flopped a little, then expired.  We were jacked!  High fives and congrats were given and Ryan was shaking with excitement!  We tried to not burn up the spot by being too loud and we sat tight in the blind for a while to make sure all of the other birds were a safe distance away.  After 15 minutes we were clear to go check out the huge California tom.  Chris and Joe immediately said it was a monster!  Chris about fell over when he saw the spurs on it-- they were exactly 1.5" and just slightly longer than 1.5" and his beard was 11.5".  He weighed 23 lbs and he was an old bird.  What a trophy for Ryan to take on this dream trip. 

That was the first time that I could really appreciate the place we were treated to that morning.  The Northern California landscape was incredible!  Unlike the flat, relatively uninteresting terrain of the Red River Valley t  his place had some serious character!  Spring was kicking in and all of the plants and trees were coming to life with beautiful colors.  The pasture we were in had little cuts and undulations that looked just plain wonderful to this flatlander!  As were took pictures a couple of geese buzzed us and honked as they flew by.  Their honking encouraged the now distant gobblers that flew the other way to gobble.  It was quite a moment for Ryan, Joe, Chris, and me.  In particular it was a moment that my 11 year old son will never forget and we're so extremely appreciative of the experience!

A little closer look at his hooks!

This picture is obviously staged, but I think it's pretty dang funny!

The Bullhead did its job and Ryan put it right where he was supposed to!

California allows three birds for the season.  However, no more than one bird can be shot per day.  Further complicating things, the junior season was only two days long.  This meant that Ryan could shoot one more bird this weekend, but not until the next day.  Therefore, we spent the rest of the day scouting, shooting, eating celebratory ice cream (a tradition for the Cali boys and one we could certainly get used to!) 

Tomorrow would bring some very interesting happenings for sure!  One thing Joe and Chris like to do is hunt with archery gear with no blind.  That's a dang tough task given all the movement that is required to draw a bow and how incredibly well turkeys can see and hear.  However, that would be part of the plan on Sunday.  Could my 11 year old son accomplish this task?  We'll see...

[paceman]

WOW! Great turkey! Way to go Ryan! Looks like some awesome country in the background! Just awesome!

 

[DonBo]

That's great, congrats to both you guys.  I know how excited you both were for this hunt, glad it worked out as well.  Hope day two brings some excitement as well.

Looks like some beautiful country.

[ANYFISH2]

Wow, Ryan!! Just wow!

Beautiful bird and country for sure.  Congrats on a successful day 1.

[Borch]

I'm so happy for you Ryan!  Congrats on another fantastic tom!  Can't wait to hear about Sunday's hunt.

[rkhinrichs]

great story! congrats Ryan!

[Scoot]

Joe scouted out a great looking spot for us near his place for the morning.  The plan was to start in a blind, but if we didn't get it done there we were going NSOB (Natural Setup Or Bust) for a while.  Here's what Joe saw at the end of the night...

[triggertrav]

oh - you aren't done yet.  Great!

Congrats to your son.

[mrklean]

Congrats looks like an amazing time

[Scoot]

I forgot an important part of Saturday-- the celebratory ice cream stop! 

 

Sunday started off great!  We were in a whole new area and we had birds gobbling all around us.  We literally heard hundreds of gobbles this morning.  The morning sun again painted a beautiful landscape on the initially black canvas we looked out of our blind into.  Before long I could see we were butted up to a fence line, with a group of trees about 60-80 yards in a pasture on the other side of the fence.  Birds were gobbling from those trees, from trees a couple hundred yards past that group, and in a couple other directions too.  We literally heard hundreds of gobbles this morning!  However, the strutters, and there were a bunch of them, followed several groups of hens away from us.  One pair of jakes eventually made their way over to us and crossed in front of us at two yards, before walking to the decoys and hanging around for a while.  Ryan held tight and chose to pass these jakes, either wanting to shoot another longbeard or to wait and shoot any legal turkey in a NSOB later.  A couple other groups of birds skirted our set up, but didn't leave the hens they were with.  Eventually, the birds filtered away from us and we packed up and went looking for more birds.  Here are the jakes Ryan passed.

We hit several of Chris and Joe's honey holes, but struck out.  Finally they decided to give a spot a try where we heard birds yesterday and the landowner told us they were showing up mid-day.  We were going to get there late in the AM, so it seemed like a great idea. 

We got there and Chris called a little.  Birds fired back at us from down the hill a ways- they were about 400 yards away.  The guys simply smiled and started looking for the right spot to put the deeks and Ryan.  Part of the key was to get some trees between Ryan and the decoys so when the birds passed behind them, Ryan could draw his bow.  The toughest part of this whole "no blind thing" is getting your bow drawn, so one needs to plan carefully to pull it off.  Here's Chris beginning to get Ryan's face painted up and making sure he's well concealed. 

...and here's how Ryan and the deeks got situated.

What happened over the next 45 minutes to an hour was a pleasure to be a part of.  Joe was set up and running the camera and Chris was calling.  Chris worked and worked and the birds slowly closed the distance: 400 yards, 300, 200, 100...  100, 100, 100!!!  They seemed to be hung up for a while, so Chris backed up 50 yards and tried to pull them in the last little bit.  Soon Chris went quiet for a while, hoping the birds curiosity would get the best of them.  I couldn't believe I hadn't seen a bird yet, but we knew they were close.  Or, did they skirt by us and keep on going.  We hadn't heard a gobble in several minutes, so maybe they just kept on a-goin'...  Suddenly, two birds came running down the hill and into the area below the decoys in the picture above.  It was two jakes, and Ryan would be thrilled with a chance at a jake in a NSOB scenario.  The birds strutted and showed off about 40 yards away for about ten full minutes.  I could just see the tips of their fans and occasionally I'd catch a glimpse of their heads cresting the hill.  Back and forth they'd go, but they wouldn't gobble and they wouldn't approach.  Ryan remained perfectly still- he was locked in and he held tight against the tree. 

Finally, after strutting around for 10 minutes, one of the jakes committed.  He turned, and started walking straight at the decoys.  "Yes!  It's going to happen!", I thought.  I knew there was a good chance Ryan would get busted trying to draw his bow, but I really hoped he'd get a chance to draw on them.  The lead jake walked in and stopped somewhere just short of the decoys.  To me it looked like he was just a couple yards past the deeks, but in reality he was somewhere out closer to 20 yards or so from Ryan.  The two pics below are a couple of my favorite from the trip.  The first show's Ryan tucked away, Joe running the video, and two jakes in between them.  The second shows Ryan and a bird, squared off in a battle of patience and concealment. 

At one point the jakes were about 15 yards away from Ryan, but they refused to commit fully to the decoys.  They hung out there for several minutes and Ryan had several opportunities to draw his bow.  In my head I was screaming "Draw, draw, c'mon kid, draw your bow!"  Joe couldn't take it any more and after several minutes and several passed opportunities to draw his bow, Joe finally started whispering "Shoot him, shoot him!"  But Ryan was unsure of the yardage and expected the birds to come into the deeks like so many other birds had done.  Finally, the jakes had enough and wandered away.  It was a close call and one Ryan and I won't soon forget!  Ryan held it together great!  He didn't so much as blink the whole time and I was pleased he did so well.  I was also pleased he didn't take a shot he was unsure of, so although no turkey was shot, I'd call the experience a great success and a really cool learning experience for Ryan and me. 

After that, we hit several more great looking spots, but the birds had seemingly disappeared.  We couldn't spot a bird or get a response to a call for several hours and spots, in spot of being in great spots that had produced consistently for the guys in the past.  Soon time was our enemy (have to be done by 5:00 PM in Cali) and they guys settled on one last spot to try.  As we drove it we saw several birds, three of them jakes, ahead of us.  We drove right past them and up the hill, in the general direction they were traveling.  We got several hundred yards ahead of them, then piled out of the truck and tried to set up in a small flat area towards the top of the hill we were on. 

It was fun watching the guys get set up- they were a well oiled machine together.  Ryan and I tried to be helpful, but really we just get in the way of the usual procedure they had polished over years of hunting together.  In spite of this, it was a bit of a mad dash to hurry.  Soon we were set up and in the blind (decided to use the blind in our last effort because the terrain didn't allow for a NSOB very well).  Chris called once and got an immediate response from not too far away.  He called again and seconds later I saw three jakes come charging up the hill towards us, not 30 yards away and closing!  Before we knew it they were on the decoy and beating it up.  This whole thing happened very quickly and over the course of just a few minutes.  Ryan drew his bow and just as he was nearing his anchor point Chris said, "Take your time and..." but before he could finish the arrow as on its way.  The shot was perfect left and right, but it was slightly too low.  It hit feathers just below the waddle, and given that Ryan is shooting a Bullhead, it bounced harmlessly off the bird.  They ran away and hung out at 25 yards for several minutes.  Before long the jake Ryan hit was strutting and chasing a hen.  Here are the birds not long after Ryan's shot.

Ryan was shaken by the whole thing.  He rushed the shot a lot, hardly even making it to his anchor point, and he made a poor shot on a chip shot of an opportunity.  I really think the mad dash of getting things ready, the birds coming charging in immediately, and him having an opportunity before he was really ready led him to panic a bit and rush things.  Regardless of why, he had a chance at last minutes heroics and wasn't able to pull off the second bird.  Chris and Joe and again done their part, but we didn't get it done on this particular day.  However, Ryan learned a ton and had an absolutely amazing experience on Sunday. So did I.

...and that's how our trip to Northern California to hunt turkeys came to a close.  The girls soon came to get us and we headed off to a state park to explore a cave and get our final day of family time in.  What an experience for Ryan and me!  Joe and Chris were a couple of class acts in every way and we can't thank them enough.  We enjoyed their company greatly and they treated Ryan like a king, which constantly made me smile.  I learned a ton about turkey hunting out there!  I'm a newbie when it comes to these silly birds, so it was great to learn as much as I did on this trip.  Ryan, too, learned a lot this trip.  He had several years worth of turkey hunting experience compared to home and he learned from both doing it right and not doing it right on the trip.  What a lucky 11 year old boy to have an experience like this.

Thanks for the kind words above, fellas.  It was a blast!  Looking forward to the rest of the turkey season here in MN, but it'll be really tough to top our trip to NorCal! 

[DonBo]

Great story, great trip, great photos.  Thanks for taking us along and congrats again.  

[paceman]

1 hour ago, DonBo said:

Great story, great trip, great photos.  Thanks for taking us along and congrats again.  

Ditto!

[Scoot]

I missed some pics that are definitely worth adding...

 

This was a great father-son trip and experience!

 

Even better, that father-son combo got to make a couple of good new friends too! 

[sportfish]

What a great read ! 

Thanks for sharing Ryan's awesome hunt with us 

[Borch]

Hey the turkeys have to win a few too!

 

Congrats to you all!  The fun has just begun.

[NoWiser]

Awesome story, Scoot!  Congrats to Ryan and yourself on a great trip!

There is a Minnesota bird somewhere with Ryan's name on it, I know it!  With any luck it will be on our trip and he can finally get his chance to fish for trout!

[Scoot]

I hope so, Jim!  We're both looking forward to that trip.  I hope he gets to do a little trout fishing this year-  that'll be a good sign for how the turkey hunting went...

[Boar]

thats just amazing scoot, the whe.story made me well up emotionaly to r3ad of such a father and son experiencing an.incredable outdoor experience. good for you guys!! and congratulations to ryan!!!