Team 3 "Strut Stoppers"

[monstermoose78]

Nice job

[123fish]

Good job slayer! Way to get it started. I had three jakes come in this morning and that was it. I'm pretty jealous of the numbers of birds you guys see. Not like that down here in the far southwest corner. One here and twentyfive miles away another one. Have heard a ton of roosters though.

[walleyehunter02]

Way to start us off! Watched a big group fly down 200 yards away this morning with a dozen (about half of the group) of those birds strutting away for the first 1.5 hours of the day. As it commonly is, I couldn't sweet talk any of the toms or jakes to split off or even the hens I had aggravated to come my way. They all meandered off over the hill. About 9 I was going through each mouth call I have starting with the quietest and would call then wait 15 minutes before trying the next, on the third call a Tom fired up from where they went over the hill.  I gave a few more calls and before long the whole group was heading my way. Long story short, if your calling some birds in from the side window, keep an eye out the front window for the 2 year old tom that snuck in quietly and is coming over the hill towards your decoys 30 yards away. Oops! He got skittish while I adjusted and I was debating even taking the shot since i had to thread the arrow through a softball sized hole 10 yards away. I ended up rushing the shot and performed a clean miss right under his chest with 1" of air between feather and arrow. Just watched the replay of the arrow sailing under him.On a plus side, the hunt continues and I can still go for a bigger bird for the team score  his beard was about 5"-6" and not much for spurs. 

[DonBo]

2 minutes ago, walleyehunter02 said:

the hunt continues and I can still go for a bigger bird for the team score  his beard was about 5"-6" and not much for spurs. 

 

Good job thinking about the team!  I'm sure you missed on purpose just so we can get a higher score.

[walleyehunter02]

You know it!

[DonBo]

They are gobbling early this morning. Hope that's a good sign.

[DonBo]

Seven hens running together. How do you compete with that?

[walleyehunter02]

That sounds tough. If ya can't beat em, join them and enjoy the show? 

[Borch]

You know it can change in an instant.  You'll probably have a big group of toms show up next.  Then you have to figure out which one is biggest. 

[DonBo]

1 minute ago, Borch said:

You know it can change in an instant.  You'll probably have a big group of toms show up next.  Then you have to figure out which one is biggest. 

 

I hope, but it's going to have to be another day.  Dang work getting in the way of all my fun.

[monstermoose78]

Well my nephew was lining up up one of the two toms that came in and 15 jakes chased them off. The jakes were running in circles so he did good and never fired a shot. We came home for lunch and will back out later

[monstermoose78]

We hunted hard and I am taking the rest of the day off! No male turkeys wanted to play today its nap time now 

[123fish]

We are on the board again. Shot a nice two year old 21 lbs., 9" beard, .75" & .875" spurs. Called him off of the roost but took a half hour to cover 300-400 yards. Strutted right up to my single hen decoy when he finally got serious about coming in. Picture perfect turkey hunting morning. I'll get pics and submission form up later.

 

[DonBo]

Awesome 123, can't wait to see pics!

[walleyehunter02]

Feels good to be back after a couple days at work. Only a couple gobbles heard so far.

[DonBo]

I'm back at it again on a new property. I can see already I'm going to have to move for tomorrow.  Gobbles early and often today, but they headed away from me after fly down. Did have a whole pack of Jake's go past a while ago...Oop, I see a red head. Gotta go.

[walleyehunter02]

Get em!

[DonBo]

He strutted and gobbled at me from about 200 yds, but wouldn't come closer, then the jakes came back and he was outta here.

[walleyehunter02]

Bullies anyways! Had a coyote sneak in on me, then when he got 30 yards down wind he figured he was in trouble and bolted. Also had a doe come in and investigate. I am set up a ways from the roost and am not expecting any action for another hour or so. Hopefully the big boy that has been traveling here with a couple hens here will keep their pattern.

[walleyehunter02]

Lone white hen came by. Called it a day.

[walleyehunter02]

Is this color phase pretty rare?

[Borch]

Smokey Grey Phase.  Seen a few over the years.  I think bearded hens are more common.  We have two of the Smokey phase hens around the area that I hunt.  Would love to get a tom in that color but have never seen one.

[ANYFISH2]

I have only seen one hen like that.  Saw her over 2 years, she disappeared last year.

Definitely stood out.

[Hoyt4]

Seen a Jake smokey phase in NE a couple years ago No shot

 

I have seen a few in SD there is an area we hunt and there is always one or two in the flock each year.

[monstermoose78]

The nephew got into trouble so he can't hunt this weekend! But we got time