Team 2

[Cheetah]

DrJ

Ryan - Y

Cheetah

Sutty

Sabastian Thunderbucket

 

 

We better all shoot birds so we can compete with the 6-person teams!  

[Scoot]

Ryan is in and excited!

[Cheetah]

   

[Scoot]

Cheetah, good news-- Ryan has a bird to add to the contest for Team 2!  It's hardly a whopper, but it's a punched tag and an entry.  I hope he shoots a bigger MN bird, but according to Borch he has to enter his bird from SD since he shot it first.  So... we'll happily enter that one tomorrow!  

[Cheetah]

Good deal!

[Scoot]

Ba-Baamm!  I entered it in the teams and scores thread.  That's where it's supposed to go, right?  

 

 

 

[DrJ]

Way to go Ryan. Nice bird....

[Scoot]

Thanks DrJ!  It was sure a fun trip!  

For a team name, what do people think about "Beard Busters"?

 

When there's somethin' strange, in the turkey woods... who ya gonna call?  Beard Busters!

[DrJ]

Fine with me. Going 2nd season down by Freeburg,Mn. Can't wait.

[DrJ]

Leaving tomorrow for my season. Where is the rest of our team,haven't heard from you....

[Cheetah]

Sutty is actually hunting with me in MN, just dumb luck we ended up on the same team. 

[Sabastian Thunderbucket]

Looks good guys! I'll have a chance to get out this weekend in SW MN, reports are looking good and got some eyes on birds this past weekend.... just a matter of  time!

[Cheetah]

I am leaving for SD Black Hills tomorrow to hunt through Monday.  Last year we saw a lot of jakes, so I am hopeful that many made it through the winter.  

[Scoot]

Good luck Cheetah!  Ryan was able to fill his MN tag last night when a group of three jakes came into the decoy spread.  Only two left!  It won't do our team score any good, but it was still fun!

 

 

 

That wrapped up the year for us.  We packed up and headed home.  4/4 between MN and SD- a pretty darn good spring for us!  Just a bunch of jakes, but I couldn't be happier.

 

[Borch]

They are delicious!  Quite a season with you and the kids.  All with stick and strings too.  

[pumper317]

Way to go Ryan!  Scoot, that is a great year for you and your kids.  I hear Jake's taste just like toms' when it is said and done, and having kids, you just never know if the time factor will produce anything else.  I say job well done!

[Cheetah]

Quick update while eating lunch...

 

First day was very tough.  Heard a couple gobbles near private land, they went there instead of public, no luck.  I made a long walk looking for birds and sign, found no birds, very little sign.  Lots of elk sign up high, found one shed.   Uncle had the same bad luck.  Proceeded to go on a long drive looking for birds and found nothing, very disappointing.  We tried another spot that we've shot birds in before, but again no sign and no birds.   While driving back to the house for a late lunch we checked one more spot that we didn't like last time, but this time saw two gobblers strutting 80yd off the road on public!  Proceeded to sneak in and call, but the hens led them away...   At dark we came back and roosted a huge flock on the private side of the fence, made plans for morning to come back. 

 

Day 2 went back to where those birds were roosted after looking at some maps.  Uncle set up right across the road, I went a mile down the ridge line beyond the private land to see if they would come that way.  I ended up chasing a flock on roost that turned out to be right above somebodies garage...   Walked the area and found four hens but nothing to shoot.   Called my uncle and he said there were birds by him on both sides of the road.  He watched the big flock fly down to a driveway and the gobblers chased eachother around the guy's pickup truck...  I drove past him and walked in to a bird way behind him and up a high ridge.  Got above it and came back down to 70yd or so and thought he was just below a lip in the hill so just as I was sitting down at a tree the dang bird jumped down out of a young pine tree he was in!   This was at 10am!   He just walked away at that point, didn't quite know what I was fortunately...   Strutting and gobbling at the bottom of the ridge as he left.  Went back to my uncle, he had a jake come in range but passed, and also had a gobbler circle his blind and literally rub against it, and look into the opening at him to see where the calling was coming from!   Didn't even go to the decoys 10yd away.  He didn't get a shot, it just walked back the way it came and behind some blowdowns...  We are eating lunch now, will go back there for the afternoon.

 

 

 

[Borch]

Sounds like an exciting day so far!

[Cheetah]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Cheetah

[Cheetah]

No luck last night, birds never even touched public land, just went straight for the private yard to roost there.  

[Cheetah]

I shot a nice Black Hills gobbler today.   19.2lb, 15/16" spurs (one shot half off...), 8.5" beard.   A good bird for out here on public land!   More to come later, need to eat some lunch...

 

[Cheetah]

Day 3 Morning.  

 

I was worried that more hunters might be in our spot now that it is Saturday.   After dropping off my uncle at his blind, I found a truck at my parking spot.   Oh well, I figured how many thousand acres does a guy need to himself?  I proceeded to make a fast walk back to where the birds roosted at the private fence and figured I would set up so they might come across.  As I was making my way down the ridge with birds gobbling across the fence I heard some yelping on my side, and it sure did sound like a box call...  I quickly located the two hunters, a father and son,  and let them know where I was going and that I had seen some hens there the previous day.  They were nice guys and I hope they had some action.  

 

I moved on another quarter mile and set up on another hill within hearing range of the flock, not that it did any good, the birds on the private land had no interest in coming across the fence.   So I got up and went on a big walk to check out some out of the way pockets of timber that might hold birds.  Of course there were none there, but it was pretty country and would be really nice if it hadn't burned out years ago.   If I was a turkey I'd live back there, not many hunters would walk that far in...

 

 

 

Eventually I talked to my uncle who said he had seen some birds go past him and over a hill that lead to a canyon that I thought they might stay in.  I took the high path above the canyon but didn't see any activity.   After a while I thought I heard a gobble up the canyon past where the timber ended.   I dropped in and worked my way up the canyon.  I kept expecting to see birds with every bend I passed, and there really was just a walking path through rocky cliffs.  I came out into an open valley with a dried creek bed going down it, burned like the previous hills in the same fire, and zero cover anywhere.  Way off ahead I heard gobbles, at least a mile up near some far off timber, so I figured I'd just keep walking and see what happens. 

 

After a half mile or so I rounded a bend near some brush at the base of a power pole.  I caught a slight bit of movement near the brush and froze.  It looked like a turkey down in the creek bed!  What the heck are they doing there?!  One red spot stood out, not moving at all, and looking my way.   I thought it must be a gobbler, but it wasn't moving.  I didn't dare move even to raise my binocs, I was only about 60yd from them.  Hens were popping into view, but that gobbler didn't want to give up on me.  It took a solid 10 minutes of me standing in the wide open for the gobbler to calm down and start feeding again.  

 

I saw a few hens follow him around the curve in the creek bed, so I dropped my pack and started creeping forward.   Within 10yd I saw one hen still in the open, she made me and started running, fortunately away from the flock.  I sprinted at where the flock would be, trying to close the distance.   The rest of the flock saw the first hen running and came into view.  They didn't like what they saw...   The whole group ran out of the creek bed and behind some of the brush as they made for the hills.   I made it to a clear shooting lane just as they were running up the rocky hillside.  I rough guessed it for 50yd, a bit far, saw two red heads, and finally a beard on one.  He paused, I shot.   He took flight, but was slow to get off the ground, and I let him have it again.   This time he was busted up and crashed into a pile of boulders.   After some dinking around trying to get in to him he took off running and I had to finish him off with my last shell.  I later confirmed with a range finder the first two shots were 50yd exactly.  Not an ideal way to get a bird, but when hunting is tough you gotta take what you can get!

 

Here's a shot of the action from above, I started back by the two pines left of the power pole, and the birds were in the low spot right of the pole.  

 

 

 

[Scoot]

Nice!  WTG!

[Borch]

Running and gunning!

 

Congrats!

[Cheetah]

Day 3 Afternoon

 

We went for a short walk into the area I thought I heard the birds gobble in the distance when I shot my bird.  We couldn't find any birds and were nearly done with our walk when I glassed across a cow pasture and saw birds up in some trees!   I quickly checked the map and found that they were dangerously close to public land.   We made a dash for the car.   The walk in to this spot was pretty short and very close to houses and the farm that had the cows.   We ended up close to the fence and I felt the turkeys we saw should be just below us.   Some whitetail deer spooked and then turkeys started filing past along the fence.  I counted four or five hens, but no gobbler.  We stayed a bit and crow called thinking maybe a flock got busted up.  In the end we just backed out without spooking the hens off.