Stories from the hunt - Spring Turkey Hunting '06

[Hotspotter]

Folks:

They were gobbling hard this morning, so I fully expect a few of you to be posting your results soon! Let's hear some stories, whether you took a bird or not.

Please post pics of your bird, any of them and multiples if you wish. Keep in mind that photos in this thread won't be entered in the HotspotOutdoors Spring Turkey Hunting Contest - 2006. You have to go to the previous link and post them there.

I can't wait to hear how it was for you, and good luck to all.

Joel

[buckpredator]

Well it started off horrific on tuesday the day before the season started. I found out that I was absolutely going to be needed the next mourning at work. What really hurt was that I knew I had no chance of getting out of work on Thursday or Friday. Well on both wednesday and thursday I did make it out into the woods at about 4:00 each day and got one good hour of hunting in. On both days I went to a corn stubble field edge where I had a few Toms patterned in to be at in the afternoon feeding and strutting. Well each day there were toms there and they would respond to my calls, but all I could call in were hens. I didn't have decoys out which would of helped, but the birds would have seen me putting them out. Needless to say I didn't have a shot either of those two days, but i was still confident that on the weekend I would get a shot.

Well on Friday I got out into the woods at about 1:00 and by 2:00 I had three birds gobbling all from different directions each one was yet a good distance away, but they were responding well. 2:15 the first Tom appears on the other end of the field about 300 yards away, there was one hen with it that I could see so I knew it was going to be tough so I called for about 1/2 hour and no change he didn't move either way to far. The other Toms seemingly lost interest and weren't calling anymore. So I came up with a strategy to slide down a overgrown fenceline towards the birds in hope of getting close enough for them to want to investigate. Well I was I'm guessing about half way to them I could not see them as was part of my plan of them not seeing me. So I give them a gobble and right away the tom hammers back I have him pinpointed at about One hundred yards, but I wanted to get alittle closer, so I continue crawling and I didn't make it 20 yards and I hear the hen give her alert call and I look up and see her and the tom hightailing away. I don't know if the gobble got the tom mad and he wanted a fight or what, one thing is for sure they covered some ground quickly.

So needless to say I not overjoyed I knew I screwed up kicked a little dirt and thought of my next move. Well there I was walking back to where I was calling from initially replaying the whole scenario and came to the conclusion I made every possible mistake I could. By now it is 3:45 I back at my spot sitting and cussing myself out. Well I thought I would try calling with my mouthcall some more and just as I was about to yelp I look to my right there is a Tom 50 yards from me walking a B-line right at me. I freeze cause he has stopped and has his head up and is looking around. My heart is pounding with fear that he too will take off, but no he puts his head down and keeps walking feeding his way towards me. I bring the gun up slowly hoping he doesn't notice. Now he is Thirty-five yards out and flaring slightly so I give soft purr he stopped stretched his neck and next thing you know I'm running out to pick up a very nice tom. My biggest out of five birds in my career. He ended up going 25 pounds with a nine inch beard and spurs of 1 and 3/16".

[Nova]

First time for my son and 6th time for me. We are out in a blind in the early am, have several gobbling. They hit the ground about 6:30 and totaly shut up. Bad sign, but we stick with it. About 8am we move closer to where they were roosted, nothing. About an hour and we again move very close to there roost(very quietly). We set up and called about 4 times. The 4th time they gobble directly below us about 50 yards. My son is 15' from me facing the wrong way. he quickly shifts into position and we wait about a minute. Over the ridge they come one big white headed 5" beard bird with 4 jakes in tow. The white head struts several times and then 2 jakes come within 10 yards. I whisper to my son shoot....nothing, again I whisper shoot a little louder...nothing. I know he has a shot and sees them. the 2 close jakes heard me and start getting real nervous. Once more I whisper shoot....nothing. The jakes start to leave and the white head pulls out of strut so I shoot him. the other birds flew off. When I asked why he didn't shoot he said I didn't hear you and I don't want a jake on the first day????? He didn't get his bird, but learned a valuable lesson. The next 3 days we never hear or saw a single bird.

[Fish'n guy]

We found 1 gobbler and a bunch of hens in the morning, but they were in the adjacent owners land and were roosting in and oak tree on the field edge. We figured they would be heading that way later. So I went home took a nap and we were back out there in a couple hours we located three different gobblers and watched two of them cross a large cornfield to meet up with the other one in the place they were in the morning.

We set up on a terrace and put the decoy right off to our left about five feet into the field. Then we laid down on the top of the terrace eye level with the rest of the field.

The turkeys were very vocal and responded to almost every sound I maid with the call. about five minutes after getting there, on the terrace in front of us three full strut gobblers and two hens werecomin to pay us a little vistit. The hens came right in probably within two feet of me and they mauled the decoy as well. The gobblers strutted around out at 40 yards for what seemedto be forever. We eventually got them to about 15 yards and then had to wait for them to separate so we did't end up with more than one. Luckely they did and Jay made an excellent shot and killed the bigger one.

It was 27lbs and after carrying it back well over a mile over several steep hills we were wiped out !!! Heres a pics later that evening.

Jay with his gobbler later on that evening. A 27lb turkey for a first turkey is kind of bitter sweet. It is definately a trophy class bird, but it will be very hard to get one that big again.

Two weeks and one day to when my season starts and I am excited!!!!

[Hotspotter]

It was to be my first turkey hunt of '06. Well not mine really, I was only going along to do the calling, which is now legal in MN. The hunters were actually my cousin and uncle, Todd and Mike Heinrich.

It was a magical morning. The kind where you wish you could somehow count the number of gobbles actually sounded, knowing full-well it was in the several-hundreds.

After running into some other hunters that were surprisingly also hunting the same property we were, we decided to strike out at some birds on the roost. As we approached closer and heard all the hen-talk, I knew this would be a difficult endeavor. I did the best I could to mimic the lead hen, and get her worked up. It worked. At 6:15AM, a hen pitched down in the field 60 yards from us. She was followed by another. This was getting good.

No sooner were our hopes dashed with all the rest of the roosted birds pitching down to the valley below. We didn't set up here, as it was too close to the other hunters, and opted to stay well out of their area.

Having some of these birds below us was not a problem, as 2 gobblers and 3 jakes that were running together, were actively searching the valleys for any and all hens. After firing them up, I backed off the calls a bit, and sure enough, they came around a pond, across a drainage, and up a field to visit. These birds were actually moving away, until I made a desperation fighting purr call with my mouth and slate call in unison. They came literally running back. In the end, only a lone jake closed the final distance, and due to hunter error, a running shot was taken and cleanly missed.

After spooking these birds, we decided to move to a better area and play it cool for a bit. Hens started talking around the field-top we were hunting, and were quite agitated when again, I mimicked their every call. They were with gobblers, and even came halfway to us a few times, but wouldn't close the distance. Time to reposition and hit them from a different angle.

We snuck around the field, and glassed the other end, seeing a big wooded point that two toms, a few jakes, and a few hens were milling around. We dropped down off of the field onto the steep wooded slopes below and snuck around the other end of the field. After nearly an hour of sneaking and performing the end-around, we thought we'd end up a few hundred yards down from the point. We were wrong.

As we poked into a logged opening to the field, I knew this would be our setup. A glance from the field-edge found the point only 100 yards away, and a dusting-hen at only 50! One series of yelps from the slate, and gobbling was all around us, CLOSE. It took the better part of one minute for 3 jakes to come running in. They angled through the woods, instead of the opening, and Todd killed him and a small elm at 15 paces. See below pic, and you might be surprised he killed this bird at all! The pattern was tight at 10 feet where the tree was struck, and he's lucky the jake fell.

With limited time to hunt, and only one spot to hit up for this season, the decision to take a jake was made by the hunters. I just had a great time going out with them.

Joel

Todd with turkey.

Look on both sides of the gun's forearm to see the shredded tree.

[Norsky]

I went out Monday morning and had my first turkey ever within 2 hours. A friend of mine said he had seen some birds crossing an open field every so often on a piece of public land. I figured there would be a plenty of hunters there in the morning, but as I pulled up into the parking area I was shocked to see I was the only one there.

I slowly walked through the area and called once in a while to try to locate a group. I heard nothing nor saw nothing at first. After walking about 300 yards I came up to the edge of a large open field. I sat down along side of the woods with my back to the east. I started a few calls.

At first, it was quiet. The only thing making noise were the geese and a few pairs of woodies flying around. I then decided to let out a few louds yelps with the mouth call. After the second series, a loud gobbler answered back from inside the woods on the other side of the field. Soon, he was in full strutt with his 3 hens about 200 yards straight across the open field from me. I thought to myself, how cool would it be to harvest a big tom like that. I figured there was no way I'd be able to call him all the way over to me, so I was actually making plans to set up near the edge of the field where they came out the next moring. Then I thought I might as well try to call them and just see what they do. I watched them for a short while and kept calling, AND THEY KEPT COMING to my amazement. The gobbler and hens slowly made their way straight to me. The gobbler seemed to get more and more excited as he came across the field. Finally they started getting close. It took them almost 30 minutes to come across the field, all this time I was hoping and praying no one else would show up and scare the birds off since this was public land. The tom finally got to about 50 yards off and just kept strutting and gobbling like you couldn't believe. My heart was pounding and my legs were shaking. Each time he gobbled I could just feel it going through my spine. I gave a couple really soft clucks when he was facing away from me and the group of hens nearly picked me out, but they kept coming. Finally the gobbler strutted over a little farther, now he was about 35 yards out. He flaired his fan out and strutted around, it was absolutely beautiful in the morning light. As he dropped his tail feathers back and lifted his head, I fired, and dropped him. It was the most thrilling hunt I've ever experienced. I can see how all those turkey guys get addicted to this. The bird weighed 20lbs. and had a 9 1/2 inch beard. My first gobbler, and defineatly not the last.

[LABS4ME]

NICE!!!!

Good Luck!

Ken

[harvey lee]

Fish n Guy

Do you know the lenght of the beard and the length of both spurs?With that weight and a long beard and spurs,shot with a gun,it could be the biggest Eastern harvested in MN. in the NWTF record books.

[Hotspotter]

Norsky:

Great job. Calling a bird over with his hens is no easy task, esp. on public land. After that experienced, you're hooked. Just about anyone who's ever turkey hunted and had a similar experience has a hard time NOT turkey hunting from there on out.

You can email me the pics (address in signature) and I can post them for you.

Again, good work!

Joel

[Borch]

Well I'm back from the Black Hills with lots of stories and no bird! My dad did get his first turkey this trip so that made the trip in itself. He got a nice 20 lb, 3/4 inch spur 9" beard merriam.

We had several close calls this trip with the toms being severely henned up. Each tom had 5 - 30 hens with him. Probably the coolest story of the trip was an aggressive hen we called in that came in in full strut with a beatiful while fan and saddle. We all did a double take and looked real close as she appeared to have a beard but not big enough that we'd take a chance on shooting her.

Just 8 more days until my MN hunt.

[Hotspotter]

Borch:

Glad to hear it was a good time. Sounds hard to head out there and not have a good time, especially as it seems you escaped the nasty weather.

I'm optimistic about our hunt out there in 7 days. We might face tough conditions with the snow causing the turkeys to hit the "reset" button. Hopefully the breeding season is carrying along and the birds aren't so henned up. We'll see.

Good hunt Borch, great to hear about the good bird your dad took.

Joel

[elevatorguy]

Well finally after a few years of bad luck I finally got one. I was in The Black Hills the same time as Borch and had the opportunity to meet him. So Jeff it was good to meet you. So after a couple of hard days with henned up gobblers we got some help from a local on a few specific spots in the same areas we hunted on our last full day. So in the afternoon we tried a couple with still no birds and up and down some big hills. We pulled up to the last spot to try and my dad to tired and sore stayed at the truck and I told him to get me in 3 hours and I headed into the Hills. As I started past the gate I noticed it was all up hill. So I turned on my gps just to compare to my map it was 1 mile all up hill. So on the top I moved down the ridge to rest and do some calling. Some time later I moved to another ridge about a 1/4 mile away to do some more calling. As I was reaching for my box call I realized something was wrong, stupid me left my gun on the last ridge. So a half of a mile later with my gun I called awhile and nothing. So I moved to another ridge and with my gun this time to call some more. After no response in 15 minutes I got up and moved not quite a 100 yards and I could see down the ridge really good so I decided to hit the box call. GOBBLE GOBBLE there was a bird down the ridge. Stupid me standing there by no trees I moved 5 steps forward and started sitting down. As I was sitting down I noticed 5 maybe 6 turkeys about a 100 yards away running down the ridge and up the other ridge away. BUSTED!!! With the high winds I could not believe how close they really were. Disgusted with myself ready to give up and head back I realized I had an hour and a half till I was gonna be picked up so I headed on to maybe scout a little as I figured I blew my only chance up there. I headed on further trying another ridge with nothing. Then I got to a spot high and flat with the road going down and not wanting to come back up it and running out of time I decided to stop here for 15 minutes and then head back. As I pick a spot in the shade I plop down and start calling. Well in my 14th minute of sitting there and about ready to leave I had a hen answer my call. So I decided to hang out abit. After a few minutes of silence I hear the hen again and closer so I answered her and to no avail I hear a gobble. So now I am mimicking the hen in hopes they will head my way. Then there it is a tail fan about 150 yards away. Worried that this gobbler would head off with this hen it was not looking good for me. Then there it was another tail fan yes I may stand a chance. Then I loose sight of one and was watching the other move parallel to me on the ridge so yep there they go. So I let out a yelp and wham a gobble way closer and coming my way. Then a few seconds later there he is about 100 yards and coming in in full strut. An awesome sight. As he closed to 35 yards I squeeze the trigger and click dump no shell so I quickly chambered a shell and fired and he went down. YES finally my first turkey. As I stood over him I looked back at the tree I was sitting by and said to myself wow it was a long way. So I paced it out and figured it to be about 60 yards. But I am comfortable with my guns pattern at 50 but still wow what a shot I made I couldn't believe it. But anyway I was excited and the end result ended up in my first turkey. As you can see I tried everything I could to screw that hunt up and finally a stroke of good luck. I guessed its weight at about 19-20 lbs as I never had a chance to weigh it as storms were moving in and the place in town was closed so I had to get cleaned. But it did have an 8" beard and 5/8" spurs. So that was my story. And now I am really hooked.

[OUTDOORNUT]

Nice work!!

Congrats on a Black Hills Merriam! They make you work for them forsure.......

I'll be hill climbing a week from today!

Jnelson,

Where are you targeting out there? We are going to be in the Tigerville area (a tad NW of Hill City) and hunting out by Deerfield Lake. If you want to meet up for a cold one, or need some help on the area there is only three of us and plenty of good turkey grounds for all.

[Borch]

Quote:

---

Nice work!!

Congrats on a Black Hills Merriam! They make you work for them forsure.......

I'll be hill climbing a week from today!

Jnelson,

Where are you targeting out there? We are going to be in the Tigerville area (a tad NW of Hill City) and hunting out by Deerfield Lake. If you want to meet up for a cold one, or need some help on the area there is only three of us and plenty of good turkey grounds for all.

---

Definitely give the burn area north of Jewel cave a look. Lots of birds there right now. Some friends from MO pulled a triple there on Monday afternoon. We didn't find much fresh sign around deerfield last week. Normally it's a pretty good area for us. But 99% of the sign was at least a month old in the several spots that we hunt there.

Good Luck.

[Hotspotter]

Outdoornut:

Shoot me an email and we'll see if we can make it happen!

Address is in the signature.

Thanks,

Joel

[gdahl2]

Well I just got back from my first ever Turkey hunt down in zone 346. Unfortunately I only had all day Saturday and a few hours this morning to hunt and as much as I would like to tell you I harvested my first Turkey on my very first hunt, that was not the case. I think I set my expectations a little to high after reading all the above stories and thought it would be a walk in the park

I still had a great time and thought I would post my story, as I enjoyed everyone else's and even though I didn't harvest one, got to see some birds. Day 1 we had a nice Tom come over to us about an hour after setting up, but he was on the other side of two barbed-wire fences spaced 5yds. apart and danced around fanning his tail for about 20 minutes at our decoys. Man did my heart start racing and I didn't realize until then, that my body could tremor He then decided the heck with us and kept on moving down the fenceline. We knew there was an opening in the fence 20 yds. down and thought he might circle back to check us out. Didn't happen

After awhile, we decided to move. I let down my gaurd and was moving to fast around this small circle of trees in an open field and sure enough, there was a Tom about 75-100yds. on the other side of them that busted me and took off. I took my medicine and blamed it on being my rookie year.

Bounced around a few more spots with no sign, nor sound of them. A little while later, we see one about 200yds. from us up on the ridge of an open field walking away from us. We did an end around and hightailed to the direction he was walking. Luckily it all worked in that we weren't spotted and got in front of him. Bad news is, as with the first bird, he stopped and just strutted around for what seemed an eternity without coming any closer to us. I tried another sneak around, due to lack of patience and he must of took off, as I didn't see him. That was the only action for Saturday, other than hearing birds on property we didn't have access too.

This morning we put out some decoys and had a hen come into them which was cool to see. We heard a bunch of gobblers, but unfortunately were not on our land.

All-in-all a great time and will be back at it next year

[Wallydog]

Clearwater region Idaho 4/22-23.

Birds were communicating sparingly, but my bass fishing partner and I each whacked longbeards. His more "eastern" marked and mine a "mutt".

They were both harvested out of the "turkey silo" blind that I have touted on this forum in the past.

Saturday my partner passed on 4 jakes waiting for a mature bird and his patience paid off.

I too had no interest in a "longtail" so after moving the blind Saturday afternoon we returned to shower up and attend the 1rst ever NWTF banquet in Orofino,ID. They put on a great show and we contributed to their success.

Sunday morning found us a little "red-eyed" but in the silo prior to flydown time. After a couple of distant responses to my calling and 10 minutes I called softly on my Roberts Bros. wormy chestnut glass call and he thundered from 50 yds or so, just out of sight. Several more soft helps brought him in all of his splendor to 25yds where he met his waterloo. He carried the thickest beard I've seen on a western bird. Undoubtedly a result of some eastern genetics he carried.

We opened April 15 and for the first time since 1983 I missed the opener due to my mother-in-laws passing and our road trip to western MN for her burial. The upside was on Easter Sunday morning I got an Otter Tail County longbeard to answer my calling 30 times from my brothers truck!

[Borch]

Well it was a short hunt for me on my first day hunting in MN. The weather was great and there was no other place I would rather be. The evening before I tried to put some birds to bed but they just wouldn't cooperate. So I headed to a piece of public ground that has produced for me on several occasions. I slowly worked my way into the woods listening for any gobbling activity. Every 200 yards I’d stop and owl hoot. After 4 spots I finally got an answer off across a ridge on property I didn’t have permission to hunt. So I decided to set up in an area nearby that has had a lot of turkey activity so far this spring.

I got set up without making a turkey sound and by this time 5-6 gobblers were sounding off. All of them a long ways off at this point although I hoped there may be one closer that wasn’t talking yet. I took out my Purdy slate over glass and did a few soft yelps to see if there were any silent birds close by. Nothing! I gradually increased the volume and I heard one of the distant gobblers closing the distance. I switched to my Quaker Boy Grand Old Master box call for just a little more volume. Man he liked that as he answered ever time as well as some of the other birds. He had hens with him as one was really starting to make a racket. I imitated her and she wasn’t happy about it. She was yelping and cutting aggressively and I let her have it right back with the box call and my HS Strut diaphragm. In a few minutes I could hear them walking in the leaves along a creek at the bottom of the ridge but they were working to my right and behind me. I turned my head to the left and attempted to throw my calls that direction. It worked as they started to then move left. The hen popped out about 38 yards away and yelped and purred as she fed along the ridge. The gobbler took another minute or so to show himself. He did so in full strut and when he broke strut I sent a load of #5 federals his direction from my Stoeger. Just like that the tom was down for good. I looked at my watch and it was 6:15 am. I stepped it off at 41 yards. The time at the patterning board paid off again.

He was a nice 2 year old bird with 7/8” spurs, a 9 ¼” beard and weighing in at 19 lbs even. Tomorrow morning, and the rest of the season for that matter, it’s my son’s turn.

[Borch]

Well it's now Travis's(my son)turn and it's been raining here steady since very early Friday morning. Yesterday we heard a couple gobbles on the roost and one hen after that.

This morning we put on the raingear again and headed back out to the same farm near our home. We setup in a spot where the toms like to strut. Shortly after getting setup we barely make out a gobble to the north of us. The typical, "Was that really a gobble?" discussion started but the gobbler fired off again and we quickly packed up and moved a couple hundred yards closer and got set up. There were 3 different gobblers gobbling a couple hundred yards away in the rain.

I grabbed my quaker Boy Grand Old Master box call and let out a few soft yelps. The gobblers didn't answer right away. I picked up the volume a little bit and two gobblers fired back. I called a few more times on the box call and my diaphram. I then did a flydown beating my cap against my leg. One gobbler fired a gobble to that. We then shut up and waited. They knew where those new hens were at. The most vocal bird flew down with hens and dropped over the other side of the ridge away from us. The other 2 birds had shut up. Travis was getting a little nervous that it was done. Kind of a "Here we go again" feeling. You see this was Travis's fourth year hunting turkeys in MN. He'd had several close calls that just didn't work out for him. But his luck was going to change today. I whispered to him that the other two birds could show up at anytime. After a couple minutes I called on my boxcall again and just about had our caps blown off with thunderous gobble. The gobble really echoed and we really couldn't pinpoint whether it came from in front of us or behind us. After two more gobbles the tom's head poked up over a small rise in the corner of the field we were on. He preceded to strut on that high spot for the next 15 minutes at 40 yards without closing any distance. He probably gobbled 80 times during the display. Travis didn't have a shot even though he was on the edge of his guns range due to the angle and some brush in front of us. The gobbler started getting a little nervous and turned away and moved away a few yards. I turned my head and cupped my hand and yelped with my H.S. Strut diaphram to throw the call down the field road we were on that joined the field. The tom immediately stopped and went back to strutting. He was very slowly inching closer again. After 5 more minutes of strutting and gobbling he broke strut and walked right in. My son took him at 15 yards with his Winchester 1300 with a load of Win. HV #6 shot. The gobbler never moved which was a good thing as my son's gun broke and he couldn't cycle another shell into the chamber. I looked at my watch and it was 6:30 am. His feet barely touched the ground as he walked up to his first tom.

Here's the stats: 22.5 lbs, 10.25" beard and .625" spurs.

Travis and his tom.

[Chasing-eyes]

Hi Borch,

Where in the hills did you hunt? I'm heading out there with my Dad and a couple buddies on Thursday the 4th. I've never hunted out there anymore. Any suggestions? Strat O Caster mentioned that I should talk to you a little bit...

Congrats to your dad on his bird! Always a good time. I'll bet you really enjoyed being in the woods for that!

[Chasing-eyes]

Congrats to your son too! I've had the most luck in the rain - I haven't even shot one when it wasn't raining!

[Ray Esboldt]

Borch,

Congrats to Travis! Your first bird is always the most memorable. And kudos to you on some very well written stories this year. Thanks for sharing.

[strat-o-caster]

Borch and Travis, Good job, sounds like it was a great rush to the body and soul when you son's Gobbler sounded off so close to ya.. That's the reason we ALL live to turkey hunt.... Strat

[Borch]

Shoot me an email at jeffonthewater at aol.com. I've got a few potential spots for you to try out.

[Borch]

It's definitely been a great spring. Travis is busy thumping his chest because his bird scored 1/2 point higher than mine on the NWTF scoring system. It's good to see him that pumped up about sitting in the cold rain that early in the morning.

Glad you liked the stories. It was almost as much fun writng about them as it was being there.