HSO Team # 7...............STRUT ZONE

[outfishedagain]

nice sounds like it was a great hunt!!

[Hotspotter]

Congrats Crawler, great birds all. Merriams have a special place in my heart with the great terrain they live in, and how pretty their plumage is. Sounds like a fun trip.

Joel

[Nightcrawler]

TEAM 7

WE are sliding dowm the latter on posts.

has any one been out yet? we had 9" snowsnow this morning and still coming down( park rapids).. hope every one gets good weat

er when you go. Kind of lonesome here...

Nightcrawler

[Papa Grump]

Speak softly, carry big stick

Started some scouting this past week and I have 2 different places to hunt from, within 2 miles of each other. My neighbor is on the outlook too and wants to join me for the hunt since he forgot to enter this year and he has been glassing some birds out his living room window about a 1/2 mile away. 9 days to go!

[Nightcrawler]

Papa Grump 9 days !!!,I can hardly wait, got 350 days to go!!!

Good Hunting, the weather should be more stable.

Seen two nice gobblers south of town by themselves a couple miles apart be for the snow over the weekend.

[huntmup]

 Originally Posted By: Papa Grump

Speak softly, carry big stick

Started some scouting this past week and I have 2 different places to hunt from, within 2 miles of each other. My neighbor is on the outlook too and wants to join me for the hunt since he forgot to enter this year and he has been glassing some birds out his living room window about a 1/2 mile away. 9 days to go!

Papa Grump,

Do you have that BIG STICK ready???

Got out sunday evening and put a number of birds to roost.

This morning that same hillside was full of gobbelers. I Slipped in to the woods with my binos for some "I SPY" and the birds were right on Q. They headed to the same place as they did in the past. At least 3 nice Toms in the bunch.

I have played this game a number of times over the years and have been burnt by the weather. Guess what? that's right, looks like rain and thunder storms for the AM . Good thing my M-1 is water proof . So if I learned anything from the past hunts, I might walk out of the woods with a wet bird.

I know my backup land still has at least two long beards and three jakes running around on it. As of season C we have killed one Tom and one jake there. The jake had two beards 5" and 3".

Good Luck Papa.

Dan

[Papa Grump]

Well my first morning is done, I had a nice tom coming in, when bam!He turn tail and was doing mach 3 the other way. I turned the other way and here is a 'yote about 50 yards off of my decoys .... So I waited a couple minutes and no more doggie to harrass me or the turkeys ,forever At least I got something this morning. I'll head back out this afternoon.

[huntmup]

I did NOT want to, but I ended my hunt today

A lot of big birds killed in this area today. A 26#er with 1 1/2" spurs, a 25+#er with 1 5/8" spurs and a couple 23 & 24#ers.

The big one gave me the slip yesterday . I think Joel N. calls it humble pie. It did leave a very bad taste .

STATS

Kill Time-5:45pm

Beard-10"

Spurs-7/8" x 2

Weight-22.5 lbs.

Good Luck Papa Grump

Dan

[Nightcrawler]

congratulations HUNTMUP, nice bird

go getem Papa Grump

[outfishedagain]

Good bird huntmup!!! Papa he should still keep coming. Knowing it wasn't you that spoked him, so keep after him.

Just over a week a way and i got'em picked out. He's about 30lbs, 15 inces of drag, 2 1/2 inch spurs and, and i think i was dreaming. But as anyone will tell you its nice to know the birds you hunt and i do have a good one picked for the RAGE broadhead to meet. My g/f is going nuts with me talking about it. I just hope it all can come together!!

[RogerMN]

Today was my first day, I got setup about 5:00 in a windy cold and wet morning. I did not hear or see a bird till 9:50 when I seen 2 hens with a big tom in tow across the feild. I decided to check out a couple of other hay feilds the first one I came to had 3 toms and a hen working there way towards me so I crawled up next to the fence and they came to within 20 yards. I took the one that looked to be the largest of the 3. Not the most exciting hunt but still memorable.

Stats on the bird

Beard-10"

Weight-20 13/16

Spurs-7/8

[outfishedagain]

nice bird!!!!

[Papa Grump]

well that just about sums up my hunt this year.Day 2 and 3 where uneventfull as the toms wouldn't cooperate. Friday I moved to a different spot, threw 8 decoys out in the field with the help of my neighbor who is 75 years young and loves turkey hunting as well, and low and behold I had a really nice tom follow 2 hens into them. Pulled the trigger and my neighbor friend was all excited as he was saying over and over, you got him, go get him! I busted out from behind the brush pile only to see him get up and fly away. After a few minutes of what the bleep happened , we paced off the distance and it was a bit long of a shot, roughly 45 yards. My hunt ended for the week after that as I ended up with the flu bug that evening and spent the rest of the weekend in bed. Sorry team, I really thought that I would bag one this year.This is the 3rd year in a row without a bird after getting 2 in a row before. But then again, I gained alot more experiance this year with calling and set ups.

[huntmup]

Papa,

The way I look at it is, if you have fun and learn something new from the hunt it was a successful hunt.

Dan

[Nightcrawler]

Papa ..Just great being out in the elements,a turkey is just a bouns ,good luck next year.

GOTTA head to Canada for trout and walleye in the morning for a short week.

good hunting to the rest of the team

[huntmup]

This year I picked up a leftover tag for season E in zone 440. I do prefer seasons A or H but with taking one nephew on A and another nephew during H, I thought I would add one more hunt to the season. Have to take what I can get, no out of state hunts for me this year. Looks like I will get FIVE hunts in in MN this season.

Season E was tuff in the mornings, could just as well have stayed in bed until 11:00 am. NOT.

The first morning the birds were very quiet, could not even buy a gobble. I sat for the first couple hours just enjoying the waking of the woods. What a magical time to out. After moving three or four times, 75 to 100 yards at a time I started working my way back to the truck. That's when I made the first mistake, in sted of moving 75 to 100 yards at a time I pushed it to about 200 yds and there he was about 60+ yrds out just coming up from the creek bottom, he was standing at the edge of the ridge with that big white head bobbing back and forth saying to me your BUSTED. He did not even putt, one jump and he was air born. Not to be seen again. That perty much ended the morning hunt. Back to the truck around 10:00 am. Apon checking messages on my cell phone I find two calls, first one is john at 6:50 am Dan where are you, there is a huge longbeard with five hens in the alfalfa field. The second call is Tom and that was at 7:20, Dan where are you, there is a huge longbeard in the alfalfa field. Well guess what, that alfalfa field was no more then 300 yrds away from where I was busted. Not one gobble from that dirction.

I tried a different spot 3 or 4 miles east of where I was this morning. It's now 6:00 pm, I finely get a bird to gobble and it's huntable. I set up in the same place I killed a nice tom two year ago. He is closing fast and gobbling all the way, gobble, gobble, gobble he is HOT 50+ yrds, I can hear him right over the hill from me. Then he hungup for the next 30min. so I backed off 75 yrds., he would not budge. It's now 7:00 pm, time to let him roost. Day one, over.

It's my second morning now and I'm setup on that hot tom I put to bed last night. I hear gobbling in the river bottom and then down the ridge from me, ducks, geese and pheasents are talking all along the bottom, still not a sound from the tom I put to bed last night. It's time for a soft tree yelp. I no more then hit the call and he cuts me off, gobble, gobble, gobble this guy was double and tripple gobbling like there was no tomorrow. Every 10 to 15 seconds he would light up. This went on for 20 to 30 min. and then I hear him fly down, he blows right past me and lands 150 yrds below me. Gobble gobble and he was gone. I tried to cut him off and was able to get ahead of him twice, but this guy was good. He gave me the slip by a 100 yrds the first time and busted me the second time. Time for a nap.

It's 5:00 pm and I'm back out to where I was the first morning. I setup deep in the woods this time thinking I will put a bird to roost. What a beautiful evening no wind and no BUGS. I start with the box call, nothing. Slate call, nothing. Double reed, nothing. Double Split reed, nothing. Double reed with notch, BINGO, gobble, gobble. It took him 20min. and he was 45 to 50 yrds. out in front of me. Then he started bobbing his head around and veering away so I let out a putt and he streched that big old neck out and turned his head my way so I sent a load of #4s his way. When he veered away from me he moved further then I thought. I stepped off 57 yards and they were big yards. He had two BBs in his head and one in the neck. So far it has been a great season.

22.5 lbs.

10" beard

7/8" spurs

[Borch]

Congrats!

[outfishedagain]

Nice bird!

Well, this last weekend contiued my luck of the spring. Having two other hunts to nebreaska cancelled due to weather and this last weekend getting forgotten about. I had permission to hunt on the farm since feb. , i've hunted for 15 years, and it was forgotten that i asked. So there was two other groups given permission to hunt the same farm this last weekend. That combined with the wind and my Double Bull broke. AHAHAHAHA! So i struck out big time. I hope everyone else had a great spring.

[Nightcrawler]

huntmup

just checking if you and papa grump are going to submit your turkeys in the contest?

nightcawler.

[Papa Grump]

Nothing to submit this year from me. Swing and a miss.

[huntmup]

huntmup

just checking if you and papa grump are going to submit your turkeys in the contest?

nightcawler.

Sorry about that Nightcrawler. I was on vacation the last three weeks + and left my computer at home.

I just ran the calculations on RogerMN's bird and my bird and our team score would have been 191.0375. Good for second place but no cigar.

Have a good one.

Dan