2016 Road trip Iowa

[3seasons]

Iowa 2016Well after my last minute bird in Missouri we headed north to Iowa. Ive got a friend that has some farms leased and he had invited us up to hunt with him starting Monday afternoon. We put in for tags but were unsuccessful at drawing a tag so we bought a left over Muzzleloader tag. This was both of our first times trying turkey with a smoke pole and we had a couple friends loan us guns I used a TC Treehawk side hammer and Reid used a TC Encore. I love hunting with the old style muzzleloaders and the shotgun muzzleloader is no exception. The loading sequence is a little different but it sure shoots good.Sunday afternoon we stopped at a piece of public land that Reid found on the map while we drove across the state. We decided to check it out since we had the afternoon to hunt and the next morning. We heard a bird gobble off in the distance a couple times but thats all we would do on Sunday. Monday morning greeted us with horrible winds and rain so got a little extra sleep and then loaded up and headed east to my friends place. The forecast for the entire week was horrible but we are here and we are ready to hunt. We spent the first afternoon riding and looking at different farms , we saw a few birds scattered here and there so we had a game plan for the next morning.Tuesday morning was ok until daybreak and thats when the rain started. We never got out of the truck. We rode around looking at the farms and saw a loan gobbler in the back of one of the fields so we figured what the heck lets see what we can do. Well after trudging through the freshly planted field for 1000yds our feet weight about 20lbs each with all the mud, we eased down into a creek. The water was too deep for my boots but Reid could keep going so I told him to go ahead and id set up there in case the bird swapped directions. Well after about 20 min I hear his TC roar. I run around the corner to see a low lying haze of smoke left from the blackpowder and I see Reid walking back with a grim look on his face. I shot over him he says and just shook his head. We laughed it off and made our way back across the gumbo field to the truck.The weather finally broke for a little while and we went to look at a larger farm, one we could do some walking on. When we pulled up we could see a gobblers head just over the rise about 400yds away with our binoculars. We decided to make a loop and try to get a little closer to him. About half way to him Reid spots some birds just over the hill from us. We set up and call but nothing. We ease up to a tree top and watch the two gobblers with bears like horse tails walk away from 4 hens and head to roost down in a bottom. They could have cared less about a call or the hens, not good.We got in there early Wednesday morning expecting the two long beards to pitch out in the field that they had roosted on, no luck they pitched out behind their roost and walked and adjacent field edge off into the distance not worrying about a thing. As we gathered our decoys I spotted the lone gobbler from the day before walking in another field about 400yds away. We made a dash and got close to where we thought the bird would be and I made a soft call and he gobbles 100yds away. We sink to the ground and we can hear him drumming. He gobbles once more and then all quiet. After about 45min we move to see if we can see him and we do now hes 250yds away going the other way, we call and he looks and just takes off. Whats going on with these birds.We hunted all day Wednesday and I found myself where we saw the loan bird and Reid set up on a point of trees where we saw the birds in the field the day before. Well I see the loan bird walking towards the field where Reid is set up so I make a soft call and he looks but keeps walking I let him get out of sight and I get to the other side of the field that Reid is on. We are 250yds apart. I see the two big gobblers in the field just like clockwork and I see the loaner bird walk up then turn an walk off. As the two big gobblers go to roost they keep a hill between them and Reid and more trees between me and them.Well thats two days in a row so if we dont kill them Thursday morning we know what and where to be that afternoon.Thursday morning we set up where the birds had gone the day before. Well we hear a few birds gobble a couple times of coarse on is right by the truck. But nothing close, where did our two birds go? Finally about 45min after daybreak a gobbler gobbles to our left and hes getting closer. He flies the big creek and land 40yds from us and takes a look at the decoys turns and puts some distance between us. What in the world is going on with these birds they are acting like they are completely done. And the weather isnt helping at all. We hunt all day Thursday with no luck so that afternoon we built a blind where the two birds roosted the two days prior and we sat and waited. Well at 6:20 we see the loan gobbler crossing the field from left to right and he goes out of sight at around 200yds a few min later he comes back into sight and hes walking straight to us. Then we see the other two gobblers and they of coarse do something different today they walk off into the distance to the left. Well the loan bird comes to our left just 10yds outside of our max yardage corn stalk markers. And he taunts us for over an hour walking back and forth chasing bugs. Finally he makes it within our markers and Reid is able to take a shot and when the smoke clears we see a big Iowa gobbler flying off over the trees miss number 2 and he just hung his head in disbelief. We finally laughed it off and walked out. Iowa is stomping a mud hole in us.Well my buddy had to head back to MS Friday morning so we decided to get up around 3 and head back to that public land we had found earlier that week. We pull up just as the light is peeking over the horizon. We start into the wma and we hear a bird gobble in the distance. We look at our maps and take off in his direction. The woods are thick real thick. And we get in close to them but they are on another ridge. We sit down and let things settle down and after a few minutes I make a soft tree yelp on my madhatter pot call, two birds answer then a third. Finally after a week of hard hunting we are sitting down on some gobbling birds. I call with my pot call and mouth call and Reid answers with his mouth call. The two birds answering almost every time as they hit the ground and pace back and forth on the other ridge maybe 100-125yds away. This goes on for a while and I decide to get aggressive with them and after a few calls we hear wings flapping and on gobbler lands 20yds in front of Reid just like a duck in timber. I hear another set of wings and then see the bird from Reids side now walking in front on me, just as he was about to get out of sight I see another head pop up in front of me, the second gobbler, and I hear Reid say kill him so after I get my sights to line up I pull the trigger and when the smoke cleared I could see my Iowa gobbler flopping on the hill side. Reid never saw the other bird but couldnt get a shot at this one as he said he was a little apprehensive about shooting since his luck wasnt real good on the first two attempts and he didnt want me to pass up the shot waiting on the other bird.My First black powder gobbler in Iowa21.5lbs 9 3\4 beard with 1 1\8 spurs

A big storm blew in after we made a huge loop on that wma so we sat it out in the hotel room after the storm passed it was 30mph winds and the temp was dropping fast. We decided to make a run and look at another wma in the area to see about hunting the next morning if the weather didnt get any better. As we looked I spotted a bird in a field and then Reid saw a bird strutting there too. This was perfect and as Reid suited up I told him to Get him. I couldnt see the field from where I was but after about 45min I was getting a little worried and then I hear a faint Boom in the distance. I wanted to run over the hill to look but I didnt want to mess him up if it wasnt him. Well after another 30min I see Reid emerge on the field edge and hes got a gobbler over his shoulder. I laughed so hard as he started telling me the story.The birds are working around the edge of the field and he's able to finally get in front on them on a point of trees with some tall grass. We he looks up the strutter is 20yds from him. As he steadies his shotgun the bird won't break strut so he settles in on the waddles and squeezes the trigger. When the smokes clears the bird is running straight away from him then lays down. He franticly starts to reload his muzzleloader and then the birds takes off for the woods. The chase is on, round and round they go until the birds wound overcomes him and he is done just as Reid catches up to him on the woods edge. Oh how I hate I missed seeing that from the hill side.Reid's black powder Iowa gobbler22lbs 10 beard with 1 1\4 spurs. Heck of a bird.

Two birds on public land in one day with black powder. Good stuff. The good Lord really blessed us with two awesome birds.

Edited June 2, 2016 by 3seasons

[Ravin R10 man]

Cool Iowa hunts too, I'd paid to see him chase that bird!...lol I'v done the same thing

[3seasons]

This is the creek and hollow I called the birds across if you look close you can see Reid down in the bottom of the first pic. It was about 80yds across.