One less Turkey in Missouri

need2hunt

By need2hunt
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Guest gobblergetter15

Guest gobblergetter15

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Re: One less Turkey in Missouri

Congrats. Where are you hunting in missouri? Where Im at in Missouri the turks just arent gobbling to well. Oh well im gonna keep on tryin.

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need2hunt Monster Buck

need2hunt

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Re: One less Turkey in Missouri

[ QUOTE ]

Congrats. Where are you hunting in missouri? Where Im at in Missouri the turks just arent gobbling to well. Oh well im gonna keep on tryin.

[/ QUOTE ]

This bird was taken in the Northeast part of the state, just west of Kahoka... had some trouble with the colder weather but it seems like the birds are gobbling pretty good up until about 7:30 - 8:00 where I was at.

Also hunted North Central Missouri around Unionville, did not have near the gobbling action other than 1 day they where gobbling up past 10:30 in the morning.

I've hunted Missouri for I think 8 years, this year has been the hardest for me... last year i did not tag a bird but that was just because we only took the bows down, we could have tagged out easily with the shotguns... this year it's just hard to get the birds to do anything. I'll be heading back down Friday night to hopefully help my daughter and niece get a bird and maybe pick up one more for me grin.gif

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need2hunt Monster Buck

need2hunt

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Re: One less Turkey in Missouri

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Congrats Gray! Way to go! Tell us more about your hunt. I know you had a 2 bird limit. wink.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Allright Rhino you asked for it, all I've got to say is it certainly wasn't the picture perfect hunt I'ld hoped for. This year has been the worst for me as far as seeing and getting birds to work.

blind.jpg

Anyway I started the morning in my blind in the middle of a grass field where I've seen the birds pitch down to. Had a bubba and 2 hen decoys out. I was directly across from where the ridge in the woods "L"s which is where they like to roost, some will pitch into the neighbors field, some into the field at the top of the hill behind the woods and some into the field i was set up in. The gobbling started as the sky started to lighten up and in no time they were sounding off in the woods and the draws around the field. I started calling a little earlier and more often than I normally would but I wanted to get as many birds attention focused on that field as opposed to the others. There were a ton of hens in the roost and I torqued the most of them off by getting a little aggressive with the calls. About 7:20 the gobbling subsided for the most part and I was thinking it was a bust when I heard 3 birds coming off the roost. They were hens and landed approx 150 yards north of me. They just mulled around for the most part and tarted to feed there way down to the far end of the field where I could see few more hens had entered the field. They were just feeding around and getting the frost off of there feathers for the most part. After about half an hour of this (as I was getting impatient with them being 400+ yards away) I saw a white head bouncing just inside the woods by them, this tom comes to the edge of the field and just looks the hens over and walks out and stands there, wasn't strutting or anything just standing there feeding and drying off. After watching for a while I started to get a bit frustrated as I was stuck in the middle of the field and I knew from experience that those birds were not going to be coming my way. So I tried the impossible grin.gif I pulled up the back of the blind, slid my gun out and belly crawled out as well. I then belly crawled 200 some yards through the frost covered grass (that was only as tall as me with me laying flat) to the edge of the woods left of the blind. theres a creek there with a sand bottom and 7-8 foot banks. I slipped along the creek for about 500 yards and came up the bank right behind a big tree... perfect... there was 8-9 hens right in front of me, I looked around to find the tom and of course he was the farthest one into the field. I figured he was about 40 yards and thought I'ld like to get him at least 5 yards closer for the shot. After 15 min of waiting the hens started slowly feeding off to the left, he started to follow which meant he was going to get farther away from me. He was moving slow and I had a briar bush up in front of me blocking his view a bit, I tried to sneak in that extra 5 yards without spooking the hens or him. I got about 3 yards when he caught a glimpse of me and started that quick head bob like he was going to freak out and run in just a second. I was ready and put the bead on him and pulled the trigger, hens scattered everywhere and he just took a nose dive grin.gif

I counted my steps out to him, approx 63 which would have put him around 55+ yards... note to self - when your sure he's within range but your saying "boy he looks kinda small" that means he's farther away than you think. wink.gif

So like I said not the perfect hunt by any means but I got the job done. This sunday is the last day of the Missouri season, I'll be taking my kestrel (if she's not still sick) and niece down again for the weekend to try to get them a bird. I'll gladly eat my second tag to get them there first birds - we'll see how it goes.

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