Turkey Tales.....Turkey Team #9


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That would be pretty cool to kick back and enjoy your morning cup of coffee and watch turkeys doing their thing outside your kitchen window wildside.

Good luck in Kansas hoosierhunter.

I took one of my best friend's youngest son hunting Thursday and Friday. He's 13 now and he's killed 2 gobblers in the past hunting with me. We got close but no cigar. We called in 4 jakes Thursday morning but the big bird hung up below us.

Friday the birds put on a real show. They gobbled great on the roost but shut down shortly after flydown. 2 gobblers were just below us in a creek bottom but still out of sight when we heard hens go to them. We decided to sit tight for a while until those hens got away from them. About an hour later one of the birds gobbled at a passing crow so I started working him. Within 10 minutes the birds came into view. First a hen followed by a jake and 2 gobblers, one in full strut. The hen eventually walked by us inside the 15 yard line but for whatever reason the gobblers hung up about 60 yards away. They put on a show though with the gobblers chasing the jake around when he got too close along with the strutting and gobbling show they put on. Eventually they chased the jake out of sight and left the area. I'm still amazed those 2 gobblers didn't follow that hen that walked past us. I guess they had already serviced her and just got preoccupied bossing around that jake.

Saturday and Sunday I was on my own. Not much action at all Saturday. What few birds I heard shut down at flydown time.

Sunday was a lot different. I got on an anxious bird around 8:30. He, along with his buddy closed the distance pretty quick. Only problem was they did the ol' loop around to my right before coming in trick. Their last gobble was directly in front of me but within 5 minutes my hair stood on end to the sound of pfft...dummmmmmm but I couldn't see them or course their direction. I have that problem with drumming turkeys unless they are real close. The drumming got louder, finally to the point where I could course it directly to my right. With a slight turn of my head along with cutting my eyes as far as I could to see, 2 red headed gobblers appeared through some thick pine sapplings to my right inside the 20 yard line. :eek: They began moving away and toward my left but disappeared for a few moments behind a high spot. One bird suddenly reappeared right in front of me heading away at what I thought was about 40 yards. I shot and missed. :rolleyes: Stepping it off afterwards I discovered I had underestimated the yardage by 8 steps. :( Oh well, the way he took off he sure wasn't hurt at all. Although I didn't close the deal it sure was a trophy turkey hunt.

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LOL...I know what you mean rhino!I found a super hot bird Saturday.All I did was yelp 3 times,and he cut me off.This was at 12:20pm.I ran back to the truck to get my wife,and 6yr old.We were walking back in,and he was in the same spot just hammering away.I thought "This is going to be sooo easy!"

Well 1 hour later he was in the same spot doing the same thing..lol..I had shut down on him several times..8-10 minutes at the time.That usually does the trick.SO I decided to shake the old Primos gobble tube,and he made a hard run in!Closed 200yds in a minute or two.Bad thing was that he came in where there was alot of thick junk(why not the open trail?..lol),and the wife couldn't get a clean shot.He was as close as 45yds.He slipped back to around 80yds and stayed put.I could do nothing to bring him in...

This was an embarassment..hehehe..So I did some thinking,and went to crawling away.I got 40yds away from the wife,and yelped again.She gave me the thumbs up.He was coming..All of the sudden I hear clucking..Dagumit a Hen came in and stole him.She saved his life. ;) Time was 1:50pm..I worked him for an hour and a half.

Then the weather changed on us.Windy,and cooler.It slowed them down pretty good.Sunday I was on my way to meet a friend,and saw some fresh tracks.I decided to give it a try.I was no more than 100yds from the truck when a hawk screamed and a turkey gobbled!I thought he was about 150yds.I tried to move a little closer,and there he was..75yds..He saw me and game over.Rookie mistake..lol...I seem to mess myself up every year doing something dumb when I get a little too confident.Really I think he was facing straight away when he gobbled,he was in thick brush,and the wind was blowing.I should have known better than to move without being 100% sure.

BTW I am taking the merriams hunt next spring.

Good luck to all of you!!

Good news is I did manage to get a bird last wed.It was just one of those classic hunts where he comes in running.16lbs 3oz 10 1/2" beard,and 1 1/8" spurs.

IMG_0896.jpg

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Congrats on your 2nd bird for the season ranchand...niceun. :D

BTW ranchand...there are very few turkey hunters (if any) that don't make mistakes every year. JMHO but the hunters that claim they don't make mistakes...either aren't spending much time in the turkey woods or they have an lack of honesty problem. I'm human and I make mistakes every year too...that's why they call it huntin. ;)

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Guys hopefully this workd bc I'm on my blackberry in the blind right now. We have had a great two days killing 8 birds so far. I'll have more details when I get back but I put the smack down on a tom last night on video! 7 1-4 beard with 3-4 and 7-8 for spurs. 19.73"lbs...he came in perfect and I shot him at 23 yards. Passed through him and he went maybe 10 yards...1st turkey bow kill and I couldn't be more excited....ill post the pics and complete recap when I get back....hopefully I get another one this morning though......hoosier

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Congrats on both birds hoosierhunter. Hope you get the pics straightened out with photobucket.

We sure didn't have much weather wise to help with turkey hunting this past weekend. 5 confirmed tornadoes went through the Jackson, MS area Friday afternoon. Fortunately they all missed me with the closest one passing about 3/4 mile north of my house. Not the case with some of my friends though. :( Non of them were hurt though. A lot of damage was done throughout the entire central MS area. Some areas are still without power.

I actually missed all the bad stuff since I arrived at camp a few minutes before the front passed through. Wasn't too bad down there but dumped a lot of rain on us through Saturday morning. I didn't hear a bird gobble that morning after but got on an uncooperative bird Sunday morning while taking my son hunting. Nice vocal hunt but the bird wouldn't budge from the spot right below where he was roosted.

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Well people I'm back and man did I have a great hunt. We went down by Stockton Kansas for the hunt booked by Orion Adventures for the TV show Bowhunt365. We had 9 guys in camp and they all were a blast. It was bow only hence the name of the show. The first morning my good buddy whacked a great bird at 27 yeards that had 13/4 spurs and was 25 pounds. Talk about starting off right. That night 6 other guys killed birds. Me not being one of them. My 1st bird came on Saturday night at 6:54. My buddy was tagged out and running the camera for me. We had birds everywhere but just couldn't get them to close the distance. Finally they all moved off and we thought the gig was up. We could see about 10 toms strutting out in this field about 400 yards away so threw a few calls out to get their attention. Finally one of the birds broke off and started to come in. We knew it was serious when he got to 70 b/c he had his head up looking for that hen. He came on a string and right up to 23 yards. We got great footage and Matt gave me the go ahead and I let the arrow fly. He has his head down at the time it it split his shoulder blads and out the back side. He did a vertical 360 on camera and went 10 yards and was done! That was my first turkey bowkill and it was awesome.

We had two tags so we were in the same spot the next morning hunting out of the double bull. About 9:15 I stuck my head through the top fo the blind to get a look around and spotted two toms way way off in the distance heading our way. It took 30 minutes but the closed the distance. I called to them and here they came down the same road as the bird last night. Unfortunately the wind was howling and flapping the blind. When they got to 35 yards they hung up. Matt couldn't get on them in time with the camera so I passed and they went behind us. As I was attempting to call them in, 3 toms came storming down the road right at us. We never saw them till they were 45 yards out and before we knew it they were 25 away. I told Matt I was shooting the bird with the biggest beard and drew. I told him to tell me when he was ready. All the suddent he wind kicks up the blind flaps and their heads shoot straight up. The back two birds start to go away and then so does the closer bird. I'm at full draw and the gig is up and these birds are getting out of here in a hurry. I asked Matt if he was ready and he said yep so I let the arrow fly on that bird that was moving out quartering away from my on a pretty good clip and thumped him. He went 20 yards and piled up and then we watched the two others toms beat the tar out of him. Unfortunately this all happened so quick and in the fray Matt had to grab the blind to hold it down and didn't have the camera on the birds when I shot. It would have made for some amazing video b/c I literally led this bird with the arrow and drilled him! He said he held me up once and wasn't going to do it again on the last day so he told me to shoot. This bird was the bigger of the two and more than likely will be the bird I register in the contest.

All in all we had a amazing hunt. My two buddies and I all tagged our two birds and as of right now there is only one guy who hasn't taken a bird, but he has missed 5 times. So it was a great hunt and I can't wait for it again next year. I'll get pics up on a little bit. I'm so tired right now b/c we just got back from the 15 hr drive.......

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Crazy toms!

Nice birds, guys! Sound like some exciting hunts.

On my way into town today, there were two nice toms struttin' like there was no tomorrow right in the middle of the road! Mind you, it's a dirt road, but still, it's pretty regularly traveled. These guys were so busy trying to impress the ladies that I nearly took one out with my car instead of my bow!

Speaking of my bow, this will be my first time going after a bird with an arrow. We picked up these fixed blade broadheads that go by the name "The Guillotine". Anyone either heard of them or actually shot with them? Any pointers for my hunt?

Thanks much,

Laura

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Yeah we actually shot those some for the show. They come in 3 and 4 inch cutting diameters. Those arrows literally are only effective to about 18 yards. After that they helicopter up in the air. Also you MUST put the black sheethes on them or they won't fly right. The birds head must be up for the shot as well. The ideal range is 15 yards for that toy. Also you must have a longer arrow than what you currently shoot or you risk serious hand injury.....Also be prepared for absolutely the craziest kill shot you've ever seen if you connect with you..

Personally I would recommend just using a fixed blade broadhead and not the gobbler guillotines. These two birds were my first bow kiills and neither of them were in guillotine range......Also something I learned was to never shoot a bird strutting with a bow if at all possible b/c the kill zone is so hard to find unless they are straight on you aim at the beard connecting to the body or facing away, just "put it in the butt"

Let me know if you have any other questions and I can give my guys a call....We killed 10 birds and two were guillotine kills and there was a total of 8 misses with guillotines........They make great video but are hard to kill with......

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Sorry been occupied with some problems lately so haven't been in here much. A close friend and old hunting buddy of mine and his wife recently died so I've been coming to grips with their loss right now. :(

BTW, I killed my 2nd gobbler here is MS. A 2 year old with a 9" beard, 7/8" & 3/4" spurs. One more left in my bag limit.

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Man my season has started off really slow I have seen two toms both were shooters and have yet to hear a bird gobble. I saw a tom and 3 hens feeding in an opening the first day of season and I called to them for 45 minutes and never even got a peep from any of them. And they were only 150yards away. I am thinking that maybe it is because the weather was so wierd last week, it was -5 deg. when I started saturday morning. It can only get better, I have a month and a half left.

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Hey, Rhino - so sorry to read about the loss of your dear friend and his wife. I'm sure you're going through quite a bit dealing with that right now. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Hoosierhunter, thanks for the advice on the guillotines and other pointers on shooting a turkey with the bow. I'm hoping for the ideal shot (who isn't?!) to take one with my bow. . . I might have my shotgun with me, too, just in case a beauty comes along out of bow range.

As of late, the birds have really broken up and gone separate ways around here. My season starts early May and runs through to the end of the month. I'm really looking forward to some time in the woods!

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Sorry I haven't checked in for a whle, I feel like I've been getting spun in a hundred different directions lately. I'm not sure why,.....I haven't done anything productive! :rolleyes::D Anyways, My season starts Wednesday. I'll see what I can do to put a few more points on the board. ;)

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Thanks for the prayers wildside. I'm going to try to make more time to come to the forums form now on. Still having to deal with some things pertaining to the loss of my old hunting buddy and his wife.

Killed my 3rd MS bird the other day so that limits me out here. My 3rd bird has a 10 1/4" beard, 1 1/16" spur & 7/8" spur that had the end broken off. I posted the hunting stories of both my 2nd and 3rd birds in the turkey forum along with pics. I might take a turkey hunting road tip but that's up in the air right now.

Congrats on both birds hoosierhunter.

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