Bearpaw Season - Spring 2014

[bearpaw]

Opening morning, 1st setup we brought in 3 birds, 1 big Tom, but they hung up strutting at 60 yards, after 30 minutes I told Fred I was afraid they weren't coming any closer and we better try to close the gap and get a shot, his leg had gone to sleep and he could hardly move, the big tom got away but it was an exciting setup. Next on the 2nd setup we got on two jakes that we passed. 3rd setup a nice mature Tom with 1 Jake and several hens were strutting, we were close to a property boundary and a jogger came past, the birds got nervous and ducked into the brush and into a draw, they wouldn't call back, after a while one hen answered back in the field on the other side, I couldn't get them to come back so we snuck across and to the field edge, we crawled closer and waited and called a few times, the hens were feeding while the tom strutted behind them, we had a long wait but finally got a shot at the tom at 45 yards, wham bam tom turkey down, congrats to fred, it was a great hunt, I attached a photo off my cellphone. At lunch we took photos of three other gobblers our hunters bagged, 2 birds taken by bowhunters, 1 other bird with shotgun, 3 other birds were missed by other hunters.

After lunch I worked another bird by another property boundary, another hunter on the neighboring property ended up shooting that bird on the boundary so we moved on, saw some more hens and jakes and was able to roost a big tom at dark. Going after him in the morning. I will post more photos of other birds when I get more time to get the photos off the cameras. Good luck to everyone. 

[Machias]

Great photo!

[RadSav]

CL and I had a great time Dale.  Four birds with a bow in one and a half days ain't too shabby!  Figuring you got me two nice toms last year on the first day as well - You guys ROCK   We will be going for six next year when Del joins us.

[Machias]

NICE birds, congrats!!

[bearpaw]

It was great seeing you again Bryan and meeting CL, I can see why he is one of your hunting buddies, great guy. I think we'll have mostly the same hunters on the opener next year, we do have room for 2 more new hunters on the opener next year. All these jakes we are seeing will be mature birds next year, so it should be another outstanding hunt.

[RadSav]

Just make sure we are on the books for three bowhunters next year

One more picture since my little sweetheart is so photogenic

[bearpaw]

Just make sure we are on the books for three bowhunters next year

One more picture since my little sweetheart is so photogenic

Nice picture, yep, I have all three of you marked down.

[FSTaxidermy]

Congrats guys! ya Nocked  um dead!

[RadSav]

One more picture since my little sweetheart is so photogenic

The Bear Darkhorse, that is

[bearpaw]

More photos from the opening day of turkey season.

[Wea300mag]

Looks like great times, congrats!

[MLBowhunting]

Nice looking birds 

[RadSav]

All these jakes we are seeing will be mature birds next year, so it should be another outstanding hunt.

Yeah, that makes me pretty darn excited for next year.  In 1.5 days I had over a dozen jakes in my 30 yard shooting lane.  I'm betting there is going to be some good fighting and strutting going on during the opener next year.  Only 360 some odd days left to wait 

[bearpaw]

The next morning after roosting the bird the evening before (second day of the hunt) Mike and I worked our way in to the roosted tom. The birds were gobbling like mad and we got set up and waited. Everything worked out perfectly and Mike made what we thought was a good 30 yard shot dropping the bird. We rushed to the bird, high fived and started taking photos. I heard another bird talking to my left as I was taking photos, Mike said "Did you hear that bird?"

"Yes, I heard him, let's finish our pictures and then we'll check him out." But then I heard bird #2 again and he was much closer, "Drop the turkey, we'll finish pictures later!" We scrambled to get masks and gloves back on and sat down next to our dead turkey. I began calling and bird #2 kept coming. He made about 3/4 of a circle around us, just out of range, finally we had him at about 40 yards and Mike took the shot, unfortunately we must have missed the head and neck and the bird flew off, we followed hoping to find him dead but no such luck. We returned to bird #1 and finished taking pics and then walked back to the truck, we loaded up and headed for a different hunting spot.

I only drove a few hundred yards and we spotted another group of birds, there was a big gobbler strutting with them across the field. I glassed the birds as we formed a plan. We drove a ways out of sight stalked across another field, through a canyon, and up a hillside and were pleasantly surprised to find the birds were close. I give them a little sweet talk, everything worked out perfectly and Mike smacked bird #3 at 35 yards, more handshakes and photos and we headed to the house to clean the two nice toms.

When cleaning bird #1 I found that Mike had hit him hard in the chest and then we knew why the beard wasn't as thick as it had appeared the night before. About half the beard had been cut off by the shot. Nonetheless, Mike sacked up two awesome toms, congrats to Mike on his exciting hunt.

[combs338]

Great job Dale!