East Side 2016 Gobbler Hunt

[Wetwoodshunter]

This was my second year ever turkey hunting. I had never understood why people get so excited for turkey hunting until last year about three minutes into my hunt right after we used a locator call and the woods erupted. Now I assume turkey hunting for me will be a weekend trip over opening weekend every year. Last year I was able to get a Jake on my second day of a 3 day hunt, this year I scored a moderately larger bird.This is the story of my 2016 bird.

[Wetwoodshunter]

It all started a few months ago with my friend from Texas that roped me into this whole illustrious turkey chasing telling me that he was not going to be able to go this year. I had assumed that I was not going to make the 400 mile drive from my house to go chase birds around in the farthest corner of the state from where I live.

As fate would have it his wife who was 8 1/2 months crazy told him he needed to get out of the house and go take a weekend off because they were tired of sitting around just waiting for their baby. He texted me about two weeks before opening day and said that if I wanted to go we could hunt one and a half days as long as if the baby came we were ending the hunt.

I was completely alright with this proposition and began packing and prepping all my gear. I then told my wife that I was going hunting and she looked at me like I was crazy because its the same opening weekend as lingcod in Neah Bay. She told me I could only go if I launched the boat and gave her the boat keys when I was gone, I feel like I got off really easy.

[Wetwoodshunter]

I took Friday, opening day off work to travel from Sekiu to Shelton to pick up my friend. I had packed my truck up the night before. As I got to my friends house he had not finished packing but I was totally fine with that because he had just received a black bear mount back from his taxidermist from British Columbia and I spent a solid thirty minutes staring at it. I will attach the one picture of this bear I took at the bottom, its a 7'6" blackie.

After we were packed we shot over to the tribal gas station and stocked up on all the essentials for our road trip to the other side of the state up by the Colvile reservation. We managed to make it their by 11 P.M.  My family members house we were staying at was unlocked and ready for us and we got all our gear ready to go and set out and were in bed after visiting my relatives by 1 A.M.

[Wetwoodshunter]

In the middle of the night or rather early in the morning something woke me up and I checked my phone. I had forgotten to set my alarmclock to go off on weekends before I went to bed. It was 5:15 AM and we had planned on being where we knew the roost trees were from last year by 5 AM. I panicked and shook my friend awake to get us the heck out the door. Throwing on my camo and stepping out the door we were gone at a dead run out the door and out the back of the property to make it to the roost trees. We sprinted the half mile to our spot and set up my buddies stuffed real hen decoy and he started calling.

We had heard birds gobbling on the run in and I feared we were to late. Because it was light out we had not made it to the spot that we wanted to be at for our first setup. We could tell from calling that the birds had come down exactly where we had planned on setting up.

As I sat in the chilly 35 degrees and watched my breath a hen to my right was cutting up a storm about 60 yards out of my sight. We had a few gobblers gobbling but about 40 minutes into our first calling setup they were silent. I thought that the birds may have left but we continued to wait. All in a sudden I caught movement between some trees about sixty yards away. I couldn't tell what it was but I watched intently. As my friend started calling I saw a turkey pop out in the open and back behind the same group of trees right after it took a peek in the open. As luck would happen another bird came out and started following the deer trail that skated the drainage above us. I slowly started to lift my gun as I saw a second tom following. I assessed the two birds and knew that the second one was much larger making him my target. I also noted that if they followed the trail my closest shot would be about 55 yards, if they came to the decoy they would be walking right at me and I would not be the shooter. Well they didn't take a glance at the decoy and went right along the trail. As I slowly lifted my gun the big tom got to my shortest distance and I shot.

[Wetwoodshunter]

I watched him drop and the tom was kicking like crazy causing a commotion on the ground. Put my gun on safe sprinted to the bird and grabbed it by the neck. My buddy sat there laughing as i was trying to ring its neck like a chicken and it was kicking at me with its spurs. I had the birds neck in one hand and a leg in another trying my best to protect myself in my excitement and stupidity. My buddy walked up laughing stuck it in the back of the head with his knife then it instantly stopped moving.

I then started soaking in what I had just done. After about 10 hours of driving and sleeping in to late I had bagged a mature bird in our first setup in the first two hours of our hunt. We then decided to walk out and go to our other spot down the the road. We got back to the house took a few pictures along the way cleaned my bird and got it in the cooler. I don't know turkeys but my buddy said it was a nice bird. The spurs were about 1/2 inch the beard is 6.3 inches when you straiten it out. The beard on my bird looks like it was put in a curling iron and my buddy said he had never seen one quite like that.

[Wetwoodshunter]

In the afternoon we made it to another spot and hunted it until dark. On our second setup in the new location we had a tom coming in going "puc.....  puc....  puc.." It was an identical setup in the trees as we had been last year in the same spot where I got my bird so I rolled and laid on my belly to get the shot. I had the bird a 25 yard four times with my beads on his head but he was going like a rope straight to my buddy with the decoy. Since I had shot one earlier in the day I let him walk. At five yards from my buddy the tom busted busted flew right over the decoys and my buddy dropped him right out of the air. Second bird down!

We put the bird in his vest and moved slightly and setup because as we were collecting him another bird was gobbling away about 100 yards away. We were never able to connect with this bird. At one point he started gobbling and moving away from us and the chase was on. We chased him all the way until he roosted and then we walked out knowing where we wanted to be in the morning.

[Wetwoodshunter]

After taking care of the second bird we hit the sack for the night. The next morning came earlier as we wanted to be in the woods waiting at the spot we had watched the birds roost the night before. We set up perfectly , we thought, and when that bird came down he went directly in the opposite direction from us. As we tried to call for him he called back but oh did he run. That bird probably made it to another county 5 minutes after his feet hit the ground from the roost.

We hunted until 10 AM with only one other possibility but the bird only gobbled once and would not come over this hill. We were probably less than 25 yards from this bird for a half hour but he never showed himself once.

At 10 AM we decided were successful lets hit the road and get home at a reasonable time. We packed up our gear and made it back to Shelton at about 8 PM, I dropped of my buddy and made the last few hours of my drive to get back to Clallam Bay.

All in all, from planning on not hunting to bagging two birds in a day I had a great trip. Now I cant wait for next year for my weekend turkey trip. I think that the thing I love about it the most is it reminds me of elk hunting and gets me in the woods. Even though it was a short last minute trip, a memory made is better than an opportunity lost.

[Wetwoodshunter]

The pics of the hunt.
Plus stud bear mount I drooled over.

[Dan-o]

Well done!       

[Wanttohuntmore]

Good job!

[BOWHUNTER45]

Nice ....

[Birdguy]

Sounds like a great trip for sure! Time with a good friend, family and a couple turkeys.....does not get much better 

[Kit Carson]

 

[Tree Killer]

Great looking bird...congratulations! 

[turkeydancer]

   Congrats !