Best Turkey Hunting story

[turkey slayer]

This hunt that I am going to tell you about happened 3 years ago.

I was scouting the day before opener over at are property in Stevens co. and I was just listening up on a ridge in the mid day and I herd a gobble down below me a 100 yards or so. I new from the past years that is were they like strut and dust their selves. I slowly moved up the ridge 20 or 30 yards to see if I could see him down on this little grade, and there he was strutting with 3 hens.He had a 9+ inch beard with a hook on the end. I new then that was the bird that I wanted to hunt the next day, so I slowly back out and went back to camp.

Well about 2 or so my hunting partner and my dads hunting partner showed up and they asked me if I had seen anything or heard anything I said yes, but I think there is only 1.

Few hours later my hunting partner and i went to that same ridge to listen and try to find out where they were roosting, but they were still feeding and strutting in the same place. We then just sat down and watch then for the next hour in til the 3 hen started feeding down below us on that old grade and the old boy started walking up the same ridge that we were siting on, he then dis apered into some jack pines but we still could here him spiting and drumming coming up that ridge. Well 5 minutes went by and I seen him out of the Conner of my eye standing about 10 feet from us, then he gobbled and walked up behind us ( 2 maybe 3 feet maybe) and gobbled again, talk about scare the sh** out of a guy.

After that the old boy walked down the hill to the hens and strait to the roost they went. The tom flew and roosted on the other side of a creek and the hen roosted about 100 yards on the other side of the creek.

Next morning I went in and set up on this little bench 120 yards from were he roosted the night before. Set up 2 hen decoys and waited. I made the first yelp and he cut me off and that went on for 20 or 30 minutes him cutting me off, then he went silent for 1 or 2 minutes and then I herd his wings hitting limes and he flew and landed within 40 yard of me went into strut. I shot missed and shot again got him. I ran over to pick him up and it was the wrong tom, this one had a 6 1/2 inch beard with a j hook. o well.

 PS- the big on was shot 2 days latter by my dads hunting partner
 the first pic is the 6 1/2 and the 2ed is of my dads hunting partner and the old boy

[Bofire]

 :)I had never talked to anyone about hunting Turkeys. Did not even know there were any in Washington. A guy asked me if I wanted to go??? OK what the heck???
We hunted for 3 days did not see a bird.the last night, we have to leave early in the morning. I go for a walk, dont have a call, never heard a turkey before, I lean up against this tree, big tall pine, waiting to hear a turkey gobble so I can sneak up on him, that was my plan.
so I am standing there ad I hear this rustling sound, getting louder real fast. I look up and a gobbler flies right at me and lands on a limb about 15-20 feet over my head, so I shot him. I had no idea there were roost trees or that turkeys roosted in trees.

What an idiot huh???
Carl

[turkeydancer]

My late fall season this year, I set on a brushline not far out of Kettle Falls. Snow was falling and building up fast. I could see the flock coming up the hill back towards the protection of the roost tree. The big tom was leading, then a Jake, and then the hens and poults.  I watched as they disappeared behind the bruchline, saw a redhead appear at 15ft in the tall grass. Boom ... dead jake ... the tom had stopped and was passed by the youngster. Seven hour drive, 20 minutes out of the truck, and seven hours back home. Darn the luck ...

[Phantom Gobbler]

Last year, my nephew went out with me on his first turkey hunt.  All day we would get Tom's to answer our calls but they were totally henned up and would not commit. Finally we spotted a boss tom strutting at the near edge of the field with several hen's.  I told my nephew to close the gap and sneak up for a clear shot.  As he crept forward, he suddenly spotted a mature bird standing to his left!     He turned and asked which one and all hec broke loose.  The bird in the field starting to run so I took a shot and missed.  The other tom also flew off unscratched.

We went into the field to look for blood or missing feathers and could not find any sign that I had hit the bird.  Suddenly a tom gobbled below us.  We slid to the other edge of the field and I told my nephew to get the gun up and have the safety off.  I yelped on a box call, the tom immediately answered and within seconds he stepped out of the brush................and the rest is history.  The bird ended up having a double beard of 8 inches and 1.5 inches!! 

[eatonville45]

Those turkeys are all pets

[lokidog]

Last year I had my, then, four year old with me.  We didn't get up too early so it was quite light.  We walked up a powerline where I had heard gobbling a few days before.  After walking about a third of a mile to the top of the hill, we heard a gobble, then a second from up ahead.  We were on a dirt track so I was looking for a place to set up when I saw movement down the road coming toward us. 

There happened to be an old camper off the side of the road between us and the gobblers so we ducked to the side and sat in the ankle high grass about 30 feet from the camper and 10 feet off the road.  I told my boy to stand behind me and be very still and quiet.  I reached out to my left as far as I could lean and stuck my hen decoy into the ground, then sat back with my gun up and ready.

I clucked a few times with immediate gobbles and there they were within about a minute.  They stopped about 12-15 feet away. My first thought was, dang, you're too close, maybe I should try to scare it a little further away..... BOOM!  The older tom dropped and started flopping, the jake turned, ran about 6 or 7 yards, stopped, then came back and started pounding on the flopping tom.  When he finished, he looked around, saw the decoy, and came over and strutted within 4 feet of me and my boy.  Smoke was still curling out of my barrel.

He finally looked at us and decided maybe this was not the best place to be and trotted off.

What an awesome intro to turkey hunting for my little guy.  You can see the pic in the turkey gallery.  Now, before you think "what an awesome turkey hunter"  these birds are on a little island and do not get pressured a whole lot so the biggest challenge is finding them on the couple of little spots I have access to.

Good Hunting!

[Austrian Hunter]

It was in 2006.  I was Spring Turkey hunting with Joe from Sherman Creek Outfitter north of Spokane.  My first hunt ever.  I just completed my Hunters safety the week before my trip.  I thought it will be like on TV you know, sitting on a comfortable padded seat from my turkey vest and wait for a Turkey while my guide calls.  Well, we started hiking a steep mountain at 6am, we hiked, walked climbed for about 5 hours stopping every few hundred yards to call and waiting for a Tom to answer.  We have heard several gobblers in the morning that was exiting and gave me willpower to continue walking but none have committed and would come in close enough for a shot.  Back at the truck about 11am Joe said we going to try one more spot.  Short drive and there was another mountain steeper than the first one and walking behind Joe I really thought I was dying, I said to myself that this is not what I have seen on TV.  Again, we heard a few birds in the distance but nothing was close enough.  After about 45 minutes hiking up that mountain we reached the top.  Joe takes out his box call and starts his magic, we heard a gobble.  Joe said we need to close the distance the gobble was too far away so we ran around the top on an old muddy logging road till we reached an opening looking into a valley.  Joe said I don't think that bird will come up that hill he sounds like he is a mile away from us.  Thanks god I got to sit down and catch my breath.  Joe pointed me to a tree stump and said set up right there just in case.  Joe was 20 yards behind me on top of the hill, he called and the Tom answered every call but it sounded like he still was a mile away and would not come any closer.  About 30 minutes have past Joe kept calling, Joe and me were even talking he said several times I don't think he is coming in.  After about 35 minutes I could not tell the difference but Joe said get ready he is coming and sure enough after the second gobble it clearly sounded allot closer.  A few more minutes have past, I was surrounded by red ants and clearly was getting more and more uncomfortable and Joe kept saying stay down you got to get lower.  The screaming of the Tom got so loud my heart was pounding like crazy. Then I saw a turkey sticking its bright red head up and looking and than screaming….gobble gobble gobble and a few steps closer I could see him strutting beautifully, I put my Remington 870 with 3 inch shells on him squeezed the trigger and everything went black, I could not see anything for a second.  I just heard Joe yelling you got him and he started running towards were I last saw the tom.  Than Joe yelled that's a freaking long beard how cool is that for your first turkey.  So we picked up the bird, high five'd and tagged my trophy.  We started taking pictures talking what happened that whole day laughing and packing the bird in my vest.  Than Joe said you know when you shot this Tom another Tom was gobbling at your shot.  Well I could not hear anything at that point I replied.  Joe took out his call standing at the spot where he was laying earlier and sure enough another tom started screaming at his call.  Joe knew I had another tag and that we were allowed to take two birds in this GMU the same day.   So here we go again he calling for what seemed forever and I was set up at the same tree stump as with the first bird.  This time I saw a bright blue head and didn't know what to think at first I heard Joe say shoot shoot and that's what I did.  This time I saw the bird flopping and feathers flying I knew I hit him.  See my pictures below, man what a day with Joe from Sherman Creek Outfitter. 

[turkey slayer]

Great stories, keep them coming

[tonymoe]

A few years ago I put in some time in the klickitat area and didn't have much luck finding a bird. So I had one weekend left for birds before I called it quits. I decided to take my brother (who has never bird hunted) to colville. (my inlaws happen to own lots of property). After chasing the birds around, we finally got two toms to come in and I told my bro to get ready and make no sudden movements. Well, my brother hammered the one tom and turned to give me a high five, but, I had the ole bowtech drawn back and let the other tom taste the muzzy 100 at about 40yds
You might of had to be there, but it was cool to double up like that

[HoofsandWings]

I was turkey hunting in the Blues. I had found a nice remote public camp ground with several other campers/hunters. I saw some real nice toms but they were around buildings. Each day I would call in to say I was okay. One of the necessities of hunting alone. One day, I couldn't get a signal, and since I was leaving for home the next day I did not think anything of it. The next morning I hunted without success, came back to camp and packed my stuff. I was driving on a narrow forest service road when a car came around the bend towards me. He flashed his lights. They were blue. I pull to the side and a sheriff gets out of the car. He walks over to me and says he is glad he found me.
The sheriff deparment had been looking for me since yesterday. Apparently my wife became worried, called the local police who contacted the sheriff that has jurisdiction in the Blue Mtns. I was written up in my home town newspaper. By the way when I got home, my wife had her bags packed with topo maps of the area I was hunting and was about to head over to head up the search party. I traded in my old phone for a high tech new one and bought one of those SPOT emergency locater beacon devices. That was the deal I had to make to go out hunting again.

[Phantom Gobbler]

Hard to beat a good turkey hunting tale!    Just one of the fringe benefits for joining the ranks.  Starting this weekend....... we'll be hatching a whole new batch of stories.   

[robb92]

First turkey I ever shot was back in 2001, I was still stationed in England and we flew to Fairchild to pick up one of their jets and send our's to depot for mods. We got there a week before the season started and we started our acceptance inspection and found a fuel leak on the #3 engine. The part that we needed wasn't there on base and it was at Mildenhall, and they decided that when the crew flew back to fly us home they would bring the part with them so we had a whole week of nothing to do. So we went to a chiefs game the night before the season openend and ended up drinking to much beer. But my brother and I headed out to where our old football coach lives out near fort Spokane, he lives up above the park and his property boarders the park, we got out there and heard some gobbles and saw alot of hens. About noon we went down to the little store across the river and got some food and water and then headed back up to the coaches place to hunt the afternoon.

I went one way and was walking down an old logging road on his place and would call every so many steps and got a gobble after about 10 minutes, so I set up with my back to a big bull pine and waited, three jakes popped into view and I popped the one that looked the biggest. I used my Grandpa's old 870 wingmaster that hadn't been shot in about 15 years, but it dropped the bird and took pictures and got back to my folk's place and skinned the bird, plaved it in plastic bags and then I bought a cooler and took it back to England with me. Did my own tail fan and it turned out really good.

So far I have shot a rio and I got my eastern in Maryland back in 06.