NE WA Turkeys about 15, Jackelope and company -0-

[jackelope]

 

Well we got our butts handed to us this weekend by the northeast birds but we had a great weekend anyway. We headed to our spot and got into birds the first afternoon we were there. That evening we figured out where we went wrong and (we thought) roosted the bird just about dark. We were back the next morning and either he moved or was silent, but there was another bird hammering away behind us so we went after him.
Save a long story and make it short, we were into birds all weekend but couldn't get any of them to commit.
Not sure if it was bad calling or obstacles or they were henned up or what but this game went on the whole weekend. We did have birds almost on top of us once and some other hunters busted them. We also almost had to shoot a skunk out of self defense on one of our sets.
The cool stuff happened saturday afternoon. We walk this gated road to a spot we usually do pretty good finding turkeys at. At about 3/4 of the way there there is a clearing a couple acres in size that is currently covered in nice green grass. Something caught my eye to my left and I looked to see a blond colored sow bear with 2 yearling blond cubs plowing through the grass filling their bellies. The sow saw us and walked about 15 yards or so the other way then squared up to us. At this point I was thinking about trying to run her off or something but didn't want to screw up this really cool encounter so I just stood my ground. She stood up on her back legs and both cubs proceeded to do the same thing. They looked at us and we looked at them for a couple minutes and then decided to ramble off stopping a couple times to check on us. Beautiful bears up close. It was a great experience and it's also safe to assume that there's maybe a nice colored boar up there too and it is a unit that's open for spring bear tag holders.
So all in all a great weekend. Also found a bull moose skull and skeleton and a bunch of deer.
turkeys-a bunch---jackelope and crew -0-

[Machias]

Awesome encounter!  No photo?  That would be very cool!  One turkey season my hunting partner and I snuck and watched a swo with three cubs play and eat for about 20 minutes before the wind shifted, but they were all four coal black. 

Hang in there on the turkeys, it will only get better as the spring goes on and more guys stay home and the hens start setting. Good luck.

[MuleySniper]

Sounds like a good time none the less! Wastickslinger, my dad and I got back last night. We did pretty good. All three of us filled two tags each. We hunted our butts off for em. Seems like the gobblers were hot right off the bat but when they started closing the gap they would shut up. We saw a couple different sets of bear tracks but never spotted any thats cool you guys got to see that. Were pretty positive we saw some wolf tracks too. Josh has 90% of the pics so  I'll let him start the thread and put up pics when he can.
MS

[jackelope]

We probably should have gone somewhere else maybe.
 

[MtnMuley]

Damn jackeople, at least you were in the birds.  I hiked many of miles in NCW looking for a tom, and only found 1 of which came in after 3 hours from over a mile away.  I got greedy and tried for a in-the-lap shot and went home empty handed.  I will never pass a 25 yd. shot again.  Kind of disappointing when you're truck is 3 miles away.  Oh well, nice day to be out anyhow.