Bowhunter is back drinking coffee ! UP DATED TODAY ... TURKEY & BEAR

[BOWHUNTER45]

Well I can write a book on this short little hunt...So I will do my best  I am sure everyone has just a little different story to tell but where I was it was the same story ...I do not think I ever seen the birds flocked up like I have in the last couple days ...Our first morning out we had  2 eagles roosted 25 yrds in a tree just screaming their heads off and I mean I never heard this many gobblers going off in one spot in my whole fricken life....we have or say ( had ) all this on video ...and the hens were going frickin nuts too ...So anyway we set up in the lower field with all this going off to our right . We seen a flock of about 25 birds the night before and knew where they would land in the morning , little did I know we would have at least 150+ birds land almost on our heads ...gobblers ? I mean gobblers !!!! 13 or more gobblers 30yrds in our face with over 100+ hens just going off...no way in hell was I letting the boys pull the trigger .. they would of killed a sheet load ...it was nuts and all on video ....so I think  this goes on for about 20 min.. can not get one bird to seperate itself for a shot ...Now mind you these 2 eagles are right above our head screaming ...yep gobblers going off , hens yelping But very alert !! all heads up standing in one huge flock ...I am thinking something is definately not right here and all the sudden up comes all heads and I hear something launch over my head and the flock takes off running across the field and WHAAAAAAAAAAAAACK FEATHERS FLY EVERY FRICKIN WHERE... Yep the eagles dive bombed my flock ..taken out one hen and wounding at least 2 more ..The adult eagle got the one hen and the younger eagles kept bombing the flock until they hit the timber...So thats day #1....UNBELIEVABLE...All and if you ever thought you seen feathers fly well I can tell ya this , it looked like someone plucked the whole frickin flock ...the field had feathers blowing everywhere...remember I video tape all over this  BUT WTF  That night I put the camera in the cabin after being out in the cold ( which I know better) and should of took out the tape and opened the camera until it got room temperature but I did not and now the whole frickin thing is ruined because there was condensation inside the camera and it ruined the whole frickin tape  these camera are a pain in the ARZ !!!!!!!!!

                                                           Part 1 

[lokidog]

Wow!  Too bad about the video... because now you can't prove any of it.  Part 2 probably has bigfoot riding by on a unicorn.....   

Our birds were really bunched up as well.

Good luck on the next one.

[HornHoarder]

Sounds like an exiting hunt anyhow. Next time

[BOWHUNTER45]

Part 2 of day one ....So after all that sheet going down we head back to camp .....We decide to hunt around camp for the rest of the day ....we head up the ridge and get to the top and decide to set up because we know they are here somewhere....I get the camera all set up ( new tape  ) all that makes me sick  so Teddy starts calling and instantly GOOBLE GOBBLE  WE THINK This bird is singing the song and coming fast ..my heart is beating out my chest knowing this bird is getting rolled WRONG !! We set up in a clearing with 2 decoys out with a little strip under brush off to Teddys right...the gobbler is up on a rock 30 yrds spittin and drummin gobbling his head off but will not come down to the decoys ...Teddy cant shoot threw the brush ....He finally shuts up and gobbles 1 time after below us... we started doing soft whit whits and do its ...about 5 min past now and all the sudden I see Ted tense up and the gobbler is standing 15yrds to his right and down hill ...Ted could not move and I HAD NO GUN  TED TRIED MOVING SLOWLY but no no no ....he PUTTS and he is gone !!! Kyle my other son is out running around on his own this year !!! and he blew his chance too!!!  So day one no birds down  .......ALL I HAVE MORE 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Day 2

Mind you the only reason I went this early was to get our older friend a bird but he was sick the 1st day so we had to leave him in camp ... So we roosted a couple the night before and headed out with Ray to get his bird ...We set up and hens are going off and then gobble gobble ....I do a fly down and he goes nutz ...I think alright he knows we are here and I am not making one more sound until they hit the ground...The hens fly down and come right up to the decoys ...yelping made ... the gobbler hits the ground ...struts around ...gobbling for 10 min or so and goes the other way ...WTH IS UP ?   Now listen to this .... the hens finally go back the way they came from...they get about 80 yrds out and start yelping like crazy ...the gobbler answers and the next thing we know here he comes back .... Seriously messed up !!!!!!! now it gets really frustrating...The one hen layes flat on the ground and spreads out hen wings , he struts around her and jumps on her back and mates with her for 5 min. or so ... they finish business and then walk toward us again ...I am thinking we are getting this bad boy now    they come about 60yrds he gobbles at us 1 freakin time turns around and leaves  End of that !!!!!! THIS IS ON VIDEO 

[BOWHUNTER45]

 We had a couple more mishaps but I need to end this somewhere  So Tues. morning we decide to all need to go on our own and try to get a bird down ...so I sent the boys after the one that we tried to get for Ray and I decided to go after the one that put the split on Teddy and I ...I could hear the one going off the boys were on and I thought this time they would get him ....I get up the hill and start doing whit whits and do its .... I hear nothing ..so I wait about an hour and head down this ridge and when I hit the point of the ridge I start cutting and instantly gobble goobble ...I did a series of yelps and kee kees and he goes off again ...I waited about an hour and he went quit ...I think he is coming just sit here ...I sit there and sit there and nothen ...no gobbling no nothen ....I think this bird is smarter than hell ... So I make a loop around him and climb up on this rock about 1/4 mile from where he was gobbling at me and Teddy... I sit down and go to soft yelps and clucks ... about 10 minutes into it gobble gobble ... I instantly went to whit whits and do  its ....and the kee kee ...gobble gobble ..he is gettin closer ....I do one more series of whit whits and gobble gobble again next thing I know there is his bright red head looking at me about 25 yrds ... I cut loud as I could on that diaphram and when he went gobble gobble BOOOOOOOOOOOOM .... 2 ounces of #5 on their way .... :chuckle I MISSED        NOT !!!!! BIG BIRD DOWN !!!!!!!!! So we decided to get going and come back in May when I know it will be much better for videoing and the gobblers will respond alot better....


I know it was different in different areas but it was cold and raining and it was tuff where I was....we could of filled all tags if we wanted to road rack but thats not the way I like shootin turkeys ...... looks like a couple nice birds hit the dirt ....congrats to all and good luck for those who are still out there ..... I post pictures as soon as my wife quits beaching at me 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Just a little gobbler 

[BOWHUNTER45]

 Call it a 10 3/8 s beard or a 10 in. beard ...its a good one either way 

[dr.derek]

Nice birds, You were in the NE if you don't mind me asking?

[BOWHUNTER45]

Yep ..thats where....sheet loads of birds have not broken up yet ...in about a couple weeks it should be red hot ..

[carpsniperg2]

Hey I thought you were the bowhunter You need to stick some thunder chickens with a bow!

Congrats that is a great looking bird. I wish our birds had nice spurs like that. All of the toms I kill have them so tore up and rounded off it is unreal!

[kirkl]

Lets see some videos.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Hey I thought you were the bowhunter You need to stick some thunder chickens with a bow!

Congrats that is a great looking bird. I wish our birds had nice spurs like that. All of the toms I kill have them so tore up and rounded off it is unreal!

yeah I agree ... I have killed a few with my bow ...I would not of even killed one this time but all the mishaps we had I had to kill something  I will take my bow when I go back over ....the biggest merriams I ever shot was with my bow 2005 ....I do not brag about it because it causes negitive responses on here 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Lets see some videos.

I had some awesome footage until my camera until I got condensation in my frickin camera....I am sick over it ....cant take those dumb cameras in from the cold without removing the tape and bring it into a warm cabin  I can show the footage but it has lines running threw movie ....but I did manage to get the gobbler jumping on the hen ...that was crazy ....I will wait until I get back from my next trip to put one together.....

[HornHoarder]

Nice bird Bowhunter45. Glad things worked out finally.

[bearpaw]

congrats, that's a great bird....

[BOWHUNTER45]

Thanks Dale ...got checked by a warden ....First time ever turkey hunting 

[turkey choke]

Sorry about the video, I would love to see it.  Way to get one even with all the setbacks....Nice bird!

[Turkeyman]

Nice bird bowhunter

[kevinlisa06]

Great bird Bihon glad to see you guys had some success! Sucks bout the video footage always next time. We are heading out friday morning hopefully we will have some success.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Great bird Bihon glad to see you guys had some success! Sucks bout the video footage always next time. We are heading out friday morning hopefully we will have some success.

where you headed.? Chewalah 

[kevinlisa06]

Central Wa we found a hidden spot of DNR land with lots of gobblers in there. Its been a few yrs since I have been to Chewey we just been whacking the hell out of the Central wa birds. The spurs arent as big as over in Chewey due to the country but the beards are good and they sure taste the same. The wife decided not to hunt this weekend so Im heading over with my bro and cousin. And no Cameron!

[BOWHUNTER45]

O.K wish I could of gotten a kill shot but this is pretty good ...Kinda a learning situation for knowing NOTHEN IS NEVER GUARANTEED !!!!! RATED X....NOt intended for children under 18 ....

       

[BOWHUNTER45]

This turkey did die the next morning by me  No video because I was on a mission ....but one down ...FOR NOW !!!!!!! To be continued in a couple weeks .......

[lokidog]

Good thing you cleaned him out of the gene pool, didn't look like he knew how to get the job done....     Nice looking bird!

[turkeydancer]

Nice bird John .... good luck with getting the boys some birds later on and your 2nd !

[BOWHUNTER45]

just got a call from my friend Ray ...he went over yesterday and he got a bird this morning on the grade behind the cabin ... SWEET ..Glad it was easy access for him to walk and make a couple yelps on his box call and mister long beard came to pay him a visit .... he told me after a couple yelps the bird hammered back and it had to be close for me to hear it but I did and the next thing he knew it was strutting 20yrds in his face .....  I post a picture as soon as I get it ... Things are heating up ..thats what I want to hear ....My older son is heading back to PA to hunt with his uncle on the 15th so we will miss not having him with us when we head over BUT He has a chance to get a PA eastern with his uncle So I hope it works out ..and the good thing in Pa you have to be out of the woods by noon but after the 15th its open all day for the last part of the season ....So I am praying it will be awesome for him to witness what Pa hunting is all about  he thinks our turkeys like to gobble and LEAVE  Well he will see soon enough ..... You guys best get back over if you did not fill your tags yet !!!!! good luck !

[turkeydancer]

Congrats to Ray 

Does your brother in PA want to adopt ?   

Good luck John ....

[BOWHUNTER45]

  I DO NOT KNOW IF I WANT TO UP DATE THIS POST  I NEED TO PACK MY SHEET AND GET THE HELL GOING      They sending me pictures sometime today ....they shot 3 long beards yesterday and have one mor tag to fill .....gobbling mad they tell me .....

[BOWHUNTER45]

Here is a 78 yr old man we love dearly ...many hunting members that I will charish forever ...hunting always makes friends and family stick together ...Here this man and his buddy headed out last week without me but went with another old buddy of his and seriously whacked a couple damn nice long beards ! Congrats to you 2 old timers enjoying life and gettin the job none .....They both tagged out before Saturday even came ..3 long birds and 1 jake ....all killed with an old Lynch box call .....right on men    This is funny because I was just looking at one that Yelp shot a couple years ago .....and here he Bags him one up !!! Sweeeet.... I never shot one like this ...hopefully I will someday !

[BOWHUNTER45]

Well got a call from a friend I have not seen in a couple years . Dan Mckinely , one of the NWTF old RDs.. and another friend from Everett and they talked me into going over to some new area around Spokane So last minute decision So we are headed out ...Mckinely tells me he has some awesome land to hunt and I hope is not BSing  Give ya the out come around Monday ...Not Sure I will try to shoot a bird or not ...depends on if they get one or not ...  Later !

[bow boy]

Don't forget your coffee!

[turkeydancer]

Good luck ... say hi to Dan for me ... 

[BOWHUNTER45]

how many bear you want to kill ? hahaha everywhere we went we had encounters with bear ....I have alot to tell ya and I found the craziest roost site ever !! More turkey *censored* than most people will ever see in a life time ...   I CONTINUE LATER !

[BOWHUNTER45]

So after spending all day Friday locating some birds we were ready for action ... our 1st set up went bad right from the start ...gobble gobble and off he went the other direction  I have to make this short and sweet because I can be here all day telling lies So anyways we find some birds tucked back in a huge field so we pull into the farmers place and get permission ...after a few laughs on him asking why in the hell you guys get so excited about those dumb turkeys , he says kill them all  I said O.K  BUT NOT THAT EASY !!! We round up the other 2 buddies and hike at least 1 1/2 miles back to the back of his property ...what we find is the biggest roost site I ever saw in my life  we find 3 trees that had more turkey sheet than I will see in my life time ..not counting we could of filled a pillow case full of feathers ...So we are all excited about this find ... so we set up right there for about an hour because the birds were close and I did not want to spook them ...They never answered or came ... we then move around the hill and find more sign so we set up again .. I layed my vest and gun down because there are enough guns pointing down the hill  So everyone is set up perfectly so I start calling ...nothen answers  I start doing my favorite calls whit whits and I hear a hen answer me ..she is yelping down by the creek ...all the sudden I see a white head pop up and looking dead at me ...I have one guy to the left of me and 2 to the right ...I think they were taking a nap  :chuckle:They have no idea the bird is there  so after making all kinda different noises to get there attention I finally say SOMEONE SHOOT IT  PUT PUT PUT THey jump out of there pants and finally junior on my left BOOOOOOM FLAP FLAP DOWN THE HILL  SO WE JUMP UP and head for the bird , well as we get to the crest of the hill we look down and there are 3 gobblers still in the bottom field and did not seem they even cared ...they were just pecking around ...we need to get down to that lower field and maybe we can call them in still ...as we slip down the hill we hit a patch of skunk cabage and all the sudden all hell broke loose  bear bear ..it takes off and end of story mind you that we had a bear in camp friday evening...crazy We gather up the bird junior shot and headed to camp ...We decide to wait a couple hours and head for the 2 we had leave us that morning ...We gather all our stuff and head in ...as we are walking in I look way down the field and along the timber there they were ...2 big strutters...we work our way down to a corner and start calling ...will not answer us at all  So we sit there thinking they are going to take their sweet arz time coming so we need to be patient ,,, well after about an hour my patients went to sheet  I tell my buddy to peek around the corner and see if they were still there  as he peeks around the corner they were 20yrds and almost ready to pop out in front of us ...we looks back and says they are right here ...so instead of chancing them see him I said shoot shoot ....booooom     big bird down ...real big bird down  This was a prime example of being patient ...field birds are usually a pain in the arz to kill but if you know they are there then you just need to sit it out ....they were putting the silent treatment on us but we layed the hammer ...So I had one more spot to hit for my other buddy on Sunday morning and it was off the chart as far as hearing some fired up birds going off ...we get up at 3:30 and head out ...I pull out my owl hooter at 4am and hoot one time and he goes off but not where he was the day before but across the road ..We slip in on him about 100 yrds away and I soft tree yelped ...he goes ballistic ...I tell my buddy ...he is a dead bird so be ready ...I put out a dang decoy and I was not going to but I thought it would be fine ...I place it 25 yrds off his barrel and tell him to get ready ...I sat about 10yrds to his right in case it tried to get around us ...Well I made 3 or 4 whit whits and flap flap gobble goobble he lands 65 or so in front of us ...gobbling his head off at our decoy ....20 + plus minutes of non stop gobbling and he would not move one freakin in closer ...it was one of the coolest hunts I have been on without shooting the bird ...He walks up the hill about 80 yrds and disappears ... I said screw it ...I am going to gobble at him  I about ckoked on my diaphram as I was trying to do it  put he spins around gobbling mad ,, he comes right back to the same exact spot and gobbles for another 5 minutes and still does not take one more step  he finally leaves and party over ...so we hit the truck and I figured I would give him my good bye call and he hammers at me again I just might be back next week you gobbling fool 

[turkeydancer]

Good story John ... did you have any fun?  As you well know, the one constant of turkey hunting is that there are no constants ... that's why its so fun and addictive.
I think you should go next weekend and make those little bastages pay for not doing what we think they should do ...

[BOWHUNTER45]

All I am thinking hard about it  they were not saying much but it could be like last year come next week ... plus we froze our butts of in the morning ...Like 37 degree in the morning ...crazy !

[MerriamMagician]

I'm headed out after em one last time this weekend. From the last post you said they were gobblin pretty good around memorial last year??

[kevinlisa06]

Nice weekend glad that guys got some birds. Tell all the hi for if you could man!

[carpsniperg2]

Glad to see you guys got into some birds!

[BOWHUNTER45]

Roost tree ....turk poop ...and lots of it 

[turkeydancer]

Holy excrement ... 

Get out the hip waders, we're setting up by the roost tree !!!! 

[BOWHUNTER45]

AL...it was crazy ... at least 3 more trees just like that with in 100 yrds of each other ...We set up in the area and after about 15 min. of whit whits he comes in silent and got his head shot off by junior 

[kevinlisa06]

Nice roostin trees! Sounds like a blast you guys had a blast JB well I guess I better head back  to the NE corner next season with the wifey! Just did her tail fan and beard tonite. Did Rob get a bird as well?

[turkeydancer]

AL...it was crazy ... at least 3 more trees just like that with in 100 yrds of each other ...We set up in the area and after about 15 min. of whit whits he comes in silent and got his head shot off by junior 

All this time I thought I had found some pretty good roost trees ... those must host about a quarter of the states turkey population.   

[BOWHUNTER45]

Nice roostin trees! Sounds like a blast you guys had a blast JB well I guess I better head back  to the NE corner next season with the wifey! Just did her tail fan and beard tonite. Did Rob get a bird as well?

No but dang close ...on Sunday Rob & I  went and he landed to our right just out of range and gobbled none stop for about 20 minutes straight but would not take one step closer .... but it was an experience neither one of us will ever forget ....he was gobbling and me and this hen went at it for along time as we was gobbling ...it was insane all the different sounds they were making and that sucker would not come any closer he was a big boy too !! The weird thing was that the hens stayed in the tree and as soon as I switched to whits whits he flew out and I thought for sure it was is last day on earth  the one his kid shot was another story  we sat up beside those roost trees with all the sheet and again I just used whits whits and it came in silent and was looking at us for 5 minutes at 20 yrds and they did not see it pop up so I finally said someone shoot it and it putted and then they sheet their pants because they had no idea he was even there  just lucky I did not have a gun or they would of seriously added some of their sheet to the roost tree ... This was mid day too !! about 1pm or so .... and as far as Mckinely goes we never made it to him but we did call and tell him we could not leave the area we found and he could come down and hunt with us but he did not feel like it so next time ....he did kill a dandy bird the week before we went over ....

[kevinlisa06]

Yeah that sounded like a great weekend for sure man. To bad Rob didnt whack a bird but hey aslong as everyone had fun thats all that counts in my book. Ya know when people ask me when is the best time of the day to kill a gobbler I simply tell them anytime between sunrise and sunset! Guess I may have to swing by Robs work in Snoho and see how the gang is doing. Thanks for updating me JB on thier hunt. May have to get together with ya and shoot the sheet.

[BOWHUNTER45]

You know where I live ... anytime 

[kevinlisa06]

Might be able to get to ur house its been a FEW years. May have to bring the wife with aswell, you will like her yep remarried and yes she hunts. Idaho girl