4 minute double et al

[turkeydancer]

 Little Buck and I were trying somewhere new this year up in Northport.  I had permission to hunt 2100 acres of private ranch, but soon found out the owner really didn't care who was on his ranch and that there were only 2 places where there were birds (a couple hundred acres total) and the rest didn't hold any birds at all.  What did was more like public land !
      We spotted some birds heading to roost the night before and made our plans. Up at 3:30, out of camp by 4:00, arriving ar 4:15, geared up & headed out by 4:40, and arrived on setup @ 5:00. Little Buck whispered, sit here and I'll go 40 yards to your left in the direction they had come from to roost. 

     At 5:10 there were 3 toms about 20 yards behind me and 20 yards to my right started almost non-stop gobbling at some real owls that were hooting.  Then 2 jakes started in 20 yards directly behind me.  At 5:20 I let out a soft 4 note sleepy tree yelp, answered by all of them gobbling, and I shut up. At 05:30 I did hat slap flydowns. A minute later (05:31), the 3 toms flew down about 15 - 20  yards to my right, followed by the jakes whizzing by and landing 10-15 yards just in front of me.
      As the 3 toms came around a pine tree to meet up with the 2 jakes, I saw the lead 2 had big ropes and started tracking one of them (bead on baby). They started to my left just as I was hoping for as we'll have them between us.  But they stopped after about 5 yards, started milling around, and then started going to our right ... didn't realize that Little Buck could not see beards in the still somewhat dim light, but I could ... and their white heads too.  They were now about 25 yards to my right, so I thought if I dumped the first 2, the remainder would scurry back the other direction in front of my buddy for him to score. The lead bird was 22 lbs, 11-1/2" beard and 3/4" spurs. The 2nd bird shock gobbled at my shot, and I dropped him too ... but it was one of the dang jakes - 14-1/2 lbs, 4" beard, & 1/2" spurs.  (Time 05:35 and two birds side by side).
      Worse yet they ran straight away, I called and they stopped at 100 yards, and 2 came back to 50 yards, but no further.  So as I tagged/packed up my 2 birds and returned to the truck and cleaned the birds, Little Buck set off for one of two birds we heard still gobbling hundreds of yards away. Problem was the creek he almost crossed ... oops!
       It was Tuesday before he would score on a nice tom after getting numb buns waiting 2 hours after flydown for the birds to work their way to us ... of course the tom had to breed 2 separate hens on the way. That landowner said we could harvest one bird and one only, so we were done there. 
      Then we chased another gobbler for 2-1/4 days that had no hens with him even though he was trying to attract some ... 1st day he travelled several hundred yards in a semi-circle but held up at 50 yards and left when a real hen started yelping downhill about 100 yards off and we settled for roosting him that evening ... the next day. he came off the roost and to within 25 yards but was hidden behind some brush and no shot (roosted don't mean roasted) ... later that morning, Little Buck stalked within 25 yards and setup behind a brush pile, but his single cluck meant to get tom to come peek instyead sent the tom flying 1/2 mile down the valley (so I now named him the Gay Gobbler).  Put him to bed that night again, and L.B. could have shoot him out of his roost (but we don't even go there) only to watch him flydown away from L.B. and took off for his strut zone ... LB raced to beat him there and had a small head start, but guess who won ... L.B. doffed his hat in respect and left this wise old gobbler for next year.
       We saw eagles, grouse, quail, black bear, elk, whitetails, muleys, etc (no moose or any of the 5 local wolf packs even though we saw tracks) .... beautiful country ... met many great locals and other turkey hunters ... great camp on the Columbia ... great food ... my heaviest tom with the longest beard shared with a really good friend ... and 3 out of 4 tags may not be perfect, but isn't too bad either.
       Is it next year yet?

[BullMagnet76]

Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!

[BOWHUNTER45]

Way to go AL.... ALL THAT WAY FOR 5 MIN. OF PLESSURE 

[scottfrick]

Nice write up, Congrats on the birds

[LITTLEBUCK]

You summed it up well Al. And about the creek, well lets just say that water was cold, a double log crossing didn't go so well. The first step good the second not so good and in the water I go. Yes I did tip my hat to that Tom, he was always just two steps ahead of us everytime. The last time I was set up 70 yards away and knew he would come right by me, so I just set there silent. After 10 to 15 min. he decided it looked better on the other side of the canyon and took flight, landed and gobbled to say, I got you again. Maybe next year

[BOWHUNTER45]

At least you put your heart into it  We had one come in and he walked toward us after he tried mating with a hen and got about 60+ yrds stopped looked at us and gobbled once and turned around and left  must of been bad breath.....

[turkeydancer]

     I told Little Buck I didn't think that "fart" call works any better than my "cough-sneeze" call does .....   

[Tom Tamer]

Nice job Gents... I spent all weekend wondering if the batteries in my mouth and slate calls were dead. Lock jaw seemed to be wide spread in areas I hunted. Maybe it was my fart call....overcalled with that for sure. Who says turkeys can't smell

[BOWHUNTER45]

So Trav ..your saying you got the skunk .... it was tough where I was too !!! we just had a bad case of bad luck but managed to nail one .... it is only going to get better ...that I do know  AL is the man  he smacked 2 in 4 minutes 

[turkeydancer]

Just my turn to be extremely lucky ... not as many birds way up north like we are usually use to ... not like further south where if one bird wants to ignore you, you can get on other toms a bit hotter.  The first two we got were too easy, but the others definitely made up for it.

[h2ofowlr]

Those make for some expensive birds.  Nice work.

[turkeydancer]

Never has been about the cost involved with me ... money well spent. 

[Tom Tamer]

So Trav ..your saying you got the skunk .... it was tough where I was too !!! we just had a bad case of bad luck but managed to nail one .... it is only going to get better ...that I do know  AL is the man  he smacked 2 in 4 minutes 

 Yup! Ran smack into the gobbling lull in my spot. Fortunately my gun doesn't weigh much otherwise it would have been tedious packing up and down the hills
But like the wife said, " You run into that every year, but still manage to get birds later on" Turkey season is a marathon not a sprint. Especially when you're hunting Public land. I got a great hunt for the wife, daughter and myself lined up in a couple weeks for Rios. So no worries