May turkey hunting

[Phantom Gobbler]

It also is the best time to bag the dominate tom as he loses hens to the nesting process making your plea's sounding even more enticing! 

After striking out the second weekend of the season with henned up birds and mishaps, we hit paydirt last weekend in the NE.  In the areas we hunt there are still alot of Gobbler's roaming the hill's (although at times they can be awfull silent).

After callling occasionally all the way to an upper field, (and not hearing any replies) we chilled out and my hunting partner promptly fell asleep.  I had periodically ran through all the calls in my vest, when suddenly a loud gobble split the windy afternoon behind us!   

With sparse calling over the next 10 minutes, we coaxed in a Jake with a Tom bringing up the rear.  The Tom popped his large head up at 20 yards in full strut and my partner whispered that he was going to take the shot.  Blam, the Tom ducked and then his head popped back up and he started to run.  A miss I thought as I swung my 24 inch barrel on him.  Pow, over he went.  I jumped up to get the bird and then noticed that my buddy was running for the Jake he had shot!

A May Hunt to remember!  My bird turned out to be a dominant 4 year old with 1 1/4 inch spurs, my best Merriam's to date!

[MerriamMagician]

Awesome pics and story Phantom gobbler!! I'm taking some buddies up this weekend, and expecting some hot action!! Still lots of birds on my spots and should be some lonely gobblers runnin around.

[Phantom Gobbler]

Have a great hunt MM!

P.S. Turkey Slayer (Plateau Taxidermy) in the last photo was not on this hunt.  The picture is of him weighing and measuring the Tom before he skinned it.

[turkeydancer]

 
Way to put the double smack down !!!

[Chesapeake]

I have an old school baby scale much like the one in the pic. Never thought to toss a turkey on it.

Good job on the double. Thats classic.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Good job Phantom.......way to get it done 

[Phantom Gobbler]

Thanks all.  Good luck to everyone still able to get out and enjoy the end of the season!  Look forward to hearing about your late season hunts.

[BOWHUNTER45]

Hopefully next weekend I will be back at it ....Been working my butt off So I can get back over again....picked up a huge remodel in Seattle within 5 blocks of the space needle ....no turkeys gobbling there 

[bearpaw]

Great shooting, sweet birds.... 

[buckcanyonlodge]

Here's one from third week in May last year...

[BOWHUNTER45]

It always seems you get the bigger and smarter birds later in the season ... Last year we never called in one jake the last week of the season just all big boys ... wonder where all the jakes head off to... seen many jakes around your place lately ?

[buckcanyonlodge]

It always seems you get the bigger and smarter birds later in the season ... Last year we never called in one jake the last week of the season just all big boys ... wonder where all the jakes head off to... seen many jakes around your place lately ?

Had three jakes in the back yard this am along with a couple big boys.

[fimohead]

I'm new to turkey hunting (actually, I'm new to hunting altogether), and am planning on going hunting during Memorial Day weekend.  I have a question for those more knowledgeable:  I know there are a lot of turkeys in the NE corner of the state, but are there potentially good hunting locations around Leavenworth?  The buddy I want to go hunting with doesn't want to drive 6 hours out from Seattle, and he was hoping to find some good hunting a little closer.   Any tips?  Thank you very much!

[BOWHUNTER45]

I would definately try going the last week of the season .... you can get birds right now but you may need to work for them ....we did see a flock of 30 or more and I am not sure what that was about but when we hiked in there we found the biggest roost site I think I ever seen in my life ...yeah under 3 different trees there was turkey poop at least 3' round and 6 inches thick  I will post this as soon as I get the pictures sent to me .....

                                        Here are a couple more with my friends ....May MADNESS 

[MerriamMagician]

Beautiful pic of that stutter in the first pic bowhunter. I love pics like that. I'm taking some friends out for memorial weekend and try to get a few more. Its been a great year so far with 8 longbeards and 2 jakes taken out of our group. Still have 3 tags left too among two people. I'm going to share a quick scouting story from Saturday the 19th of May. I found some birds friday evening near the same roost that I killed one at this year and the birds traditionally use year after year. I got in there early in the morning armed with 2 cameras and a head cam that I use for snowboarding. I put out a single hen deke right in the favorite flydown zone near the top of a small pasture. The gobbler went off about 15 times from the roost. He was the only bird sounding off in the whole valley. I let a few soft yelps near flydown time just to let him know I was there. He was roosted about 120 yards above his hens. The hens were roosted directly behind me bout 80 yards. He flew down right over my head but overshot the decoy and landed bout 100 yards away. He instantly went into strut and started gobbling something fierce. Minutes later two of the hens dumped right into the deke and started cluckin like crazy. Then the remaining two hens dumped literally into my lap, I nearly took a wing in the face!!  The gobbler was goin crazy tryin to lure his hens down to him, but I hit the slate call and the hens hung around. Its amazing to watch them behave around an intruder decoy. They puffed up like gobblers and were givin the deke nasty looks!! Every time they wandered towards the gobbler I turned it up with the slate and they came whippin back, as close as a single yard trying to find the source of the call. Finally the gobbler slowly worked his way up to the hens. I captured all of this on video and managed to collect some awesome pics. He was one of the biggest merriams gobblers I have ever seen with a Paintbrush, ground dragging beard similar to a monster Eastern beard. After nearly an hour they eventually worked themselves back into the timber and I snuck out. I know exactly where he will be next week and we will be there waiting for him, with shotguns this time instead of cameras. Can't wait!!