Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: Elkstuffer on December 18, 2008, 11:35:11 AM
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Last spring I had to watch my little boy on the first 3 days of the season so I didn't get out until friday. The area I usually hunt for the opener was still snowed in. I decided I could still get to it via another drainage. I started out climbing at 4:00 am. It was 27 degrees and snowing. As I was climbing this god forsaken "mountain" I was asking myself "what the hell are you doing". Especially when I kicked up 3 mountain goats out of there beds. By the time I got to the top it was just getting daylight and I had climbed 997 feet in less than 1/3 of a mile. I didn't realize how steep it was until I was on my way back down. Anyway, I get on top and there is snow everywhere. I set up my decoys and start calling. Nothing. I start to "run and gun" and get a response after about 100 yrds. He's just not interested. I continue on for about 2 more hours and I'm getting exhausted. It's still snowing so I look for a good tree to get under and take a nap and have some warm soup. I get to an area where I have killed birds before and find a nice 5 pt elk shed right in the trail. YeeHaw!!! The trip won't be a total bust. I continue up the trail and see a big tom out in the meadow 40 yrds from me. Unfortunatly he see's me first. I go ahead and set up and crawled under a tree. I'm almost asleep when I hear a hen yelp. I slowly peek around the tree and see 4 jakes and a hen coming up the trail. Normally I wouldn't take a jake up there but with all I went through to get up there any bird is a trophy on this day. I let them come up to about 30 yrds and waited for a bird to single off from the flock and I rolled him down the hill. I couldn't believe my luck. When I got back to my truck it was still 27 and snowing. It really does freeze in hell. Here is a picture with the bird proped up with the elk shed.
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Great story and great job. My 12 yr old son and I froze our patookies off for the youth opener. My 10 yr old daughter and I also froze the next week. Cold mother this year. We shot no toms this year. :'(
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i think most people froze their arses off this past spring in the turkey woods. i hit the national forest and was greeted by about 4' of snow across the road.
not many people hike in as far turkey hunting as i went after a turkey...and came up empty.
congrats and a nice bonus elk shed.
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Good lookin jake! Nice shed BTW
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Great pic and congrats on filling your tag last spring!
My hunting partner and I were able to harvest a couple of 2 year old birds towards the end of the first cold week. We had to resort to a stalk on a bachelor band of tom's that would not come to our calls. The gobblers launched into a serious brawl which allowed to sneek downhill on them.
Like your hunt, you never know for sure what it might take to get birds in range. Every hunt and every situation seems to be different! :hunter:
