Hunting Washington Forum
Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: Huckleberry on April 20, 2008, 05:58:17 PM
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My brother and I made the drive over to Colville for the opener. Spent a day scouting and saw no birds where we usually find plenty. Only found a few sheds that were all a few years old and one bear skull. Started opening morning with nothing bedded but had some ideas on where we wanted to look. I got into a flock of jakes first thing in the morning but didn't want to use one of my tags on them. I left them and hiked a few more miles only finding jakes and hens. Around lunchtime we met back at camp, ate and decided to try our usual "afternoon spot". A short drive and a few miles of hiking and I was back into where I wanted to be. The snow was low this year and I have the problem of always wanting to hunt ridgetops so I had troubles staying low. Saw too many deer to count and found a few more sheds but not a lot of birds. About 4:00 pm I stopped on a hill to assess my position and plan my next move when a turkey busted off the rocks next to me and flew downhill out of site. I sat there for 5 minutes and decided that I had better go after it and see what it was. I snuck down the hill and 1/4 mile later found it feeding in a clearing. Another jake. I had two tags, no birds and decided I should shoot it. 80 yards was still to far so I snuck in to 50 or so, pulled up and it took off running "what the h*ll" it didn't know I was even there. As it ran down the hill it puffed up and let out a gobble, then from 50 yards further down the hill another gobble. I let it work its way into the group at which point it immediately gobbled, strutted in like a bada$$ and then tucked it's tail and ran away. I worked my way down to the group and decided to see what was in it. Out comes a jake - I pass, another jake, then a hen, and a few more jakes - I pass, then nothing. I thought I'd screwed up when another bird came out strutting. I saw a nice beard and pulled the trigger. 50 yards away he flopped around for a minute or two and lay dead. I walked up and new it was a nice bird. He had a thick 9 1/2 inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs and weighed 18 1/2 pounds field dressed which should have put him a bit over 20 live weight. Beats my previous best by about 1/2 an inch. We hunted another day finding very few talkative birds and decided to come back later when the weather warms up. All told I got into 8 groups and about 30 birds in the two days. Most of the birds hadn't moved into the areas I like to hunt and things were pretty quite. Only heard of two other birds getting shot.
(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv225%2Fcliffjumperl7%2Fapril2008003.jpg&hash=c4824110236ff9e0b726a69d6ab889de752feb78)
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Well done, that’s a beautiful bird. :tup:
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That is a realy nice looking bird. Congrats!
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Good job! Sounds like you worked hard for the bird.
We struck out this weekend. :'( So cold the birds weren't doing their regular thing...
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Nice bird
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:( Wife and I struck out too. Snow was still pretty deep and in the afternoon, you would sink to your knees.
Had one coming into our set-up early Saturday, but would never close the distance and come in close enough for a shot.
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:tup:
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nice bird
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Damm fine bird! Sounds like a great time.
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Congrats on the nice tom! :bow:
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Very nice bird, congrats!
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good job :tup:
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Congrats on a great bird, and thanks for the story!
