Post by: turkeydancer on April 22, 2012, 11:11:25 AM
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.
:bdid:
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?
Post by: BullMagnet76 on April 22, 2012, 11:36:39 AM
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on April 22, 2012, 11:59:14 AM
Post by: scottfrick on April 22, 2012, 01:45:46 PM
Post by: LITTLEBUCK on April 22, 2012, 06:38:36 PM
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on April 22, 2012, 06:49:41 PM
Post by: turkeydancer on April 23, 2012, 08:26:24 AM
Post by: Tom Tamer on April 23, 2012, 07:32:47 PM
Post by: BOWHUNTER45 on April 23, 2012, 07:39:48 PM
Post by: turkeydancer on April 24, 2012, 07:08:58 AM
Post by: h2ofowlr on April 24, 2012, 07:48:37 AM
Post by: turkeydancer on April 24, 2012, 01:57:42 PM
Post by: Tom Tamer on April 24, 2012, 05:24:08 PM
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 :tup: AL is the man :dunno: he smacked 2 in 4 minutes :chuckle: :chuckle:
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 :)