Stand #1
Woke to a 4:20 alarm - having just got off work at 1am
, drug the covers off my 13 yr old boy KC and sipped on some hot coffee ahwile. Ugg - am I crazy? I tell myself "no one ain't never done anything worth a chit laying in bed" so out to the truck I go son in tow. He's feeling a bit sluggish too as I'm pretty sure he seen me pull into the driveway at 1am and decided it was time to turn off the x-box. Oh well I warned him
I wasn't able to scout anything so I was going off my best guess of where to start a hunt, figured the turkeys were down low in anything green they could find, parked just off the highway along a train track and turned the truck off...listen...gobble gobble gobble, crap they are roosted just about 50 feet away in a tree, I almost parked right under them
oh well, I back out and set up some decoys, all I had were the cheapy blow up ones on a stick, I hear the turkeys leave the tree and fly the wrong way about the time my butt hits the dirt, had some troubles getting the boy set up and we were lousy and loud. I drag the stick across the diaphram and the gobbler responds in kind - BOOM!- hrpmh, didn't see another hunter across the road.
Oh well
Stand #2
Went up to an old spot I know on state land, seen turkeys in there in years past so thought I'd drive on in and see if anything was talking. Just got to my parking spot and opened the door to see if turkeys were around - crap!- they were about 100 feet in front of me- too close!
So what the heck I do know? Decided to let em strut and wander off a little ways and try to set up just below them in a shallow area out of sight, but still they are only 100 yards away. I got set up and got the boy in by a tree and started squakin (squawking cause I suck on the caller) anyways I talk the hen into coming right in to us, she don't give much attention to my decoys she decides she wants to make a nest in my lap. The boy is shakin like a leaf cause he just swilled a quart of ice cold zero water I planned on having later
He can't hold his gun steady and the hens are getting nervous, 3 nice toms were about 50 feet away, easy shot for my 12 but his 20 - meh - doable if he was steady but he was anything but steady. Birds finally wandered off - strutted off more like. We tried to get back in below them but got busted moving across
Stand #3
Got on the wheeler for more of a 1st atv ride than anything, I'd drive a ways and stop every now and then and give the gobbler tube a shake - listen- about 20 miles of this one responds! I'm in a clearing well off the main dirt road in Colville Nat forest at Y in the secondary roadway, the gobbler is about 100 yards up the road. I park the atv down out the way and get my stand setup, re-inflate the decoys and stick them in the ground. I'm just about all set up and ready to start calling when here comes a couple more ATV's, they got no idea there is a bird on the wire and idle on past with a friendly wave, I wanted to be pissed but hell they had every right to drive through there it was just piss poor timing
.
I give it about 15 minutes and use the time to really camoflauge the boy and got a shooting stick carved up and his back to a tree, he's steady now lets see how far that bird moved. I give the gobbler tube a shake, nothing, 5 minutes I shake it again and get a response!
The bird had moved a ways up and aways from the road-probably to get away from the atvs, I coax him down closer and it sounds as if moving to taking the road back down - good- the boy is aimed in ready to rock!
I call some more, he's closer!
I call some more, almost here! Get ready KC!
I call one more time, oh my he's almost in our lap - get ready!
"psst dad"
"what? - shhhh get ready - quit moving"
"
psssssssttttttttttttttt dad!"
"huh?"
oh crap the bird is right beside him 10 feet away, 90 degrees to his right and in some thick brush, all I see is a fat red/blue head and big eyeball lookin at me
the bird moves right behind us, I can hear its soft chirping then that "your busted" chirp
the bird moves across the road behind us right past the atv I had parked and down off the hill, I'm pretty sure I can get it back up as it was all alone and I had a flock of birds in the road. I position my son to take advantage of where I think the bird will pop up.
dang!- the bird come back up behind us, right next to my atv
I shoot it - no way I could get my son to about face and shoot a bird, and I'd worked it for a good 20 minutes so it wasn't getting off.
anyways, I'll get him out again and at least he's hooked - and so am I
