My 2013 Hunt Recap

[EdB]

I got my money’s worth out of this year’s tag general tag in this area. I had a very good pre-season of scouting and found some nice groups of birds throughout our area. Opening day was a bummer. I was hunting a spot with a bunch of gobblers the prior day and no hunting pressure the first week. I never heard a gobble, not even in the far distance. I could not hunt long that day due to needs at work. Don’t know what happened to the birds that were there.

Tuesday was a great day at a different spot and another flock roosting together. I snuck in not knowing exactly what trees the birds were in. I had observed them from a distance pre-season. I moved in as quiet as possible. Got to a tree and got set. The moon was bright and I looked up and thought I saw a bird over me. I froze for the next 45 minutes as the woods came to life. The bird above me was a hen but there was a mature bird 60 yards out and some jakes nearby. After they started talking in the trees, I had a coyote walk by 15 yards away upwind. He never smelled me and continued on his way. The turkeys did not react to him safely in the trees. At fly down, the hen dropped down on me. She never knew I was there or forgot about me. The long beard glided off to 80 yards and walked up a ridge away from me strutting. Then more hens dropped down to the one in front of me and the jakes landed 50 yards away. I had four hens in front of me by my decoy talking and the long beard started to come back. He got to 35 yards, stepped behind a tree, and I got the gun locked into shooting position. I think the hens saw my move but never putted and the long beard stepped out. I should have pulled the trigger but thought he was coming closer. He stepped behind a brush pile and then the hens started to walk away. The gobbler I was on turned away too but he followed another hen and I didn’t see him clearly till he was out of range moving away. That was my best excitement for the day although I had some good gobbling late morning and couldn’t seal the deal. My brother Tom scored a nice bird Tuesday morning. Here is his gobbler.

Had some good hunts Wednesday but nothing came in close. I did stumble on a hen and this nest.

I almost had a shot on Thursday. I set up at another place for the first time, had birds roosted 150 yards away and responding to my calls from the ground. Two nice gobblers approached and hung up at 60 yards strutting. They finally moved away. Had a late morning set up, called a gobbler in from a long way, had him just over a ridge out of sight but real close and he shut up and never heard him again. I think he was around 60 yard away.

I hunted the same spot but set up at a different tree Friday. There were 6 gobblers and a bunch of hens from 120 to 200 yards away. They were real vocal from the trees that morning. Watched the closest birds fly down and heard the other come down. There were two gobblers in the close group. I laid out 3 soft clucks, they went to strut and started walking toward me. They went on and off strut as they closed the distance. I never called again, they got inside 30 yards and I shot the best one.

Tale of the tape was a 10 inch beard and 7/8†spurs. Not the boss of the flock but a nice bird after an awesome week of hunting the beautiful land in this area. Good luck to the late season hunters!

[flyman013]

Nice hunt, Ed. Congrats to you and your brother on some nice birds!

[somethin' fishy]

Nice job Ed and Tom! Thanks for sharing your hunts and pics. Nice birds.

[Nailer]

Great stuff there Ed. Thanks for sharing.