For three days leading up to my turkey hunt, I woke up and looked at the clock to figure out how much earlier I would need to wake up to be at Staci's house on time. Aside from ticks, the worst part of turkey hunting is the early start time. The day of my hunt arrived and armed with my coffee, I drove to Staci's house to find some turkeys. Her husband, John, agreed to be our designated turkey caller. Deer ran through the woods off to our right and a partridge drummed continuously as we walked to our first spot. The world was waking up all around us but there were no turkeys to answer our calls, so we moved. I spotted the first birds of the morning, a tom fanned out with three hens (or two hens and a jake) so we...
I think overall, I was excited for turkey season. I really was. Then May came and we went fishing, celebrated Mother's Day and found ourselves busy. Dad and I had one morning to head into the woods to hunt. We had moved the blind closer into the woods and the path that I had seen the turkeys on when I was deer hunting. We set up the decoys and waited for it to get lighter before I started calling. I had a box call, slate call, electronic call and a couple of apps on my phone. We called and listened. Called and listened. Called and listened. After a few hours, we made our way to the fields to see if there were birds around. It was quiet as we walked but that didn't stop us from jumping at least three...
I just have a feeling that this year will be my year and I will be bagging one of these birds. We moved our blind to a new spot this year and I am hopeful that it will put us closer to the birds than we have seen. Dad, Hubby and I set it up and put a trail camera out to see if there are any birds around since last spring we saw everything but a turkey. A week later, we went back to tweak a few things and check the camera. On our drive in, two hens ran away from us and into the woods. That was a good sign! We parked and pulled everything out of the car and over to the blind and some newly transplanted trees. I headed for the camera and SD card. I went through roughly 75 pictures of the trees before I came to the...
Here is how we got to this point. The two men did not seem to see is and Tim and I tried not to give ourselves away but we were on the edge of the field. Tim tried calling the land owner because the property was posted and he was supposed to be the only one hunting. No answer. We stood there and listened as the two men began calling and waiting for a response. They were much closer to those two birds who had just been calling back with us. One gobble and those guys would be headed into the woods. Luckily, those stubborn birds kept quiet. But the idea of hunters in the area made us question our decision to move on from a spot that we knew had active birds. Tim placing decoys in the field So we...
As you know, Dad and I saw way more deer than turkey when we attempted to turkey hunt for the third spring season in a row. It is still a little surreal to think about because our first turkey season ended two weeks before I had O. My schedule was so busy that I had to cancel a turkey hunt with David Hodgkins of Blackfalcon Custom Calls and reworked my schedule to get a half day hunt in with Tim Cote of Cote and Son's Guide Service. I met Tim at 4am and we headed to a spot where he had been the night before. He knew that there were toms around and he knew which spots they would be in. It was a perfect set up. Come on turkeys! We sat just over a little knoll with a couple of chairs and bushes helping to keep us...
The night before we were going to be heading into the woods, I looked around for my home made box call and slate call and could not find them. I only had a store bought box call, push call and electronic call. I have tried and can not use the mouth calls, so those are pointless. I gathered up my camo and got ready for the 4am excursion. I can't help but wonder exactly why I want to go turkey hunting; it's a season of ridiculously early starts, ticks and warm weather. And ticks! There is really not much that is appealing about it. But, Dad and I were going to try to find a turkey. We started off at the Sky Condo in a ground blind. We sat and waited. I used the chalked-up box call and the...
In search of our turkeys, we walked down this camp road. It was around noon and there were some great spots to sit and call from along the way. Right from the start we knew this was an animal haven! The tracks and scat were all over the place. Some of the tracks actually surprised us. A fresh bear track. Check out those claws. Two bear tracks. A better view of the palm of the paw. It was like Grand Central Station for turkey up and down both sides of the road. Turkey tracks and turkey scat. While we did not see any turkey that day, Brian did call in five Toms the next day. The great thing about hunting and being outdoors is that you never know what sort of adventures you will have during the...
I have been thinking about it since Friday. The gobbling that just got closer and closer, seeing the quick movement in the dense trees and brush just in front of me, that black band across the top of those dark brown feathers and his white head stretching above the blow downs to find that purring hen that he was after. I could hear the drumming and strutting as he got closer. Finally, there he was in front of me. He stepped out, his long neck leading his puffed out body into the slight clearing... The field where we started calling. Dad and I woke up a little before 2:30am in order to have breakfast and meet our guide, Brian for our turkey hunt. We got to these fields around 4:30am with just...
On Thursday night, before our big outing with Brian, Dad and I sighted in our new shotgun. We paced out 30 yards and started shooting at our make-shift turkey heads. Dad shooting at 30 yards. Dad's pattern. My pattern. My comment to Dad after I took two shots at this piece of paper: "As long as a turkey comes in from my left, I should be in good shape." Oh the irony! Dad and I were confident that as long as a turkey was within 30 yards, we would be in good shape. I worked on setting the bead in the middle of the gun so that it would not pull to the left. It was a new gun for us and long - 28 inches but it was comfortable and I was confident that I could shoot it. We went to bed around 8pm so that we...
