First, my apologies for lack of participation on the board this spring. I have been putting off two major bathroom renovations for several years, finally found a contractor who I would trust to do anything for me and he wanted to start the project on April 17. I hunted field birds the first week and they kicked my butt all week. For the last three weeks I have been hunting in the mornings then hurrying home to assist with the renovations, then crashing from exhaustion and doing it all again.

Congratulations to all who have posted successful hunts and pictures. Special congrats to Vaturkeyhunter for his successful hunts with his son, I am truly in awe. The following is a long description of my three successful hunts. I apologize in advance for the length and the lack of pictures.

Goat Rope Gobbler, a turkey tale in two parts
4/18: I hunted at a friends property which is just west of 301 in Hanover. That area has a lot of topography and is dominated by very mature open hardwoods with deep, steep ravines and small flat top ridges. I heard 4 turkeys at daylight and fooled with them for about 3 hours. At one point I had a gobbler in sight but out of range and they drifted off towards a dry pond bed that is very grown up. I tried to circle and get around them. When I topped a ridge by the dry pond I could see a turkey strutting in the bottom of the next ravine about 75 yards away. I did not think they would come up the steep side of the ravine so I crawled to a large tree right on the edge of the ridge where I could see into the ravine. There were two gobblers about 60 yards away in the bottom of the ravine, one was strutting and the second was just looking and would occasionally break into a quick ¾ strut. Both were scratching and feeding. One of them gobbled one time. I came up beside the tree and watched them in the bottom for about 15 minutes. I had picked out a log that I thought was about 40 yards and decided if the strutter worked to the log I would try him. About 11:10 the strutter passed the log and I shot. At the shot he scurried around then flushed and I shot at him twice on the wing with no effect. I found no feathers at the shot site and walked the woods across the pond for about an hour and found no evidence.
4/27: I returned to the scene of the crime and set up on a ridge top about 200 yards from where I had missed. The woods were absolutely torn up with scratch. Four turkeys gobbled at daylight and at least one answered a set of clucks that I made while they were still on the roost. I sat beside a large 5 foot tall stump that had about 6 feet of log laying at the bottom of the stump. At 6:45 I heard a turkey fly down in front of me. The turkey flew down into one of the bottoms, it was about ten yards from where I was sitting to the start of the drop off to the bottom. The turkeys had gobbled fairly well on the roost and I was waiting to hear a gobble on the ground to make a move. At 6:50 I hear a cluck very close to me and a hen shows up less than ten yards from me. She continued to cluck and acted nervous but never startled or moved off. She continued to cluck and moved about 20 yards to my left and hopped on a downed tree that was at about a 20 degree angle to the ground and walked up the tree and sat and watched me for about ten minutes quietly. She hopped down off of the snag and started scratching in the woods and moved off behind me. At about 7:00 I hear a gobble that is close but I cannot tell where it is, I mean close like 50 yards. I think the gobble came from in front of me where the hen had come up on the ridge top, but was not sure. A wise man would have put the gun up where the hen had appeared but that does not describe me. I had about decided that the gobble was behind me and was getting ready to turn my head when a gobbler sticks his head up behind a log at 7 yards right in front of me in the hen’s footsteps. Then I see the top of a fan behind the looker and the stutter shows up at the same place. So know I am setting against a stump with nothing between me and the gobblers but air and I have my gun in my lap. At this range you might have a chance with one set of eyes but two sets means you are screwed. They hang around for a couple of minutes, apparently do not see me and then turn and start to walk towards the break of the ridge top like they are going back to the bottom. When both turkeys turned their backs on me I threw the gun up (I am sure I did not look at my red dot) and shot at the strutter. Both turkeys flushed and the strutter flew to my left and I shot again. At the second shot the turkey fell hit the ground and then started running. I shot a third time and the turkey went about 10 yards and collapsed. I thought the turkey was dead but figured I better get to him pretty quick. When I stood up he jumped up and started running, I threw one shell in the gun and shot again, he continues to run. I only carry six shells with me so know I am down to two. So you have an old fat man chasing a crippled gobbler while trying to load a gun. I drop the shell on the ground. I hesitated for a second and then decided I definitely did not have time to pick up the shell (if I could have found it). I continue chasing the bird while digging for my last shell. I finally get the shell in the gun and the gobbler cuts to the right and starts to run down a bottom that actually lets me cut the corner on him and get a little closer, he stops, I throw the gun up and force myself to concentrate on the sight and finally kill him. I am sure that these were the same two turkeys that I fooled with on 4/18, looker and strutter running together. The best that I can tell is that the first shot was a clean miss (pattern would have been no bigger than a softball at that range) and I fringed the turkey with the second shot. I do not know if the third and fourth shot did any damage or not, there was certainly no indication that they did. When I cleaned the turkey the ONLY shot that I found were in his head and neck which I am sure was from the fifth shot. By my count I shot at this turkey 8 times and lost one shell while trying to kill it. At my price to handload TSS of about eight dollars per shell he ended up being a pretty expensive bird. Nice mature gobbler, 21 pounds, 11 inch beard and 1 1/8 inch sharp spurs just starting to curl. My best guess is a three year old bird.

Goose Hunt Gobbler
5/2/23 My son in law sent me text with a picture of a turkey strutting at his dairy farm. He watched the turkey strutting for about 20 minutes while he was cutting hay about 500 yards away. The turkey was in a ten acre field with a light line that runs through it and he was right under the line within 30 yards of the only pole in the field. He was in the field between 5:40 and 6:00 on 5/1.

I had never turkey hunted this property at all. The property is all open fields with woods surrounding it that are under different ownership. I went in really early in the pitch black dark to try to decide where to set up. I had studied maps and satellite images the night before to try to determine where the turkey was roosting and what he was most likely to do. I had decided to set up on the field edge near one end or the other of the light line. The field is only about 120 yards wide at that point.

As I was walking in carrying a chair, a one man pop up blind, three decoys and my gun I thought “this seems to be much closer to a goose hunt than a turkey hunt”. When I got to the light line I really did not like either field edge because of poor visibility. The lone pole had a very flat smooth area around it so I figured what the hell, I will just set up at the base of the pole. I got the blind set, placed the decoys and was completely set up well before light, about 5:30. The wind was blowing pretty hard even that early. While I was setting up I noticed something light colored at the field edge to my NE. I did not remember seeing anything on the maps but assumed it was an old shed since there are several abandoned farm buildings on the property.

The gobbler sounded off at 5:55 in the woods to my east and was just out of the field. I made a couple of low calls while he was on the roost and did not get any response. He only gobbled six times and then shut up. As it got light I discovered that what I thought was a shed was some type of line equipment and the reason the area was so flat and smooth around the pole was that someone had been doing line work. I figured that if anything happened it would have to be quick because I assumed the workers would be back. I continued to make occasional soft calls but got no response.

At 7:45 the wind really picked up and was lifting the blind. I had not placed any stakes so I began fumbling on the inside of the blind found the stakes and was going to try to attempt to place a couple on the upwind side of the blind from inside to keep it from lifting. I glanced up and the gobbler had just crested a small rise in the field about thirty yards away and was charging the decoys doing the mean turkey walk. I put the gun up and discovered that my red dot had turned off. I had plenty of time to turn it back on as the gobbler was fully engaged with the decoys. Shot him and he dropped like a box of rocks and the wind carried a cloud of small feathers off.

I got out of the blind and walked to the turkey. I decided I would take the decoys back first and then get the turkey. As I walked back towards the blind with two decoys I catch movement to my right and a white pickup comes into the field and drives down the light line towards me. It is the work crew that is pulling an optical cable on the line. They stop and I talk to them for a few minutes. Talk about things happening just in time! Just to let you know how hard the wind was blowing, when I walked to the turkey a gust caught the blind and it blew across the field like a tumble weed.

Another nice mature gobbler 21.5 pounds, 10.5 inch beard, and one inch sharp spurs. My best guess is another three year old.

5/3 Wiley Coyote Gobbler
My son in law had sent me a text last Sunday (4/30) with a map location of where someone else had reported seeing one gobbler and hearing another. I had to take my wife for a medical procedure and needed to be home by 10 so I had decided not to hunt. I woke up early and decided that I should at least try to scout another turkey to hunt later in the week so I went to the place my son in law reported. I had never hunted this area of the farm before.

I got there a little late and starting walking a field edge to get to the location. I hear a gobbler at 6 as I am walking in and I guess that he will come out in the NW corner of the narrow field that he is gobbling close to. Two years ago my son in law rented a skid steer with a huge brush cutter and cleaned up several field edges, this field happened to be one where he had pushed the edge back. You cannot imagine how thick the brush and debris is along the field edge where it was pushed back. There was no way to get to a tree or anything else to sit against but there is about 15 feet of tall grass right along the field edge.

I get within 100 yards of the gobbler and decide to just set flat on the ground in the grass on the edge of the field. When I start to sit I see a coyote coming down the edge towards me. He walks right up and stops and looks at me then goes about 20 yards and stops again. I wave my arms and he finally leaves. I move up about ten yards and sit in the grass.

About five minutes later a second coyote shows up right at the corner where I expect the gobbler to come out. I wave my arms and he pays no attention. I finally had to stand up and walk out in the field to get him to leave.

This is the first gobbler that I have fooled with this year that really gobbled well. He gobbled more than 100 times on the roost between 6 and 7 and then flew down and continued to gobble in the woods. At 8 two hens flew into the corner of the field and start feeding down the edge towards me. When they got within 10 yards one of them startled and started clucking. They calmed down and did not panic but started feeding away from me back towards the corner. The gobbler continued to sporadically gobble in the woods behind me. I continued to make a few very low clucks every once in a while but he never responded.

At 8:30 the gobbler had not gobbled in a while so I decided that I would get up and move up to the corner to find a good place to set up in the dark when I came back to try him next time. This would give me time to check the field to the east where I thought he had probably gone and still get home by 10.

As I put my hands down to get up I see his head in the grass at the NW corner of the field. He walks out into the field at about 100 yards and starts to strut. He starts to come down the field toward me and gobbles three times while he is in the field in sight. He walks to a place I have decided is 40 yards, I am able to get the gun on my shoulder without him seeing me and I stretch up so I can just see him through the grass. He sticks his head up, I shoot and anther year is over.

Another nice mature gobbler. 22 pounds, 10.5 inch beard, 1 inch and 1 1/8 inch sharp spurs with the longer starting to curl. My best guess is another 3 year old.

The moral of these stories is if you stick with what you know works things will finally work out, you just have to pay your dues and the coin that you pay with is your time. Good luck to all that are still hunting, never give up. I will continue to monitor the site for your future success

Great season. I enjoyed reading your recap. Congratulations.

Nice season. Good reports

Great season, well wrote recap, enjoyed the read. Congratulations.


Earl

Nice season congrats!

Nice.
V

Nice work man.. congrats..