Had a good first half of turkey season with a some days in British Columbia followed by some time state side. First morning found Fingershooter and I looking for birds in a usual spot only to find the weather and cold had pushed them lower than we expected. It took a couple hours but we found some birds and with a little team work, FS hammered a double bearded bird.
That evening I headed south of the border solo to find birds and scout a little. Roosted birds without too much trouble and figured out a couple more for the next morning in case Plan A wouldn't work out.
Bright and early, birds were gobbling hard but when they pitched down things fell quiet, they followed hens out of sight and that was that. Went to another area, work my way up a mountain and found two strutters and some hens hanging out in a shady mature pine ridge. It took over an hour but I coaxed 2 redheads from 80 yards to shotgun range and notched my tag on a beautiful mountain longbeard.
Pictures don't do this hill justice
Next morning back in the homeland, FingerShooter Jr, his wife and I went for a walk and saw birds but struck nothing, spring is behind and this weather has the birds all weird. The following morning, after some epic archery misses, we scouted a new area that we were told had no birds. After a grand total of 20 minutes we found tons of tracks and had 2 different birds gobbling. One bird made us go down to him, only to find out he had circled up the mountain and was gobbling at us from up high. We raced back up and he had disappeared. We struck another bird in a different direction and went after him, but when at the bottom of a mountain calling to find the new bird, our first compadre was back gobbling where we had stood minutes before on top... Well we stupidly made it back up to find he was back to his original spot where we had heard him the very first time. You guessed it.. Back down we went and just couldn't get on him after all. We figured he was roosting close and decided he had become our main target, even if we had heard another bird gobble.
That night we took FingerShooter the IIV and went scouting, found where that bird was gobbling and made it a date for the morning. Three of us climbed down the next morning, walking past a gobbling bird close to the truck, and set up as he was gobbling from the roost. This bank was steep, so steep he was eye level with us blowing our heads off with every gobble even if we were 50 yards from his tree. We set up, I made a couple small tree calls and some yelps, he roared back immediately. There were two possible outcomes, he would fly the other way or pitch down on our lap and we'd be in the game. This bird read the script and pitched down in shotgun range, I raised my gun as we could hear him spit and drumming. He appeared at about 25 yards coming uphill, and all I needed was for him to clear some trees. Less than a minute after he had touched ground he was thundered by a cloud of number 5's and tumbled down the mountain, some 75 or more yards. We had a beautiful merriam longbeard down, the one we wanted to outsmart! Getting so close in the dark and making this plan work perfectly was really neat. As it wasn't even 6am, we hung this joker up to dry and kept looking for a bird for Fingershooter JR.
We walked around for a bit and the overcast high pressure morning had the birds quiet. We set up for a bit and called blindly hoping birds were working in this area but nothing. The area seemed too good and I jokingly said that there would be a bird in our exact location when we'd leave. Off we went and no birds were heard so we walked back and you guessed it.. There was a bird gobbling his head off EXACTLY where we were sitting early. After a couple facepalms, we set up and decided to wait him or another bird out. The sun was finally clearing the skies and things felt pretty good. I worked some calls and eventually Fingershooter JR chimed in, we had a whole flock of birds yelping, making keekee's and cutts. Then we heard him... The bird flew down to us to an opening and ripped us a gobble to set us on fire. One hundred yards away, strutting and gobbling, slowly making his way to us. That's when I heard PUTT, PUTT.. a hen was only a couple yards behind me probably coming to check out our calls, she got real nervous and left in the direction our decoys. She saw decoys and the real longbeard coming in and she ran to our decoys. Now that she was calm, the strutter stepped up his pace and hurried into shotgun range. Peppered by Fingershooter Jr's no 6. load, the bird fell to the ground.
Picture FS
A very sweet morning in the turkey woods to complete a great week of hunting. It had not been easy, birds were negative and just starting to fire up but that didn't stop a couple turkey hunting fools. Second part of my turkey season to happen next week..
The Other Side of the Feather... Another Spring in the Turkey Woods
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