Went out this afternoon with the camera to watch a field... got set-up and wasn't expecting the turkeys to come out as early as they did.... I was stuck sitting cross-legged for over 3 hours straight... my body is killin me but I saw a bunch of different gobblers and one absolute bruiser of a bird.... here are a few photos from the day..
Hey guys, I haven't gone out yet but I hope to get the chance in the near future. I checked my cam recently and found some motivation! :D
Two days down and no bird in the bag yet. Nothing came close yet, except 2 hens which walked by me to get to the gobbler. Hard to call one in when he has hens coming to him. I'll be back out this weekend.
Sorry guys. Went out this morning and after two hours of hearing or seeing nothing I packed up the blind, decoys all the gear. I taken the bow and a 12ga just incase they stayed out of bow range like they have been doing. I was on the move and found a place to just sit down and rest. I hit my call and one was right ontop of me. I had taken off my release and I only had time to grab the 12ga and take off the safety. Just that fast I had three birds on me at close range and pulled the trigger. It was a 18lb bird with only .5 inch spurs and a 5 inch beard. It was my first turkey and only scored 38 points. Really hate that it can't be added to our totals. The next bird will be hunted with a bow only. Kind of happy to get my first one out of the way.
Congrats on your first bird eagle. Not a problem at all that you took him with the shotgun. It's only for fun. I was out with my shotgun this morning too. They don't seem to hit my fields by the blind till later, so I figured I'd see if I could get set up on one off the roost with the shotgun. I found one roosted on a ridge. I got as close as I thought I could and set up off a logging road a bit. It sounded like he was coming in and then he would back off. I guess he was just strutting back and forth. I had heard a few other gobbles but nothing close. Then I hear a branch break behind me, I thought it was a deer, but 10 seconds later a turkey gobbled what sounded like 10 yards behind me on the logging road. That was the closest I had ever had one gobble. I was hoping he would keep going towards the other bird and I would soon see him and have a shot. He must have turned, because the next gobble was on a small ridge to my right 80 or so yards away. We talked back and forth a bit but he wouldn't come back and the first one never came up either. Sat in the blind for a while and never heard another gobble or saw a bird. Those damn gnats are so bad I had to come home and get a head net for tomorrow.
Very cool eagle, no worries about the bow deal... go get another one!! Congrats. I've only been out a couple of times and our birds are still really grouped up. I think I'll be able to seal the deal though... I'm not worried yet :D
Well my turkey season came to an end yesterday with no bird down this year. It was really windy and I didn't hear one fly up on Friday night. So I went to a spot that I know they like to roost at. It got to be close to 6:00 and we hadn't heard a gobble yet. So we went down in the bottom to sneak a look at the clover field. We had no sooner got there than one gobbled back up on the hill right where we were. We set up and called a couple of times. I saw a bird glide down into the bottom, but couldn't see where he landed about 60 yards from us. He gobbled twice and then started moving off. We called to him but he just walked away. That is how most of my season has gone. We could not get birds to come to calling and whenever I sat in my blind the birds were not in the field. Plus the fact that I just couldn't chase after them like I wanted to with my bad hip and the season went to the birds..
I have been on birds every single trip out.... but hens have taken the gobblers away from me every single morning that I set out. I will be out Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Sat.... hopefully I can get one on the ground. As the season goes on, the hens should leave the gobblers and it should get easier to call them in. On a side note... my buddy went out yesterday morning and had a gobbler sounding off 400 yards in front of him and a hen yelping behind him. After awhile he heard the hen walking towards him... when he turned his head he didn't see a turkey... he had a HUGE sow black bear walking past him that he estimated over 400 lbs.... and the kicker is she was being followed by a boar that he estimated between 600-700 lbs. He captured a few photos with his cell phone but nothing too great. There was a boar filmed on this property about 4 years ago that was estimated in the 500 lb range so we are thinking that it might be the same bear.
