Sorry to hear that Greg, I know I've lost more than my share of turkeys. Hitting them seems to be the easy part, I think recovering them is the real challenge in bowhunting turkeys. I see these guys on the TV that go out and dive on the flopping turkeys after they hit them... maybe thats the answer but I'm less than excited about jumping on a turkey with a broadhead in it.
Exactly, I've lost more than my fair share. Almost makes me not want to bowhunt them anymore but just use the shotgun. Greg-That's crazy that a yote got that bird that quickly. Must have quite a population running around there.
I'm headed to south central Nebraska this weekend for a 3 day hunt with my brother, should be a good time. The property supposedly doesn't get any hunting preasure at all so hopefully the birds are starting to hit the front end of the strut and we can suprise them while they are thinking of other things.
Only 10 days away now! Can't wait! It looks like RAIN RAIN RAIN in MN, I am hoping the weather breaks before that! Neal
April 18th can't get here soon enough. Don't worry about me though, I've been busy getting my hooks wet. Went out yesterday and caught roughly 100 bass, 15 bluegill and a 9lb 10oz Channel catfish. Crappie haven't started to hit yet. Just gives me an excuse to keep on fishing!
Pushed back the hunt a day, Friday is supposed to be 50mph winds, rain/snow, 38 degrees. I think maybe I'll find a warm place to hide.
Bird down... with a shot gun. I bow hunted Friday afternoon in 40 mph winds and of course didn't see anything. Saturday morning was the open of shotgun and the gobblers were very active, both I and my brother took birds. I went back to the bow in the afternoon and yesterday morning and had lots of birds close but never got a shot. I should have had one yesterday morning but I had to choose between setting up over a pasture area or over a winter wheat field and chose poorly. I'll be out again this week, the strut is definitly on here in Nebraska!
Well guys I got one yesterday but unfortunately, it was with the scatter gun. I took the wife with me on her first ever hunt. It was probably the most fun I've had in a long time turkey hunting. I have two open food plots to choose from and I ,of course, picked the wrong food plot. Four toms came strutting in to our food plot to the east of our location and would never cross over our warm season grasses to get to our setup. After calling and calling the birds finally lost interest and walked off. I asked the wife if she is ready to do some running and gunning? I had my doubts but we began our trek through the woods calling periodically and after an hour and half finally got a bird to gobble back. Having the wife jump creeks and sneaking through the woods was pretty funny to watch especially since it was extremely muddy but she took it all in stride. After weaving through the creek bottoms we finally get close to the bird and get down. Give him a few soft yelps and he gets all fired up. We wait and wait some more until suddenly a tom walks out of the plum thicket and starts walking parallel to us who were crouched right inside the timber. I whisper to the wife to get ready and she said it was too far for her. So I slowly raise the 12 gauge, while the wife plugs her ears and wait for the tom to walk into the bead on my shotgun. BOOM! Turkey drops and does some flopping which gave me the perfect opportunity to show the wife how to step on a turkey head. She loved that! It was a great hunt that featured high and lows but in the end it was great b/c my wife is now excited to get back out there next Monday. He was a two year old bird: 22lbs, 9.5 inch beard. My sad attempt to show our path.
Bad news guys... Weather killed my weekend. NO LUCK! And to make matters worst I got a horrible head cold; which has carried over to this week! Hope your seasons are going better than mine! Neal
I got out Friday with my daughter but had no luck, she is 7 and wasn't so sure about this whole hunting thing until we were roaming the woods after she got bored and she found her first shed... the rest of the weekend she asked when we could go hunting again. Saturday I took a buddy out, I carried my bow he took his shot gun the birds went the wrong way off the roost and weren't responding to calls at all. We ended up spot and stocking close enough for my buddy to take a nice Tom with his shotgun but no bow bird for me yet. I plan on getting out sometime next weekend, the toms seem to strutting in the same field in the mornings off the roost I just need to get in early to set up my blind about a quarter mile down the field edge.
My wife and I went out Monday and didn't hear a single gobble. We did manage to find 3 sheds though so it wasn't all lost. Only thing that came into our setup was a lone hen. Very strange. I don't think the nasty weather is helping things either.
I didn't hunt there this year. Just in Southeast MN. But we hunt in the Winnebago Indian Reservation.
I know a few people that hunt up there, it's usually a great place to be. Let me know if you want to get out down this way sometime.
I'll be out Tuesday morning boys. Friday morning I thought for sure with as many gobblers that were around me that my day was gonna be over quickly. Instead, all the birds flew down into another field to my East. I waited patiently for a couple of hours and as I decided to get out of my blind and try a stalk, I unzip my blind and a piece of buck brush pushed through and scratched my shooting eye. I thought my day was done but even if I wanted to leave I couldn't drive my truck home. I sat down for over an hour with a blurry teary eye. I finally could leave my eye open enough to try to get back to the stalk and sneaked down the creek and back up a hedge row on top of a hill that surrounds the field the birds were in. Sure enough, a flock of 15 birds with 4 mature gobblers are out in the middle about 100 yards strutting around. I give a few yelps and the hens start feeding my way with the toms in tow. As I position myself behind a hedge tree the hens come within 15 yards and a tom struts within 20. I wait for the tom to turn his back until I pull back, set my pin and release. Thwack! My arrow hits the Tom along his breast and made him jump up, spin, and then stand there and let out 3 gobbles. My arrow just nicked him. I couldn't believe it. The hens take off at a very fast walk away from me and the gobblers follow. I renock an arrow and let off a few more yelps and a tom actually comes on a string back to me. This time, however, he walks straight towards me where I didn't feel comfortable pulling back. He walks within 3 yards until his notices me and took off flying. I walk out, get my arrow out of the field with the Rage full of what looks like pieces of his beard. I felt a little dejected and my eye was still blurry (which gives me the perfect excuse for why I missed!) Oh well, that's why I love turkey hunting. The good news is walking back down the path I spot a morel. I look over and it's like a sea of morels surrounding a dead elm. The rainbow after the storm I guess. Good luck guys.
Suck's on the turkey, sweet on the shrooms. I didn't get out over the weekend I ran a half marathon on Sunday spent Saturday resting. I hope to get out this weekend, I should be able to get one hunt in I think.
Well boys I shot a 24 lbs bird with 11 beard and 1.375 spurs. There is only one problem I shoot it with the shoot gun. The 4 day hunting season in Illinois sucks. The weather was bad for my four day hunt so the gun came out. Too bad I had the gun the bird with only 10 yards from me when I shot it. Sorry!! I guess I will be hunting in Neb next year...........LOL
