UpStateRedNeck

Good luck you two!

That bird went to bed hot, on my way to bring him breakfast in bed.

He's just into the lease land, gobbled probably 40 times in the last half hour.

Look who is right by the cabin. He won't be far! There was a hen right by the tractor when I rolled in. He didn't spook hard at all, strutted for a bit then trotted off.

Crap. Crap crap crap. That new tru glo rear site was off, just checked it. At 15 yards it would have been even tighter. At least I know it wasn't me. Going to super glue the damn thing on this time. I moved the site back to the right where I had it and it was back dead on.

Dude if you saw how many "CXO" hirings he's made over the past 10 years you'd flip your lid. Where there used to be an infrastructure that reported directly to each agency for IT, now there's a consolidated, vastly reduced workforce spread thin. But each "Portfolio" has about 5 executives who near as I can tell do absolutely NOTHING where none existed before. Don't be shocked when state services start going down in the next 4 years or so, even big ones like Personal Income tax filings. But before the side track goes too far: I know and work with the IT guys over at Labor and they have been asses and elbows for 2 months now, so they are doing their best.

Also before anybody says it : Yes, we needed the work force reduction. BUT! The problem is, the deadwood aren't the people retiring. The hard working, intelligent, efficient individuals are the ones who've had enough of this crap of watching other people just barely toe the line enough to not get fired are the ones bailing as soon as they have their 30 in. The people (I'd say 15%?) who are goddamned useless and don't do jack, of which I am personally aware of dozens, are the ones staying and milking the system as long as they can.

You guys can thank Gov. Andy for this crap. We've lost 25% of the state work force with less than 5% hiring or filling of positions in that timespan. And don't worry! It's going to get way, way worse in the next 2 - 4 years with another 40% of the work force eligible for retirement. DoL guys are working their asses off trying to keep up. They've leveraged all sorts of other agencies personnel to try keep up with it. The infrastructure is/was outdated and I'm sure they are paying through the nose for outside "consultants" to slap duct tape on the system. They've brought in over 3000 non state employees to help in the call center in the past 2 weeks (I know this first hand).

I like this plan, I may try this tonight/tomorrow.

I just got a pair of their binos to replace my Cabela's ones that grew legs. Good to know they stand by their products! Between them and KUIU it's nice to know there's still American companies that have good customer service.

FYI this just happened again : Something went on sale the week after I ordered. I was on the phone for all 2 minutes to get it fixed. As opposed to the 30+ minutes I tried to contact bass pro about something a month ago, and did not ever hear back from them. My KUIU wardrobe keeps increasing, and I feel no shame about it whatsoever. I want to wear their stuff around the house / outside, nevermind just hunting.

You're most likely right Dave, thanks. I just need to get him and it will add spice to the story. I'll try tree calling him Friday night.

Congrats to everybody who connected, especially Mowin who is teaching others and helping keep our traditions alive! In retrospect yesterday was one of the most interesting days of turkey hunting I've had, was just feeling too down on myself to type it up. Long story short, I missed a gobbler I've been chasing (presumably same one, same spot, same tendencIes) for 2 years now. Did every single thing right, except have patience to wait for him to get into a proper gap in the woods. Tunnel vision. Map: Red line is the bird, purple is where he flew. Mine is obviously the blue. Long story, not short : I played with, and watch this gobbler through binos for well over 2 hours before getting my chance. He's also kind of a badass that isn't afraid of coyotes any more than he has to be to stay alive. Heard him gobbling 2 fields away, after having a real aggressive hen come out and cackling at me when I called, around 830 or so. Fortunately didn't have the deeks out yet or I'm sure she would have had me pinned down for a while. She was belting out yelps looking for the other hen, then this gobbler started up about 4 yards away. She headed in his direction, and I followed. Alot of field between me and him. So I setup with the hen/jake deeks, and called to him for at least 30 minutes. He was gobbling like he was going to come in, but didn't. Another one started up a couple hundred yards behind me in the woods, which ticked him off further. I think that one was a jake, because I ran into a jake while I was watching the coyotes from across the fields. Eventually headed south to this big former cow field thats about 300 yards long and 150 wide that runs up a hill to some pines, with a sharp bank and thick saplings running down a steep hill below it. So I pack up the deeks, back up to the other side of a hedge row, and start heading closer to see what he's up to. As I'm watching him from 400 yards away, two coyotes tried to put the stalk on him! He quite matter of factly flew up into an oak tree maybe 15 feet off the ground, putted at them a couple times and just watched. He might as well have given them the finger. Once the coyotes buggered off he hopped out the tree and resumed his strutting at the top of a long field, with hundreds of yards of vision all around him. I had moved up to behind this old barn while he was distracted, so I'm maybe 300 yards away now. There was no way to not get busted when he was out in the field. I see him head under the pines, and decided to make my move. Leave the decoys at the barn. Drop down, as quickly as someone who isn't allowed to run with a 3 month old ACL can go, through a marshy field, below that steep lip of the field he was in, into the saplings / brush below the field. There's a decent sized stream running through the bottom of the field and it was running pretty hard. Setup on hummock, before the stream (which is also the property line to the lease I can't hunt anymore #bitter). Start calling, that bird starts up again up in the pines. Get him going then I clam up. First 5 minutes he didn't move, then he starts down the hill. Instead of calling I did some scratching in the leaves to keep his interest peaked. Takes him about 30 minutes, and finally I see him on the other side of the stream, which has a bed about 8 feet below eye levels. Wait til he's behind a tree and just HAMMER the mouth call and he cuts me off, spitting, drumming, the whole 9. I pitched my call so it sounded like it was on the other side of the hummock I was on, so "she" is just out of sight of him. He's fired up now. Unfortunately where he's strutting is way to brushy for a shot even though he's probably 25 yards away. Eventually he gets mad enough to go down IN the stream bed and that's when I hammer it again, scratch, get my gun up and safety off, 100% ready. He takes his time coming up, but instead of coming close hes further down, and the hillock is blocking everything but his big white head. Still REALLY brushy, no easy openings. Eventually he gets to top of the hummock where he can see down the other side, in a half decent opening (I thought), and that head goes uuuuuuuuuuuuup, and I knew the jig was up. Took the shot, new pins right on his eyeball (mistake). He disappears and I'm elated for about 1 second before I see him cruising on down the valley. S.O.B.

Congrats! I was wearing that same hat today

No, at the farm. I'll post more later just sick right now.

I suck. Did everything right and hit some saplings instead of the gobbler at 20.

Playing with one that's all henned up, they headed in the direction of my freshly planted food plot.

Windy, 38, they gobbled, hit the ground and shut up, same as yesterday. They'll be in the fields once that sun is up.

Yeah, one got me on the wrist, had to pick another off my neck. Can't find the damn thermacell either!

I had 2 chances, blew em both. Second one was super aggressive and caught me setting up.

Nice! Which one?

Pretty nice out now, rained for an hour or so. All set up on the food plot with the decoys.

Raining here, wind isn't bad. 2 gobbled at 550, on the lease in between my 2 properties. Not a peep since. In the clouds at 2k feet. Gonna go try the fields, woods are noisy.

Foggy up here, light southeast breeze. Listening for gobblers in the middle of the farm, nobody so far.

Doesn't seem too bad out there, but my house is sheltered from the south east. I'll most likely cruise the side of the property that's out of the wind. Good luck people!