Turkey week at camp.

reeltime · May 28, 2017

I will split this into 2 entries so as to not bore ya with a long winded note. Lol.

What a week at camp. As previously posted I filled my pa tags on sat 5/20 and then bird 2 on 5/22.

Dad and I have been working on a hay implement barn and while working on it tuesday he took a bad spill from a step ladder. Dad is 83 but works like a 40 year old, he has had some medical issues the last few years and is on blood thinners.

Needless to say mom took him to the er to get checked because of the blood thinners. All x-rays came back ok but he was pretty bruised up and was not able to work.

I was still scouting and Jason and matt were due to arrive wed. To hunt out the week. I had a few birds located.

Thu. Am we awoke to absolute downpours. Jason took one of my blinds I have for the youth hunts and went to hunt one of the active birds I had located.

I was on the road checking on my properties for birds and trespassers at 8 am it was still raining so I loaded dad in the truck and off we go for more lumber.

By the time I got back it has eased to a slight drizzle and matt and Jason were back and dried out.

I went through my book and decided where we needed to go. Before we could reach out spot I had a bird hammer the bomber and game on. Got the birds in to range for matt but he opted not to shoot as we wanted jason to get his first pa longbeard. A hen finally intercepted them and off they went. Rest of the day Was a waste as it pouted rain from 5 Pm on.

My mind wasn't into the hunt as mom was taking dad back in for more x-rays because he could barely lift his right arm. When they got back at 10 pm they had diagnosed him with a possible torn rotator cuff.

Friday morning was more rain, jason was back after the pasture runner bird and matt and I headed back to the previous days field. We had some hens come in but none of the boys in tow which wasn't a problem as they are 3 yo. Birds.

So matt and I are off in search of one of my target birds. As we are just about to one of my farms we see an animal flailing around in a field with something blue over its head and neck.

It took a minute to figure out that it was a deer with what I thought was a feed bag stuck on its head. This deer was going crazy and looked to be about to go down.

We bailed out of the truck to see what we could do, I will admit that after my experience last fall with a deer I was not real eager to go through another battle with a wild deer.

As the deer was flailing around the bag came off and as far as i know she may still be running. It ended up being a plastic water softener salt bag, likely she was trying to luck the salt residue from the bag and it got stuck.

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reeltime · May 28, 2017

So after the run in with the deer we hit a few more properties with no luck and then we found one of the target birds and it was game on.

Where this bird lives is about the most perfect spot for survival and for 3 plus years he has been king on that hill.
He was along a 2 acre piece of thin woods surrounded by 200 acres of fields with a power line running through the middle of it.
We used terrain to get to the high side of the woods undetected, but we were FAR from being where I knew WWE needed to be to get this bird to not only respond but to be willing to move to the area so he would have a shot.
We knew from the number of vehicles stopping on the road he was still there and it was 10 am.

I said we need to get to that triple trunked maple that's covered in poison ivy.....Geesh the look I got..
I said it gets better we need to belly crawl to that tree and this whole piece of cover is full of poison ivy, you wanna kill that bird that tree is the only one that's gonna work.

It took forever to get there and we never made a sound and moved what seemed like thousands of twigs from our prone crawling path but we finally made it to the tree.

I could see his fan as he strutted for his ladies but way too far for a shot. A few really soft clucks got his attention which is all I wanted as this bird turns into the road runner at the least bit of aggressive calling.

There is a jake in the group and while we are waiting he flies up on a blow down branch and tucks his head in and is sound asleep. Never had a bird do that during the day. Lol

It seemed like an hour we watched him ever so slowly inch towards us then back to his ladies. When all of a sudden I hear a live hen right next to us at about 5 yards.
She is getting more aggressive and I can not even look as I am on the binoculars on the target bird to make sure the satellite doesn't get shot.

The target bird charges ahead as he can see the live hen.... now she starts to putt which causes him to slam on the brakes and snap his head up.. a quick double check to make sure all birds are clear and I said kill that bird on the right. As the gun roared and he was down.

Unreal hunt and I am sure we are both going to be covered in poison ivy but that bird was worth it.

Light weight at 18 lbs.
Spurs 1 3/8" & 1 5/16"
Beard 10 1/2"
Fan measured 32" tip to tip
Time of kill 1:11 pm

We get back to camp and while matt is dressing out his bird jason pulls in.

He gives congrats and proceeds to give his account of his days activity. He rambles on about hearing all the birds, seeing birds, getting screwed up on birds but ultimately sticking to the plan because he knew I wouldn't put him in a bad spot.

When he is going on and on about his hunt he says he needs to grab a smoke from his truck and proceeds back with his first ever pa longbeard!!
Well that got some hearty congrats all the way around and sure seemed to take a huge weight off my shoulders as he has been trying for 5 years to get it done.

It's been a good year for us here at camp, we put some nice hooks on the ground even with terrible weather conditions and hunting pressure. 6 longbeards and a jake between 2 youth hunters and 3 adult hunters.

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