Live From The Woods 2020 Turkey Edition

[rachunter]

Been a rough four days. All the roads are still closed so I’m limited to paved roads which everyone else is hunting too. Not one gobble, but did call in a lone hen. Might head down to the southern zone tomorrow. I haven’t hunted down there in 8 years, but at this point I have nothing to lose.
Congrats on all the nice birds so far!!!
Good luck everyone still hunting.


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[ApexerER]

3 hours ago, blackbeltbill said:

Cynthia is to my right. Hen Decoy out. Calls laid out. Yup-- that is a Clam Shell.

Pulling for you guys!

[cynthiafu]

1 hour ago, Belo said:

i've learned with turkey, hearing a shotgun blast doesn't mean any bird died and in fact it's like a 50/50 haha.

 

but still, i've also learned that they don't like being shot at and can get skittish real quick and become much, much harder to hunt.

I agree lololol  I did another miss today ugh . Bill is going to get sick of me soon lolol

[cynthiafu]

I need some one to cage one for me so I can tackle it instead lololol

[cynthiafu]

1 minute ago, blackbeltbill said:

Never. Everybody misses at some point.  We will get on the right Bird and the right setup. 

He has to be tied up lololol so I can hit him with the gun .  I would miss and hit my leg lololol

[cynthiafu]

I am loving it . Those deer busting us this morning didnt help .

[mlammerhirt]

Awesome dedication guys! The bird that Cynthia finally will drop needs a full mount done to remember this pursuit!

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[Five Seasons]

56 minutes ago, cynthiafu said:

I agree lololol  I did another miss today ugh . Bill is going to get sick of me soon lolol

I missed or rolled my first 2 or 3 birds. I know turkey comes easy to some, but for me it's 10x harder then deer. Be glad you've got the legend calling for you. That'll help to continue bringing them in and for me that was always the hardest part. You're doing a lot of things right by not getting busted. So lets hang our hat on that!

[cynthiafu]

Being a deer hunter for so long you would think I would know more about turkeys but I don't lol. Never was interested  but then I got into pheasant  and the turkeys  . I will get one sooner or later

[2012_taco]

I just spent the last 3 hours catching up on this site. I've been out of internet reach for 4 days hunting a friends place in Birdsall. Too windy to try roosting on wednesday, pouring all day on thursday, hunted state land on friday, got 1 to gobble at 11:30 too far to be able to work it. Got beat to my parking spot on Saturday, had to go to plan B, never heard a bird. Sunday I went back to area I heard the gobbler on friday, never heard a bird. Didn't see much in the way of scratching in the woods and I hiked a ton  this weekend. I seriously think the bird population is way down in that area?  Slept in this am, I really needed it, between the hiking and the work at camp I'm exhausted! We did get a good start on the water system for the cabin, I'll post a couple of pics on that thread.

[Five Seasons]

3 hours ago, blackbeltbill said:

Thanks Belo- but really no Legend here.   A little better then Average  and hopefully improving

you're huntingny turkey hunting legend worthy at least

[The_Real_TCIII]

If this local bird isn’t here this morning I fear he was killed Saturday and I’ll have to drive 90 minutes next time I hunt


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[mlammerhirt]

Settled In....and ready for the woods to wakeup!

 

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[FLXmatt]

Woods are cold and silent this morning.  Good luck to those of you fortunate enough to be out here.

[mlammerhirt]

Dead quiet here......birds are here via proof of the cell cam....just not vocal..yet!

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[rachunter]

Good luck everyone.
I’m taking a break and regrouping. Going fishing later.


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[hunterdan44]

First time out for me this year. Clear and cold. Had two birds somewhat interested, but not enough to cross my neighbors field . Action was slow after that. Came in for coffee and head out in a little bit to see if I can stir one up. Love the cold! Saw a nice Tom in someone driveway on my way in. Good luck to all and congrats to the successful.


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[FLXmatt]

I was chased out of the woods at 7:00 by my own poop.

 

Back at it on Sate land.  Geez it’s crowded this year!

[Five Seasons]

2 hours ago, mlammerhirt said:

Dead quiet here......birds are here via proof of the cell cam....just not vocal..yet!

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to each his own, but man that's not how i'd hunt.

[mlammerhirt]

to each his own, but man that's not how i'd hunt.

No different than roosting a bird or observing them in fields.....but I guess to each their own!

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[Five Seasons]

Just now, mlammerhirt said:

No different than roosting a bird or observing them in fields.....but I guess to each their own!

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ha. it's very different. but i'll leave it at that so we don't muck up the thread. 

good luck!

[mlammerhirt]

ha. it's very different. but i'll leave it at that so we don't muck up the thread. 
good luck!

Gotcha!.....get out an hunt....less time trolling the live from the woods thread would help with that.

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[Five Seasons]

coleman makes a great travel tp roll you can find in walmarts camping section. never leave home without it, especially during turkey where i'm walking a lot.

[UpStateRedNeck]

On 5/3/2020 at 12:18 PM, UpStateRedNeck said:

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.

 

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.

[mowin]

1 hour ago, UpStateRedNeck said:

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.

Glad you got it figured out before you got another chance at him.