Bwana
05-21-2013, 09:34 AM
...longbeard that is. :)
The youngest boy has shot a fair number of turkeys throughout his short career but they have either been jakes or hens and since his sister shot a dandy longbeard on her first hunt
1104
he felt that he needed to get one of his own and said he wasn't shooting a turkey this spring unless it was a gobbler.
The plan was made to hunt this past Sunday even though the weather man called for wind and rain. Given how often these gents get the forecast right, (not very often) the alarm was set for just after 3 am so we could be out the door by 4 am. Thanks to some drunken bozo who called the wrong number twice at 2:15 am the day got off to an even early time then planned but that was good as the fog was terrible on the drive to the ranch we would be hunting.
We get to our destination and set up the decoys and blind in the dark while a light rain is sprinkling down on us. No big deal, this won't affect the birds and it didn't but the 25+ MPH winds and rain that started shortly after crawling into the blind sure did. Given our eternal optimism and the fact I knew we would get soaked as soon as we left the blind we stuck it out for 3 hours without seeing or hearing a single turkey.
We decided to head back down the road to a place where we had seen some turkeys roosted on our way in that morning to see if we could locate them in order to see if there were any toms in the bunch and yes we did get wet taking everything down and back to the pickup. Got to the area where the birds had been roosted and I spotted a hen with 3 jakes in tow but as soon as they saw us they literally headed for the hills which are VERY steep right there. It was then that I noticed a couple of bigger toms that had been lagging behind but when the other birds took off so did they. Knowing a bit about how the birds react in this area we headed around to the backside of the ridge with the intention of intercepting the birds at the top. Though it was a quick and slippery climb my plan worked and the boy connected with one of the gobblers which made both of us VERY happy and for some reason we never even noticed the pouring rain until it came time to for him to tag his bird. Focus is a good thing when in pursuit. ;)
Sorry for the crappy pictures but I didn't have a camera with me on the hunt and it was still raining when we got home so this is as good as it gets.
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The youngest boy has shot a fair number of turkeys throughout his short career but they have either been jakes or hens and since his sister shot a dandy longbeard on her first hunt
1104
he felt that he needed to get one of his own and said he wasn't shooting a turkey this spring unless it was a gobbler.
The plan was made to hunt this past Sunday even though the weather man called for wind and rain. Given how often these gents get the forecast right, (not very often) the alarm was set for just after 3 am so we could be out the door by 4 am. Thanks to some drunken bozo who called the wrong number twice at 2:15 am the day got off to an even early time then planned but that was good as the fog was terrible on the drive to the ranch we would be hunting.
We get to our destination and set up the decoys and blind in the dark while a light rain is sprinkling down on us. No big deal, this won't affect the birds and it didn't but the 25+ MPH winds and rain that started shortly after crawling into the blind sure did. Given our eternal optimism and the fact I knew we would get soaked as soon as we left the blind we stuck it out for 3 hours without seeing or hearing a single turkey.
We decided to head back down the road to a place where we had seen some turkeys roosted on our way in that morning to see if we could locate them in order to see if there were any toms in the bunch and yes we did get wet taking everything down and back to the pickup. Got to the area where the birds had been roosted and I spotted a hen with 3 jakes in tow but as soon as they saw us they literally headed for the hills which are VERY steep right there. It was then that I noticed a couple of bigger toms that had been lagging behind but when the other birds took off so did they. Knowing a bit about how the birds react in this area we headed around to the backside of the ridge with the intention of intercepting the birds at the top. Though it was a quick and slippery climb my plan worked and the boy connected with one of the gobblers which made both of us VERY happy and for some reason we never even noticed the pouring rain until it came time to for him to tag his bird. Focus is a good thing when in pursuit. ;)
Sorry for the crappy pictures but I didn't have a camera with me on the hunt and it was still raining when we got home so this is as good as it gets.
1105
1106
1107