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Turkey hunting weekend-3 birds
Posted On: 04/28/2008 22:59:52
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First off, I have to thank the good Lord for a great weekend of friends, fun, and of course turkey hunting. The weather was supposed to be bad but turned out the weather man was wrong (surprise suprise) and it actually turned out pretty nice. I got to my buddy Kyle's grandparents house at about 2:30 on Thursday afternoon and me and Kyle's uncle Steve headed out about 5. So........here goes the story of my weekend.
Thursday:
5:00-Set up on the edge of a small green patch in the middle of a 40 acre timber. Steve sets up about 200 yards to the east of me on the edge of another opening.
5:30ish-I have two does come in and catch scent of me and blow out. I figured my evening was probably shot because of that.
6:14-Here a gobble to my east but thought it was at least a 1/4 mile off.
6:30-BANG. Steve scared the snot out of me while he gave the first gobbler of the weekend a dirt nap. I sat for another hour and saw nothing.
Steve's bird-21 lbs., 9'' beard, 3/4'' spurs
Friday morning
5:30-Me and Kyle's grandpa head out to a ridge that runs along a crick for about a mile. Started on top of the ridge at the very south end and listen for a gobble. We heard one off to the north and thought he was roosted down towards the bottom so we headed to the bottom of the ridge.
6:00-Just about ready to sit down and with no warning what so ever it starts DOWNPOURING. This wasn't rain. It was a monsoon. Only rained for a half hour but we got an inch.
7:05-A hen flies from the top of the ridge down to the bottom and makes her way to our decoy. She gets to the decoy and starts clucking yelping. First time she yelped a gobbler immediately answered her from the top of the ridge about 100 yards behind us. IN BUSINESS. She continues her thing and he keeps hammering away and at one time was probably less than 70 yards away but he just wouldn't fly down to the bottom.
8:00-Hadn't heard the gobbler for about twenty minutes so we moved off.
9:00-Spot a group of three toms and a couple jakes with 9 hens. We skirted around behind them and tried to get them to come our way and they did but just wouldnt commit. The gobblers strutted their stuff for about an hour only 100 yards from us.
1:00p.m.-Kyle shows up at his grandparents. He thought he was gonna get there Thursday night but got caught up with an assignment at school so had to take care of that first.
4:30-I head out with Kyle's grandpa and he heads out with Steve.
5:00-The birds we had spotted at 9:00 were still hanging around the same spot with the hens. Not sure why those hens never went to nest. They were making their way up a fenceline so as quickly as we could we made our way to cut them off and hopefully get in front of them.
5:30-I am against a fence line about 100 yards ahead of them, or so I thought. There was one lone oak tree that I was planning on using to sit against. It was right at the top of a crest at top of a hill so I was belly crawling to the tree. As I am about five yards from the tree I look up and realize that all the hens, nine of them, were only 60 yards away and comin' my way. I stopped right there and just sat against the barbedwire fence in the wide open. I hadn't seen the toms with them but figured they were somewhere close. The hens make their way to the top of the hill with me and continue feeding. With eighteen sets of eyes I thought I was toast for sure.
5:40-The hens still haven't noticed me so I figure Im sitting pretty good.
5:42-VMMMMMMMMM VMMMMMM. Oh yeah. I can hear one drumming just over the top of that crest. Turned out to be a couple of them.
5:43-5:49-Watched the show. The dominant bird strutted, spitted, and drummed and was really pushing one of the hens to breed.
5:50-The hen finally gives in and lays down. He went to mount her and finally came out of strut giving me my shot. Pulled the trigger and he didn't move a muscle. I was to him before I even knew I was up. I could barely breath I was so excited. I get pretty excited when it comes to hunting. Anyway, he was a great bird and a tank at that. 26 lbs., 9 1/2'' beard, 1 1/4'' spurs. I was one happy hunter.
Saturday
I still went out of course to observe. We saw alot of birds and had lots of action but failed to fill any tags. Also, Kyle's dad got there Saturday afternoon after running in the Drake Relays half marathon.
Sunday morning
I decided that since I had been up early the last couple mornings I'd sleep in since I had my tag filled.
7:45-Got up and was getting ready to take a shower when Kyle's grandma knocked on the bathroom door and said that there was a dead turkey outside. Brent (Kyle's dad) killed his first turkey. He's been doing it since 1990 but somehow just hasn't had luck fall his way. He loves to hunt but could really care less if he shoots anything or not. He is just there to have a good time and enjoy himself which is what hunting is all about. That doesn't mean he wasn't excited. He got a real good bird. 23 lbs., 10'' beard, 1'' spur. He had some fun with the pics  .
Obviously, we had alot of fun. Great weekend, lots of laughs, and a few good birds. Doesn't get a whole lot better.
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