Turkey Hunting
2021 turkey reports
2/26/21 @ 6:20 PM
Displaying 16 to 30 of 49 posts
This morning I shot bird number 2 on the season and he did almost everything they're supposed to do. I arrived at my lease a little before first light and with no scouting in, I made my way to a ridgetop that typically holds birds in the spring and fall. I let out a couple of crow calls and nothing. This concerned me, but I wasn't overly worried with the history this spot has had. I made my way west and chose a nice pinch point to setup on in the corner of the property. As soon as I sat down I heard a bird gobble in the opposite direction of where I was facing. I quick got up, set my decoys to my east and got back to work. I made 3 yelps and nothing. So I grabbed my new Weathered Oaks pot call, made a few soft yelps and purrs and nothing. I figured I was just going to sit here and wait at this point since I knew a bird was there, I just didn't know how close he was. Sure enough a crow flies over and caws and the bird lights up at approximately 100 yards away. I grabbed my pot call again, let out a few yelps and purrs and just waited. After that I heard the bird fly down and immediately saw him strutting at 100 yards. I could just tell this bird was going to work my way. He was drumming, spitting and strutting the entire distance, only letting out a gobble when the crows pissed him off. I picked out one gap where my decoys were to take a shot, at this distance he would be 41 yards from me and well onto our land to safely make a shot. Sure enough, he follows his line right to this gap and pops out at 41 yards. He continues to strut and work his way to my decoy. I took the shot at 30 yards and the #5/6 TSS dropped him like a stone. It was 20 minutes from opening light to the time I shot this bird. He had an 11" beard and 1" spurs. I didn't get to weigh him, however he was surprisingly light compared to the bird I shot opening week. I love these spring mornings in the woods and I can't wait to do it again next week!.
Haven't been on the trigger for anything in a while with kids coming of age and a wife that decided if she couldn't beat em, join em and start hunting. Nobody wanted to get up and go along Saturday morning so I went alone. Wasn't half way through my mug of coffee and enjoying all the gobbles when three hens came through with a nice gobbler following not far behind. Nice to pull the trigger once in a while. Life is good in the woods.
My ten year old daughter, over the last year has learned so much about hunting. All the highs and lows and bumps and success that you want to kids to learn is part of the hunting lifestyle.
This morning everything finally worked out how we all know it can and I couldn't have been more happy for my young daughter! She got her very first turkey!
After hunting all week at different times and short time frames, today I saved a spot so we could sit for a few hours. A spot that has been very good to us in the past. Its just a little field about 1/2 mile walk in that toms seem to always use. Just as we got the blind and the decoys all set up at 5am, the first gobble rang out just 100 yards away. Over the next hour, we had about 10-12 different birds gobbling around us.
As the birds flew down the gobbling continued. I told her, we had to be patient because once the sun hits this field is when the turkey seem to make their way to it. Calling about every 15 mins. At about 6am...the sun popped out and shined on the field, we could hear birds spreading out around us. There was one bird that seemed to be making his away along a bench in the woods and getting closer.
They normally enter this field in one particular spot and they all seem to just appear from there. So I kept my eyes fixed on that area, my daughter who is half a sleep leaning on my shoulder goes "turkeys!" They had appeared straight in front of us, coming up over the hill. Blue sky background, green grass field, and two black shiny Toms 60 yards away. It was picture perfect. They hit the tip of the hill and both toms see our decoys, 2 hens and half strut jake decoy. Boom, biggest bird goes into strut and cover the next 40 yards not a foot apart from one another. As we are scrambling to get the gun ready for her to shoot and not be seen, these birds walked in perfectly. Finally she thought she was ready, I cocked the single shot 410 (one of the new turkey 410 guns, shooting tts out of it). I ask her if she was ready and she said yes! I said then you can pull the trigger when you are on it. About 3 seconds go by and bang! Both turkeys jump in thr air and scatter. My heart sank, clean miss at 18 yards.
I quickly grab the gun, put another shell in and call to try to stop them. Get the shell in, get her all set up. They stop and I said if you have a shot, take it again! BOOM! I see the turkey fly away. My heart sank again.
And she goes I got him! Here I was watching thr closest bird and she shot the farther one. Sure as sh.t I look and see a tail feather on the ground flopping. She rolled it. I lifted that blind up so fast and flew. I could of been at the NFL combine cuz I covered 40 yards in about 2 seconds. I step on his head and it was all over! 2nd shot was at 47 yards.
We both yell and screamed and jumped up and down! It was one of the best moments I ever have experienced. To see the look on her face and her reaction was truly amazing. She was beyond excited and couldn't believe it finally happened. This was truly a hunt of lifetime and I couldn't be happier and more proud of my daughter!
Here is the other amazing thing, this bird was an old big one and I never seen anything like it before. This bird had 5 beards. I never heard of that before. And I myself in 25 years of turkey hunting have never even shot a double beard. But this one had 5!
1: 2.5 inches
2: 1.5 inches
3: 2.5 inches
4: 3.5 inches
5: 9.5 inches
It had over 1.5 inch spurs and weight in at just under 19lbs.
This one will be going on the wall for sure and we took a pile of pictures! She deserves it all and now I am one happy dad!
I harvested my spring bird this morning. Here's pics of the group I've been hunting this week. The live pics are from Wednesday morning. This morning they fell for the old, "jake messing with hens" routine. First time I saw toms running in so fast that the dust was flying behind them! 24#, 10.5" beard, 1.5" spurs. Nice bird. Funny thing was I had to chase the second tom away as he was begging for it too. My neighbor has next season, so I left it for him and his boy.
About 6:15 this morning 2 toms came in and started gobbling. Couldn’t see them for about 5 min then here they come. They ran in to my decoys and started strutting. Had to wait a bit for them to split up then let the biggest of the 2 have it. Bout a 20 yds shot. 9.5” beard, 1 1/8” spurs and 23lbs.
First day, second season Barron county. One tom talking to me this morning. Could not get him to come out of the woods. Still out here, haven’t seen a bird. I think the last two winter’s have Hurt the flock by me. I can see a ways and Usually have hens and Jake’s all over the place. Hope I’m wrong.
Had a great season this year. Took a friend out on Saturday to try to get him his first turkey. Started the morning with a tom and 2 hens about 250 yds away. The tom wouldn't leave the hens and eventually fed their way into another field after a hour and a half. Shortly after that we heard another gobble responding the the calls and within seconds 2 toms came out of the woods charging right to the Jake decoy. Ryan drew his bow back and smoked the first turkey then moved over to give me room to draw and shoot. Second bird was still at 20 yds and the shot felt good but my bow string caught my slate call striker that was in my chest pocket and derailed the string off the cams and missing the turkey. Ryan's turkey ended up being a giant with an 11" beard and 1.5" spurs. We spent the rest of the day fixing my bow and the next couple days of hunting were uneventful with the cold shutting the turkeys down. Went out last night with my wife and had a tom come out at 85 yds. He was more interested in feeding but slowly came in and ended up strutting next to the decoy at 20 yds. Arrow zipped through him and he just stood there clueless for about 5 second before tipping over. Another great season in the books.
This year I hunted in zone one for the first time in a long time. I typically hunt zone 3 where I lease land. On opening day, we arrived in the late afternoon. We decided to spend that time checking out some lightly hunted public land and the private parcel that we would be hunting. We couldn't conjure up a call from any birds on either property. The public had a huge lack of sign compared to the previous week and the private had birds, but they were all henned up.
Thursday, day two was a bit different. 4 of us split up on my friend's private land we were hunting, my friend and his uncle had a very vocal bird so closely roosted, they could hear his feet on the branch he roosted on. Another friend had a bird nearby that was responsive and I had one lone hen above my head. We all could hear birds gobbling in all directions, but they went completely quiet around 7:30am. I had 3 jakes spot me shortly after 7:30 as I took a short restroom break, but I wasn't too bummed over that. Around 9 all 4 of us had the same bird responding to each of us, he seemed to be coming my way. He was closing the distance quickly until 2 deer spotted me, ran away and caused him to leave. The 4 of us spent the rest of the morning and afternoon splitting up and trying new areas, but with no responses until around 2:30. My friend, set up on a freshly tilled food plot and had a tom sneak in behind him. He came down a heavily brushed trail, giving my friend a 31 yard shot, but unfortunately it was a miss. I knew which way he ran, so I grabbed my gear and went after him.
Around 4pm I was set up and calling away, when I was pretty certain I heard a hen behind me. I took a glance, but saw nothing. Then around 15 minutes later, I was certain I heard the distinct spitting and drumming of a tom. If you hear that, then that bird is REALLY close. Again I glanced around the tree and saw nothing. Then with one crack of a stick, I looked to my right and there he was looking me dead in the eyes. He spotted me immediately and began to sound his warning putts. I had a clear shot, but on the wrong side of my body. I slowly rolled out of my turkey chair to the left to get a shot and away he went. I thought well, I screwed that up. I took out my phone to tell my buddies that I messed up and was coming back, but the bird kept putting and began circling around me. I never in 20+ years of turkey hunting, had a bird sound a warning and come back in again. I had no decoy out, but that bird wanted to know what was there. So I kept calling excitedly and he just kept working around me in a half moon. He gave me an opportunity, but he was standing on the neighbors property. I called once more and he stepped onto the right side of the property line, but again, he spotted me. Only this time, I had him in the perfect gap to shoot. I sent 3" of #9 TSS out of my 20ga Benelli Montefeltro at 41 yards and rolled him. Then he got up! Unfortunately in all of the excitement of the moment, I made the mistake of running to him without my gun. I grabbed my gun and ran back to put him down, but he was well onto the neighbors property at this point.
I called my buddy and said we had a problem, we needed permission from his neighbor, fortunately I knew where my bird laid down. The neighbor was very happy that we were respectful neighbors and took the time to talk to him rather than just going out there and retrieving the bird. I walked out to the field, after a quick search and a finishing shot, grabbed my bird and couldn't have been more happy for this opportunity. I had the privilege of harvesting the first animal off of my friend's new property, a mature Tom with a 9.5" beard and 1 1/8" spurs.
I spent the remainder of camp calling for my friend, however the birds went silent quick. They stopped responding to calls and even stopped calling off of the roost.
Even though we left with only one bird, all of us had opportunities and had the chance to build new relationships with the neighbors. As always, hunting turkeys was chaotic, surprising, rewarding and at times deflating. I truly love that we have the opportunity to hunt these birds.
My spots in Zone 1 had so much snow for so long that a lot of birds must not have made it though winter.
The flocks I saw last fall were down to a few birds total.
Far and few jakes unless you had a farmer spreading manure all winter in that deep snow.
I returned from out of state Saturday in time to scout. Got busted that afternoon trying to get close to one in crunchy woods.
I did take one of 2 Toms on a property in Dane County at 6am today.
It came in 5 minutes after gobbling many times to the few calls I made. Made a B-line towards the 2 decoys I put out on tilled field edge. Stopped directly in front of me at 20 yrds and stretched his neck for the final time.
I'm not sure if this was the one I got to come in last night at closing into the woods. I had a 20 yrd shot then but could not confirm a beard in dense brush. No way I could sneak on super dry cover to find an open spot as they all worked the field 60 yrds away.
Although the one I took looked pretty big, it only dressed out at 13.4 lbs. Beard was stubby and torn off looking...and spurs were nonexistent. Spurs were just nubs and little fat in it.
Glad I got one quick today.
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