Helped my Almost dad get call in a turkey! Guess it pays off!
Made The Wausau Daily Herald. Sweet!
Wet and wild: Some hunters strike quickly
By Jim Lee
Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
WITTENBERG Wet weather and birds still in large winter flocks greeted central Wisconsin hunters as the spring turkey season opened last week.
Dick Schoepke, 60, Tigerton, teamed with Cory Hakola, 17, to bag a 19-pound gobbler shortly after daylight.
They used a slate call along with a push-button box call to draw in a vocal, strutting tom.
"We were in the woods by 4:45 a.m.," Schoepke said. "We knew where the turkeys were roosted. ... We snuck through a swamp and just decided to let the birds do what they wanted to do. It wasn't raining that much ... but it made it quieter and a little easier to sneak closer to the birds. They didn't gobble until 5:45 a.m., and then they really started gobbling. They gobbled at geese honking ... they gobbled at everything.
"We were in the midst of a whole bunch of turkeys ... with at least eight gobblers. ... The main group of turkeys flew down and headed to a nearby field, but one gobbler held back. We thought he might be a candidate to sucker in ... and he was."
Schoepke, who has hunted turkeys for almost 15 years, beamed.
"The initial stocking of wild turkeys in Shawano County about 1992 took place on my land," he said.
"I never thought they'd survive, and I certainly never thought we'd be hunting them.
"This isn't the biggest gobbler I've taken ... but it certainly made my day."
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Nothing like hearing that gobbler break the crisp morning air.
Sounds good: it is a good news story about re-stocking turkeys, a great story about bagging the quarry and good to hear something about hunting made the paper! [8D]
WOOOHOOO!!!...that is awesome!!....i especially like the fact the the initial restocking program all started on his place....a 'full circle' kinda story...very cool!!..
I've known him many years now. I spend alot of time with him. I consider him as almost my father. Because he's really the closest thing to a father figure I have. He tought me how to be a man. And got me to be a young hard working kid and a respectable one at that. Wich was alota work. I was a snot nosed punk.
He told me all about in 1991 when the UWSP came to his place and disscused the release of 9 turkeys on his land. He had no problem with it. They released the turkeys that came from Missouri (sorry on spelling if wrong)
He watched them in his feilds from the house everyday pickin the bugs. Winter was starting and UWSP was going there often with spotting scopes and radars to locate the turkeys. Most of the time they roosted on his land. They would watch the turkeys in his feild and take notes of there habits and patterns. Then Spring came. Richard bought a turkey call. wich to this day he uses. Lohman 870 (his baby) And got the turkeys to gobble and strutt in his feild. Exentually the college students stop coming to his home and the turkeys took off big time. When turkey hunting started they actually came to decoys. And wernt call shy. Things change!
I'm just thankfull to have such an awsome role model. This Sunday (23rd) Him and I are going to Wyoming. Hopfully we fill our tags
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Nothing like hearing that gobbler break the crisp morning air.
Made The Wausau Daily Herald!!!!!!!
