rybohunter

Congrats on the bird, that is a nice one.Sounds like a pretty good sized bird. You got any pics? If you need them posted shoot me an email.
I can't wait till our season comes in this saturday, I scouted my areas and I should have a decent chance this season. It'll be tougher, I'm trying the bow. Me are quick are heading out for a hunt together too. That will be fun.

shed33

Hey guys,

AR, congrats! Looking forward to some pics.

Guys I'm pretty much behind here in HNI, due to the closing date of our ranch sneeking up on me the first week of May. I sure hope it all goes through, the wife and I have been out there moving and all the other stuff that goes along with selling a home, I have also been juggling the burning of brush on my logging jobs, its that time of the season. I can't remember the last time I have had a day off on the weekends. I hope to slip out for bear this weekend one evening after work. Oh yeah we are dog sitting for our neighbors too! Does life slow down?

On another note my son Jess and I were able to geton a really nice tom on Easter. It was great having him with me. We used our shotgun, I have some pictures, they are not the best as it snowed and sleeted on us pretty hard that morning. My wife wouldnt even allow me to bring the camera outside, she shot the photos from the door way the weather was so bad. Anyway we already ate the bird! he was delicious! He had inch longspurs and a 9.5 inch thick beard. I would guess from holding him that he weighed about 22-23 lbs..Jess and I tried and tried to call him from his hens, just using my voice, he wouldnt come,he would strut our way then move back to his hens(guess i need more practice) with the weather being so bad, I told Jess I thought we could sneak around the birds once they got out of sight as they were headed down a draw. We did just that, set up behind a big clump of brush and trees and waited, as the birds camedown and past we shot him at 25 yards. He had no idea we were there. It sure spooked the heck out of the hens he was traveling with!

Good luck to you guys on your bird hunting. Are you guys bow hunting them? I can buy an additional turkey tag for May if I choose too. If I wasnt so busy with the selling of our other place I would for sure. I will wait and see.

Have a good one fellas,
Troy

quiksilver

Congrats on the turkeys fellas.

AR - I'm guessing that you're now overcome with Spring Fever! Man, there isn't much more fun to be had than going out on a nice spring morning and dialing up a nice tom.

Rybo - we're definitely on for May 6. I went out scouting twice.Last week, I saw11 bearded birds on the farm that we'll be hunting (4 were jakes). I had the varmint rig out there trying to kill some groundhogs, so I got dialed in on them at 32x - no visible double beards or anything, but a few really nice longbeards - at least two of which appear to be 3+ years old.I'll PM you my phone number and we'll arrange a meeting place. We'll be hunting near Waynesburg in Greene County. That's a straight shot down I-79.I was out there again Saturday, and there are some new hunters invading my hunting grounds (as usual)- some guys from NWTF were out there last week, supposedly guiding a youth (but I didn't see any youths around). Anyway, they got blanked and were leaving the fields by 9:30. These birds are infamous for being very hard to kill, so I'm hoping those guys abandon this place in search of more vocal turkeys and greener pastures.

Troy - congrats on the Tom - I'd imagine theyoungster was pretty excited about that whole experience. I didn't know you guys were closing on a ranch. Good luck with that - I know there's a lot of unforeseen work that pops up with such things - appointments, inspections, meetings, sign this, sign that, utilities, repairs, blah blah blah. It'll be worth it when it's over. Take a day off and get out there after a bear.

BOW HNT

Hi Guys - I am still kicking - in recupiration mode now - but a ton of clean-up. The last three weeks of tax season just plain SUCK!

Congrats on the toms! I cannot wait to see some pic's!

AR - I can still picture my first turkey hunt as if it were yesterday, there is just something about a fired up tom strutting and gobbling that gets into one's blood...and stay there! - just cannot seem to shake it.

Troy - was that the first time you had Jess out on a turkey hunt with you? - I cannot remember how old he is, sorry.

I have not been out yet- will be getting out sometime - but not exactly sure when yet. I have had Garrett in the turkey blinds with us the last two years (he is 4 now) last year he stuck his head out of the blind to get a better look at a hen (standing there looking at him at 45 yards). He started yelping at her with his voice and she yelped back for 2 or 3 minutes then walked into the timber - and hung arround the blind for half an hour. We are not sure what he told her - but it seemed to be the right thing. I about fell off my stool laughing!

Quick - sorry about the delay, I will get some prints out to you this week. Glad to hear you and Ryan are going to get out on a hunt together - that will be a blast!

Good luck to everyone else out chasing the long beards!

Mike

shed33

Mike,

Good to hear from you. Yup Jess's first turkey hunt/harvest with me. He turned five just a few days prior to that. He's hooked! He says I need to buy an additional tag come May 1st ..cause he wants to get another...The turkey cooked up real nice, My wife merinated it and then made a glaze for baking it. Yummy! The boys Jess and Ty are still fighting over the beard! and The tail feathers are tacked to a board and drying for hanging..later on..

Good luck to you guys if you get a chance to get out.

Rybo and Quick, good luck guys!

Troy

quiksilver

Drying out turkey tailfeathers and squirrel tails... those were the days...

I remember thinking I was king of the world when I got my first turkey. I had the tail salted up and tacked to a piece of plywood and showed everyone that came by,like it was some kind of world record. LOL

Turkey hunting is perfect for taking kids out, because it's a lot of excitement andwandering around. Not much time to get bored. It's also usually pretty warm, which makes it nice. They can get a little fidgety after sitting a while, but man do they get excited to hear those gobblers. Glad to hear he made for a good feast. I'm getting hungry just hearing you talk about it.

Are any of you guys picking any morels yet? I looked for some on Saturday, but no luck. I did manage to stumble onto a few ginseng plants though, which was unexpected. I'll go back later and check on them.

rybohunter

Well today was Quick and I's turkey hunt. What a nice area he's got down there. Fran's plan would have worked perfectly if not for one hen roosted a little further up the hillside than expected. We had unknowingly set up directly under her and she spooked out pretty early. However, all was not lost and we had a bit of a stand off with 3 other hens andthe gobbler, all roosted within 50-60 yds. Despite our best calls we couldn't quite coax the rest of the birds to our setup. They wanted to come our way but were just a little too hesitant, as they stayed on roost until 700 am before pitching out and down the hillside.
There were other birds gobblingearly,we didn't count since we were focused on our own birds. We passed up an attempt to setup on a couple jakes we caught out feeding, heard some other birds and started calling to them, but another hunter cruising thru the area squashed those plans. We spent the rest of themorningtrying to find another gobbler to play, but they were being pretty tight lipped.
A good day in the turkey woods, edge of your seat tension waiting on those birds to fly down this morning, I had a great time hunting with Fran.

quiksilver

We'll get 'em next time Ryan. I think we might've been in business if that guy hadn't walked through the field - the more I think about it, I think he was the guy who was parked along that top road (by where the gobblers crossed the road in front of us). It's not that far of a hike between those two points. Oh well, that's what you deal with on a Saturday around here.

Had a good time though, and those birds in morning gave us a good show.

shed33

Hey Guys!

Great to hear you had a good time and got to hunt together. Just a little side note, thanks guys ... Dee's dad is doing quite well and is recovering very well from the stroke. Thanks for your thoughts/prayers. We had a very nice weekend with him in Seattle. Also, I sold my place! Yahoo...We are meeting with our contractor this week to start on our addition to ourcurrent home and building a new shop! I can't wait to see Ryan, Mike and J for elk this fall. God willing we now can have a great set up for you guys when you come out.

I am pretty stoked to say the least today! God has been good to my wife and I this week after such a scarey start to it with her dad.

Troy



OBTW, my wife and I sat down at Anthonys to eat in the Seattle airport yesterday and Tom Nelson and crew from AMERICAN ARCHER were sitting right next to us... My wife wanted me to introduce myself, but I am one that won't bother folks...anyway...we had a good trip considering the circumstances

rybohunter

Troy,
That is great news, I'm glad to hear he's doing well.
Also glad you sold your place.Buying or selling houses/farms etc is a huge time consuming deal. 4 months to the day and we'll be arriving out there to chase some elk. It seemed like just a few weeks ago that we were at 10 months and just getting things rolling.

That's pretty neat about seeing the American Archer crew. I actually watched an episode this morning. I think they put on a decent show.