Here's a report from one of those turkey hunting "idiots".

Just got back from the Turkey capital of the Northwest (Stevens County). Went over with my father on May 1st. Arrived at the first property we had permission to hunt the afternoon of the 1st to check in with the property owner. He told us the previous parties that hunted his property had killed 7 birds. This is on his property totalling 200 acres, with several hundred adjacent state land acres. I was both excited and a little disappointed. I was wondering just how many birds his property could produce in one season. We decided to wait until late afternoon to hit his property to try to find a roosting bird to work the following morning.

Went up the road a bit to the next property I had permission to hunt out the Hunters-Springdale Road. I hunted this property last year but found no birds on it. Thought I would give it a try again this year because it looks like it should produce. I covered a lot of this property looking for sign and trying to elicit a shock gobble. Heard no gobbles and only found three old piles of hen droppings. Left a little disappointed but decided to check back in a couple of days.


Returned to the first property for an evening of scouting. I covered a large portion of it using locator calls and never heard a peep. All of the sign we saw appeared several days old. Kind of figured they were hit so hard the previous two weeks that they were pretty scatterred and call-shy. We planned to hunt it the following morning covering even more of the property looking for a bird to work. (At the rate I am progressing with this e-mail I can see it is going to take me forever to finish so I 'll try to take a little wind out of it.) I spent the following day hunting this property HARD trying to find a bird that wanted to talk a little. I also hunted the other property, as well as some public land a little farther north that has held birds in the past. The only gobbling I heard was while I was standing on the east shore of the Columbia river from birds on the WEST shore of the Columbia. The next two days was more of the same. Not one gobble! I felt like I was hunting in Pacific county it was so quiet. I felt bad for dragging my dad all around the woods so soon after he had his 69th birthday. Afterwards he told me I took two more years off of his life. Anyway, we were frustrated to say the least. We decided to sleep in this morning and pass on the property where all of the birds had been killed earlier in the season. After hunting elsewhere in the mid-morning we stopped off at the property owners house to say goodbye and to give him some elk sausage as a thank you. As we were leaving he mentioned that another party that arrived to hunt had gotton a bird that morning up next to the highway in the only spot we hadn't looked. I was focusing on the remote outer edges of the state land adjacent to his, thinking that's where heavily hunted birds would go, especially since the only way to access this state land is by water or another property owner who isn't real friendly to hunters. Obviously I was wrong. So I guess that's what it means when they say, "that's turkey hunting!"

The trip wasn't an entire waste of time though. I did manage to break a brand new never-tried-in-the-field turkey call. That Cody glass probably wouldn't have worked very well anyway. And here's more good news: the ticks seem to be doing quite well this year. I have never picked so many off before!

I do believe I have had about enough of turkey hunting . . . at least until about next February when I will convince myself that "this will be my breakthrough year".

Slee, good luck! I sincerely hope you have much better news to share upon your return. As long as you aren't relying on any idiots like me you should do fine!