Team 4 "Thunder Chickens"
04-26-2007, 11:13 AM
#241
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Cenral Illinois
Posts: 3,180
RE: Team 4 Check in.
Hey guys, I see the score thread has been updated, but we still only have one bird showing. I have already PM'd all of our scores to Pat and deerdust and sent Pat another PM just now about it. Hopefully they get posted soon.
04-29-2007, 09:10 AM
#242
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Butler Co, PA
Posts: 192
RE: Team 4 Check in.
Pretty interesting opener for me. Friday night we had this huge bird strutting out behind the house for about 4 hours and we watched him go up into the roost, and then we noticed a truck parked up on the hill watching him too. It was a guy from Penn United. Penn United owns this land and we have permission to hunt there as well but this is just a small tract of land and there's no sense in more than one person hunting there. He has more of a right to hunt there than we do so he went there for the opener. We went to the spot we hunt deer at and didn't hear anything at daybreak. I just called everyone 10 minutes or so and listening to other people calling all around me. Then the 4 longbeards that we've been seeing around that property started gobbling. There's one that's a year older than the other 3 and you can tell which one he is just because his gobble is so much raspier than the others. I could tell he was closer to me than the other 3 birds. Now I wouldn't consider myself a very good caller, so I was suprised when I realized he was coming into my call. When I could tell he was getting close I got my gun up and turned the way that I thought he would come. Then he gobbled once on the other side of the tree line so I moved and started pointing that way, and then low and behold he shows up on the side of the treeline that I was watching at first. He was huge too. Big body, 11"+ beard. Those birds are tricky.
Sorry team, I'm trying.
Apparently that guy from Penn United missed the bird. Well we saw the bird when we came back in from hunting and my grandma said she saw him leave really early, so my guess is that he missed and just left. I might slip in there tommorow morning if we see him tonight. Here's to hoping!
Sorry team, I'm trying.
Apparently that guy from Penn United missed the bird. Well we saw the bird when we came back in from hunting and my grandma said she saw him leave really early, so my guess is that he missed and just left. I might slip in there tommorow morning if we see him tonight. Here's to hoping!
04-29-2007, 01:13 PM
#243
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Central Va
Posts: 76
RE: Team 4 Check in.
just checkin in with you guys. i havent gotten on the board yet... trying to get one with a bow and no blind this season. i've called upseveral and i let the people i was with shoot 3 of them, one with 3 beards, which would have been nice for scoring. ive been bustedby 2 others trying to draw on them,and i have let at least7 or8 jakes walk. still got 3 weeks left though so dont worry, i wont let the TC's down! heres a link to a couple of mine and my friends hunts this season.
http://www.huntingfootage.com/showgallery.php?mcats=all&si=&what=allfiel ds&name=rrviper&when=0&whenterm=&c ondition=and
http://www.huntingfootage.com/showgallery.php?mcats=all&si=&what=allfiel ds&name=rrviper&when=0&whenterm=&c ondition=and
04-29-2007, 06:18 PM
#244
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location:
Posts: 24
RE: Team 4 "Thunder Chickens"
Hey all,
Got my first turkey this past saturday morning in FDL county in Wisconsin. It was my first time ever out for turkeys and man was it an experience. My dad and I were hunting an alfalfa field were a buddy of mine saw 3 nice toms. Not too much gobbling in the morning, a few here and there in different directions. Saw the first hen at 6am, the second at 6:15. I hit the call around 6:30am and then i heard a really close gobble. Looked out of the blind behind us and there he was in full strut with a hen. The hen just kept on walkin away from him, but he was hot on her until I called again and his head snapped in my decoys direction. Took him half an hour to get over by us and he was within 15 yards at one point but i couldnt get a shot. Finally, he noticed something was up when the decoys werent moving and he slowly started walking away. As soon as he cleared the fence line at 30 yards i got a shot and rolled him. I ended up having 9 shots to his head/neck and was a nice clean kill. He weighed 23.5 lbs, 3/4 in spurs on both sides, and an 8 5/8in beard. He scored 55.75 according to NWTF. I will post the pictures tonight or tomorrow. I am definitley hooked for life!
Later,
Paul
Got my first turkey this past saturday morning in FDL county in Wisconsin. It was my first time ever out for turkeys and man was it an experience. My dad and I were hunting an alfalfa field were a buddy of mine saw 3 nice toms. Not too much gobbling in the morning, a few here and there in different directions. Saw the first hen at 6am, the second at 6:15. I hit the call around 6:30am and then i heard a really close gobble. Looked out of the blind behind us and there he was in full strut with a hen. The hen just kept on walkin away from him, but he was hot on her until I called again and his head snapped in my decoys direction. Took him half an hour to get over by us and he was within 15 yards at one point but i couldnt get a shot. Finally, he noticed something was up when the decoys werent moving and he slowly started walking away. As soon as he cleared the fence line at 30 yards i got a shot and rolled him. I ended up having 9 shots to his head/neck and was a nice clean kill. He weighed 23.5 lbs, 3/4 in spurs on both sides, and an 8 5/8in beard. He scored 55.75 according to NWTF. I will post the pictures tonight or tomorrow. I am definitley hooked for life!
Later,
Paul
04-29-2007, 08:13 PM
#245
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Contoocook NH USA
Posts: 818
RE: Team 4 "Thunder Chickens"
Chalk oneup for MK-M-GOBL 
I took my WV gobbler opening day and ended up missing on two other nice gobblers through out the week [
] The story and photos will have to come tomorrow. I literally just got home 1/2 an hour ago.
He came in at
Your score is 22.5 + 10 + 10 + 19 = 61.5
I took my WV gobbler opening day and ended up missing on two other nice gobblers through out the week [] The story and photos will have to come tomorrow. I literally just got home 1/2 an hour ago. He came in at
Your score is 22.5 + 10 + 10 + 19 = 61.5
04-30-2007, 07:39 AM
#246
Typical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Contoocook NH USA
Posts: 818
RE: Team 4 "Thunder Chickens"
Roosting birds the night before opening day was not good. I only saw one bird in a lower field from my roosting spot, heard one bird fly up to roost and heard one gobble on another ridge in front on my buddies house. I started in the lower field and as the opening morning sky started to break, I heard two gobblers to my right 200 yards away on my ridge, three gobblers to my right on another ridge and two gobblers across the road in front on my buddies house. The hollow I was hunting and have taken a few gobblers out of was silent.
I started working the two gobblers to my right in hopes they would see my pretty boy decoy with hens and come out of the woods to run him off. I had them going pretty good but just couldn’t get them to come out of the hollow so I quit calling thinking the silent treatment might get to them. I could hear my buddy Raymond across the other ridge and man did he have his gobbler going! That bird must have gobbled every 30 seconds so I just kind of sat back and was enjoying the action. After about 10 minutes of not calling I heard one of the gobblers to my right gobble from just inside the wood line. I gave him a few soft yelps on a new double reed / double end cut call I wanted to try this season and got a good response back. I continued to call to him thinking I was going to see him at any second but he never showed himself. Just about the time he shut up, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye and I made a big mistake of turning to see what it was! A hen standing right in front of my pretty boy decoy and I was busted! Running off about 10 yards and taking flight to southern part of the WV.
She came right out of the hollow that I normally hear birds in so I quickly shifted tactics to try and save the hunt. I gave a few soft purrs and clucks in hope if she had anyone with her they might calm down and continue to see what was going on top on the field ridge I was set up on. I’d say about 10 minute went by without hearing a bird (other than Raymond across the way) when a white capped gobblers head popped up over the grass line just behind my set up. He walked right up to my pretty boy decoy and circled him once and I believe he pecked him. He then walked back around between the decoy and me and defiantly pecked his tail! As he walked behind the decoys Jake fan I shoulder my 870. As came out from behind the decoy 20 yards away (or less) I gave him a few cuts and then a face full of Winchester 3 ½” 2oz. 6 shot! Those few cuts were, his last call he ever heard!
I’m still not sure if the shot actually killed him or if the blast from my shot gun slammed his head to the ground and he died from a concussion. Either way he never flopped and was dead at 6:35 am opening morning of my WV season. Not even two minutes after I shot, Raymond’s 12ga rang through out the ridges and hollows of Jake’s Run Road but unfortunately his bird didn’t stay down.
He just had stitches removed a week earlier from his eye and his depth-perception is off. He thought I bird was 30 yards away and he turned out to be more think 70+ yards away. He was set up 20 yards in the woods shooting out to a field which as we all know, is a tough one to range. Keep that in mind this season. In case anyone was wondering, he was using a Tom’s Favorite while working that gobbler
Well, here are the photos and the stats on my bird.
NWTF Score = 61.5 (my best WV bird to date)
22.5 lb
1” spurs
9.5” beard
Thumped to a test call (Tooky River Calls double reed / double end cut White Cap Enticer?) and a Pretty Boy & Pretty Girl and a hen decoy set-up 20 yards or less away
I started working the two gobblers to my right in hopes they would see my pretty boy decoy with hens and come out of the woods to run him off. I had them going pretty good but just couldn’t get them to come out of the hollow so I quit calling thinking the silent treatment might get to them. I could hear my buddy Raymond across the other ridge and man did he have his gobbler going! That bird must have gobbled every 30 seconds so I just kind of sat back and was enjoying the action. After about 10 minutes of not calling I heard one of the gobblers to my right gobble from just inside the wood line. I gave him a few soft yelps on a new double reed / double end cut call I wanted to try this season and got a good response back. I continued to call to him thinking I was going to see him at any second but he never showed himself. Just about the time he shut up, something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye and I made a big mistake of turning to see what it was! A hen standing right in front of my pretty boy decoy and I was busted! Running off about 10 yards and taking flight to southern part of the WV.
She came right out of the hollow that I normally hear birds in so I quickly shifted tactics to try and save the hunt. I gave a few soft purrs and clucks in hope if she had anyone with her they might calm down and continue to see what was going on top on the field ridge I was set up on. I’d say about 10 minute went by without hearing a bird (other than Raymond across the way) when a white capped gobblers head popped up over the grass line just behind my set up. He walked right up to my pretty boy decoy and circled him once and I believe he pecked him. He then walked back around between the decoy and me and defiantly pecked his tail! As he walked behind the decoys Jake fan I shoulder my 870. As came out from behind the decoy 20 yards away (or less) I gave him a few cuts and then a face full of Winchester 3 ½” 2oz. 6 shot! Those few cuts were, his last call he ever heard!
I’m still not sure if the shot actually killed him or if the blast from my shot gun slammed his head to the ground and he died from a concussion. Either way he never flopped and was dead at 6:35 am opening morning of my WV season. Not even two minutes after I shot, Raymond’s 12ga rang through out the ridges and hollows of Jake’s Run Road but unfortunately his bird didn’t stay down.
He just had stitches removed a week earlier from his eye and his depth-perception is off. He thought I bird was 30 yards away and he turned out to be more think 70+ yards away. He was set up 20 yards in the woods shooting out to a field which as we all know, is a tough one to range. Keep that in mind this season. In case anyone was wondering, he was using a Tom’s Favorite while working that gobbler
Well, here are the photos and the stats on my bird.
NWTF Score = 61.5 (my best WV bird to date)
22.5 lb
1” spurs
9.5” beard
Thumped to a test call (Tooky River Calls double reed / double end cut White Cap Enticer?) and a Pretty Boy & Pretty Girl and a hen decoy set-up 20 yards or less away
Well done guys, we are really doing well on the birds!! Keep it up!
04-30-2007, 12:27 PM
#250
Fork Horn
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location:
Posts: 310
RE: Team 4 "Thunder Chickens"
Congrats on the birds!!! I like to read the stories. And keep on them guys!! I cant get another tag until are next season, so I have been doing a little mushroom hunting and chasing people out of my woods who know that their NOT TO BE THERE!! (Makes me mad) But at least I am can get some kind of hunting in!!! We have found about 15 pounds of them so far. Dont forget to keep SAFETY IN MIND!!! Just this morning I heard on the news that some guy took his father or grandfather out turkey hunting and he was shot, they said that the father/grandfather thought that he was a turkey??? Oh and another hunter found a body?? No Joke. Stay safe and happy hunting to all!!