I went out Saturday and we had a plan for a bird my friend and Dad had seen the day before. That day, and last year as well, the gobbler would start on one side of the mountain and work around the south face (away from us). So this time we decided to loop around behind him. The old logging road we had decided to use had become choked with blow-downs sometime last year (looked like a tornado touchdown or micro-burst) so we were slower getting in than we anticipated. We bumped a hen off the roost at the end of the road and started climbing the mountain through a yard of heavily scratched leaves. It was already getting light and we heard the gobbler gobbling right where we expected. He gobbled three times and we were scrambling to set up. We couldn't agree on where to set up: I wanted to set up against a blowdown on the edge of a bench and my buddy thought we should go up a little further so that the gobbler wouldn't be able to see us until it was too late. We hurried up but the layout wasn't as good as it looked from below so we dropped back down to the original area. I was on my knees setting up a screen of pine branches when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was the red head of the gobbler. He had heard our walking and had hurried to us, not more than 20 yards away. I was hunting with a bow and my buddy was standing with his TC blackpowder on his shoulder. The gobbler walked 20 feet and then took flight. We climbed a bunch of mountains and tried to circle around him again but hit laurel thickets and never could locate him again.

We moved on from there and tried several other locations and found some good spots and heard some yelps and a jake gobble but never laid eyes on another bird. I've got some good ideas for future spots now and hopefully my execution will be better the next time I try for that first gobbler.

How did everyone else do?

season opens tommorow ill be hiting the woods nice and early got my eyes on a real nice bird i hope to help the team out wish me luck

Good luckryncam.Keep at it talondale.No upgrade for me yet,but I went out with my wife Sunday and we had an awesome hunt.We got to watch a tom breed a hen,then fight off 2 other toms at once,but he was no match for the 3 1/2" 870 super mag at 23 steps when he came into my wifes shooting lane..[8D] This bird...just like all the others came off of public land.

He had a 10 1/4" beard and 1" spurs...Here's a pic...

Way to go ranchand99! Nice bird.

Well guys, I got back from hunting the prairies of SD. a couple of days ago,and it was a tough hunt compared to what I'm use to out there.I did manage to take a tom that I called in the first day there,but the remaining 3 days it was very tough. The number of birds seemed to be way down from previous years that I have hunted out there,and I only saw 2 Jakes in 4 days of hunting so it doesn't look real good for next year either.The birds would gobble fairly decent from the roost, but once on the ground,they just about shut up. Later in the day, I could get some gobblers to answer back,but they would not come in,just keep on a trucking. Frustrating!The bird I did get is a decent Merriam's. 8 1/2" beard,both spurs at 5/8" ,and weighed in at 19 lbs 5 oz. for a score of 48.8125.
I'm off to WI. Thursday morning to see if I can get an Eastern.

Hey, congrats paintbrush!! I'm heading out this evening to see if I can get one.

Way to go. We've got a long way to go to catch up to team 1. They have 8 scores last I checked.

Paintbrush

Congratulations on the bird.

Still wondering why neither of my two birds are posted in the scoring thread up top. Sorry to be a nag, but it's been 3+ weeks now.

Mouthcaller

Congrats paintbrush!!
I waswondering too mouthcaller.I upgraded over 2 weeks ago,but they haven't added my score yet.

I forgot to post a story from Tuesday.Me and my friend Tommy decided we'd go out after we got off work tuesday.I wanted to help him get his first turkey.

We went to a spot where I had seen a bird last week.I knew there was a hen nesting close by and he was visiting her.We got to the spot and I glassed the area.I saw a hen and right behind her was a tom in full strut!It was 4:20pm.I knew the area,so we swung around and got within 300yds of him.He was strutting and gobbling hard.Very odd for this late in the season.

He was moving away from us,so we swung around again to get in front of him.We crawled the last couple hundred yards.And we were even with him but in some good cover.I directed tommy to continue crawling down the firebreak and it would take him to an opening.As he slipped along on hands and knees the Tom would gobble once in a while.I think it was because he heard the leaves shuffling and thought it was a hen.
The bird was 40yds straight across from tommy when he got a clean shot.He squeezed off on my 3" 11-87 with Win HV #5's..tru glo 40mm red dot,and .665 kicks choke.The bird crumpled at the boom.It was 5:35pm over an hour after we first saw him.

I was happy.Tommy got his first bird ever,and a nice one too...Not to mention late season on public land.[8D]
9 1/2" beard...1 1/8" spurs...14lbs 8oz...He was still very excited the next day.When he came into work he was showing everyone his beard and spurs.That's what I like about helping people.Here are a few pics.





Today is the last day me and my wife could go out together for turkeys this year.We saw a bird around 8am and swung in front of him.We were almost in position when I saw him traveling the tree line towards us.We stood there with no face masks,or gloves on.I knew we were gonna get busted,and I told her I would shoot him if he got nervous.
I didn't know it was a jake to start with,but when he got about 25yds from us,and cleared the brush..I saw it was,and so I decided to pass.She wanted a tom,but she whispered to me that she would take him if he came around the tree.He musta read her mind cause he turned around,ran and then flew off.Actually I think he saw some movement.

We hit another spot after breakfast,and it was time for my seek and destroy tactic.I saw 3 jakes together.We put a 200yd crawl on 'em,and when she had a clean shot she took it.I was quite proud of her shooting my super mag free-handed.

I was out of 3 1/2" shells,but knew my gun patterned almost the same with 3 1/2" or 3" shells.I was pleased at the results from 3" win HV #4's at 48 steps,and so was she.Another public land bird down.
It was a nice way to end her season.This is her 3rd bird ever...2nd in less than a week.Here's a pic.