Three toms in three states
04-26-2004, 11:47 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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Three toms in three states
My season might be over, and I don't have all the "statistics" along as I post this story, but I will add by way of edit those #s later.
Bird #1--in South Dakota. (This one I have the #s on, and previously posted the story about it, so I won't repeat the story.) A 22 lbs, 14 oz., 8 3/4" bearded, 5/8" & 7/8" spurred gobbler.
Bird #2--from Kansas. Their opening day. I set up on a 200+ acre pasture, cold, blind. Heard a gobbler on the other side of the field, naturally. Moved on it and discovered three toms strutting with a flock of hens. They busted me and boogied to the woods. Late that same day, I was returning to the same field and a crow flew by and called. A gobbler responded, on the field edge, 40 yards from the road I was walking on as I headed towards the pasture. I crept to the pasture/woods edge and spied him, called softly and leveled him when he headed my way in response. Nitro 4x5x7 and he dropped stone cold dead. He dropped so fast I thought I might have missed him, but he was laying there. A nice bird. I stayed after that to try fill my second tag, but I had really poor weather. A day of solid rain, half a day of drizzle and no gobbling, a day of extremely heavy morning dew and two gobbles at flydown, only, and never a response gobble to any of my sweetest yelps, clucks or purrs. There were other hunters hunting the same 640 acre farm, and none of them had any success, either, though all agreed there were birds around.
Bird #3--Minnesota, my opening day. My brother-in-law told me the birds had been roosting in the woods 50 yards from his dog kennel, so my wife and I set up along the edge of the hayfield adjacent. No gobbling, so after 1 1/2 hours, we relocated to a roost tree I knew about which was alongside another field, about 1/2 mile away, further into the woods. There some gobblers sounded off from across the field (again!!), and actually came into the field, to the crest of the hill. When they spied my decoys, however, they turned back, out of range. So we relocated again, to a pasture where I'd seen birds before, and sat until about 10:00. I could hear a bird back near my brother-in-law's, and remembered that I usually had heard a bird in a hollow by his place around 10:30 in the morning each time I'd hunted his place in the past. So I decided we should get to the hollow before 10:30, and we packed it up and headed back. As we got near the initial setup spot, not far from the hollow, I heard a gobble. As I came to a corner of the hayfield/woods edge, I saw a hen in the hayfield near where we'd first set up. We sat down and I called, and two hens came around the corner about 10 yards from where I lay. They got nervous, and started back, so I raised up and peeked around the corner and spied the gobbler, about 35 yards away, so I shot him. My gun jammed (I no longer will shoot Remington Hevi-Shot, they are not a quality shell IMHO) and I didn't think the bird was necessarily dead. I unjammed the gun after a few frantic minutes, and stood back up. The tom was sitting with his head up, so I walked towards him and shot a second time as he tried to get away.
Both birds #2 and 3 are okay birds.
I still have one unfilled tag for Kansas, and may return there later this season.
Also, this past Saturday, my wife took a nice 9 1/2" 1 1/4" & 1 3/16th" spurred 3 year old (can't remember the weight) in South Dakota and was/is very happy about it. She has a late season second chance draw tag for southeastern Minnesota, so I get to video, hopefully.
None of my hunts were, IMHO, what I would call "classic" hunts, where the birds came in to my calls. Two of them did respond/come closer, but really, none were after that sweet hot hen. Maybe its my calling, but I think the times I was in the field, the birds were still "henned up." (Witness the 3 toms and bunch of hens in Kansas and the couple of hens and gobbler in Minnesota at around 10:30 a.m.) I think next year I'll not try to go in the early seasons, or go during the season openers as I did this year, though, obviously, in the early season there are more birds, and I suffer badly all winter long from gobbler fever.
Strangely, though I had good success in bagging turkeys in three states, I feel less than satisfied with the hunts because the birds did not appear responsive to my calling, and, actually, but for Minnesota, the woods were quite quiet. (We did sit near a roost tree in South Dakota one morning and heard a half-hour's worth of gobbling from the tree, but those birds flew down and went the other way.)
As far as Remington HeviShot and why I think it is crap, I have pocketsful of buffer that has leaked out of the shells because their crimps are poor, and the gun jammed because one of these poorly crimped shells got stuck going from the magazine to the chamber. Nitro is REALLY spendy, but at least they put a wax-type sealer on the crimp so the buffer doesn't leak, and the crimps maintain their closure. I don't know about all you fellow turkey hunters, but my shells get quite a bit of "abuse", going from the gun to my pocket to the gun and back as I load and unload the gun over the course of a hunting period, and I don't shoot many shells in a year, so they also "age." (There was a time I shot 9 turkeys with one box of 10 Federal shells over a period of 7 years. Unlike ducks or geese, you don't need a lot of shells each year when you get to shoot only one or two turkeys!!)
Anyway, I'll try to post the #s when I find the notes I made, and I hope I'll be able to tell the tale of a successful hunt by my wife for her Minnesota tom at the end of May, plus maybe add a brag about a return to Kansas, in due course.
If only work didn't get in the way, I'd hunt all day every day!!!
Bird #1--in South Dakota. (This one I have the #s on, and previously posted the story about it, so I won't repeat the story.) A 22 lbs, 14 oz., 8 3/4" bearded, 5/8" & 7/8" spurred gobbler.
Bird #2--from Kansas. Their opening day. I set up on a 200+ acre pasture, cold, blind. Heard a gobbler on the other side of the field, naturally. Moved on it and discovered three toms strutting with a flock of hens. They busted me and boogied to the woods. Late that same day, I was returning to the same field and a crow flew by and called. A gobbler responded, on the field edge, 40 yards from the road I was walking on as I headed towards the pasture. I crept to the pasture/woods edge and spied him, called softly and leveled him when he headed my way in response. Nitro 4x5x7 and he dropped stone cold dead. He dropped so fast I thought I might have missed him, but he was laying there. A nice bird. I stayed after that to try fill my second tag, but I had really poor weather. A day of solid rain, half a day of drizzle and no gobbling, a day of extremely heavy morning dew and two gobbles at flydown, only, and never a response gobble to any of my sweetest yelps, clucks or purrs. There were other hunters hunting the same 640 acre farm, and none of them had any success, either, though all agreed there were birds around.
Bird #3--Minnesota, my opening day. My brother-in-law told me the birds had been roosting in the woods 50 yards from his dog kennel, so my wife and I set up along the edge of the hayfield adjacent. No gobbling, so after 1 1/2 hours, we relocated to a roost tree I knew about which was alongside another field, about 1/2 mile away, further into the woods. There some gobblers sounded off from across the field (again!!), and actually came into the field, to the crest of the hill. When they spied my decoys, however, they turned back, out of range. So we relocated again, to a pasture where I'd seen birds before, and sat until about 10:00. I could hear a bird back near my brother-in-law's, and remembered that I usually had heard a bird in a hollow by his place around 10:30 in the morning each time I'd hunted his place in the past. So I decided we should get to the hollow before 10:30, and we packed it up and headed back. As we got near the initial setup spot, not far from the hollow, I heard a gobble. As I came to a corner of the hayfield/woods edge, I saw a hen in the hayfield near where we'd first set up. We sat down and I called, and two hens came around the corner about 10 yards from where I lay. They got nervous, and started back, so I raised up and peeked around the corner and spied the gobbler, about 35 yards away, so I shot him. My gun jammed (I no longer will shoot Remington Hevi-Shot, they are not a quality shell IMHO) and I didn't think the bird was necessarily dead. I unjammed the gun after a few frantic minutes, and stood back up. The tom was sitting with his head up, so I walked towards him and shot a second time as he tried to get away.
Both birds #2 and 3 are okay birds.
I still have one unfilled tag for Kansas, and may return there later this season.
Also, this past Saturday, my wife took a nice 9 1/2" 1 1/4" & 1 3/16th" spurred 3 year old (can't remember the weight) in South Dakota and was/is very happy about it. She has a late season second chance draw tag for southeastern Minnesota, so I get to video, hopefully.
None of my hunts were, IMHO, what I would call "classic" hunts, where the birds came in to my calls. Two of them did respond/come closer, but really, none were after that sweet hot hen. Maybe its my calling, but I think the times I was in the field, the birds were still "henned up." (Witness the 3 toms and bunch of hens in Kansas and the couple of hens and gobbler in Minnesota at around 10:30 a.m.) I think next year I'll not try to go in the early seasons, or go during the season openers as I did this year, though, obviously, in the early season there are more birds, and I suffer badly all winter long from gobbler fever.
Strangely, though I had good success in bagging turkeys in three states, I feel less than satisfied with the hunts because the birds did not appear responsive to my calling, and, actually, but for Minnesota, the woods were quite quiet. (We did sit near a roost tree in South Dakota one morning and heard a half-hour's worth of gobbling from the tree, but those birds flew down and went the other way.)
As far as Remington HeviShot and why I think it is crap, I have pocketsful of buffer that has leaked out of the shells because their crimps are poor, and the gun jammed because one of these poorly crimped shells got stuck going from the magazine to the chamber. Nitro is REALLY spendy, but at least they put a wax-type sealer on the crimp so the buffer doesn't leak, and the crimps maintain their closure. I don't know about all you fellow turkey hunters, but my shells get quite a bit of "abuse", going from the gun to my pocket to the gun and back as I load and unload the gun over the course of a hunting period, and I don't shoot many shells in a year, so they also "age." (There was a time I shot 9 turkeys with one box of 10 Federal shells over a period of 7 years. Unlike ducks or geese, you don't need a lot of shells each year when you get to shoot only one or two turkeys!!)
Anyway, I'll try to post the #s when I find the notes I made, and I hope I'll be able to tell the tale of a successful hunt by my wife for her Minnesota tom at the end of May, plus maybe add a brag about a return to Kansas, in due course.
If only work didn't get in the way, I'd hunt all day every day!!!
