Dante has a story to share about the later part of the afternoon...I think he's hooked on turkey hunting!
Didnt see that till after my last post. lol. figured you already told the story.:smiley_chinrub:
I hunted thursday morning at a property redcloud and I just picked up, heard some gobbling in the woods on the adjoing property at first light but they didnt come to my side all morning. So friday I moved to another spot on the opposite side of town. I set up in what I would consider a centeral location given where I have seen the birds. It is on top of a ridge in a small pasture next to a stubble corn field. at the bottom of the ridge is a series of small pastures that arent being used anymore, and a small stream. across the street (about 200 - 250 yards) is another property I have permission for and have found tracks on. I have seen toms in the pastures at the bottom of the ridge by the stream, and have witness 2 gobblers sparing with each other in the stubbled field, thought I was in a good spot to call them in from either side.
At sunrise, I heard roost gobbling from across the street around the area of the bridge that goes over the stream at the bottom of the ridge. I called but didnt get a response. After a couple hours I decided to move around to where I heard the gobbling, checking the pastures as I went.. nothing.
About this time I got a text from Huck. He wanted to know if I was hunting and was thinking about coming my direction. I gave him a spot to meet me on the opposite side from where the gobbler had to have gone and packed up my decoys. I thought I might try a little run and gun on my way to meet him. I would stop every 50 yards or so and hit a couple calls hoping to get tom to respond to me... nothing. about half way to where I intended to meet huck I came to a creek bottom about 50 yards from the edge of a winter wheat field and standing in that field at full strut was a gobbler that even a begginer like myself could tell was a very big bird. problem was, he was looking at me.... busted. I waited until he looked like he was turning and stepped behind a tree so I could figure out my next move, as I looked around the tree I saw that he was walking away.
I quietly backtracked, keeping the tree between me and the bird, and when I was far enough back to work my way around a hillside, I went on up and met up with huck.
After telling him the story he asked "if I wanted to hunt that bird" I didnt think we had a chance, but he said as long as it didnt fly or run away, we might be able to get it to come back. so we gave it a try.
We slowly moved back down the edge of the wheatfield to where I last saw the birdwe put out a couple decoys settled in and started calling with about an hour, hour and a half left to hunt. After about a half hour or so huck texted me that the bird was back and was about 60 yards in front of me. I had some brush and a couple saplings in my line of sight and couldnt see him. after a few more minutes he texted me that it was ok to slowly move to my left to a better position but to keep an eye on him and if he signals me to stop to hold up. I got to a better spot, settled back in and after a couple minutes, sure enough, there is that big red head peeking up over a rise in the field.
He was looking at the decoys and didnt seem like he had spotted us. but he knew something was wrong and despite the calls and decoys he just would NOT come any closer. We tried evreything we could right up until 12:00.
Yesterday a friend of mine from work who live down around belfountaine came up to hunt with me. We started out on another propert but after a few hours of not hearing anything we decided to move over to where I spotted that gobbler the day before. I was curious if he would stick to the same pattern as the previous day. we stopped at the land owners house and got him a permission slip and the started walking in.
The wheat field is very long and narrow and runs lengthwise away from the road all the way back to the creek bottom. there is a stubbled cornfield alongside it, divided by a narrow treeline, that stops about half the length of the wheatfield and is woods from there back. I thought the bird might be either in the wheatfield again or possibly down in the creekbottom so we decided to follow the edge of the cornfield in and move through the woods to the bottom. as you walk along the field you have to go over a gentel rise in the field before the back of it becomes visible and as we walked I joked that it would be our luck that the bird would be in the cornfield. after a little thought we decided to top the hill slowly and if he is down there we can try to sneek around him. sure enough there he was, about 60 or 70 yards in front of us... same bird. we backed down the hill and moved to the tree line and set up. after calling for about 20 minute with no respose we slipped around behind the tree line so we could move up behind the cover of the trees.
He was gone.
stupid peabrained bird outsmarted us again. must have seen us before we could back out.
We debated for a minute as to where he went. I knew what his pattern the 2 previous days was, He moved south to north, along the bottom to another cornfield where he was gobbling at 2:00 in the afternoon two days before, and then turnes west to head back towards his roost area. so we did our best to get around in front of him but didnt see or hear him the rest of the morning. we took a little while after hunting time ended and found a good ambush spot for the next time I hunt this area, which wont be till next weekend, and called it a day.
This seems to be a smart bird, he gobbles on the roost and immediately after fly down and then he shuts up. I've heard him gobble again in the afternoon on the opposite side of the property. I suppose he didnt get to be the hog that he is by being stupid.
Huck's right, I'm hooked:smiley_crocodile:
