It was day 4 of my boy Dan Jr's turkey hunt and it was still raining. Even though it was Saturday, I had to work till early afternoon. I met up with Junior and a friend who also had a tag and was hunting with us this week.

We did our normal rainy afternoon tactic of driving around looking for Turkeys on the properties where we could hunt. Turkeys were not very plentiful this year and the rain kept there activity to a minimum. They were just plain hard to find.

So when we finally saw a big bird that we thought we could sneak close to, the chase was on. We drove past the big tom who was sitting in a dip in a field waiting for the relentless rain to stop. When we got over the hill from him I shut off the engine and rolled to a quiet stop. We got out and very quietly got our stuff together and started sneaking up the treeline towards the unsuspecting family dinner and wall ornament.

As we rested the hill we got down and crawled keeping our profile below the horizon, and unfortunately in the corn field muck.

Once we got far enough to peek through the bushes and see turkey and his girlfreind, we belly crawled up to a large boulder in the treeline. Junior slid his ol' 12 gauge ever so slowly onto the rock as I unzipped my video reorder from its plastic rain proof bag and propped up the tripod. As soon as the camera was recording I started calling with a few yelps to the Tom who was only about 50 yards away. I could hear Junior's breathing starting to get louder and more rapid as the bird rose to his feet staring in our direction.

Suddenly the big Tom turned and took off running in the opposite direction. Mr turkey had a noticeable limp while he headed for safety. I would guess, with this being the 2nd from last week he had a few encounters with other hunters.

Oh well, time to go find another, hopefully more willing turkey dinner.
It took some looking, but with about an hour left to hunt we spotted another big bird we had been watching. He was in a cornfield with another smaller Tom and several hens 1/2 way between a sparse treeline and the road.

It looked like it would be tough to sneak up to a good position, with the lack of trees. But the now heavy rain would cover our noise fairly well.

Once again the birds were all lying down waiting for the rain to end. I drove around to the farm where we parked and walked across a dip in a field to the treeline. We snuck up the treeline towards the birds crawling most of the 400 yards so we wouldn't be seen. We were able to get to the edge of the cornfield 80 yards from the turkeys without getting detected.

I got Dave in position if they crossed the treeline to the north and Junior positioned for if they came straight in. Got the camera zoomed in on the bird and locked the tripod into position. Yelp, Yelp... No response at all. The big fat Tom just layed there. YELP, YELP!!! Still not much of a response. I called hard and heavy after waiting a little bit just in case he couldn't hear me through the heavy rain. I got one gobble, and I didn't hear it, I saw it on the camera screen.

So, by this time the camera is starting to short out from all the water running into it. Generally this isn't a problem because of the mud that is wedged between all the openings keeping the water out. But this rain was so relentless it ate right through my protective mud barrier.

Sooo, being the Super Genius I am, I devised a plan. Dave would attempt to get farther down and between him and Dan Jr. cut off the big bird from entering the woods I would sneak all the way back to the truck, switch cameras, and drive around in Dave's truck to the cornfield and park and get out with the camera in plain view. When the birds saw me, they would surely get nervous and head for Dave or Jr.

Sure enough, the birds headed for Dave who had not gotten to where he needed to be due to lack of good cover. As the birds moved towards the woods they passed Dave at his Max range. Boom. The bird did not go down but acted hit. Boom again. The bird jumped into the air. Then flew about 20 yards and ran for the north road. I jumped back into the truck and cut him off. As I hit the crossing he saw the truck and headed into a marsh with canary grass. I could see him running ( Now West) away from the hunters. So I grabbed my small video camera and hauled my lard butt after him hoping to push him back towards the hunters. As I closed the distance to about 200 yards the Tom noticed me running at him and hid in the grass.

I got to a point where I knew he had to be within 40 yards of me and I yelled for the guys to get over by me. It took several loud screams before I could hear a faint response. A glance at my watch reveled we only had 15 minutes till 5:00PM and the dreaded buzzer. Finally the guys showed up and I shouted out some commands like a drill Sergeant to get in line and walk forward. I had the camera covering the area in front of the guys when right in the middle of the screen, up pop's the turkey running for the next county. Boom boom baboom . Then Dan Jr finally takes off after Tommy on foot but the last shell Dave had in his possession blew the bird into a swamp river. The Tom went across the river and ran smack into a barb wire fence. Thats when the last shell in Junior's gun went off stopping the bird cold.

Jr was so excited he jumped right into the river and swam across for his bird. At 1st we were not sure who should claim the bird with all the shots fired. But Dave was real good about giving it to Danny. This was indeed a bird worthy of Dan Junior's excitment. The swamp bird weighed 26 1/2 pounds and sported a 12 inch beard and 1 1/4 inch spurs.

A week ago today, my neighbor and I had had that really close call with the three big toms. It's hard to imagine better action than that, but we were out to try!

The birds had been traveling south off the roost mainly, so this morning we employed some decoy hunters to try to help us out. We parked my truck in a strategic spot in the field hoping to sway the birds back our way if they came out there and saw it. During our dark walk through the woods, we also placed a couple blaze orange vests on branches to keep the birds from moving past there as well. Now we really had a funnel setup!

Dawn broke to our 5th consecutive day of rain and cold. Luckily for us the gobbler action was hot! Multiple toms were sounding off repeatedly. We decided to wait on hitting any calls until we knew a direction of travel. Initially it sounded like they headed the other way, but they must've turned around because their gobbles were getting closer.

For about 20-30 minutes the gobblers sounded off on a small ridge about 100-150 yards away. We couldn't see them yet. We decided it was time to touch a call. I took out my slate and gave just a couple clucks and purrs. GOBBLE-GOBBLE-GOBBLE!!! That sweet sound grew closer. We had peaked their interest. A minute later, tail feathers popped up over the ridge. We had a visual.

Based on last week's experience, my neighbor brought his shotgun in case we couldn't get a shot with the bow. We wanted to at least get one of these big ol gobblers! So when that first bird popped up at 45 yards, rather than filming him, my neighbor readied his gun and whispered "Should I blast him?" I was a guest on his land and just left it up to him but I thought they were coming in so I hoped he'd give it a chance yet. He agreed, but of course, the tom went back over the ridge and soon the gobbles were getting further away.

Out the slate came. Soon my neighbor was singing some sweet horny yelps and had the toms fired back up! They were coming back! Two fans came up over the ridge at 45 yards, followed by a third about 10 yards behind them. It was the 3 big boys from last weekend. The gun was ready but their path would take them by at about 25 yards so I whispered to be patient, feeling good I was about to get my shot.

I readied my bow. They neared the tree I had ranged earlier at 25 yards. I looked left and my cameraman still had the camera pointing at the ground! I whispered I had a shot and to try to get on them. As the birds walked a few more feet, I picked out the lead tom of the three (the third was about 15 yards up the ridge yet) and came to full draw. I whispered "Are you on them?" Hearing a "Yeah, Yeah" response, I settled it on the center of the wing and let fly.

In a blur, the 2 lead birds took flight. I had heard no obvious hit. With the netting from the blind and the speed of the arrow I didn't see a hit, but I didn't see a miss either. We watched the bird fly away and noticed a definite faulter to its flight. It was hit, no doubt...but back to the main scene!

"The third one's still there! Take the camera" my neighbor said as he hurried to ready his gun. As I grabbed the camera, I saw it was on auto focus still and only saw blind netting in the frame. As I reached for the manual focus button, "WHU-BOOOOOOMMM!!!!!" I looked up to see a flopping bird.

"Well, we got one for sure!" we smiled and high-fived each other. Could we have gotten a double even??

We broke-down our setup and headed over to check things out. My arrow lay just beyond the spot the bird stood. There was no blood, fat or guts on the arrow, but there were a few feathers laying there and a couple tufts of down on the arrow nock. It was a pass through, but we were still uncertain of the lethality of the hit.

We quickly looked over the shotgun bird...a beautiful 11 inch, super-thick beard. The tom had only one spur as the other had been broken off or something.

Our celebration of my buddy getting his bird wouldn't last long. We were off to see if we had just completed a double on 2 mature toms.

After the short celebration there, we began pursuit of my bird. Twenty yards into the search we heard at least one bird take off up ahead of us. It seemed to make an abnormally excessive amount of racket taking off so we had a feeling it was my bird. Not good.

One hour later our search had still turned up nothing. We regrouped and made a plan to pack things up and head back to my truck. I would take the truck to the north side of the property and wait in a funnel area while my neighbor made a push through the woods to hopefully bring it by me.

I opted for my shotgun at this point, figuring if the drive produced that it would be a running or flying shot at best. Ten minutes into the drive I saw a red head coming my way, I readied the gun but the brush didn't give me a clear view and I didn't want to shoot if I didn't feel really confident it was my bird. In my rush to setup for the drive I left my camo jacket and mask in the truck. The turkey quickly spotted me and took to the air. I saw nothing physically wrong with the bird as it flew to the other side of the field. I was pretty sure this wasn't my bird, but the 1 of the the 3 that hadn't been shot. Could mine be down back in the woods then, or had it just flown a different direction?

Being Mother's Day, and Sunday, I had plans with Jennie (my wife) to go to church, so my neighbor and I agreed to meet up later in the afternoon to search some more.

At 4pm we got back together and headed to his property. We planned to stay about 30 yards apart and grid things off. We started up the north border and worked our way back to the area where we'd been sitting that morning.

About a quarter mile into our walk our conversation had shifted to whitetails (imagine that!), when suddenly right out in the plain open between my buddy and I there lay a turkey!!! I looked over and said "Look at that!!" No sooner had I said that when the bird's head popped up and he bolted for cover! I had my shotgun slung over my shoulder and the flip open caps were closed because of the rain. I didn't get a shot before it was over the ridge. But the bird appeared to be hurting pretty good. He couldn't fly and wasn't running on both legs but he was still making pretty good time.

I ran over the ridge to find him laying down about 30 yards away. As we spotted each other, his head ducked into the weeds. I figured I better give him a blast of #4's and end the saga so I lowered the gun onto his body where he'd ducked and "WHU-BOOOMM!!!"

I think I had just shot into the hill that he ended up being behind. The shot appeared to have no effect and away he bolted. I probably could've ran him down but the neighbor's property was about 100 yards away and I didn't see a need to string this out. The bird laid down in some blowdowns about 50 yards further up and I ran up there and finished him off. The tom was mine. Our double was complete after all!!!

My bird weighed 22 pounds and has 1 inch spurs with a 9.75" beard.

My bird weighed 22 pounds and has 1 inch spurs with a 9.75" beard that's kind of S-shaped and really thick. It was a great Mother's Day for a Michigan Double!!

Dome and I hunted until 1:30 pm today. We made multiple setups with the shotgun in the blind today, deciding to get a little more mobile and hope to locate some of these cold weather, rainy day birds. No such luck. We had a hint of action about 11am when a couple distant gobbles confirmed there were birds still around. Dome made a peek over the hill and saw a bird coming in our direction, but we never saw it. We saw a bunch of deer and got wet...better days ahead....

Happy 32nd birthday to my brother John!

Better days ahead...

Today was a miserable day overall. Dome has been worked into the ground this past week and hasn't been able to get out to this point. With the wife away and work easing up, we slipped out for an evening hunt.

The Double Bull made things comfortable considering the conditions, but the turkeys weren't cooperating. I spooked one while adjusting the windows just minutes after getting into the blind. It looked to be a hen but I wasn't positive. That would be all we'd see this evening.

The alarm clock went off at 4:00 AM like a shotgun blast in your ear. I jumped out of bed and got dressed and I was off to pick up Dave. 1st we went to the bow only farm and back out to the ridge. Shortly after setting up the sky started showing some pink light coming over the horizen and a gobble gobble from 40 yards away caught me by surprize. :shock: The dang bird was roosted right next to us. Well, we were able to keep ourselves hidden from him till he flew down. So I called to him once he was down strutting and he was very nice about answering me... As he walked the other direction :( After he left we spent a short time searching the farm for more gobblers with no luck.

So we packed up the bow and took off in the truck to look for more turkeys on the other farms. We went pass the 1st couple farms without seeing nothing but a Jake.

Then when we went past Daves farm there was a very large bird trying to cross the road to leave Daves farm. So I parked the truck in a manner that would encourage the Tom to turn around and stay on Daves farm. However, it spooked him so bad he ran all the way across and onto another farm. We could of tryed to call him back, but I was quite confident we spooked him to badly. So, off we went to the next farm to look for the bird we tryed to pull away from the hens the privius day (day #4).

We get to the next farm and there's the bird from the morning before with his three hens in exactly the same spot. I looked at Dave and said, you know this is in vane, but we have to give it a try. We just are not seeing enough birds to pass on a try. So, we watch the birds for awhile to determine where they are headed, but they just stay in the same area. We go park the truck between the two woodlots out of site of Tommy boy again, and start the long stalk.

Since I had already called this bird once without results, I grabbed a different call. My old faithfull I had called every bird I had ever shot with. My new one stayed in the truck.

I beleive if a bird has heard you call and figured it out to be a trap, he will recognize that calls tone if you try it again with the same call. Maybe Im nuts, but thats what I think.

I also don't like calling from the same position where I was once busted by the bird Im after so I spent considerable time slithering and crawling to a position closer to the bird. When the woods got very open and it would of been easy for a turkey to see us, we used a large stump to crawl inline with blocking the birds veiw. as we neared the stump the birds started working the other way as expected.

So now I was not only going to try to call a Tom away from 3 hens, but also in a direction he was not headed. Odd's were not looking good. To make matters worse, just as I got into position, all the hens started walking into a woods on the neighbors property.

I moved as fast as I could without giveing my position away. I got my call out as I rolled to the edge of the woods and field and called from 80 yards away with a friendly Yelp..Yelp.. Just as he was entering the woods. He spun around and hammered out 2 loud gobbles and staired down in my direction. He puffed up all his feathers and started putting on a good show but kept looking back for his hens. Every time he would look back, I would give him a yelp again. Finally he started heading in my direction, but very slowly.

There was one more problem. There was a road with a deep ditch dividing the two propertys. I would have to sound so much like a horny hen that he would do what turkeys just don't do... Cross a barrier. But I had seen it before, even earlyer this week when I called one across a bridge but gave up before he crossed. This time, I would stick with it.

He dissapeared into the ditch. I waited and waited. Then suddenly he came scurring across the road. I thought, what is going to go wrong? It almost seemed like the bird would actually come into my set up for sure, now that he crossed the road. He had came the whole way takeing his sweet time and coming on an angle leaving him still just a little out of range. He stayed strutting the whole time, closer... closer...

Here he is just after crossing the road (The road is where the high grass divides the feilds)
[img]http://thejump.net/albums/Bukmastr/DSC02220.sized.jpg[/img]

Finnaly he is within 40 yards and very killable, however he has swung a little behind me and I can't get my shotgun against my shoulder. I decided to shoot when he got back in front of me.

Dave wispers a little bit to loud... Dan, psssst, Dan... The camera is flashing OUT OF TAPE!! :shock: I didn't even try to whisper as Tommy boy's head shot up and gave the old eye popping stair, " Dave, is the red light still in the screen?? ( the red light indicates it is still recording the last of the tape) Yes, says Dave. BOOOOOM. One dead turkey :D

I go out pick up the dead bird and before I can even start my victory dance, Dave says, the light just went out. :shock:

2 SECONDS BEFORE IMPACT...

WHOOOP.. There it is :D

20 1/2 pounds... 10 inch beard... 1 1/8 spurs... (Dave is the Dude on the left :D )

Last day turkeys build character!

I woke up at 4AM and got ready. Off to Dave's house. Dave was planning on filming for me again. I was also looking forward to a full day of hunting rather than the afternoon couple hours.

We got to the "Bow only" farm right on time as the black sky was begining to fade to pink. From the truck we could hear some distant gobbles up the ridge we planned to hunt. We set up and waited for light. As it got light we noticed several hens roosted up above us.

When the birds started flying down, the hens flew away, not likeing the two dudes underneith them. All the gobbles moved off away from us but one. The gobbler that was coming in our direction held up at a river and just paced back and forth. We played with him for awhile hoping he would cross a road bridge that crossed the river. I knew he wouldn't cross it. Turkeys never cross rivers or roads or bridges to come in to calling. We could not hunt the other side of the river that divided the property line. So, we decided to hit some of the other great farms Dave had access to. We got in the truck and headed down the road with perfect timing. Low and behold, there was Tom turkey crossing the bridge headed to where we called from. The truck spooked him back across so we stayed with the game plan and left.

We drove around all the farms looking for a Tom out in a feild, we were having a hard time till Dave said, Theres one!

The Tom was way out in the middle of a huge feild. We sat in the truck nearly a 1/2 mile away trying to determine a direction. They looked to be heading towards land we couldn't hunt. We decided with the lack of action we should make an attempt anyway. We parked the truck behind a big woodlot where Tommy Boy was hanging and started a sneak towards the end of the woodlot which would put us about 80 yards from him. We had to crawl through the last 40 yards of thorns, tick's, and itch weed, but we successfully slithered to the edge.

I called Tommy with my box call and invited him over, but he payed little attention and went off following his hens which had turned and were heading towards a woodlot on a neiboring property.

We decided to crawl back out and run around the feild in a sprint to the far corner behind a hill and catch ol Tommy off gaurd as he got there. After a 120 yard dash we were able to watch Tommy strut into the woodlot ahead of us. He beat us there. Ok, no problem, we sprint another 100 yards and sneak 50 and call him back. We all know how easy it is to call turkeys a direction they don't want to go... Right? Well any way, it was more likly to be successfull than walking back to the truck. So now that Dave had caught up it was off at full sprint again headed for the corner. We got there at the same time as a hen that must of been lagging behind. Her eyes bugged out of her head and she made a mad dash for Tommy. Ok, I finally admitted it. We are not going to get Tommy.

We walked the half mile back to the truck and headed for another farm. This farm has produced many big Tom's in the past. When we got there the farmer told us nobody had hunted there yet. I figured we would surly get a gobble to sound back here! We walked another 1/2 mile through some of the angryest cows I have ever met. There was one black angus bull that needed an attitude ajustment, but Dave said the landowner dosn't allow us to wrestle with the bull's. Just my luck, another crazy landowner rule.

We set up on top of the ridge and called for 15 minutes with no answers. Ok, time to take the 20 minute walk through the cattle back to the truck.

Zoom Zoom. We get to the next farm that can be glassed from the road and see big tom on the neighbors farm. We sneak across a feild into a mucky swamp and get 30 yards from the land border. Yelp, yelp. He must have been one of those kind of turkeys that don't want to die, because he went the other direction. Back to the truck.

Zoom, zoom. We get to the next farm. More cattle. Dave says, this is where he keeps the mean ones. As soon as we cross the gait and start the 3/4 mile hike to the woods where all the turkeys hang out, this big bull charges right at me. I gave him a look and a holler and he hit the brakes. But he followed us the whole way making threats.

Long walk, yelp, yelp. No answer. Yada, Yada.

So, its off to glass some public land. 1st property, no birds. I stopped at the bottom of the hill and called once figureing if one answered we would run in and set up. The only thing we called in was an angry Dude who had some sort of emotional problem with living next door to public land. He riminded me of the angry cows. We moved on.

We glassed several more public pcs. No birds.

We stopped for a cheesebuger and headed for the farm with all the hunting pressure. As we drive by Dave yells "big Tom". I look where he is pointing and all I see is a tiny black dot a half mile out. Put up the bino's. Yep, that is a very big Tom. Dave's new glass's are sure working good.

We park the truck out of veiw and head up the treeline. We set up 40 yards from the land border watching the bird follow a hen slowly down the tree line straight at us.This is the same spot Berry shot his Tom last year. Dave says, "this is it Dan" I think your going to kill this bird! I secretly wondered what would go wrong? I always hunt all 5 days... It builds charactor.

The lead hen gets to about 70 yards and suddenly a turkey vulture lands next to it and the hen starts running away, taking tom with her. Oh well, I wanted to hunt tomorrow anyway. Back to the truck.

We take another drive around glassing and spot a lone turkey behind the barn in an easy set up. Looks like a gobbler, Dave says. Lets go set up. Hold on, I said. Lets get a direction of travel. Heading right for an easy set up Dave says. The bird raise's his head, its a jake. Zoom, zoom.

We drive past the rest of the nearby farms and see one Tom but because of awesome timing, spooked the heck out of it with the truck. I do beleive that Tom is still running.

4:00 time for one last hunt. We headed over to the bow only farm and set up on the ridge. Soon after setting up, I see a hen get up out of some grass at the bottom of the ridge and start walking towards the other end of the ridge. Then another, and another, and...

5:30am found me in my popup blind with my neighbor-friend awaiting daylight. It looked to be a beautiful spring morning and the toms were already gobbling! I had a cameraman at my side and my bow in-hand. Hopefully the turkeys and read our script!

We called to them a little while they were still roosted. They showed no interest. Distant gobbles told us they went the other way. So we waited.

About a half hour later, my buddy struck out some more calls on the slate. GOBBLE-GOBBLE!! And closer!! They were on their way over it seemed.

Ten minutes later we saw our first bird of the morning. It passed through an opening too quickly for me to tell what it was, but it's path looked to be bringing it within bow range shortly. My suspicions were confirmed a couple minutes later as 5 red-heads popped up over the ridge at 25 yards. One of them was fanned out, spitting and drumming. "Here we go!" I thought. The camera was rolling as I readied my bow. My heart started to race.

But a few more steps identified all those red heads as jakes. I let them pass as they strutted and gobbled just ten yards from us. They hung around just a few minutes and started working off to the east, when a couple large fans caught my eye..."Toms!!" There they were...the big boys. THREE of them!

They decided they didn't like that blob of a blind sitting right on their strutting grounds. Although in shotgun range at 50 yards, I had no bow shots. The blind blends in pretty well, but with a rising sun behind us, I think we were silhouetted a bit. They didn't spook but they weren't coming any closer. Hens that they were with dictated their every move. Eventually they moved off and we spent the next hour watching glimpses of them through the woods from 70-100 yards. Occasionally we would call to try to get their interest in case they or the hens lost interest and wanted to check out something new.

As time passed, the birds seemed to grow more comfortable with the popup blind. Soon the jakes started coming over to check out the sweet calling and before we knew it they were in our laps. Next came the hens and you KNOW what that means! Here came the big boys!

With so many birds around, I couldn't get the windows of the Double Bull closed on the other side to open the opposite side without being silhouetted inside. They were behind us now and we'd simply have to wait for them to come around in front of us.

Five minutes later the 3 big toms were 10 yards from our blind, but they were still sealed off from us. We waited. The hens had already walked out in front of us at 15 yards. It was just a matter of time and I'd be posing for pics with my latest archery turkey!!

As if they weren't close enough, the birds started walking even closer. At five yards I almost felt I could shoot them from the hip! They started walking single file around the left side of the blind. Me being left-handed meant I had to shift way over in my seat to get a shot angle. The blind window opening on that side wasn't huge, so I picked my opening and drew. Seeing me draw, my cameraman knew he wasn't on the bird and would have to raise the camera up over the window. He had had to resituate on the ground in front of me since I had to twist way over to the left. I settled my sight picture on the opening 2 feet ahead of the bird and waited, but as he stepped forward the bird picked up the camera movement above the window and quickly ran back a few feet and to the left. I had no more shot!

The birds knew something was up so they would come no closer. They circled around behind us again and evacuated behind us to our right. We'd been oh so close!

Later we called the jakes back on top of us and the big boys even came back in to about 45 yards in the thick woods, but still no shots. This was a great action-packed morning and we're feeling pretty good about future hunts here....

Day #2
Got out of work at 2:pm raced to meet Barry South (DeerBoy) in Concord then we ran over to the farm that got all the early season pressure. We did a quick drive around to see if any toms were out in feilds... Nope. We decided to hit it anyway because of the number of hens i keep seeing here and knowing there are still some good birds on neighboring farms that could of wandered over and be in the woods. As we got our stuff ready a Gobble sounded in the woods over an alphalfa feild ridge. We did a big loop and slipped into a position between the gobble and the feild with the hens. Barry called and ran the camera while still having time to laugh at my work boots I was wearing cause I had accidently brought my kids hunting boots that would in no way ever fit over my feet.
We had several ansers that just kept getting farther away. We abandened ship in true aggressive hunting form and started following the birds across the woods stopping every now and then yelping out some begging pleas for them to come back. This is a tactic that seldom works but is often attempted. It does help build charecter though So we get up on this ridge to ease towards my turkey freinds and see a turkey about 20 yards away walking towards us. Just a hen, but I waited with the gun up just in case it was that bearded hen from last year (same farm). The hen walked within 15 yards before noticeing my pretty work boots Sooo we slipped closer to the toms that were now gobblin up a storm. They seemed to be in a big feild heading across. So we bellie crawled to within 40 yards of the feild and attempted to call them back into the woods This is a tactic that seldom works but is often attempted. It does help build charecter though The Toms just walked off laughing as usual. 5:00 BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

This time of year with the foliage being pretty much full, if you're not on-top of the birds and they're not vocal, you won't see a thing and you won't learn anything for future hunts. So rather than hunting an unscouted spot, I slept in and decided to do some driving around in hopes of locating some present roosting locations.

Morning was slow. There wasn't much field activity at all. I didn't feel very much ahead of things, so I was getting caught up on some chores at home. While putting in some can-lighting, I looked out in my back field to see the thick-bearded tom again! I would need to act fast.

Still in shorts and sandals, I threw on some camo and blasted out the door for my popup blind, already situated in a know travel corridor for the birds that travel my field. Wife and baby were gone to a baby shower so I'd have a couple hours to wait him out. It's early in my season yet and I intend to crack one on video with my bow, so that certainly adds difficulty, What would ordinarily be a belly-crawling, shotgun stalk, becomes a sit-and-wait game in my Double Bull...both have their plusses and minuses.

Two hours later and the tom was a no-show. He'd given me the slip. I headed into the house to regroup and head to my evening spot, but Jennie was hurting from a bad headache so I stayed in to watch Jacob (our 3-month old baby boy). Better days ahead!

Usually at this time of year, I've got several nice toms scouted and have a pretty good feeling about things. This year, however, I'm just not seeing the number of birds as years past. I know there are some good toms around though, so I choose to be patient, checking fields each morning, listening for gobbles in traditional roosting places, and practicing my bow some more. You have to be opportunistic and know how to capitalize when you see one... today was my first day I felt I had that chance. I saw a heavy-bearded tom work across my field this morning before work. It was time to make a move, so I headed out behind my house for a quick evening hunt.

I was excited to see four bucks make an appearance in my clover plot, but no birds. Day one was a bust...better days ahead!

I drove by the 1st farm and glassed the feilds for turkeys. 2 hens, that was it. Went to Daves farm, headed back about 2:45 pm. Got about 1/2 way across his farm and spotted a turkey walking in a feild about 250 yards away taking a trail past me about 100 yards, towards a swamp. I crawled to a tree and made a couple calls not sure if it was a big hen or a tom through all the cover, it looked to dark colored to be a Tom and to light colopred to be a hen Anywho, it stopped when I called and staired in my direction but never gobbled or strutted. it turned and started coming in my direction but after a little way it lost interest and tuned back in the direction it was going. It dissapeared behind a treeline towards the swamp and I figured it might come down the treeline and pop out in front of me. I waited about 15 or 20 minutes and it never showed and I was doughting it was a tom or had one in tow since I never got a gobble or a fan. I stood up and headed for the back of the farm as soon as I walked around the treeline there he stood in full strutt. about 30 yards away. It dropped its fan and stuck its head up at me sideways and trotted into the swamp... Just a jake, don't know why it didn't gobble or strutt when I was calling it? unless it was a different bird?

Went to the back of the farm over looking a large swampy area that has produced some good birds in past years and called... No anser. Ran back to the truck with just an hour of hunting time left. Ran back over to the 1st farm... Limpy the jake was out with a hen in one feild and a lone hen was out in another. Drove right past and headed for some public ground, the 1st two honey holes had no birds at all But when I got to the last spot, there were two big toms all by themselves in a feild headed for the public woods I looked at the clock I still had almost 20 minutes!!!! Time to get r done!!!

I drove around to the other side of the public and parked and ran to where the turkeys were headed feeling I made great time and they should still be about 50 to 75 yards over the hill. I set up the camera and positioned myself. I started a hen yelp on my box call when suddenly a big fat blue head poked over the hill about 25 yards away and back out of site in an instant. I waited thinking maybe they were still coming after 5 minutes I hen yelped once... No anser. BUZZER. Out of time. Got up and looked over the hill, I could see for almost a mile, they were no where in site. When I looked back at my set up from the turkeys peek a boo position, i could see part of my camera shineing in the light where the camo tape had come loose. Oh well, pile on a little more experiance and some more character... Right.

I stopped at the farm I was planning to hunt tomorrow (My opening day)and the farmers wife told me she watched the feilds all day for me. She can see them out of her kitchen window. She said no birds all day except one jake that came through limping. She said her daughter in law watched the feilds on the other side of the wood lot where her house is located and they were calling each other on the phone to compare notes. Daughter in law saw a couple hens... No Tom's. They have already had 5 hunters on the farm and 4 of them bagged Tom's. Pre-season I was seeing 5 toms on that farm.

Talked to Daves Mom, she said she thought she heard some gobble behind her barn one morning a few weeks ago... But relentless driveing around glassing the feilds has not yet found me any turkey on his farm this year. I noticed he has people feeding turkeys on both sides of his property within a 1/2 mile each way, so the birds seem to be staying at the feeders.