gobble157
Senior Member
My conquest to the 49 State Wild Turkey Slam
Well 2009 has been another great year for me in the turkey woods. I've seen tons of turkeys and had the opportunity to put loads of guys on birds. It was a rough one in the beginning, but things managed to pan out in the end. I also learned many valuable lessons when it comes to turkey hunting. One...don't forget your backup gun no matter what, Two...have tons of confidence in your weapon, and Three...shoot your gun after putting in a new choke.
So the story goes like this...
I left for Iowa to pick up my cousin on 5/4 so I could make the 4th season opener in WI. I arrived in Delhi, IA, picked up my cousin and then took off north about 1.5 hours before reaching my destination in La Farge, WI. There I hunted the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, which is some absolutely gorgeous country. That afternoon we set up camp and got situated for the next morning. Unfortunately, that evening we got soaked and the rain never let up that night. The next morning we get ready and take off to one of the ridges I scouted out on Google earth. We get out of the truck and make our way up the trail following reference points on my GPS. After about a mile walk into the hills we sit down and wait for things to come alive. We waited probably 30 minutes before hearing our first gobble. After he let out a couple more birds followed suit and fired off in the still of the morning. I made note of where they were gobbling from and then picked what seemed to be the hottest bird. So I took off after him and got set up before making a couple of calls. Almost instantly he gobbled, but could here a hen cutting him off, so I played with him a bit and decided to pull out of there and take off after a bird that was pretty inviting due to what I like to call "the death gobble." Basically, if you hear a longbeard in the distance that gobbles repeatedly over and over again and never shuts up, then he's probably by himself and is looking for hen. Usually, there's probably 10 seconds in between each gobble when you can qualify him into this category. Ask Trizey...he'll tell ya all about the death gobble from 2008 season. Any who, I took off after him and climbed what my cousin likes to call miniature Mt. Everest due to the never ending climb to the top. You think your close, but the curvature of the earth keeps the wishful thinking at hand. So we finally get to the top and sit down catch our breath before I made some calls. At this point it seems like he's gobbling every 8 seconds, so it's definitely on and we're on the same plan as him. Finally, I call softly and he responds with a triple gobble. He instantly made his way towards me and had him at 50 yards before he suddenly got spooked and flew just to my left. As he flew away I got a great glimpse of his huge beard. I bet he had a beard over 12 inches and that is no exaggeration. This thing was huge and thick, so we called him King Dong since he gobbled on the highest Hill/Mt. in the area where we were hunting. After reflection back on what went wrong...I suddenly realized that my cousin was passed out and was bobbing his head when the turkey was coming in...a big no brainer as to why he got spooked.
Any who, we took off down the Mt. and went to camp since my cousin needed to fill his tummy. We ate a little and then took off towards the bird I got on that morning that had a hen with him. I got to the general area and made a couple calls and heard not a peep, so I laid down and took a 1.5 hour nap. Once I woke up and got resituated I moved up maybe 70 yards and made a couple more calls and out of now where I hear this faint gobble. I get setup and cutt pretty aggressive at this longbeard. Before you know it this mighty fine Wisconsin longbeard is at the bottom of a huge hill spittin' and drummin' right at 60 yards. At this point I'm using my Browning Gold 12 ga without my scope since the three top tapped holes were stripped and I settled with the fiber optic pin sights. The longbeard comes in maybe 10 more yards and at 46 yards I take a shot and the darn thing flies off into a huge green field and acts like nothing even fazed him when I shot. I got up after saying a few select choice words and wondered what the heck just happened. I looked for blood and couldn't find a single drop, so I knew this bird wasn't injured. After that miss, I retired the Browning Gold 12 ga till next spring since I need to have it redrilled and then tapped for new screw sets for my scope mount.
I go back to camp and decided to call it quits for the rest of the day and drink a couple beers to ease the pain of the previous miss. While at camp I met some of the nicest people you'll find at any camping area. One of them was the regional director for the NWTF and then some very select custom call makers. There we sat around the camp fire and told stories about past hunts and then funny experiences, which is what it's all about when you're out with people who have the same passion as you for turkeys. It was just awesome to meet wonderful people like this during our stay in Wisconsin.
The next day I go out by myself since my cousin doesn't have a tag for Wisconsin. I drop into a huge hollow that runs adjacent to miniature Mt. Everest and get back to where I hear King Dong gobbling and set up. I make a couple of calls and he gobbles well, but stays just out of reach of the ole' 10 ga. Well, off in the distance I can hear another Tom tearing it up off of this huge ridge, so I make my way towards him and set up at the bottom of his ridge. I get out my Crystal call and run a couple series of yelps and cutts and he fires off right at the end of my third series. Before I know it this birds is on top of me. At 35 yards I pull the trigger on the 10 gauge and that darn bird takes off flying like nothing happened. At this point I'm absolutely sick to my stomach. I'm ready to call it quits and drive back to Ohio. I sit and wonder about what just happened and then past all of the excitement during the trip I remembered I swapped chokes at the last minute and didn't reshoot my shotgun. I shot the standard XX Full Browning choke that came with the gun and that darn thing was amazing on a target. I looked at Nitro's recommended chokes for my particular 10 gauge shotgun (Browning Gold NWTF 10 ga) and chose the one that was the least amount of money and went with it. It happened to be the Primos Jelly head so once I received it a couple of days before I left I totally forgot to reshoot it to see how it shot (lesson learned). When I got back to camp I shot my 10 with the primos choke and it was okay, but when I shot the Browning choke I was absolutely blown away. I gained almost 70 more pellets in a 10" circle at 30 yards. Also my POI was totally off with the Primos choke, which is why I missed the might fine Tom at 30 yards. I got her all dialed in with the Browning choke and got ready for the next days hunt.
The next couple of days I maybe got a couple good hours of hunting due to excessive rain, but never struck up any good gobbling birds. The wind picked up tremendously and the wet with cold conditions froze everything up. I basically stayed around camp and took it easy enjoying the company of other nostalgic turkey hunters like myself. On Saturday, we packed up camp and exchanged phone numbers and email addresses for the next year as I'm definitely coming back to hunt Wisconsin one last time. Unfortunately I didn't kill one, but I did call in a bird for guy from that camp on the north end of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.
So my cousin and I left for Minnesota, which was just on the other side of the Mississippi River about 1.5 hours away. We hunted Zone 349 in Houston County. It's actually called the Winnebago Valley and is home to some of the best trout/turkey hunting ground around the country. I didn't fish, but I can say that this place is loaded with turkeys. Once we met one of my good buddies we got the tour of the state game areas and made our way back to our cabin. That night we sat around and chatted with other hunters from other states. Once again, I met some of the best guys around during this trip. Actually one of the guys has heard of me through the NWTF when I turkey called during my middle and high school years. He's from Columbus, GA and had just gotten back from Mexico on his Ocellated turkey hunt...small world to say the least
Any who, we got to our hunting spot on a state game area that supposedly held some mature birds and sat down to listen for any gobbling birds. I told my cousin he could have the first whack at a turkey. After 45 minutes a bird gobbles in the distance and the mood intensifies immensely. My cousin was getting absolutely torn up with all the gobbling this one bird was doing, so I decided to make a move and set up on him. We get on top of this big ridge and set up with my cousin right at 20 yards in front of me. After fly down, I make a couple of soft calls to let him know I'm there and he instantly replied with a gobble. He didn't seem interested after 30 minutes of gobbling and started off in the other direction. So I got a little more aggressive and that’s all it took. He got fired up and headed our way pretty darn quick. At 30 yards he shut up and gave us the silent treatment. This ridge is covered in green thick grassy leafy bushes that comes above knee height, so it was some what difficult to see him coming in. My cousin went nuts when he heard his first longbeard spittin' and drummin' at only 8 yards behind a tree in front of him and all of a sudden I heard this Tom putt and move off to my right. I almost instantly cutt real hard and helped and he gobbled again. Didn't think it was going to work, but it did and that saved the day. He totally forgot about what he saw (my cousin when the turkey popped around the tree at 9 yards) and came back to my right. I got set up and continued to fire him up with some light purrs and yelps. At 25 yards for me I finally got a glimpse of him struttin' and put my crosshairs on his head and pulled the trigger. The ole' Browning Gold barked and a might fine MN longbeard went down. Finally! I got that darn missing monkey off my back. I was darn excited needless to say. I jumped up and get my bird and tagged him before making my way back to the truck. Later on that day we got on other birds and had them in my cousin's lap, but he never pulled the trigger. You'll see why in the pics below. He's tore up with turkeys now, but he just couldn't stay awake. All of the traveling and up and down hills had him wore slap out. The next couple of days all I did is call and try to get him a longbeard. The next day I had two specific longbeards within 30 yards of me, but he couldn't see them since I was lower than he was and didn't have a clear shot.
From there the days got crappy and hunting wasn't great at all. The wind picked up big time and you couldn't hear a turkey unless you were less then 80 yards away. It got absolutely miserable for a turkey hunter, so we packed up a day early and headed home.
Once I got home and situated I decided to go out and fill my last Ohio tag since I've been taking newbies out left and right here in Ohio. I went to a spot that held a great population of birds and let one have it on 5/15. Attached you'll see the mighty fine Ohio longbeard as well as all of the pics I took during the trip to MN/WI. I hope everyone had a safe and blessed season and has a great summer to go along with it. Before you know it turkey season will be right around the corner and this man will not be able to sleep at night. Heck, I'm already counting down the days till I go to Hawaii. I can't wait!
By the way...for the 2009 season I've missed a total of 8 different times on a number of turkeys scattered across the country. Gotta have my scope or else I can't seal the deal on a longbeard.
For 2010 I'm going to hit the states listed below (only rough draft...pending wife approval
)
Hawaii (85% sure)
Florida (100% sure)
Alabama (100% sure)
Louisiana (95% sure)
South Carolina (95% sure)
Mississippi (95% sure)
Tennessee (99% sure)
Iowa (100% sure pending tag)
Wisconsin (100% sure pending tag)
Illinois (100% sure pending tag)
Ohio (100% sure)
Oklahoma (50% sure)
New Mexico 50% sure)
Have a safe and blessed Summer
!
David
******Enjoy the pics...I was a little bored while my cousin was asleep and I thought I'd take a couple pics of myself like the ole' boy from Cedar Creek that got the boot. My cousin couldn't hang as he had a severe case of Barkilepsy. Any who, I had a blast and thought I'd give a tribute to ole' arrow3 in my ninja mask!******
Well 2009 has been another great year for me in the turkey woods. I've seen tons of turkeys and had the opportunity to put loads of guys on birds. It was a rough one in the beginning, but things managed to pan out in the end. I also learned many valuable lessons when it comes to turkey hunting. One...don't forget your backup gun no matter what, Two...have tons of confidence in your weapon, and Three...shoot your gun after putting in a new choke.
So the story goes like this...
I left for Iowa to pick up my cousin on 5/4 so I could make the 4th season opener in WI. I arrived in Delhi, IA, picked up my cousin and then took off north about 1.5 hours before reaching my destination in La Farge, WI. There I hunted the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, which is some absolutely gorgeous country. That afternoon we set up camp and got situated for the next morning. Unfortunately, that evening we got soaked and the rain never let up that night. The next morning we get ready and take off to one of the ridges I scouted out on Google earth. We get out of the truck and make our way up the trail following reference points on my GPS. After about a mile walk into the hills we sit down and wait for things to come alive. We waited probably 30 minutes before hearing our first gobble. After he let out a couple more birds followed suit and fired off in the still of the morning. I made note of where they were gobbling from and then picked what seemed to be the hottest bird. So I took off after him and got set up before making a couple of calls. Almost instantly he gobbled, but could here a hen cutting him off, so I played with him a bit and decided to pull out of there and take off after a bird that was pretty inviting due to what I like to call "the death gobble." Basically, if you hear a longbeard in the distance that gobbles repeatedly over and over again and never shuts up, then he's probably by himself and is looking for hen. Usually, there's probably 10 seconds in between each gobble when you can qualify him into this category. Ask Trizey...he'll tell ya all about the death gobble from 2008 season. Any who, I took off after him and climbed what my cousin likes to call miniature Mt. Everest due to the never ending climb to the top. You think your close, but the curvature of the earth keeps the wishful thinking at hand. So we finally get to the top and sit down catch our breath before I made some calls. At this point it seems like he's gobbling every 8 seconds, so it's definitely on and we're on the same plan as him. Finally, I call softly and he responds with a triple gobble. He instantly made his way towards me and had him at 50 yards before he suddenly got spooked and flew just to my left. As he flew away I got a great glimpse of his huge beard. I bet he had a beard over 12 inches and that is no exaggeration. This thing was huge and thick, so we called him King Dong since he gobbled on the highest Hill/Mt. in the area where we were hunting. After reflection back on what went wrong...I suddenly realized that my cousin was passed out and was bobbing his head when the turkey was coming in...a big no brainer as to why he got spooked.
Any who, we took off down the Mt. and went to camp since my cousin needed to fill his tummy. We ate a little and then took off towards the bird I got on that morning that had a hen with him. I got to the general area and made a couple calls and heard not a peep, so I laid down and took a 1.5 hour nap. Once I woke up and got resituated I moved up maybe 70 yards and made a couple more calls and out of now where I hear this faint gobble. I get setup and cutt pretty aggressive at this longbeard. Before you know it this mighty fine Wisconsin longbeard is at the bottom of a huge hill spittin' and drummin' right at 60 yards. At this point I'm using my Browning Gold 12 ga without my scope since the three top tapped holes were stripped and I settled with the fiber optic pin sights. The longbeard comes in maybe 10 more yards and at 46 yards I take a shot and the darn thing flies off into a huge green field and acts like nothing even fazed him when I shot. I got up after saying a few select choice words and wondered what the heck just happened. I looked for blood and couldn't find a single drop, so I knew this bird wasn't injured. After that miss, I retired the Browning Gold 12 ga till next spring since I need to have it redrilled and then tapped for new screw sets for my scope mount.
I go back to camp and decided to call it quits for the rest of the day and drink a couple beers to ease the pain of the previous miss. While at camp I met some of the nicest people you'll find at any camping area. One of them was the regional director for the NWTF and then some very select custom call makers. There we sat around the camp fire and told stories about past hunts and then funny experiences, which is what it's all about when you're out with people who have the same passion as you for turkeys. It was just awesome to meet wonderful people like this during our stay in Wisconsin.
The next day I go out by myself since my cousin doesn't have a tag for Wisconsin. I drop into a huge hollow that runs adjacent to miniature Mt. Everest and get back to where I hear King Dong gobbling and set up. I make a couple of calls and he gobbles well, but stays just out of reach of the ole' 10 ga. Well, off in the distance I can hear another Tom tearing it up off of this huge ridge, so I make my way towards him and set up at the bottom of his ridge. I get out my Crystal call and run a couple series of yelps and cutts and he fires off right at the end of my third series. Before I know it this birds is on top of me. At 35 yards I pull the trigger on the 10 gauge and that darn bird takes off flying like nothing happened. At this point I'm absolutely sick to my stomach. I'm ready to call it quits and drive back to Ohio. I sit and wonder about what just happened and then past all of the excitement during the trip I remembered I swapped chokes at the last minute and didn't reshoot my shotgun. I shot the standard XX Full Browning choke that came with the gun and that darn thing was amazing on a target. I looked at Nitro's recommended chokes for my particular 10 gauge shotgun (Browning Gold NWTF 10 ga) and chose the one that was the least amount of money and went with it. It happened to be the Primos Jelly head so once I received it a couple of days before I left I totally forgot to reshoot it to see how it shot (lesson learned). When I got back to camp I shot my 10 with the primos choke and it was okay, but when I shot the Browning choke I was absolutely blown away. I gained almost 70 more pellets in a 10" circle at 30 yards. Also my POI was totally off with the Primos choke, which is why I missed the might fine Tom at 30 yards. I got her all dialed in with the Browning choke and got ready for the next days hunt.
The next couple of days I maybe got a couple good hours of hunting due to excessive rain, but never struck up any good gobbling birds. The wind picked up tremendously and the wet with cold conditions froze everything up. I basically stayed around camp and took it easy enjoying the company of other nostalgic turkey hunters like myself. On Saturday, we packed up camp and exchanged phone numbers and email addresses for the next year as I'm definitely coming back to hunt Wisconsin one last time. Unfortunately I didn't kill one, but I did call in a bird for guy from that camp on the north end of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve.
So my cousin and I left for Minnesota, which was just on the other side of the Mississippi River about 1.5 hours away. We hunted Zone 349 in Houston County. It's actually called the Winnebago Valley and is home to some of the best trout/turkey hunting ground around the country. I didn't fish, but I can say that this place is loaded with turkeys. Once we met one of my good buddies we got the tour of the state game areas and made our way back to our cabin. That night we sat around and chatted with other hunters from other states. Once again, I met some of the best guys around during this trip. Actually one of the guys has heard of me through the NWTF when I turkey called during my middle and high school years. He's from Columbus, GA and had just gotten back from Mexico on his Ocellated turkey hunt...small world to say the least
Any who, we got to our hunting spot on a state game area that supposedly held some mature birds and sat down to listen for any gobbling birds. I told my cousin he could have the first whack at a turkey. After 45 minutes a bird gobbles in the distance and the mood intensifies immensely. My cousin was getting absolutely torn up with all the gobbling this one bird was doing, so I decided to make a move and set up on him. We get on top of this big ridge and set up with my cousin right at 20 yards in front of me. After fly down, I make a couple of soft calls to let him know I'm there and he instantly replied with a gobble. He didn't seem interested after 30 minutes of gobbling and started off in the other direction. So I got a little more aggressive and that’s all it took. He got fired up and headed our way pretty darn quick. At 30 yards he shut up and gave us the silent treatment. This ridge is covered in green thick grassy leafy bushes that comes above knee height, so it was some what difficult to see him coming in. My cousin went nuts when he heard his first longbeard spittin' and drummin' at only 8 yards behind a tree in front of him and all of a sudden I heard this Tom putt and move off to my right. I almost instantly cutt real hard and helped and he gobbled again. Didn't think it was going to work, but it did and that saved the day. He totally forgot about what he saw (my cousin when the turkey popped around the tree at 9 yards) and came back to my right. I got set up and continued to fire him up with some light purrs and yelps. At 25 yards for me I finally got a glimpse of him struttin' and put my crosshairs on his head and pulled the trigger. The ole' Browning Gold barked and a might fine MN longbeard went down. Finally! I got that darn missing monkey off my back. I was darn excited needless to say. I jumped up and get my bird and tagged him before making my way back to the truck. Later on that day we got on other birds and had them in my cousin's lap, but he never pulled the trigger. You'll see why in the pics below. He's tore up with turkeys now, but he just couldn't stay awake. All of the traveling and up and down hills had him wore slap out. The next couple of days all I did is call and try to get him a longbeard. The next day I had two specific longbeards within 30 yards of me, but he couldn't see them since I was lower than he was and didn't have a clear shot.
From there the days got crappy and hunting wasn't great at all. The wind picked up big time and you couldn't hear a turkey unless you were less then 80 yards away. It got absolutely miserable for a turkey hunter, so we packed up a day early and headed home.
Once I got home and situated I decided to go out and fill my last Ohio tag since I've been taking newbies out left and right here in Ohio. I went to a spot that held a great population of birds and let one have it on 5/15. Attached you'll see the mighty fine Ohio longbeard as well as all of the pics I took during the trip to MN/WI. I hope everyone had a safe and blessed season and has a great summer to go along with it. Before you know it turkey season will be right around the corner and this man will not be able to sleep at night. Heck, I'm already counting down the days till I go to Hawaii. I can't wait!
By the way...for the 2009 season I've missed a total of 8 different times on a number of turkeys scattered across the country. Gotta have my scope or else I can't seal the deal on a longbeard.
For 2010 I'm going to hit the states listed below (only rough draft...pending wife approval
)Hawaii (85% sure)
Florida (100% sure)
Alabama (100% sure)
Louisiana (95% sure)
South Carolina (95% sure)
Mississippi (95% sure)
Tennessee (99% sure)
Iowa (100% sure pending tag)
Wisconsin (100% sure pending tag)
Illinois (100% sure pending tag)
Ohio (100% sure)
Oklahoma (50% sure)
New Mexico 50% sure)
Have a safe and blessed Summer
!David
******Enjoy the pics...I was a little bored while my cousin was asleep and I thought I'd take a couple pics of myself like the ole' boy from Cedar Creek that got the boot. My cousin couldn't hang as he had a severe case of Barkilepsy. Any who, I had a blast and thought I'd give a tribute to ole' arrow3 in my ninja mask!******
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