Hoosier06
DIPSTICK yankee
First trip out
Walked into an area I scouted and seen more turkey sign than I have ever seen down here and I am out running trails 3-5 times a week and hike a lot. I knew this spot was going to be good.
Set up in a funnel with turkey sign. I got on the inside bend of a U turn in the logging cut so I had a FOV on all easy approaches. I glassed 2 jakes on another ridge about 2pm. A few hours I hear scratching. Get the gun oriented, 4 hens at 30 yards. No Tom followed. I hear a muffled gobble that I know is close about 7pm on the “back” side of a ridge with water,food and Roost trees. 8pm I watch a 5th hen fly to roost to my front and hear the original 4 fly up behind me. I sneak out at dark.
Second trip out
I sneak back into the U turn spot an hour before daylight and set up the decoys. I see a few hens fly down at daylight and hear two muffled gobbles. Nothing of note until 9am. At 9 am the 4 hens show up and no gobbler follows. No gobbling, wind has picked up. Time for a midday nap. Wake up at 1pm, scour the map, contemplate going home. I decide not to due to the amount of sign and knowing that gobbler is somewhere close. I look at the valley where he has gobbled from and it is the same area the hens went to so I figured that’s why he isnt gobbling.
I relocate to where I can hear down into that valley and watch a bench and logging road junction. About 345 pm it’s windy and I am questioning my life choices. I hear that same faint smokers cough gobble from before. I rip on my slate to get my sound to travel over the wind and he cuts me off. I wait 5 min and call again. He has cut the distance in half. I put my slate away and orient my gun.
I see him at 100 yards strutting. I give a faint yelp and he gobbles again. I shut up and started scratching in the leaves. He disappeared. I expect him to come along the easy avenue of approach. After 10 minutes I hear him walking behind me. Idk why he came that way because its thick brush. I reorient and ready the gun. He periscopes his head at 15 yards. Beads on his head, taking slack off the trigger but his head is shielded by brush and I think he will move an inch to give a clear hole. That inch never happens. Head ducks and he disappears when he realizes there is no hen.
Third trip out
I looked at how that bird has been traveling but there is no way to setup on the bench and logging road funnel without getting busted. The face if the hill orients east and no cover. So no shadows to hide. I packed in a blind and setup where I had a shot at 3 avenues of approach.
7 am hits and I hear faint smoker gobble 100 yards away and 2 more gobblers within 200. They created a feedback loop answering each other until 730 fly dow. They sound like they head towards water. I have the terrain advantage so I wait. 830 I hear muffled gobbles again so I start ripping on the slate, one answers about 100 yards away. While that bird is gobbling a silent bird slips out from thick cover but doesn’t give me a stationary shot before ghosting. I believe it’s the same bird that I had at 15. I kick myself for not making it happen. 5 minutes later I hear a gobble behind me and it’s close. I get my gun ready and let out a yelp. He hammers a double gobble at 50. I had setup to where any turkey that can see my location is also in range so they don’t hang up. He pokes his head up at 45 then turns sideways and walks parallel looking for the missing hen. He doesn’t like the scenario but slack is already taken up in the trigger and 2.5 oz of tss flattens the bird.
I see two other hunters on my pack out and it’s time to head to a new location 80 miles away.
Fourth trip out
I head to a new area where I heard birds during a March scouting trip. The birds were in a saddle between two large mountains during my scout. I started The hike in at 530 AM. Get to the saddle at 630 and find a good spot to sit. I could hear down both sides and see for miles. I check my watch at 7, hoping for gobbling. Not a peep and even with cold weather gear it’s cold. I hate being there so I assume a turkey would also. 8 am nothing. 830 scout the saddle and lower bench. Zero fresh sign. Wind is ripping so I figured the birds went to lower Elevations.
I had another area on the map marked so I drove half an hour to a new spot. Ran into two hunters at a pull off who told me they heard a shot and seen two hens. I show them on the map where I am going to deconflict. I hike around the private and setup overwatching a bottom out of the wind and a saddle. Hunt there 1030-12 Before pulling out. Zero fresh sign Anywhere. I Look at fields with protection from the wind on the map and plotted a route. I drove from field to field until 3pm glassing for birds. Spot one hen hunkered in brush and nothing else. All the pull offs that were full in the AM were all now empty.
Basically writing the day off as a loss I buy some fried chicken and head to another field. I see two dots 750 yards out. Pull out the optics. Two long beards down out of the wind. It’s 330 pm now And I go knock on doors to try and get access. A sweet old lady said she didn’t mind, but I’d have to ask her husband and he says no. I figured it was a wash at this point but he slips and says there is government behind his place. I thought this was weird since I hadn’t seen it. It’s now 4pm and I’m losing time till roost, I had to cut my conversation short and get a plan together. I change my map layer and no **** there is public where he said it was. I park where the map says it starts and I see a NF sign. We’re in business now but it’s a mile hike up over a ridge to get above the birds before they head up to roost.
I hike in around behind the private and get to the finger ridge leading to where the birds were last spotted. There is an old cut on a bench above then so I gambled that they would hit that spot on their way back to roost. I had barely got situated at 520pm and a hen hops up onto the old logging cut. My cover was awful and she spots me immediately. As soon as she went over the bank putting I grabbed my gear and moved further up into brush and laid on my back to break up my outline. 545 pm I see another hen 100 yards to my right In the cut. I know there has to be a gobbler somewhere with this kind of activity. 6pm I hear scratching down the mountain . I get my gun oriented and I see two longbeards 80 yards away feeding up the ridge with another hen. I don’t call since they are already going to where I want them. They continue to feed up the ridge and step into the old road. I have to wait to get a clear shot due to the brush I put between myself and the birds for cover . Once they got Clear of the brush I waited until they got far enough apart to not kill two. As soon as one broke to my right to head uphill, safety off and slack in trigger was taken up and another payload was enroute. Ended my fourth outing hearing precisely zero gobbles, seeing more hunters than turkeys and getting wind burn on my face.
Walked into an area I scouted and seen more turkey sign than I have ever seen down here and I am out running trails 3-5 times a week and hike a lot. I knew this spot was going to be good.
Set up in a funnel with turkey sign. I got on the inside bend of a U turn in the logging cut so I had a FOV on all easy approaches. I glassed 2 jakes on another ridge about 2pm. A few hours I hear scratching. Get the gun oriented, 4 hens at 30 yards. No Tom followed. I hear a muffled gobble that I know is close about 7pm on the “back” side of a ridge with water,food and Roost trees. 8pm I watch a 5th hen fly to roost to my front and hear the original 4 fly up behind me. I sneak out at dark.
Second trip out
I sneak back into the U turn spot an hour before daylight and set up the decoys. I see a few hens fly down at daylight and hear two muffled gobbles. Nothing of note until 9am. At 9 am the 4 hens show up and no gobbler follows. No gobbling, wind has picked up. Time for a midday nap. Wake up at 1pm, scour the map, contemplate going home. I decide not to due to the amount of sign and knowing that gobbler is somewhere close. I look at the valley where he has gobbled from and it is the same area the hens went to so I figured that’s why he isnt gobbling.
I relocate to where I can hear down into that valley and watch a bench and logging road junction. About 345 pm it’s windy and I am questioning my life choices. I hear that same faint smokers cough gobble from before. I rip on my slate to get my sound to travel over the wind and he cuts me off. I wait 5 min and call again. He has cut the distance in half. I put my slate away and orient my gun.
I see him at 100 yards strutting. I give a faint yelp and he gobbles again. I shut up and started scratching in the leaves. He disappeared. I expect him to come along the easy avenue of approach. After 10 minutes I hear him walking behind me. Idk why he came that way because its thick brush. I reorient and ready the gun. He periscopes his head at 15 yards. Beads on his head, taking slack off the trigger but his head is shielded by brush and I think he will move an inch to give a clear hole. That inch never happens. Head ducks and he disappears when he realizes there is no hen.
Third trip out
I looked at how that bird has been traveling but there is no way to setup on the bench and logging road funnel without getting busted. The face if the hill orients east and no cover. So no shadows to hide. I packed in a blind and setup where I had a shot at 3 avenues of approach.
7 am hits and I hear faint smoker gobble 100 yards away and 2 more gobblers within 200. They created a feedback loop answering each other until 730 fly dow. They sound like they head towards water. I have the terrain advantage so I wait. 830 I hear muffled gobbles again so I start ripping on the slate, one answers about 100 yards away. While that bird is gobbling a silent bird slips out from thick cover but doesn’t give me a stationary shot before ghosting. I believe it’s the same bird that I had at 15. I kick myself for not making it happen. 5 minutes later I hear a gobble behind me and it’s close. I get my gun ready and let out a yelp. He hammers a double gobble at 50. I had setup to where any turkey that can see my location is also in range so they don’t hang up. He pokes his head up at 45 then turns sideways and walks parallel looking for the missing hen. He doesn’t like the scenario but slack is already taken up in the trigger and 2.5 oz of tss flattens the bird.
I see two other hunters on my pack out and it’s time to head to a new location 80 miles away.
Fourth trip out
I head to a new area where I heard birds during a March scouting trip. The birds were in a saddle between two large mountains during my scout. I started The hike in at 530 AM. Get to the saddle at 630 and find a good spot to sit. I could hear down both sides and see for miles. I check my watch at 7, hoping for gobbling. Not a peep and even with cold weather gear it’s cold. I hate being there so I assume a turkey would also. 8 am nothing. 830 scout the saddle and lower bench. Zero fresh sign. Wind is ripping so I figured the birds went to lower Elevations.
I had another area on the map marked so I drove half an hour to a new spot. Ran into two hunters at a pull off who told me they heard a shot and seen two hens. I show them on the map where I am going to deconflict. I hike around the private and setup overwatching a bottom out of the wind and a saddle. Hunt there 1030-12 Before pulling out. Zero fresh sign Anywhere. I Look at fields with protection from the wind on the map and plotted a route. I drove from field to field until 3pm glassing for birds. Spot one hen hunkered in brush and nothing else. All the pull offs that were full in the AM were all now empty.
Basically writing the day off as a loss I buy some fried chicken and head to another field. I see two dots 750 yards out. Pull out the optics. Two long beards down out of the wind. It’s 330 pm now And I go knock on doors to try and get access. A sweet old lady said she didn’t mind, but I’d have to ask her husband and he says no. I figured it was a wash at this point but he slips and says there is government behind his place. I thought this was weird since I hadn’t seen it. It’s now 4pm and I’m losing time till roost, I had to cut my conversation short and get a plan together. I change my map layer and no **** there is public where he said it was. I park where the map says it starts and I see a NF sign. We’re in business now but it’s a mile hike up over a ridge to get above the birds before they head up to roost.
I hike in around behind the private and get to the finger ridge leading to where the birds were last spotted. There is an old cut on a bench above then so I gambled that they would hit that spot on their way back to roost. I had barely got situated at 520pm and a hen hops up onto the old logging cut. My cover was awful and she spots me immediately. As soon as she went over the bank putting I grabbed my gear and moved further up into brush and laid on my back to break up my outline. 545 pm I see another hen 100 yards to my right In the cut. I know there has to be a gobbler somewhere with this kind of activity. 6pm I hear scratching down the mountain . I get my gun oriented and I see two longbeards 80 yards away feeding up the ridge with another hen. I don’t call since they are already going to where I want them. They continue to feed up the ridge and step into the old road. I have to wait to get a clear shot due to the brush I put between myself and the birds for cover . Once they got Clear of the brush I waited until they got far enough apart to not kill two. As soon as one broke to my right to head uphill, safety off and slack in trigger was taken up and another payload was enroute. Ended my fourth outing hearing precisely zero gobbles, seeing more hunters than turkeys and getting wind burn on my face.
