Turkey hunting and BS welcome!

They were plowing the fields when I came in. So the birds that normally would be there with their hens were push into the woods so I had no idea of their location.

I did, however, know the trail the followed day and night to get from roost to food and hens so I set my pop up there to interept. A plan I devised the prior weekend after noting their movements.

When I sat down it had just rained, windy, and the tractor plowing covered all noise. So no gobbles. Eventually the farmer got done, the sun came out, and the wind died.

I was using my box call that I posted about earlier. My decoys where a hen not on a stand, but one the ground to be bred by my lucky Jake decoy. I called again. Dead. Nothing moving. Bordom kicked in after an few hours so I gave my brother a call to update him on the situation. We planned to hunt in the morning, so my observations that night were going to affect our plan.

On the phone, I noticed some birds in a very close field just down a two track I had my pop up on. I hung up quickly and made a call. The birds responded by moving in my direction. I glass them this time. Two Toms. Big guys too. They are going right down the two track toward my decoys, ready to show that Jake who is top bird.

Problem, my pop up is right on the two track. I freeze. Heart is pounding. Shotgun at the ready. They pass withing maybe 8 feet from my popup. I thought for sure I'd be busted.

But I'm not!

They pass me and head right for the decoys placed 25 yards away to my 11. Heart really pounding now, shotgun up and bead on the big ones head. They don't seperate. Finally they loose interest and get farther apart. The one I want is on the left. Bang!

Dropped him on the spot. Other runs off. Headshot, no shot on the body at all. A clean hit. He does the death shake and I can't believe I got my bird.

The adrenaline rush was real. I felt alive.

 

That’s awesome

 

Thanks

 

First solo bird, pulled it off spot and stalk this morning!

 

Congrats.
What do you mean by "spot and stalk"? I have only heard that term used for turkey hunting on this board. I probably just call it something else. Tell us about the hunt.

 

Spot and stalk as in not using the decoy, seeing them before they saw me and then moving into shooting distance to execute.

I woke up late as per norm, threw my camo on, jumped on the quad and the went across the road to a little patch we lease to try and pull a tom out of the neighbors timber. Super foggy this morning, they were already on the ground gobbling by the time I got setup with the decoy, I hit the call and got an immediate response, I thought "he's coming". Well he had hens with him that were talking up a storm he came to approx. 150 yards and stopped, never saw the bird and then his gobbling got farther and farther away, rats.
So I went back to the quad made a quick stop back at the house to drop the kids off at the pool and then on foot I went into the 80 acres of state land directly behind my house. I busted a tom and 2 hens out of a field on my way back there being in too much of a hurry. I got setup in a rivine to hopefully draw a bird from the neighboring field I couldn't see but nothing came of it. I worked my way around the end of the ridge and my ears never cease to amaze me, I heard the light clucking of a hen so I hurried and got setup again as I'm clucking and chirping talking back and forth to this hen I look up on the next ridge and there she is coming my way with big daddy strutting his stuff behind her, I thought "this is happening, for real this time" he stayed on top of that ridge while she cut the distance in half, not sure if she didnt like the decoy or if I called too much or what but she turned right around and went back to him and away they went. Now im getting a little discouraged, so I decided to go down to the river bottom where I've shot a bird before and had other close calls. I got down into the thick, threw the decoy in the ground found my tree and woah! I almost stepped on this adorable little guy

I hit the call a few times but decided I didnt want to disturb this little fella too much so I picked up and started my way on the long route back to the house. I was just walking at pace not really trying to be quiet as such but covering ground to get home since the sun was getting up there and I was getting hungry. I was approaching a field edge so I slowed a bit but not with much caution step after step until my eyes locked onto 2 big birds inside 100 yards so I locked up and to my surprise neither of them noticed me, I picked my point of execution that I thought would put me in shooting distance so my next available opportunity I dropped to the ground to let the brush be a barrier between us, I set down my gear grabbed the shotgun and started army crawling. I crawled to the base of the tree I had picked out stood up with it between us and popped out from behind the tree and blasted the first one I saw at 40 yards, the other tom ended up being about 15 yards closer but oh well. It was a great hunt and I'm glad i forced myself out of bed this morning. Solo bird means solo pictures
20lb tom

 

That’s awesome! Congrats on the 1st one. Keep after em

 

means basically on the move. like a real predator/prey hunt. A lot more difficult than just sitting and calling them in since turkey can see amazingly great!

Awesome write-up!

 

Sounds like a great hunt!!
I call that type of turkey hunting "bobcatting" and I do it a lot. Most folks call the "walk and call" method "run and gun" but nothing that I do could be called running. It's a slow and methodical process. Since I never hunt with decoys and absolutely will not sit in a blind, I stay on the move every time I turkey hunt. I only sit down when I get a close response or get into position on a bird that I saw. I am very mobile when I turkey hunt and very aggressive as far as moving on a turkey. It's just my style. I am lucky that the places that I hunt (all public) are plenty big enough that I can walk all day and never even begin to cover all of it. I kept track a couple of years ago and, on days that I didn't kill a turkey, I averaged 7 miles of walking.
Good job!

 

It was a good morning, thats how I hunt too. The decoy adds a little more insurance in some cases

 

An awesome hunt! Heck yeah man

 

Friday is the last day here . Think I will hunt Thursday,Friday .Try and get it done with one good eye . Going to the eye doctor Friday afternoon

 

Best of luck hunting and also best of luck with the eye appointment. Keep us posted.

 

Thanks Tedric !

 

Good luck! Its tough hunting turkey, its even more tough when others are there messing it up!

 

Last time out 50-60 yards was about as close as they got . One looks to be huge with a big thick beard .

 

This is another area that I have yet to try

 

Thought you said you didn't have permission to hunt that spot.

 

Friday is the last day in here in Michigan too.

I hope my brother gets out to use his tag. Not much time left.

 

My friend is a caretaker on that property,I just haven’t asked him . But I can hunt on the mountain behind that field to the top but not down this side ..........yet ! I’m sure he wound mind if I ask him.