MO-KS_hunter

Man, what an exciting weekend! I didn't score, but I came close a couple of times and I had one of the most enjoyable hunting experiences in my life. First off, I'm new to spring turkey hunting. Sure, I've been a few times in the fall while bowhunting deer but I've never seriously gone spring turkey hunting but I've always wanted to and this year I decided it would be the year.

Saturday morning, I set up on the edge ofa woodline and starting softly clucking and purring. At about 7:30, I hear a gobbler in the next field over start going to town so I let out a few yelps on my Primos heartbreaker box call. I then hear him get closer and closer gobbling all the time and my heart is racing! Well he hangs up in the woods I'm set up against and wouldn't cross a creek to come find his sweetheart [&:] I wait for about an hour and decide to try and sneak up on him in the woods, bad idea. I find out that me sneaking up on a Tom in the woods is like a 5 year old taking on Mike Tyson in a prize fight. He sees me as I'm trying to (as gracefully and sneakily as I can) climb up the side of the creekbedand he flushes[&:]. I decide to sit down and wait to see if there were anymore birds in the woods and I wait under a big tree intermittenly making soft cuts and purrs along with the occasional yelp. About an hour later, I see a head pop around a tree I happened to be looking at and wouldn't you know, a little jake came looking for the hen sounds I was making. Well I could have easily killed him several times over but I decide to let him live as I'm looking for a Tom! I get back up after the jake is long gone and try to walk up that Tom I spooked earlier. I sneak around to the woods where I saw him flush to and spend a half an hour still hunting through the timber. I finally flush him but I was unable to get a shot as he flushed on the wrong side of two cedar trees. After 1:00, my uncle and I scout a great location onour family's property and decide to set up there in the morning. We even spooked a Tom strutting to hen as we pulled around a finger of woods. A great sign!

Sunday morning, we get out to the new spot early and I set up in the field were we saw the Tom strutting to that hen. I set up B-mobile and she-mobile and sit back in the woodline, behind a little bush. At about 6:30 hear several gobblers about 1/4 to 1/2 mile behind me in some woods on an adjactent property. I let out a few loud yelps on my heartbreaker and they both start getting closer. After some back and forth with the gobblers, one of them gets really close and I know he is in the woods that I'm set up against. At that time, I'm shaking and my heart is beating at 180 BPM! He then pops out of the woodline about 65 to 70 yards from me. He then takes a look at my decoys and decides he doesn't want anything to do with my B-mobile (I guess) and heads out to the middle of the field. I throw every call I know at him but he won't get any closer. I hear him gobble out in the field but he doesn't want anything to do with B-mobile. As I'm messing around with this guy, I can see on the other side of the field, 5 other Toms come scurrying out of the woods. They never get any closer than 250 yards and head in the woods on the other side of the field. The close-but-no-cigar Tom I called up earlier see's them and decides to follow [&:][&:]. I then move to another field on our property and I was able to call in another Tom but he hung up at about 200 yards and wouldn't get any closer. He sure was making a racket in the field and it was great fun watch him call back to me and gobble his head off! My uncle (who hasn't scored yet either) and I decide to make a turkey drive in the woods that I see those Toms go into to see if we can't flush a couple out. Now, before everyone starts posting how dangerous Turkey drives are, I want to tell you that we are on posted, private property and my uncle and I are very careful hunters who ALWAYS identify our targets before pulling the trigger. Anyway, the drive is fruitless and we circle back around and I show him where the turkey was when I called him up. We then look back to where I was set up when my uncle came over to me to talk and wouldn't you know it, one of those dang Tom's had circled around during our turkey drive and ended up about 20 yards from there [:@]. Well he immediately spooked and flew up away leaving us feeling utterly defeated We try a few more turkey drives on some of our other property and we manage to kick up a hen that was well within my shooting distance but no Toms.

Well I learned alot from this weekend and I felt like I've been through a Turkey hunting graduate course. I can see why everyone that goes Turkey hunting goes crazy for it and gets hopelessly addicted [&:]. I feel like I'm getting that way myself and can't wait for next weekend!!!!!!

mohunter82

No you know what we turkeyloversgo through and live for every year.
sounds like a good time was had

JW

Good story there Teacher! Can I go to the bathroom now? hehe _ even tho I bet I am much older than you and have been inthe turkey woods a bit longer - one is never to old to be humbled!

You just learned there that a non-domiant Tom will not come runnin' into ole B-Mobile! So do take note of that......

Now B-Mobile does work and has worked well for me but I have laso witnessed what happened to you so you have a 50-50 chance. I am experimenting with a Jake fan vs a Tom fan and have 2 birds who did not like good Ole Vern my B-Mobile.....So Vern is going through some age experiemtns and will be come a Jake and loose his puberty!

My Hypothesis -
The top 4 big tail feathers of a strutting Jake is a visual Que to a 2 yr old or better Tom!

I have two Toms to try my theory on.......

Will pass on what I find out!

JW

BuckAlley

I don't understand why the heck you would try to still hunt a tom. It just doesn't work. I've circled their position, re-setup, and changed up calls many times. But you can't still hunt a wise bird. All that does it make them wiser.Also a safety rule of turkey hunting is to never still hunt them!!

MO-KS_hunter

Believe me JW, I'm no teacher. I'm a turkey hunting novice andwas just trying to reiterate how much I was schooled over the weekend and I thought I would share my experiences with everyone

Cause I've been told it can work by other hunters who have done it in the past. I've walked them up in the past while hunting other birds so I thought I might try it. I probably won't do it again and I was hunting posted private land and heard no evidence of any other hunters on the private land I was hunting so I figured (correctly) that it was safe.

mohunter82

now this year they did come out with a jake mobile. smaller deke with jake fan and half strut. if ya wanna try to use b mobile lay the fan back a bit and pull the beard in a little bit. this may give the view of a subordinate gobbler you need.

mouthcaller

Respectfully, I must agree with BuckAlley here and discourage you from still hunting turkeys. That's a great way to get accidently shot.Plus you can't sneak upon a bird in relatively open woods withoutgetting busted.Unless you have one of those invisible cloaks fromthe Harry Potter movies it ain't happening.

Its' one thing to sneak around and try to ambush one by getting in front of him or cutting him off at a narrow gap or creek crossing or fence opening. I move all the time on gobbling turkeys trying to find the best place to call from, but that is well out of their sight and away from them. But slipping through the woods in close proximity to a gobbling bird in full camo is, in my opinion, a bad idea. Someone else may be set-up close to the bird and see "movement" and get all excited let one fly. It happens multiple times every turkey season across America, private and public land. In fact, most shooting accidents in turkey season involve people from the same hunting party. Unfortunately you can't rule out the possibility of poachers on your land, and poachers typically have little regard for ethical hunting.


The other point is valid about educating the bird and making him hard to call he he associates your calling with you.

Just free advice, respectfully given, from someone with 29 seasons of turkey experience. And BTW, I know personally people that have been shot turkey hunting. It ain't very fun.

Mouthcaller

MO-KS_hunter

I appreciate your advice mouthcaller, the whole time I was (trying) to stalk the turkey, I kind of thought it was a bad idea and I probably won't do it again. What do you guys do at about 9:00 AM when all of the birds aren't moving and are henned up? Do you guys try turkey drives with the driver wearing blaze orangeand the blocker wearing camo?

mouthcaller

You need to forget your deer hunting strategies. That will only drive the turkeys off your property.

The whole point of turkey hunting is getting out there with the birds and trying to call them to shotgun range. That is where the challenge and excitement lies. Using your knowledge of the woods, the lay of the land, and realistic hen sounds to fool a gobbler into thinking you are the real thing. There is no other form of hunting that is personally more fulfilling and exciting to me than accomplishing that. I get a rusheach and every time.

Driving them to other hunters to me is no different than shooting them off the roost. I would get no thrill out of that. You may be able to kill one that way (I doubt it) but it ain't for me.

MC

BuckAlley

MO-KS, Once the early morning excitement ends. I'll move around through the woods. I like to use locator calls to get a tom to shock gobble. Crow is the most common locator call, and it works very well. If I simply can't get a tom to answer me, but I find a area full of turkey sign. Sometimes I'll just setup, and hen call anyways. I did this today as a matter of fact. It was 10:30am, andI got a tom to open up after 20mins of blind calling.Its weird how it seems there isn't a tom to be found, then out of the blue one starts in, and hammers out the gobbles. I worked him in to 40yds from my dad, but he couldn't get the shot.

Another thing I absolutely love to do(which answers another part of your question)is if I canentice a hen to answer me. Nothing like pissing off a hen. I'll do my best to match her call for call. It drives then nuts, and you'll often bring her in, hopefully a tom in tow. So personally henned up tomsis just a bigger challenge I love to tackle. Work the boss hen, and the tom often follows!