Lets Post Up Those Birds And Stories

[Bird Watcher]

Looks good. Nice job.

[BilletHead]

Nice job Rangerman. You all did well and thanks for posting,

BilletHead

[JohnP]

Congrats to all.

Tagged out myself on both opening days (1st week and 2nd week).

1st bird: 4-15-13

Personally the biggest bird I've ever taken. 23-24lbs (no scales, rough guess). 9 1/2 inch beard, 1 5/8th and 1 9/16th inch spurs.

Morning started out slow. Decided to sit in the blind on a ridge which is about 75 to 100 yds from their normal roosting area not knowing if the rain would move in or not (which it didn't and it got warm quick). Birds gobbled good from about 6 to 6:30 and then got quiet. Sat in the blind til about 9 not seeing anything but crows. Decided to walk the ridge around the property to a knoll that overlooks 2 separate fields to see if I could spot some birds. about 30 yds from the top of the knoll a bird starts gobbling on the back side of it probably another 20 yds. set the dekes up on the ridge road and plop down on the turkey lounger in the brush. Call a couple times and the bird is gobbling and headed my way. about the 30 yds out I spot him but have no shot thru the cedars and brush and he wouldn't come out into the opening, once he seen the strutting jake deke he turned walked away???? Only thing I could figure is that he'd probably already had his but kicked and didn't want it again. waited for about a 1/2 hour with nothing and decided to walk the rest of the ridge and head down a valley going into the fields. as soon as I cleared the wood line spooked 2 hens and 2 jakes and 4 long beards that took off up the glade and weren't looking back. as I was watching them a tom sounds off in the timber towards the south about 150 yds away. start to put my sneak on, get about 20 yds into my sneak and theres a tom in the brush about 40 yds infront of me with the other bird still sounding off. drop to my knees, gun in my right hand on the ground and holding the Julio (jake mobile) in the hand. hold Julio infront of me just slightly turning him side to side. The tom couldn't stand it and immediately went into strut and came straight to the deke I was holding up drumming and spitting the whole way. He got to about 15 ft before I figured I 'd better do something before he kicked my butt . dropped the deke, shouldered the gun and rolled him forward as I hit in the back of the head at about 15 yds. all that happened in about 2 min's or less from the time I heard that gobble in the woods which he was still gobbling after I shot.

2n bird: 4-22-13

Got into the blind about 5:45 and didn't hear anything till about 6:30 and what I did hear was very distant and few. Nothing gobbled on the property I was on. About 6:50 I look out the right window and see 2 hens heading my way about 40 yds up. Watching them for a couple min's I hear a bird drummin' and spittin' and out the front window to see 3 tom's struttin' towards the dekes at 30 yds. Shouldered the gun and proceeded to watch them attack the Julio and Juanita da dekes. Watched this for about 1 min, then they were gettin' alil nervous with the dekes not responding to the attacks. Picked out the one with the fullest beard ( all 3 were similar and didn't see any hooks on them but decent spurs all about the same) and dropped him. The other 2 stuck around and one proceeded to start peckin' and whoopin' up on their buddy. took about 3 min's of video of that and they had stuck around for about 15 min's.

Then to top that off walking back to the truck and find my first morrels ever . After getting home and processing the bird, hooked up the boat headed to the lake hoping for a limit of crappie. Ended up with only 2 crappie, 3 whites, and a couple dozen short LM's and Kentucky's. Good day.

Not as big as the first bird but I'm not complaining.
18-19 lbs, 9 1/2" beard, one spur right about an inch and the other just under.

[BilletHead]

Nice John P. Nice photos and thanks for sharing the hunts. I have been busy for the last few days but I will be out in the morning to see if there is anything left around here!

BilletHead

[shawncat]

...nice birds,mines a little wet.Had 5 gobblers come into my dekes over my right shoulder....while calling one 200 yrds. in front of me.I had to pull my blind out due to the rising meremac,looking forward to rebrushing it.LOL

[duckydoty]

Last Wednesday I sat up at the edge of a field with decoys out in the field about 15 yards from me. At day break three birds were gobbling 50 or 60 yards behind me in the woods while still on the roost. They hung in the roost long enough for an old boss hen to come in close enough to call them out of the tree. This was the most vocal hen I have ever heard in the woods. She would bellow out 30 and 40 yelps in a row on her lost hen calls. I had a hard time even getting a word in edgewise trying to compete with her. Needless to say, she won out and took the toms down the hill to where I could hear at least two other birds gobbling. I was debating on getting up and moving or just sticking it out there for a while. After tossing that idea around I for a bit, I noticed two of the toms sounded like they were headed back up the hill. I started calling to them every few minutes. Every time they answered they sounded just a bit closer. After 15 or 20 minutes of working them they sounded like they were on the edge of the field. I could not see in that direction due to the brush pile I was using to conceal my position. I got my gun up and ready and gave two more yelps and waited. With in a couple of minutes I saw blue heads behind the brush. They had spotted the decoys and were moving in on them. There were three of them. They would gobble, fluff up and strut then take a few more steps toward the decoys and repeat. All three were Jakes with 3-4 inch beards sticking out. When they cleared the brush I picked the closest one, took the safety off and pulled the trigger. Fun hunt and first bird I've ever shot using decoys in a field.
Today, I wove a blanket made of bacon and wrapped the breast of this young Jake in this finely crafted blanket then placed in the smoker for 5 hours.

[BilletHead]

Nice and way to go fellows. Pretty slim pickings here right now. I (we) are wet and what is here have webbed feet and are acting more like ducks than turkeys.

Pat said while I was gone early this week helping at Reel Recovery the road hunting was bad and she even heard shots while getting ready for work in the house. Going to make some phone calls and maybe hit another farm. Lots of hens but toms and hiding or silent. Time to put on the thinking cap,

BilletHead

[shawncat]

....had a gobbler hang up in front of my blind for 2 hours at 90yrds.He just walked back and forth/stood out there.Wouldnt respond to calls....just hung up waiting for hens to come out into middle of field.I waited till 1pm....snuck/crawled outta my blind,so i didnt give up my hide,walked 1/4 mile outta my way only to have 2 gobblers cross the road 50yrds from my truck as i got my wet clothes off.....after legal shooting time.Luv me sum turkey hunt'n.LOL

[JohnP]

Very nice DD, I can almost smell whatchya cookin'.

[BilletHead]

Another bird down so I am done. I hope the Mrs. gets her a bird this weekend. Getting on a bird but could not get them to come to a call. They have been turning around and walking away from the call. I have worked two birds, same ones Monday and Tuesday . Hunting a upper field with a small bluff/ridge with a lower field below. A small pond muck hole between them. Monday I seen them on the upper field, crept in on them and sat up. They were strutting and gobbling while chasing around a jake. I made a call and they folded up and walked off. Back again yesterday this time with the decoys, same spot. They were roosted in the lower field. They were noisy all morning as I waited. Got to the point where I peeked into the lower field and gave them a call, they turned and walked off? Crap I thought. Went back to the decoys and waited. Soon a lone bird showed up in the middle of the field just picking and walking. I called to him and he strutted, gobbled and continued on his marry way. Later another pair of birds showed up in the lower field. Jakes, that would make me happy so I slipped down to the back of the pond and called. I just new they would walk around the pond across a draw at the end of the bluff and come to the lower field. So here they came to the draw. Took one look at it, turned around and back to the pond. Too far to shoot. They bobbed there heads and flew across the pond within ten yards of me then sailed way out into the lower field out of range! Then headed off away and then gone. Now to this morning. This time I set up on the bottom field, no decoys and next to the pond. As it got light the two big birds from the last two days got noisy and pitched out 300 yards away. I kept quiet and here they came to my end. This is where I put and end to one of them. 10.5" beard Stubby 1/2 inch spurs and he was a tall lean 16 pounder.

BilletHead