Turkey Hunt

I apologize in advance for a very long and sometimes irrelevant post but folks were complaing about no hunting posts etc. just yesterday. Here's a hunting post complete with nit picky details. RD

 

I took Thursday and Friday off to Hunt Wisconsin's 3rd period spring turkey season.(Actual season Wed. through Sun.) Pouring rain when I got up Thurs. AM but I loaded the 4 wheeler in the truck, gathered up the guns and gear and made the two hour trek west to Wisconsin's Ocooch Mountains. I say this somewhat jokingly as the Mississippi River is the low point at about 700 ft above sea level and the hilltops are a whopping 1500-1550 feet but none the less they are called the Ocooch Mountains but nowhere near the Rockies or even the Ozarks. My landowner buddy is building a new house and it was still raining when I got there so I helped him put some counter tops in the kitchen. About 2:30 the rain let up so I took the truck out the ridge to the top of the hill, offloaded the 4X4 and loaded it down with my gear for the trek down on to the second bench that the cabin sits on. Another of my hunting buds, Rick, was there catching a nap after sitting in a blind in the downpour until about noon. We talked about where the guys had put blinds already and where I'd hunt in the morning. There was a spot I'd always wanted to try but it was a quite a hike down into a deep draw and up the other side. There was a road down into the draw but no access to the other side as the ditch at the bottom had cut banks 4 to 6 feet deep along each side that i couldn't traverse with the atv. At any rate I loaded up the atv with the blind. my decoy, a bucket to sit on, and my shotgun and headed off to set up the blind so I could hunt in it this evening and the next morning. When I got to the top of the logging road at the edge of the woods I shut off the atv and coasted all the way to the bottom. After I got down there I crossed the ditch. Muddy 6' cut banks are slick as hell and the ditch bottom is covered with quartz and chert rock from baseball to football size but I crossed without booogering up me or the shotgun and climbed the ridge up the other side. Not a huge elevation but covered with buck brush, tree tops, and rocks that like to roll under your foot if you don't step wisely. It was about a 20 minute climb and I was winded when I got there. Busted out a couple of deer as I crested the top. I set up my blind only to discover that the stakes for it were nowhere to be found. The zippered pocket  on the outside of the bag that holds the bling was empty. I scrounged around the area and found enough dead sticks of about 3/4" in diameter to hold it down. I crawled in and let things calm down for about a half an hour. It was 4 oclock by now and I sat there and called every 15 or 20 minutes until about 6:30. About that time the shooting started at my buddies skeet range just down the road from his new house. I gave up the hunt, climbed on the atv and rode up the logging road to the skeet range. Using borrowed shells and a borrowed SxS I totally embarrassed myself by breaking about 10 birds per round. Never did figure out where the gun was shooting. At about 8 PM I went back to the cabin where Rick had grilled up a couple of cherry marinated pork tenderloins that went pretty well with some beef stew and a couple of Blue Moon Winter Abby Ales. I brought the stew not knowing he had tenderloins but we made do. Turn in time was about 10:00.

The alarm went off at 4:30 and I got up and made some sausage and eggs and fresh biscuits for the two of us. My back was really tight from sleeping in a bed I wasn't used to and I doubted that I'd make it to the top of the other side of the big draw before daylight. So i opted for plan 2. There was a blind about 80 yds from the cabin door on a finger ridge that runs out past the cabin. I decided to go there until 11:00 or so and then eat a lunch and head for the blind I'd placed the night before. I got out the cabin door before daylight. It was a frosty 30 degrees with heavy frost all over everything. I crawled in the blind and laid out my box call and slate on the floor beside me. There was a big folding camp chair in the blind. The cold drink holders in the arms were the perfect size for my push button call and striker for the slate. I was only there about 15 minutes, 5:45 or so, when the gobbling started. After two days of steady rain the sun was coming up and the birds were gobbling like crazy all over. It was absolutely calm out and I know I could hear birds that were a quarter mile away or better. There was a gobbler and a jake that sounded like they were no more that 100-150 yards to my left just off the point of the ridge. I picked up the slate and made a few light tree clucks and yelps and they started answering. I shut up for 10 or 15 minutes and then called a little louder and they answered again. So I picked up my box call and gave it my best come and get me call, pleading for the boys to come and see me. We played this game for about a half hour. After that their tone changed and I knew that they had flown down. At about 6:30 I heard a hen yelp right behind the blind but I had no view in that direction and she walked off without me getting a glimpse of her. Five minutes later another hen came by yelping like crazy, again behind me where the brush was too thick for me to see. I picked up my little push button call and just matched her yelp for yelp. A two yelp was answered with a two yelp etc. I don't know where he came from but I looked out the blind window right in front of me and there was a bird standing with his back to me at about twenty yards. He was stretched up to his maximum height just standing stock still. I couldn't see a beard as he was full back to me and was partially blocked by two trees about 6" in diameter that were about two thirds of the way between us. In fact if I leaned over about 6" I couldn't even see his head because on of the trees blocked it. I had an ah ha moment. If I can't see him from that corner of the window he can't see me! So i brought the gun up on that side of the window and slowly swung it out fom behind the tree. But I still hadn't seen the beard. Got to admit the heart was pumping a little hard. Then he turned slightly to the right and I could see the little paint brush of the jake, but at the same time now I had no shot as his head was behind the little tree. This went on for a while and the old shotgun was starting to get a bit heavy. While he was standing there I took a peak around to see if another bird might have snuck in but there was nothing in sight. Now I had time to decide if I wanted a jake or not. I decided that since it was my only day to hunt, my buddy needed help with his house that I could provide, and there were two of my hunting buddies that were going to hunt yet I'd take the jake if I could and save a gobbler for them. He started to walk off to the right but the problem was that he was headed for the crest of the ridge. Feeding sa he went with trees and brush in between. At the last possible minute he stopped and picked his head up and I sent a 3" load of Federal number 5s down the old Mossberg 500 barrel. It rolled him over the brink of the hill where I couldn't see him. I boiled out of the blind and ran down there as he flopped his way down the hill another 15 yards or so. I considered another shot but was sure he was about done and so he was. I picked him up and paced the distance from where he stood back to the blind. It was 41 long steps up the hill. Glancing at my watch it read 7:00AM. I tagged him and carried him back to the cabin. I packed and loaded my gear on the 4 wheeler, did the dishes, swept the floor and headed up the ridge to the truck. Then I had to go down in the valley, climb the ridge on the other side and collapse and pack my unused blind, and pack it back down the hill. (Steep enough going down that you can walk forward but it's hard on the toes) I stopped in the ditch long enough to investigate a spring that has comes out of the cut bank and runs down the ditch for about 50 feet into a shallow pool and then disappears with the sound of falling water into a crack in the stream bed. I loaded the gear on the 4 wheeler and went back up the logging road and out the ridge to my truck, loaded the 4 wheeler, drove the 3 miles to town and registered the bird. ( A requirement in Wis.) He weighed 16 pounds 8 oz., had a 4" beard and whopping 1/4" spurs. LOL. I drove back to my buddy's place, boned the bird out and put the meat in the freezer, and was back working on the house by 10:00. We hung a new microwave and then went to another spot and picked up a used but efficient Fischer Stove for his new hearth. I was back home by 6:30 PM. All in all, a good couple of days, some shooting, a successful hunt, a beer with friends, sharing a bit of labor that was appreciated. Who could ask for more. RD

 

Edited by Rockydog

good story D.

this year I passed on opening day of spring turkey, and went to the big NRA show.  Great time, had dinner with KP..we only got into 3 or 4 fights in the restaurant.  some people just can't take  a lot of insulting.

My brother and nephew went turkey hunting.  Nephew got a jake, my brother missed a big bird at about 40 yards with my double 10 ga.  Must be a good story there but I've not heard it!!

Let the bird hunting begin!

d, One of my co-workers shot a big gobbler two weeks ago in a snowstorm. He had about 2" of snow on his blind when he went out in the morning. It was still snowing when the bird came in Gobbling to his call. RD

Congrats RD on the bird.....

....d,I have shot more then one turkey when it was snowing.....don't let that stop you.....I use one of those pop-up doghouse type blinds to stay dry in during the snow or rain.........my season begins on May 4....rain/snow flurries predicted.............where did Spring go?

Edited by Irish Bird Dog

got it now d......heard about that MT gumbo....we have a version of it here in northern WI that we call "red clay"....sticks to everything when it is wet and fills tires so they become "smoothies" with no traction and fill the wheel wells so tires can't turn sideways but will still "spin" in rotation but you don't move!when it is DRY it gets as hard as concrete!