Star-Date Thursday, April 7th, 2022: Yippee! On the way to first spring gobbler hunt of 2022! Arrive destination AZ early afternoon after 5.5 hour drive. Set up camp for me and avidnwoutdoorsman (Chrisopher). Look over gigantic hunt area afternoon and evening, managing to roost gobblers in two locations. See few other people,...things looking bright!
Friday, April 8th: Day before start of season! Out searching for roosted gobblers in new area an hour before daylight. Cover 15 miles of road and end up finding several gobblers in one location along a two-mile stretch. Things definitely looking up,..for a while. Afternoon: Other hunters start showing up and setting up large camps along the road. By evening, LOTS of other turkey hunters have arrived in hunt area. Things not looking so bright after all. Fairly certain gobblers found the first evening have been found by several others, so abandon any hopes of hunting those birds. Christopher shows up at camp that night after flying in from Washington State. I outline plan for hunting group of gobblers found in other area and turn in for a short night's sleep.
Saturday, April 9th: Opening Morning! We're up at 3:30 and off from camp at 4:00. Locate first gobbler at 4:45 and tell Christopher to go get 'em. I head on up to location of other gobblers heard Friday morning. Eventually locate another gobbler on a ridge above and head up to him while still somewhat dark. Get as close as I dare (100 yards +/-) and set-up. Quick summary: gobbler flies down and vanishes without showing any indication of interest in my calling. Conclusion on first set-up of year: I suck! Spend the rest of the morning and late afternoon and evening looking for a responsive gobbler while dodging hoards of other hunters. No gobbler roosted at dark, but have an idea of an out-of-the-way spot for the next morning. Christopher comes close with his gobbler and two others in same area but can't seal the deal (he can elaborate).
Sunday, April 10th: Head to remote spot 25 miles from camp an hour before daylight. Locator tactic gets gobbler approx. 3/4 mile away to respond in darkness. No other gobblers heard so I head out to try to get to him while he is still on the roost. Finally triangulate his location and move in to less than 100 yards and set up. Things look promising! Gets lighter and I hear no hens with gobbler. Things even more promising! About flydown time, I tree call,...he responds. I wait, then give him fly-down wing-beat simulation. He responds! Things very promising! Quick summary: gobbler flies down and I hear him drumming. Get gun up and ready,..and wait,...and wait,...and wait. Add scratching and more ground wing adjustments. ...Nothing. He has vanished! Game over! Conclusion: Again, I suck! Eventually check out roost area and find gobbler tracks and two-three sets of hen tracks. Hens with him never made a peep at any time during the encounter, and tracks indicated they had led gobbler directly away from me. Seemed strange...
Continue hunting Sunday morning without getting a response from another bird and with hunters seemingly everywhere. Wind starting to pick up and forecast is for high winds for next two days. Not good! Under the circumstances and with the New Mexico season opening in just a few days, I decide to bag it. Not into hunting non-responsive gobblers,..or at least those gobblers that will not respond to me. Next up: New Mexico at the end of this week!
Post script: Morning after I leave, Christopher kills a big gobbler, adding insult to my injury... ;D
April 13: Truck is loaded for departure to the mountains of New Mexico for our opener on Friday! Leaving at 4:00 in the morning to check out a potential sleeper spot and then on up to the higher country. Stay tuned for a report in a few days! ...Hopefully a better one than my AZ outing.
Thursday, April 14th: Leave at 3:45 a.m. for two-hour drive to final turkey scout of "sleeper" honey hole before Friday NM opener. Sleeper turns out to be devoid of turkeys again this spring,...no gobbling heard at daybreak and no sign of birds. Bummer...
Friday evening, locate two gobblers at dark,...both in questionable locations for good set-ups in difficult terrain, but appear to be the only options for the opener under the circumstances. Make plans with hunting partner for long walk-in in the dark in the morning...
Friday, April 15th: Opening day in NM! Wake up to high winds (another bummer) and make hour-long hike to first set-up on gobbler roosted in lousy location on steep hillside. Make poor guess on set-up, gobbler flies down, hushes up and vanishes. Later in morning, go to area where other gobbler heard. Get no responses to calling, but bump flock when relocating. Mojo is bad all the way around.
High winds remainder of day and no further interactions, although our "cabin gobblers" show up inside our "no-hunt zone" to taunt us late in afternoon. Evening roosting with winds is a bust. Another hunting buddy shows up at camp and the three of us make plans to hunt as a trio the next morning. With winds up, not too optimistic about the possibilities.
Saturday, April 16th: Winds have not subsided, so we decide to hit an area bordering private property that we know holds birds. After 45-minute hike in the dark over high ridge, locator gets multiple gobblers going 500 yards below us on private,...can get no closer, so set up on fence boundary and hope for the best. Gobblers going crazy at daybreak, and after fly-down all three of us pour on the calling to try to pull birds up out of the canyon.
A distant shot from below on the private shuts everything down for a while as birds go quiet. We wait, thinking that the positive is that the shooter might push the birds our way. Fifteen minutes later, gobbling half-way up the ridge indicates birds are moving up towards us. We resume calling. Minutes later, four jakes come running over a slight rise on private side of fence, stop forty yards away, look around for the source of calling, and then quickly depart back down into the private.
More gobbling from the direction the jakes came from. Minutes later, two mature gobblers come over same rise, walking directly to us. They walk up to the fence-line, standing at twenty yards looking. They turn back and walk back the way they came. Seconds later a strutter comes over the rise looking like he might come across the fence, but yelping from hens behind the turns them all back further into the private. Close but no cigar. We second-guess our set-up so close to the property line, but water has done flowed under the bridge. Lesson learned, but fun nonetheless!
Winds increasing again. It's opening weekend and hunters are everywhere,...and it's a long season where retired guys can wait to hunt under better conditions and more cooperative gobblers,...so we decide to bag it and come back later in the season. Pack up and head for the house. Next planned outing...Wednesday, April 20th.
Wednesday, April 20th: lunch engagement with high school/college friends postponed so I decide to head for the hills at 3:30 a.m. Two hour drive puts me in roost-gobbling territory at first light. Windy, but not terrible. Walk down ridge towards known roosting area and get very distant response across property boundary (can't hunt) on first locator call. Only single gobbler, far away,...not looking good. Wait for more and/or closer gobbles but none are heard. At full light, make circle back to truck calling. Nothing.
Drive another 3/4 mile down rough-a$$ road and park. Wind is picking up,...confidence sagging. Start walking down ridge along two-track trail. Little evidence of human activity here,...confidence building, but wind has me concerned. Walk for 3/4 mile, stopping and calling occasionally when wind subsides slightly. Reach high point above canyon and call. Faint, "could-be" gobble from below. Wait,..then call again. Definite gobble from canyon slope below me about 300 yards!
Move forward, looking for good set-up location offering down-slope view if gobbler comes. Find great spot behind stump, gun-rest high. Sit and get ready. Call again. Immediate response and gobbler closing! wait,...call again,...GOBBLE,...getting closer! Wait,..call,...GOBBLE! Watching down slope and see gobbler strut through opening sixty yards out angling up slope towards me, and going to come up just where anticipated.
I now know it is all over but the flopping if I do my part! Gobbler keeps coming,..full strut and drumming. Classic hunt,...what we dream of! Gobbler angling to my left, but still towards me. I assess shooting lanes and move gun to opening anticipating his arrival. Shot will be a gimmee at less than twenty-five yards. He obliges by moving into lane, but still in full strut and angling towards me. Hate to shoot them like that, but waiting longer will put him behind brush-pile, so when he slightly raises out of strut to look, I shoot. Feather fly everywhere, but gobbler down!
After several failed hunts in a row, I am elated! Again, classic hunt,...ending with a nice two-year-old gobbler on first morning out! Great start,..and at least two more days to go! I'm a one-gobbler-per-day hunter, so I head back to the truck to relax, savor the moment, and await the arrival of a hunting buddy who is on his way. It feels good,...all is well...
(https://i.imgur.com/jEB3jirl.jpg)
Congrats, great read, no pictures??
Thursday, April 21st: Hunting partner has arrived. Windy Wednesday evening has prevented roosting any gobblers, so we decide to go opposite directions before daylight. Dick (my buddy) goes down trail to area past where I shot the gobbler the morning before, both of us thinking that is the most likely place to find another gobbler. I go back up down two-track into area I had heard the distant gobbler on the private parcel.
Quarter mile from camp, I stop to try locator at ridge point above big canyon. Gobbler immediately responds across canyon half-mile away on opposite ridge. I call Dick on radio,..."I've got a gobbler here. You want to come back this way and go for him?" Dick: "No, I am going to continue working this way,...you go get him."
Knowing exactly where this gobbler is, I know I have to work my way in a half circle of about 3/4 mile around to get to where I need to be, so I start hiking. Fortunately, the locator had made him gobble in the dark so I had plenty of time. Thirty minutes later, I get to point on ridge about 150 yards from gobbler right at fly-down. Choose set-up and assess circumstances for approaching gobbler and shot,...then call. Gobbler responds,...and hen yelps back!
Not confident in situation, but we will play the game. Birds are on the ground now. I yelp back at hen,...and she responds again. Things have promise, but still not at all confident. I wait,...call again. Gobbler gobbles,..and hen yelps back,...Closer now. Hen is coming,...yelping on way. I envision gobbler towing along behind her, but knowing if she shows up and busts me, the jig is up!
Suddenly, there she is, walking towards me out of the brush-line at thirty yards. Look behind her,...no gobbler in sight. She walks up to ten yards, then five, and is yelping softly looking for me. I am frozen, hoping the gobbler appears before she gets antsy. Then, there he is! I see him strutting behind a brush-pile at thirty yards, slowly working his way along behind the hen.
It's a waiting game now to see if the hen busts me first or the gobbler walks out in the opening in front of him. To my amazement, the hen holds her ground, still looking for the hen she had heard,...and the gobbler slowly struts towards my shooting lane at twenty-three yards. Then, there he is! He struts out into the lane and, just like the gobbler the day before, offers me another gimmee opportunity! Game over! Gobbler number two DOWN!
Closer inspection with gobbler in hand reveals that this is an older bird. Spurs suggest he is probably beyond the three-year-old mark, although that is just my guess. These types of gobblers in this country rarely come willingly to a turkey call,...UNLESS there is a wild card. In this situation, in my mind, the wild card was the lone hen that dragged him to his demise. Regardless, I am once again THRILLED to have been able to have this experience. It NEVER gets old!
That thrill is tempered a bit in that, quite honestly, I would rather have had Dick there to shoot this gobbler. I am now out of tags for the remaining NM season. BUT,...we will be on our way to another "special opportunity" hunt this morning,...and I will have ANOTHER tag for that hunt! ...Not done yet!
(https://i.imgur.com/71CwTlvl.jpg)
Quote from: JeffC on April 23, 2022, 08:59:40 AM
Congrats, great read, no pictures??
Thanks, Jeff,...I will be inserting pictures,...haven't uploaded those yet,...but will in a while..
Jim
Great job on 2nd Tom, Congrats again, safe travels, and looking forward to pictures.
Friday, April 22nd: Dick and I have moved on to our "special opportunity" hunt location. Thursday evening, both of us have roosted multiple gobblers and are ready to rock Friday morning. In the pre-dawn darkness, we head to our chosen locations. My plan is to get on a ridge above several gobblers and see what unfolds at fly-down.
As the eastern horizon begins to lighten, I work my way up the ridge. Two gobblers sound off down the canyon close to where I had parked. Then another gobble below me and at least three more up the ridge in front of me! I'm in turkey hunting paradise! I walk on, now looking for the appropriate set-up with the most likely candidates. I hear another lone gobbler below me and decide "this is the one". I move forward to get on the bench above him and set-up 100 yards uphill from where he is. As it continues to lighten, gobbling is echoing from all directions! How can I possibly fail in this situation?!
At fly-down, I yelp softly to the gobbler. He responds and immediately I hear him fly down. Looks promising! However, a few more gobbles indicate he is moving quickly down the ridge away from me towards some other birds. Bummer,...but there are LOTS of other options here! I gather my stuff and head for the next group of at least three gobblers whooping it up further up the ridge.
I move several hundred yards towards these new birds and drop down to the canyon bottom and set up below where they are gobbling on the hillside a couple of hundred yards away. I yelp,...they respond lustily. Wait,...yelp again,...They gobble, but are not moving. Yelp,..Gobble,...no movement. This goes on for ten minutes,...then I hear more distant gobbling in the canyon further below me. I yelp loudly to assess the response from the new participants. At least two gobblers respond from the new location, as well as the birds above me.
I call again,...both groups respond. The lower birds are a bit closer, but their arrival apparently sparks a new urgency from the birds above me. Their next gobble is MUCH closer and I know they are on their way now. I peer up the slope, expecting to see them coming down at any second. Then, I hear drumming. Looking to my right a bit, and behind a scrubby pine tree close to me, I see three gobblers strutting down the hillside at fifty yards,...and headed towards me! I adjust my position a bit and soon all three are strutting 25 yards away looking for the hen they heard.
These are obviously three two-year-old gang-bangers looking for trouble, and I am in no hurry to end this hunt based on all of the turkey activity around me, so I decide to let them go on their merry way. When they eventually get out of sight moving on down the draw, I move away, up the draw, intending to circle above them and go back down the ridge I had come up originally and try some of the other birds I was hearing.
I move a few hundred yards and come to a spot where the ridge drops off to a relatively open flat below me. I hear gobbling from somewhere on that flat, so I stop and call. Immediate gobble 150 yards below! I sit down quickly with a clear view down into the flat and almost immediately see a strutting gobbler headed up towards me. He works his way quite quickly up the slope and walks right up to me at five yards. He is a mature gobbler, but a quick evaluation confirms he is not a candidate for harvest under the existing circumstances, and he turns back and retreats down the slope after becoming a bit suspicious.
Still sitting in the same spot, minutes later I see three more gobblers strutting below me. I call,...they respond,...and immediately start up towards me! (I have apparently died and gone to turkey heaven!). These gobblers keep coming up the slope, stopping on occasion to try to out-strut the others. As they get closer, I can see they are trailing a single hen that is coming to investigate my calling. She walks up to ten yards with the gobblers five yards behind her.
I look over these three new gobblers. They are not the same threesome as the first group, but I still have reservations about shooting one of them. They drift off a bit, following the hen who has, by now, become suspicious at the lack of a hen being where she had heard calling. I am desperately trying to evaluate the gobblers to see if one is worthy of harvest, but eventually they move down-slope and out of sight.
I am now second-guessing myself about letting several gobblers walk. Doing stuff like that has a tendency to come back and bite a guy in the butt later, and the weather forecast was for strong winds every day for the remainder of the hunt,...and it was beginning to pick up right about now.
The gobblers were out of sight and I was behind a brush-pile from them, so I slowly got to my feet, trying to spot them below me. I called softly,...they all gobbled,...and soon I can see them coming back up the slope towards me. At thirty yards, the three of them stood looking up at me, trying to spot the hen they heard. I now had my binoculars up, trying to make up my mind whether to shoot or let them walk,...and if I shot, which one was going to become turkey nuggets.
They milled around slowly as I inspected each one,...and finally I made up my mind. One of these three was slightly bigger and had a better beard, so I decided that if I got a clear shot, I would take him. They were moving in and out of the brush slowly and I was behind a dead, fallen juniper tree, so it took quite a while before I had a clear shot at the chosen gobbler,...so long, in fact, that my arms were becoming weary of holding up the shotgun as I waited for "my" gobbler to clear the brush and offer a clear shot. Eventually, however, he walked out in the open at thirty yards in a place where I had a hole in the brush on my end,...and I dispatched him. He was another good and gorgeous Merriam's gobbler. I judged him to be a three-year-old, which surprised me a bit considering him being part of a trio. I had expected a two-year-old.
I had completed my "GobbleNut Trifecta" of three gobblers in three morning's hunts! At that moment, I was elated, but I also was also aware that I was done hunting for the spring in my own stomping grounds. That always leaves me with a little bit of remorse.
Got back to camp after picture and video taking to find that Dick had also filled his tag with a beautiful gobbler that he had taken just a few hundred yards from our campsite. We were both done! A planned three-day hunt on the property turned into one. Nothing left to do but pack up and head home.
Next Stop: May 10th on to Nebraska, South Dakota,...and if all goes well, maybe Wyoming! Looking forward to meeting up with some other Old GOATS there!
(https://i.imgur.com/Ra75xOrl.jpg)
PostScript: Was supposed to meet up with Rapscallion Vermilion (Mike) on this hunt but didn't get to. Darn it! Sorry Mike.
Great read and job GN, congrats #3, sounds like "turkey heaven". Safe travels and continued sucess this season.
Congratulations and thanks for sharing Jim! Sounds like you are definitely having some great hunting and those Merriam's are beautiful! Good luck, safe travels and hope you keep it going!!
Yes Sir, nice write ups and congratulations on your gobblers
That was some fun back to back hunts
May 9th: Departing tomorrow morning early for Nebraska. Hunting there for a couple of days and then on to South Dakota to meet up with other GOATS there! Will be gone until sometime around the 20th, so probably no reports on this log until I get back unless our cohorts are posting by phone. Good luck to all teammates that will be hunting between now and then. Any updates to the team scoring will have to wait until I return since I do all of that stuff on my PC rather than on a phone. Everybody take care, stay safe, and good luck to everyone (even our competitors). :icon_thumright:
Safe travels GN, looking forward to some great stories and pictures.
Good luck and safe travels.
May 11th: Arrive at first hunt location in Nebraska (private parcel per invitation from hunting buddy's friend). Set up camp and look over property. Habitat looks fantastic but only one hen turkey seen in looking over area. I hear no gobblers at dark, but hosts hear birds in one location and graciously insist that my hunting partner and I hunt them the next morning. Unfortunately, gobblers are across property line, so we are resigned to trying to call them to our side of line. Plans made for next morning to attempt that... :icon_thumright:
May 12th: (Also known as "the day the wheels began to fall off" ::) )
Before daylight, my hunting partner and I head to property line closest to gobblers before daylight,...but conditions are very windy. Gobblers are supposedly in creek bottom about 200 yards from property boundary. We listen at first light for gobbling, but none heard. I try locator, but nothing. Friend decides to move west along creek, hoping to find birds. I stay at location since these are the only birds heard the evening before. I will wait them out.
Thirty minutes later, I have still heard no gobbling, but decide to set up in position overlooking the creek bottom below me. Full light now and still nothing heard, so I decide to initiate action with some hen talk. Still nothing answering. Sitting for half hour overlooking bottom below me, suddenly I see three jakes walking up the creek 150 yards away. I call to them, and immediately they look my way, turn, and start walking toward me. The lay of the land is such that I cannot see a portion of the slope below me beyond about thirty yards for roughly fifty yards (this will come into play in this story!).
The jakes walk straight towards me, going out of sight in the area I cannot see. Shortly, they come into view at thirty yards looking for the hen, and walk up to fifteen yards looking around. To this point, they start gobbling in unison, still searching. After two or three group gobbles, they walk away slowly to my left and out of sight, at which point I call again. They gobble back,...and suddenly, I hear another gobble from where they had initially come from down in the creek bottom.
I call. The jakes gobble, and the new arrival gobbles,...getting closer. Then, there he is,..a mature gobbler floats into the opening 150 yards away in full strut! I call,...jakes gobble,...he gobbles and struts. I expect him to follow the same path as the jakes in their approach to me, but he eventually turns and heads out of sight back down the creek. My thought: this is a mature bird that has been through this rodeo before and he has no intention of coming up here without seeing the hen he hears,...a mistaken impression that will come into play very shortly. ;D
I am sitting there, gun laying beside me, watching the slope below for any signs of the gobbler or other participants. Nothing. To my right and twenty yards away is a thicket of cedar trees, but between me and the cedars, there is nothing but open grass slope. For minutes, I sit watching the slope, all the time thinking the gobbler had departed down the creek,...when suddenly he steps out from behind the cedars at twenty yards walking straight to me!
I am caught completely off-guard! Gun is laying beside me and no way to get it shouldered without him being able to see me move. He keeps walking slowly up the slope towards me. If he turns to my left and goes where the jakes went, he will walk behind some brush and I will be fine, but instead, he turns right and starts walking up-slope across open grass with absolutely nothing between him and me. I decide to slow-walk the gun up, knowing it is unlikely to work with him being so close.
At my first move, he looks over and I fully expect him to flush, but he keeps walking,...but unfortunately moving further to my right,...not a good thing for a right-handed shooter (at this point, I am reminded of the importance of learning to comfortably switch to one's off-hand, and that I should have practiced it more). It quickly becomes apparent that I cannot slow-walk the gun up, so I just spin to my right and bring the gun up,...still thinking he is going to fly at any second,...but he doesn't. He just keeps walking up the slope getting further to my right, but still within easy gun range!
At this point, another complication arises. As I am turning to my right, gravity is pulling my body down-slope to my left. I am losing my balance as I bring the gun up, which, along with my thought that he will fly at any second, makes me hurry to get a shot off. Looking back at the moment I pulled the trigger, I am now quite aware that I was too quick to jerk the trigger, although I thought at the time I was "on him". I apparently was not. At the (first) shot (which I later paced off at less than 25 yards), he ducked down as the shot went somewhere near his head and started running up the slope, but still well within range.
Unfortunately, I was an unraveled mess by then, and took a second, wild, even-more-off-balance shot as he high-tailed it up the slope away from me,...again, missing him completely (no wounded gobblers in this story, thank goodness). At this point, anybody that has had a similar experience doing something like this knows exactly how one feels at that moment. I was shocked,...and devastated. I had literally not missed a turkey in years,...and had even bragged about that on this forum! What they say is true,...doing that sort of thing usually will come back to bite you in the butt at some point. It did here (and would continue...).
I/we hunted the rest of that morning,...and I actually heard more distant gobbling that I could have gone to, but I thought one of my hunting partners was on those birds, so I did not,...only to find out later that nobody was on them and I could have. At any rate, after the mornings hunt, me and my partner decided there were too many of us hunting too few gobblers on the property,...so we decided to depart and leave it to our hosts to hunt.
That afternoon, we packed up camp and moved on west to hunt some public stuff...
May 13th: Windy conditions on the prior evening made it impossible to roost any gobblers, but we had decided on a specific public location to start off this morning. Unfortunately, other hunters were at that location when we got there before daylight so we resign ourselves to a "driving, stopping, and locating" tactic. For the first couple of hours, we drive around...running into other hunters at every turn. ...Discouraging to say the least.
However, we eventually drive down one canyon and run into a beautiful gobbler with hens right on the road. We back off, park, and try to initiate a conversation. The turkeys have apparently departed the bottom and have moved up-slope "somewhere". Guessing where they might have gone, we work our way up a ridge and eventually get a response from the opposite ridge.
We work our way over there and end up having a long conversation with this gobbler (don't know if it was the same one, or not), but he will not let us get closer than about 100 yards before moving away (pretty typical action from heavily-hunted gobblers from what I have seen over the years). We keep working him, but he eventually moves on private ground and we give.
That's it for the day...although driving around on the "private" holdings, gobblers are standing along the road seemingly laughing at us without a care in the world. Ahh, to know some willing private landowners in the area! :)
May 14th: Still windy, and we had not been able to roost birds again the evening before because of it. Before daylight, we are back in the area where we had worked the gobbler the previous morning. I let my hunting partner out there and head on up the canyon using my "tried and true" locating tactics to try to strike a gobbler before daylight.
Before long, I strike a bird, but he is again on private ground and in a very poor location for any sort of reasonable set-up. Nevertheless, I get as close as I can and eventually get him going. For an hour and a half, I work on him, trying to get him to come off the property. He answers every call willingly, but the terrain makes it impossible for him to come directly to me,...and the indirect routes are not much better.
Eventually, he makes a move around the various obstacles between us and ends up walking down the two-track road to a point 100 yards away where I can see him standing on the road. To get into range, however, he must cross a steep-sided creek drainage and creek, and it becomes obvious that he has no intention of doing so, and I have no way of moving without him seeing me. I try all my tricks, but he eventually gets tired of waiting and moves back up the two-track and shuts down. Day two on Nebraska public land is done.
My buddy cannot make contact with the gobbler worked the previous morning. Time to move on to South Dakota!
May 15th: (The rest of the wheels fall off)
Driving around the vast public land areas of the Black Hills on the 14th, some things become clear: This is a tremendously large place with spectacular amounts of fabulous-looking turkey habitat. Secondly, if there are many turkeys here, they are not making their presence known to us. We are in hunting mode, but cannot raise a single response from a gobbler all day long. Personally, after all the hoopla surrounding turkey hunting in the Black Hills, I am dumbfounded by the lack of evidence that they are here. (Footnote: interaction with locals seems to suggest the population has taken a nose-dive over the general area in the last couple of years) However, the evening of the 14th, we do end up roosting gobblers in a couple of locations, so there is some promise.
Before daylight on the morning of the 15th, I drop off my hunting buddy at location of one roosted gobbler. Unfortunately, this gobbler is roosted on private ground very close to multiple houses. (This was a recurring problem hunting here,...EVERY gobbler we found in four days of hunting was either on private ground and/or very close to dwellings).
My plan is to drive and locate to get an idea of turkey abundance,...or in this case, the lack thereof. I plot a route and head down the road, stopping at likely spots trying to hear a gobbler. I cover miles of great looking habitat in the next two hours without hearing a peep. After flydown, I switch to hen yelping,...and after a few more miles, I finally get a gobble response from behind a private holding, but on public ground. I park and head that way.
Walking into the area I got the response, I eventually get the gobbler to answer my calling. He is off a ways, so I continue towards him, working around through some thick conifers to hide my approach. As I am gaining ground, suddenly I hear "putting" some distance ahead. but not from the vicinity where the gobbling is coming from. Thinking I have probably blown the hunt, I stand for a bit to listen, but eventually the gobbler gobbles again from a few hundred yards ahead and I move on forward toward him, thinking that maybe I am still in the game.
I move over a low rise, then stop to call, still at least a couple of hundred yards from where the last gobble had come from. At my first call, a hen answers and the gobbler responds. I move forward to a low rock outcropping, kneel down, and call again. Multiple hens answer, the gobbler responds,...and all are closing the distance. I adjust myself so I can shoot off of the rock outcropping and call. They are all closing fast! I am ready with a solid rest,...call again,...more responses and CLOSER. These birds are on their way and committed! I am ready and confident.
More quickly than I would have thought, I see a turkey pop up over a rise at thirty-five yards. I am expecting a hen, but this is a gobbler! I adjust the gun slightly and get on him just as a hen comes up next to him,..and then another. They look around with increasing concern and then start walking in a line angling slightly away. The gobbler clears the hens and I settle the beads on his head and pull the trigger, fully expecting him to collapse in a heap at the shot.
BUT HE DOES NOT! Instead, I recover from the shot and look up to see turkeys running away,...and there is no turkey flopping on the ground! I have done it again! Inexplicably, I have missed what had become a gimmee shot over the years! Running the scenario through my head over and over since, I still have no idea how I missed this gobbler!....but he was gone,...and further investigation revealed that not a single feather was to be found where he was standing!
There are only two explanations. Either the TSS load I shot had no pellets in it,...or I had just not gotten down on the stock tight and had shot over his head. I would like to claim that the load was "pellet-less", but at some point I will have to accept the fact that I had managed to blow what should have been two easy "turkey shoots" in a row! Talk about being down on oneself! Distraught does not adequately describe my state of mind at that moment!
Later, I went back to pick up my buddy to find he was also gobbler-less. The bird he had worked gobbled continuously for an hour and a half (he said the tom gobbled at least three hundred times). However, as was what continued to be the recurring theme of our hunt, that gobbler stayed on the private land and would not leave it. (I am quite certain many of these folks were feeding these turkeys and they were conditioned to stay close by).
Nothing else of note on day two in SD, but roosted one more gobbler at dark that evening with a plan of attack for the next morning.
May 16th: Hunting partner and I head for gobbler roosted the night before well before first light. This bird (actually, there were two gobblers here), was on private ground, but we had concluded that they would be able to hear us from the property boundary where we had decided to set up. Our conclusion of such was in error in that we could not hear any gobbling from where we though they were,...and they could apparently not hear our calling, as well, because we never got a response and eventually gave up and went looking for other birds,...of which we found ZERO!
Nothing of note happened the rest of the day, EXCEPT I roosted another gobbler that evening in a location that, even though it was near some houses on private land, appeared to have potential for a successful roost hunt. We made plans to go to this bird the next morning!
May 17th: We head to roosted gobbler in the dark. I had heard him from half-a-mile away the night before and had taken a guess as to where he was, so we moved into the area in the dark and then waited,...and waited,...and waited for him to gobble. We had about given up hope when a gobble rang out 75 yards down-slope below us,...and instantly, another gobbler rang out fifty yards above us! As it turned out, we had been standing and waiting for birds to gobble that were almost within shooting range on either side of us!
Unfortunately, the closer bird,...although he continued to gobble, was also showing evidence that he was aware of something being out-of-sorts by putting mildly with some regularity. The further bird never gobbled again, but continued coarse yelping made us conclude that it was a jake. The close gobbler eventually flew out of the tree and glided down-canyon to the bottom near the houses (which again made us think the owners had been feeding them).
There were a number of hens there, as well, and we eventually were able to call in hens three different times there, but neither gobbler ever showed up with them. Occasional gobbling from the private land below us indicated that the gobblers were still in the area, but we could never get their interest in coming to our calling.
The skies were darkening and it soon began to drizzle, which shut down everything, as well as getting us pretty well soaked, so we bagged it and went back to eat breakfast and wait out the rain at our cabin. That evening, I went back into the same area to roost the birds for another try the next morning. The property owners were outside and apparently having a party based on all the commotion there,...and although I heard some turkeys fly up to roost and heard hens yelping on the roost, I never heard any gobbling. I left with some level of concern that the gobblers might have moved off from the area, but they probably were there and just were quiet because of all the human activity.
Dana (eggshell) had located multiple gobblers in the area he had been hunting and graciously invited us to hunt some birds he had seen that morning that he felt he was not going to hunt. We quickly accepted the invitation based on situation we were in.
May 18th: We headed for the gobblers Dana had located well before daylight and got to the waypoint he had given us as the skies began to lighten. A quick locator from the spot confirmed that a gobbler was there,...but again was on private ground near houses (as usual). We assessed the property boundaries and concluded that we could likely get close enough to make contact by climbing a gawd-awful hill covered with blown-down timber from a past fire. It is an understatement to say that climbing up the hill through that mess was an ordeal in itself.
Nonetheless, we eventually made the top and soon heard the gobbler. We were in a good location to set-up along the property boundary and had some level of confidence that the gobbler might come up to take a look, although he was a couple of hundred yards away on the roost. He gobbled for a while, and at flydown, we gave him some soft hen talk, which he earnestly responded to, increasing our optimism that he might come. Not only that, but in the meantime, several other gobblers had started up in the draw below us (Dana had indicated that he had seen six mature gobblers in that location from the road).
Despite our optimism that we were in an excellent set-up, all the birds, the gobblers and some hens, gathered in the draw below us a few hundred yards away where we could not approach. They answered every call we made for a bit, but eventually started drifting off further into the private ground until we could no longer hear them. We changed positioning a bit trying to strike them again, but the ball game was over. We said "uncle".
Our stay at the rental cabin was up, so we decided to move further south into new territory for the next couple of days,...possibly. We loaded up and headed that way, but a call from my partner's wife that he was needed back at home came through along the way. We made quick loop through the new area,...which looked good,..but could not raise a response. We discussed our options and both of us concluded that we had had enough of hunting landlocked gobblers and decided to head south to the house. A day and a half later,...we are back at home empty-handed and with tails tucked firmly between our legs. :D ;D
PostScript: Although we were unsuccessful in our adventure, we had a great time meeting up with Dana (eggshell) and Nick (Happy). They are first-class fellows and Old Gobbler is fortunate to have them as participating members here. I am sure they will add their commentary on how things transpired in South Dakota!
As for me, I am done hunting for the spring of 2022. The ending was kind of a bummer in terms of my own failure to seal the deals when the opportunities arose, but I now have an entire year to contemplate things. Good Lord willing, I will be able to make amends in 2023! I'm sure I will stop losing sleep over my misses this spring in another ten months or so. One thing for sure, I will not be making any comments about my shooting abilities in the coming months! ;D :angel9:
The End....
Great read and thanks for "taking us along". Sounds like it was a great trip. No pictures to share?