#3 from WI Public Land

[ejhandler]

After a successful hunt last saturday on public land, I scouted a small corner of the same property sunday morning listening for gobbling.  To my surprise, I was surrounded by the sounds of 5 or 6 gobblers on the roost at first light.  Fast forward to this weekend, I thought I would slip out friday morning for a quick hunt before work to see if I could fill a tag for period D.  I only had an hour to hunt and at the very least, I could gain some intel for saturday.  To my dismay, I was greeted by quiet public woods and the faintest sound of 2 or 3 distant toms on private land.  Bummer.

I did some road scouting that evening and witnessed a tom crossing into that same corner of public land before dark.  Seeing that tom, and thinking the morning may have been a fluke, I talked myself into giving the same area another try saturday morning.  Unfortunately the second verse was same as the first.  No activity on the public land but decent gobbling on private near by.  My mind was telling me birds have to use this area at some point throughout the day, it's just too good looking, I have all day to hunt and I should just stick it out here.  But my gut was telling me to move on.  So 5:15 am and I am already back in the truck driving to a new area.  My plan was to scout hunters on a stretch of road through public land and set in to the woods at plan B.  Well, turns out the only other truck on the 2 miles of road was at plan B.  U-turn, back up to plan C where I saw new fresh turkey sign the night before.  I started to make a loop through this smaller area but again, my gut still wasn't giving me that warm feeling.  So back to the truck, again, where I started to shed a layer of clothes in anticipation for plan C.2 - a long walk in the warming morning temps east of the road.  Standing next to the truck in my underwear, that's when I heard his first gobble.  I froze in disbelief of what I just heard.  20 seconds later he lit up again.  And again.  New plan, Plan C.2(a).  He was east of the road, not exactly where I was planning on heading for plan C.2, but I knew right where he likely was, a large clearing about a third-mile in, just off a main trail through a low section of hardwoods.  It was a mad rush putting clothes and boots back on listening to him go off almost non-stop.  As I speed walked, jogged at times, a half-mile down the shoulder of the road, he went silent just as I reached the trail head.

I was about a third of the way in on the trail when he finally gobbled again, and this time it sounded like he moved out of the clearing and right on to the main trail.  A quick glance with the binos through the morning hazy sunrise confirmed rief glimpses of a white head bobbing back and forth over a rise.  A little over 120 yards out.  I froze for a moment to collect myself, thinking this will be a lay-up slam dunk as long as you don't do anything rushed or stupid, a habit of mine.  I ducked into the woods and closed the distance a bit.

I picked out a spot so his approach would be blind, where I would have a nice window to shoot him at about 20 yards as he cleared some blow downs searching for me.  Settled in, after sitting in silence for a few minutes I began with some soft clucks and short yelps.  I was confident he was alone, no hens, so I was going to be content waiting him out.  We had a little conversation on and off for 10 minutes or so... he would cut me off, I would cut him off, but he wasn't budging.  I decided to turn things up a bit, I gave him a heavy dose of aggressive cutting and yelping right straight through a series of return gobbles, then shut up.  Two or three minutes and a few unanswered gobbles later, curiosity finally got the best of him.  He was slowly but purposefully making his way down the trail, stopping periodically to gobble and strut, searching hard for those sassy hens he heard just minutes earlier.  He finally arrived at my pre-determined window where I was going to take the shot but never slowed up enough where I could get a bead on him, when he swiftly made a U-turn heading back the way he came in.  Did he spot me?  No way he could've!  Thinking the gig may be up, I sat up slowly, having to stretch upward to peer over the blow downs, he hesitated for just a moment in a very tight opening, allowing me to take a "now or never" shot.  What a mix of emotions when I saw him hit the dirt without so much as a flinch at 6:15 am! 

It wasn't the hardest hunt of my life, I was never more than a third of a mile off any road.  But the fast pace, doubtful, knee-jerk snap decisions made it a hunt I won't soon forget.  I'll admit there definitely was an element of luck involved.  But you have to be out there, trying, if you want to get lucky every now and then.

Finally a nice 3+ year old bird this year.  But most rewarding to me, my third bird from public land in a year I committed to ditching the private land and challenging myself as a hunter.

[kyturkeyhunter4]

Congrats

[MK M GOBL]

Congrats!! What zone you hunt? I hunt WI too, been a odd season for sure.


MK M GOBL

[Yoteduster]

Congrats on a nice bird

[ejhandler]

Congrats!! What zone you hunt? I hunt WI too, been a odd season for sure.
MK M GOBL

This has all been in zone 3. I have a tag for zone 2 this week, planning to try some new public land Saturday and Sunday if nothing comes up.

A buddy of mine still hunting our private haunts said weird year in the fields, birds not really coming out of the blocks of woods. He and others ate a lot of tags this year. Birds are not flocked up but still concentrated to certain areas. Some woods have hardly any birds then one block of woods over has 3 big groups of Jake's, half dozen Tom's and 15 hens. I think I picked a good year to get into the public woods.

[surehuntsalot]

congrats

[Spitten and drummen]

Good job!

[Spring Creek Calls]

 

[gaswamp]

excellent work

[renegade19]