Having tagged out a week ago I had this weekend set aside for hunting with a couple friends and helping them get birds. On Friday morning I met up with one of my friends at 3:45 and we headed to the same spot where I got my 2nd bird last week. We set up very similar to how I had the week before, but farther back from where the birds were roosting. The birds flew down very early again and we watched as they assembled about 300 yards away on the neighbors side of the property line. After several minutes two toms began to lock in on our decoys and start the slow march across the field. At about 75 yards they began to race each other and came at a trot to about 30 yards where they ducked the electric fence onto our side of the line. We let them work over the jake decoy and then my friend got ready to shoot, but the birds would not separate. Finally they stepped apart and he squeezed off a shot, but he shot just behind the gobblers head and over his back. The bird went straight up in the air and glided about twenty feet to the right. As soon as his feet hit the ground by buddy was on him and rolled him over with a solid follow up shot.
As we were packing things up we were messing around making some turkey calls when we looked up and spotted another gobbler coming toward us about 150 yards away. We quickly dropped down and decided to see how close we could get him. I reached into the bag with my strutter decoy and pulled out the fan, then while I held up the fan I slid over to my video camera which was several feet away. I sat by the camera with the fan up in the air, and my buddy was laying on his side in amongst several decoy bags and the collapsed blind. The bird locked on to the fan and strutted and gobbled his way in to 35 yards where he finally held up. He knew something wasn't right but couldn't figure it out, and eventually he slowly made his way off back toward where he had come from. Once he went out of sight I turned to my friend and we just started laughing. I got the entire thing on video, as well as the hunt, and will upload it when I have a chance.
Fast forward to this morning and I was meeting up with another friend and fairly new hunter who was hoping to bag his first turkey. The weather had taken a turn for the worse with high winds and rain in the forecast, but we were going to make the best of it. We decided to set up in a different field where I had been seeing a bird early in the morning. We heard a few distant gobbles at dawn but things were quiet where we were. The raid was coming in brief showers and we decided we would ride some of it out in the blind and if nothing happened by 7:30 we would go off in search of birds elsewhere.
Just as we were thinking about packing it in we looked up and saw a tom and single hen heading our way on the far side of the field. They were moving very slowly but they were coming in our direction. At about 130 yards though the hen decided she had other plans and veered off, taking the tom with her. As they walked off I quickly hatched a plan to go after them. When they disappeared behind a rise in the field 200 yards away I jumped out of the blind, circled away from the birds, and quickly headed back to my vehicle. When I got there I grabbed the tail fan from my decoy again and then sprinted back to the blind as quickly as I could. The round trip probably took six or seven minutes, and I wasn't sure if I was going to be quick enough to catch the birds before they left the field.
When I got back to the blind I told my friend to grab his gun and follow me. We crouched low while I held the fan in front of me and advanced across the middle of the field toward where we had last seen the two birds. We had gone about 80 yards when two new hens entered the field ahead of us. They began calling and we heard the tom gobble back at them from just below a ridge in the field that blocked him from sight. All of a sudden the tom popped into view as he came back over the ridge to investigate the new hens. At this point he was about 200 yards away, but he spotted the fan instantly and turned to face us. He began to march straight toward us, stopping every 10 or 15 yards to strut. At 150 yards my buddy got down in a prone position and I knelt and leaned over his shoulders holding the fan out just over his head. At 100 yards the bird broke into a trot and began quickly closing the distance. He stopped briefly to strut two or three more times but he was coming hard. At 30 yards he was still running straight at us and I whispered to my buddy to go ahead and take him. A single shot anchored him 22 yards from our position and my friend had his first turkey.
Fridays bird
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/alloutdoors/_Q7Q6160_zps9becdc5f.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/alloutdoors/_Q7Q6171_zpsb88027ce.jpg)
And the bird from this morning
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v74/alloutdoors/_Q7Q6179_zpsf45b2dfd.jpg)
Heck yeah, good work!
Congrats on some beautiful birds! :icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
Awesome. I have always enjoyed helping buddies out when done with my season. It's hard to give the season up!
:icon_thumright: :icon_thumright:
congrats!! :icon_thumright:
congrats nice pics
good job.
Good looking birds. Congrats....
Great job!! Very adaptable and aggressive! I like it!!
Gorgeous land you have there!! Where is that at?
Some mighty fine birds and a lifetime of memories; thanks for sharing and some beautiful country ya'll are in for sure.............................. :funnyturkey:
Congrats!
Awesome story and great pics, Im gonna try fanning one in next season.
Good hunts! And great pics!!
Congrats. Are you hunting Schoharie County? I attended SUNY COBY and recognize your buddy (Darron) in the first pics...
Congrats!!
Quote from: WNY Bowhunter on May 15, 2013, 12:57:48 AM
Congrats. Are you hunting Schoharie County? I attended SUNY COBY and recognize your buddy (Darron) in the first pics...
Ha! Yeah, Darren and I have been friends/hunting partners since about 4th grade. I live in Schoharie but actually drive over to Otsego County for turkey hunting. I've currently got access to about 1800 acres on five different properties there. It's non-exclusive and some of it gets hit as hard as any public land you'll ever be on, but there are a ton of birds and I have a few honey holes that other people seem to overlook.
When were you at Coby? I graduated the wildlife management program in December of 2002.
I too was one of Dr. Losito's wildlife students from the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2003 but am not employed in the field. Darren was mutual friends with some of my buddies. I remember when one of you shot the first surf scoter ever to be documented in Schoharie County...
very nice...congrats
Congrats! Beautiful birds and pics!
:z-guntootsmiley:
Very nice going,congrats!!
Awesome story and some beautiful pics!! Congrats!!
Congratualtions on two awesome birds and two awesome hunts.