Avid's Hunt Log

[crow]

Very nice write up, pics and hunt


Word from my cousin about LaEclaire's car is he kept showing up at places with this fancy urban Yuppie camo and the "Growers" didn't believe anybody would actually turkey hunt with it, so they made things "hot" for him

Some of those grower places are the East TN. of the west.
You were lucky not to have been associated with him

[lacire]

The car probably had out of state plates..... like Ohio, Kentucky, New Mexico, Tennessee and besides how rude can some people be blocking somebody's gate.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Hunt log day 4 & 5:
These are quick outings before the family gets up-up. Hunting Easterns in my home state the locals call them ghost birds. Arguably one of the toughest birds to kill because of density but easiest because if you do find one they usually want to die. Around 1% of the states total harvest comes from the west side where you find these birds. They gave up rearing efforts because the wet springs didn't bode well for poult recruitment. None the less it's +\- an hour from my house to hunt some of the "best" populations.

Yesterday I went to a spot where I've killed 3 of the last 5 years but didn't hear a peep. Our weather sucks too and it takes a lot to fire an eastern up. Was damp but there was no rain at first light. Seen one poop in the area which isn't great but I'd take it with all the resent rain.

Today I've moved to another spot with a lot more area to work. Good good listening spot too. But silence deafens the air as light continues to creep on the horizon. It got pretty wet over night but fortunately no moisture so far this morning.  It's nice enough to maybe get a gobble. But to know avail.

I take it one of the best producing spots is holding birds. There has been a truck at the gate both mornings. There is plenty of room behind that gate and I've seen as many as 3 trucks at it in the last. Which is nuts cuz you can drive in on the other side of it and could be 1-3 rigs there as well. I'll wait for the season to drone on and people to give up before heading back in there. To make the right moves you need room to work. I'd appreciate it if someone left me alone back there as well. There's plenty of country and I ain't worried about killing as much as I am enjoying the view.

Post hunt: ran into one person hunting the gate I didn't want to walk into out on the road. He said he heard 2 gobbles both yesterday am "way off".  Which makes me feel better I wasn't hearing much. Where he was if the birds are active should hear a minimum of 4 roost or 4-8 gobblers...

Remote guiding for friends have birds down in OR CA and WA the last 3 days....

Wednesday things will get a little more serious for me as I head to higher bird dense areas.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Day 6: Pulled into the "Ranch" at 2:30 am. Just in time to get my family in the car and back track 45min to Rio country. I'm calling it the Ranch because that's what it is but it also where we stay when we go out to our property or the NE. We have bare land and are still in the process building sometime in the future. And I say Rio country because as previously mention my home state has 3 subspecies. Now ya the area I'm hunting is very much suspect to hybrid for Rio or Merriam's but the recognize the birds based on where they were shot not how they look. So anyways, after getting everyone back in bed and settled I headed out and pulled into my spot at 3:45. I invited some folks to join that were visiting from Maryland. We get geared up and I take them up to the roosting knob.
Decoys set by 4:20 we settle in. Much to my surprise and excitement the first bird sounded off at 4:40. However it wasn't the one I was looking for. But no worries some time later he joined in with the cacophony of morning gobbles. I think we counted at least 12 birds. None on the present parcel we were on but I took note of one in the distance. Shooting time is 5:20. It's set on a weekly basis. Though it says a half hour before sunrise there is still a set time. This will play a factor in tomorrows hunt. Still we were in the game because the bird I was after liked to roost across the fence line and their travel path was right where we were sub 125yds... so I hoped. Birds start flying down his hen has been talking and I tried to battle her a bit and eventually at about 5:35 the kid tells me the Tom is on the ground as he watched it fly down. We wait and we wait but radio silence from the deck. The other birds we could have swung around on are still tapping as the March themselves from the huntable parcel to the next. Yes the roost off parcel but cross on parcel. Finally I call it and say we gotta go try an cut those birds off. So we drop to the bottom and we are too late. We push as close as we can to the fence line and even though sub 100yds the dudes thought their odds were good dispite there being 5 Tom's and 4 hens.

So I tell the boys let's hop in the truck. I'm anxious about that other bird younder. First we go up road to check another parcel and while on route we spot the first Tom in the very corner of our parcel. Ok noted. We carry on and get to the next piece where 3 Tom's and 2 hens are hanging across the road. We loop up and get as close as we can but after some considerable back and forth the hens pull the boys uphill and away. O well let's go see what our Tom friend is doing. Sure enough he's still on parcel but heading back up the hill. I ask the boy if they want to make the spring. Mind you it's a huge drop off the road down across a creek and steep climb up the other side. Now I'm hoping we can cut him off on the skidder and if we don't we'll loop to the top top. Boy are in and we make the dash. Now about 140yds or so from where I thought he was we pause and call. He gobbles. We have beat him to the rd and we can still get ahead of him. I push a little forward to where I can see a good chunk of the skidder and we tuck into some bushes.
Now my buddies had told me despite flying all the way from Maryland I could shoot first. But on the hunt earlier I told the kid Jimmy first shot was his. I'd take a bird from the left if I had to but he had middle and right. Run and gun with 3 people is tough. And not setting the expectation that I was not gonna take any shot would prove disastrous. We plop down and I call. The bird gobbles right in front of us sub 70 yds. As I analyze the situation I realize he's gonna swing to the road at about 2:30 from where we are facing. Kid has put himself behind me instead of tucking in with me. No sooner does the Tom pop out 45yds down the road do I realize how exposed kid was. Tom doesn't freak but he purposefully walks out of our lives.
We part ways and I head to see a buddy at his camp. He's been posted up on one of my favorite spots. It's a little further up and off the river and surprisingly but not so surprisingly void of turkeys. We chat and I head back to the Ranch.
Much to my disapproval I passed out the rest of the afternoon. Having been gone until noon in the morning and then sleeping until 5 I was on guard when I woke up. I convinced the wife to still let me go roost birds. I got back to where we'd hunted and mic checked the big boy was still on top. I then went to that other bird off yonder. I pinned him to the tree and there was nothing stopping me from setting up in his kitchen which is exactly what I did.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Day 7:
Now I knew best to be set up by 4:30am but I was also dog tired. I slept 10 min past my alarm I accepted 20min later then what I knew was right. I got my gear on an headed out. Arriving at 4:30 on the button I was a little under pressure. I needed to scramble up the hill cuz I wanted to sit on the top. I'd be almost level with the bird and I knew I was getting in close. As I arrived a touch short he gobbled. That caught me off guard because he wasn't the first one I heard the day before. None the less with much stealth I stabbed my decoys into the ground and backed up. I was in hit kitchen. I leaned up behind a tree with another tree between me and him. I ranged his tree later at 44 yds. As I'm sitting there waiting for light I'm peering over my shoulder and notice the silhouette of three sleeping hens. So I crouch comfortably forward to hide my head behind the tree. No sooner do I hear that pssst bbbrrruummm in a tree also next to those hens. I'm pinned. I hadn't raised my gun at this point and don't know if I could how I was sitting. I began contemplating. Do you get full ready... do you wait for them to be at a good range... or take the what's that maybe running shot. I chose "C". If I'd been there on time I'd of probably sat 1 more tree back but then again I didn't know about the second Tom. I was in a good seat and the first Tom was always kills if the second wasn't there. At 5:11 the Tom's pitch into strut and i admire as the come towards my decoys. The second Tom immediately heads for my laydown hen. No care for the strutter sitting 1 step off her. He gets on top and proceeds to copulate the air out of the hen. I go through every thought you could. I should have shot early, don't shoot Two birds, when should I try to pick up my gun, how do they not see me, when will they spook. When finally the clock strikes 5:20. After watching him demoralize my decoy plus the boss hen pecking my other hen decoy I say heck with it and try to pull my gun up. Now again sooo many thoughts. Is the shot still clear, how do I not distroy this bird, where is my bead. I shoot. Now the biggest quandary is I really didn't want to wreck the bird so I aimed at the crown of his head. I'm hind site with how close I should have aimed at the crown of his back. His head was up but he was working in an away position. It was close enough there wasn't going to be any damage but a missing head if I center punched that shot. Instead his buddy and two of the hens pitched off the hill. One hung back yapping telling them to come back or ask where they went but nothing. I took a video of her and soaked it all in.

I took a quick gander around the area and headed back to the ranch to see the family again. I packed up the twins and took them out to our property to check gates, signs, cameras you name it. Was a nice adventure. They went to nap and I ran back to the "Rio" spot to sit on a hill where birds like to pass between 3 and 5pm. However with the exceptionally hot weather that was not to be the case. I had a timeline to be back home so I left promptly at 5 back to the Ranch. Once back I grabbed the twins and took them to the top of a hill were we set up a blind and spent the evening waiting to be called down for dinner. Now I was going to set the blind up next to the "sheep" pasture but when I went to investigate it the day before I didnt see the usual sign. Also they had been doing some thinning and clearing in the draw below and along side it. So I elected to put the blind in a still good spot where typically a few birds passed each day. Low and behold a bird starts to hammer near the bunk house and gets all up and around the sheep pin (I cant see it but I know the area well enough can tell) and I just wonder what if I had trusted my gut. He comes even as far as the bump between the one we are on and the sheep pasture but turns north into the timber. Dinner which was late had me jittering because all I could think about was roosting more birds but this time I was going to keep it close and just go out the back door. I got permission an ran out for a quick lap. Many of the usual suspects were around but I was trying to find a bird for the Maryland boys to hunt that wasnt on private. Got onto one that sounded like a good bird. Where it was at was likely the bird from before dinner. I kept closing the distance to his roost when I finally happen to go a touch too far and he shut up. With no flight sounds I assumed I had just got into his bubble where a shock gobble was asking too much. I hurried onto the listening corner and there were some other birds in a usual roosting site. I felt good and gave over the two roost to the Maryland boys. I was headed south again.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Day 8:
I got up again early as could be and what I missed is my wife did not want me to leave this morning. I was too deep in thought about how I was going to go about hunting this morning, however. On the road down I decided I would go back to the same spot I was the day before. I was getting in a whole lot earlier this time. If by dumb luck the birds came back to this roost, I certainly wouldn't mess it up twice. Back up was to book it to the bottom of day 1 knob if they were not there. I waited until almost 20min after the first gobble to confirm they were not indeed on that hill and booked it back down the hill. I did hear a bird gobble way yonder 2 hollers over (noted). I rushed over to the other hill we hunted day 1 and as I grabbed my gear together, I didn't hear a gobble. Were they down already? I got across the creek and to where I'd picked out sitting the day before to hear not a gobble in my area, but I could hear a ruckus past the house of the neighboring property. Thinking about that bird on that ridge way way over in an area I hadn't prospected too much I said heck with it and dove back across the creek into my truck and drove higher up from where I was before. There I would have a "small" hike up a hill that should put me 1-2 ridges away from that bird. I got to the top. Caught my breath and let out a few yelps. GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE. He was one ridge away. Carefully peering through the trees, I caught sight of him. I sat down to see what he wanted to do. I could quickly see that he wanted to work up. So much so that within a couple minutes he was on private quickly. It was going to be an almost all out open chase down 500' and back up to get on his ridge and down and up 500' twice to get on a ridge I could maybe be somewhat level or above him. While analyzing all this and checking maps I did call every so often. Every time he responded but again going the wrong way.... Or so I thought. What it turned out to be was he didn't really care to do the up down and nor did he care to fly over but he just wanted to gobble his head off and walk around the rim of this draw. Eventually those gobbles that were getting farther and farther away were getting closer and closer when next thing I know he pops up from under the fence and is on a full terror to find the hen that's been calling his name for the last 30 min. This time I was steady, and I dropped the hammer on a great bird.
Now it was early, and I was starting to recall some annoyance in my wife's voice, so I sent her a text on my way back. I was 45min south of where we were staying and 15min north of that was our property and a pile of timberland that had reports of many a birds. Instead of doing the smart thing and telling her I had a bird down and would see her soon I told her I was going to swing by the property to take a look but could come home if she wanted. As I pulled up to the property there were two toms a half mile down the road. A tom and hen in the SE corner of the property and 8 birds in the middle of the property. Soooo looked to me like I needed to go hunting some more. I pulled up to our gate and decided to hike from there. Knowing where they were I planned to just use the access road to get to the corner and relocate them from there. Once at the corner I found them, but they were lower than I thought but also only 70 yds away. There were 3 toms and 4 hens. My calling did nothing and got a text from the wife saying she was upset (that is a strong pc paraphrase). Figuring I needed to make a move I backed out and dropped below them. They were working down, and I had the right topography to get around them. I dropped back doing a big loop. When I got to what I figured would be less then 40 yds from them I let out a couple more yelps and clucks. This worked. The spitting and drumming came closer and closer. I heard the bird trying to strut up a game trail pushing small shrubs as he walked pass compared to the quite grass field, he was just in. I slowly started a crouching standing up maneuver when I picked up his head at 30 steps. I clucked once which he dropped his fan for, and I pulled the trigger. A second text came through saying "What I'm saying is you need to come back now" to which I happily replied "I'm on my way". I picked up the bird and packed myself back to the ranch.
When I pulled up I brought the birds out of the truck to much of my daughters enjoyment. They quickly ran into the house to get everyone to come and look that Dad had gotten a real turkey. I don't know when I have gotten a fake one but they continued to emphasis that.
Through all this I had been texting and aiding the Maryland boys. They went after the north roost that didn't play out and quickly moved onto the bubble bird. After two hours of calling that bird another bird came rolling in from the opposite direction. Gus who was also staying at the ranch let me know that a bird was strutting that morning (or the next morning) right in front of the blind I had pitched up for me and the girls. But I was "tagged" out for the eastside as I wanted to save my last and final tag for a hopeful eastern on the west side of the state.
The rest of the weekend I enjoyed time with the family, saw some old friends in town, and sipped cheap whiskey.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Family time
Those sunrises

There's still snow in them hills

LaCrie got me this time... I don't know why the obsession and the 15hr car ride to track me down


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lacire]

I've never minded driving 15 hours to go hunting, but just an FYI it was a little over 16. 


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Happy]

Should have never let him know he got the wrong vehicle the first time.

[crow]

Congrats on your gobblers and hustle