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Michiganders?

Started by Dtrkyman, May 09, 2018, 08:41:33 AM

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Dtrkyman

How is the activity up there, may try some public later this month.  I got lucky and killed a bird their in the first few hours of ever setting foot on the place last spring.

Lots of birds and few hunters late in the season!

slwayne

My season starts Monday and lasts to the end of the month.  I hunt public land in SE Michigan although I do have an invite from a friend to hunt his 1,000 acre lease (3 toms taken on the lease so far this year).  I really prefer hunting the public land but it's nice to know that I also have access to some good private land if things aren't working out on the public land.  Due to my work schedule it is impossible for me to do preseason scouting before our season opens up in April.  I have been out to my primary spots a couple of times for some very quick, low-key scouting (quick and low-key because I don't want to take a chance on messing up a hunt for an early season hunter) and have seen some hens but have not seen/heard any gobblers.  So I'll be heading out on the 14th on a wing and a prayer just based on my prior seasons experience in these areas.  I've done it this way for the last six seasons and it has worked for me every season up until last season.  Hunted my tail off last season for almost three weeks and ended up eating my tag.

I agree with you regarding relative lack of competition.  Over the last 6 seasons I think I have actually seen one other hunter in the woods during the late season.  Hikers, bikers, dog walkers and mushroom hunters are another matter tho.   

Spring Creek Calls

From what I've seen hunting and helping others the next couple weeks will have gobblers alone and searching. Should make for a good late season hunt.
2014  SE Call Makers Short Box 2nd Place
2017  Buckeye Challenge Long Box 5th Place
2018  Mountain State Short Box 2nd Place
2019  Mountain State Short Box 1st Place
2019  NWTF Great Lakes Scratch Box 4th Place
2020 NWTF GNCC Amateur 5th Place Box
2021 Mountain State 3rd Place Short Box
2021 SE Callmakers 1st & 2nd Short Box
E-mail: gobblez@aol.com
Website: springcreekturkeycalls.weebly.com

coyote1

They are with hens now and i have not heard a gobble yet.

Roost 1


slwayne

Filled my tag 5:00 pm last Wednesday.  Typical 2 year old MI public land bird.  20 lbs, 8" beard, 3/4" and 15/16" spurs.  I hunted for 12 hours on Monday (my opener).  Probably 5 or 6 different setups with brief periods of running and gunnin in between.  Finally struck a gobble on my last setup of the day.  He was on the next ridgetop over so I got my DSD hen and jake combo set up on my ridgetop and commenced to trying to sweet talk him down thru the valley between us and up onto my ridgetop. An hour later, after we were both exhausted from our nonstop sex talk I finally decided that there must be something between us that was hanging him up.  I mean he was fired up, gobbling like crazy every time I called, and I could tell that he was occassionally dropping down into the valley only to do an about face and head back up onto his ridgetop.  When I snuck up to the edge of my ridgetop and looked down into the valley I discovered that it was full of water 30 yards wide and 150 yards in each direction.  I quickly realized where I was at (I had approached the area from a completely different direction than usual so I didn't have my bearings straight) so I grabbed the dekes and did a big loop around the one end and started working my way up his ridgetop but I never heard from him again.  On my way out I passed a little opening where I killed birds in 2014 and 2016 that was only about 300 yards from where he had been set up so I started formulating a plan in my head.

Fast forward to Wednesday.  I cut out of work a couple hours early and was set up at the base of a pine tree on the edge of my little opening at 4:00.  Calling every ten minutes or so using the same pot call (Enticer Silver Thunder Extreme) that I had been using on Monday.  At 4:45 I finally got a response that sounded like it was coming from the same area that bird had been on Monday.  Once again, he would gobble immediately every time I called.  Only this time every time he gobbled I could tell he was getting a little closer.  He was coming from behind me and over my left shoulder.  The last time he gobbled I could tell that he was just around the corner of the brushy swale behind me.  Then I saw him pop out in full strut.  He saw the decoys in the opening and started strutting his way to them.  I just needed him to clear a small bush and little pine tree on my left and he would be in range.  He cleared the tree but was still in full strut broadside to me so it wasn't really a good shot but he still had 20 yards to go to get to the decoys so I felt pretty confident that he would present a shot.  All of a sudden he came out of strut, putted once and took off running straight away from me.  I shot immediately and rolled him (18 paces).  When I went to recover him I looked out at my dekes and discovered that the hen had tipped back on her tail and was looking straight up in the sky.  I hadn't noticed because I couldn't see her real well from my setup spot due to tall grass in the opening.

Monday's frustrating experience reinforced the importance of knowing the lay of the land as well as you possibly can.  If I had realized where I was a half hour sooner I might have been able to work my around to his ridgetop while he was still fired up and interested.  Wednesday's rewarding experience reinforced the importance of having patience and sticking with a plan.  I'm not normally a real patient hunter and in many cases after 45 minutes in one spot with no response I would have been on the move.  But I was in a spot where I have had success in prior years and it was a spot that I knew was within a few hundred yards of where there had been a real active bird just two days earlier so I went into it determined to sit there for two hours if necessary before spending the last two hours of the day running and gunning.  Thankfully I didn't need to worry about that.

Roost 1

Thanks for the info guys. It was very helpful in helping me to decide on making a last minute trip.
Birds were on fire Friday morning, I was very surprised at the amount of gobbling.  Unfortunately most birds were on the neighbors. It took most of the day but we finally got my buddy a bird that afternoon and I was able to kill one Saturday. Really amazed at the number of strutters that still had several hens.

coyote1

Good to hear you had some luck up here!

Last weekend i watched a strutter in a field with four hens gobbling his head off for 5 hours and refused to come in. Yesterday birds were silent all morning but had 2 gobblers rush my strutter decoy i had setup about 30 yards into the woods. My mom took the first one that came in also her first bird ever. I did see 2 hens on nests. The birds are definitely callable right now but come in silent more times than not, at least in my area.