4/30 - Tuesday
I was suppose to hunt this state back in 2020 but that hunt got spoiled by Covid. I had some notes from back then but over the last four years have accumulated a lot more. In the last 6mo even more than that. I spoke with bios, residents, and even a former guide of one years. Everyone and their mom just about had said to hunt the NE. The problem I was having with that is it would likely mean a lot of pressure. Talking to the landowners too it was evident that we would be hunting 100% public unless we wanted to pay a pretty penny to hunt private. Now there did seam to be enough birds to hunt the public but another area of the state had been catching my attention. There seam to be good bird numbers. Good public land. Not near the pressure as the rest of the state. The biologist confirmed this as did the guide who after season was woke up by birds landing in his campground. It was on the way to the NE corner mostly so the plan was (especially since we were "ahead" of schedule) to spend at least a long morning in the area and if it didnt pan go check out area two on the way to the NE being area three. It was Tuesday and we didnt need to be back until Sunday so we had sometime. I remember drving through some of the area I wanted to look at on the way in around midnight that even with the moon and the stars everything told me we were either going to hit the jackpot or be moving east very very quickly. Pulling into "camp" where said guide had birds land in his lap at 1am I could tell that this area seamed a little more rugged and might take some time to figure out. There was a ragging creek that made listening near impossible so at 4:30am I woke my partner and told him we needed to back down the road a little. We actually went up and got a commanding view of the valley in the morning dawn which looked good but getting around on birds would be tough. We moved down to some state land where the creek bottom opened up a bit more and noticed three turkey looking objects in some hardwoods. The creek still being a noise contraint we did pick up a gobble. Checking two signs and calling a friend we felt safe to hunt the state land. Shortly after my partner took after one bird and I heard another behind us that I went to pursue I found a third sign and reading it over still feeling uncertain about the 8th bullet point down reads "No Hunting". Quickly backing out and finding my partner we headed down the road. Mistakes happen, fortunately we never really hunted, but positively we were in birds kind of.
We made our way north up a creek/river valley of mixed farm fields, dnr, and blm land. Second farm big strutter but a no go on pursuit. Half mile up the road there's some strutters just off of public. Lets make a play. Not interested they scoot further onto private. We venture up to their door to ask were we meet a wonderful lady trying to get a bull to take the tit. It likes to suck on the hair but just cant figure out how to suck the tit. She's all for us hunting but wants us to talk to the Sir who is in the shower at the moment and tells us to come back later. We continue up the road seeing more and more birds when again there are 4 strutters in a corner and one long beard in the middle of a field and a couple hens in the back of the field. Again they are close to public so we make the play to try to pull them to public. Using the topography to our advantage we get down to the field edge a little over 100yds from where the four pack was seen that is now gone but the lone tom is still commanding his piece of dirt. With a little enticing we get him to come onto the public ground we set up on an he took a swift dirt nap. Now to this point I had been impressed with the first bird. Then I was pretty blown away by his second bird. The third bird sure was more typical and an average 2-3yr old but this bird was massive. Some of the first words out of my mouth were that is a book bird. He took that as the biggest which by no means was were I was going I just knew he would be in the top of the books. As a typical bird he scored 71.8pts with both spurs going over 1.5". If he were to register the bird it would have indeed been top 5 typical birds shot in the state.
Enough with that we had a gentleman getting out of a shower that presented a fine opportunity to go chase some more birds. Having made it only half way on "the loop" of the area I wanted to oversee I was half tempted to finish it but we went and saw the rancher. Seeing him outside cutting up some old equipment he promptly greeted us asking if we were hunting liberals. He informed us that we couldn't find many of them around these parts but if we wanted to hunt turkeys we could have full range. We chatted a bit more to hear his story and know more of the ranch before we proceeded back to that piece of public adjacent to his were we could now cross the fence to make a play. Trying not to spook the birds in the field across the creek with our approach to the birds on our side of the creek we made our way down into a position where we could entice the birds to hopefully interact with us this time. The thought being that if we buggered this up we could go after the ones across the creek. Fortunately with us being much more in there bubble the two gobblers quickly approached for one of them to meet a quick demise. We went back to thank the landowner for letting us hunt who was quite impressed with our efficiency. Giving him some smoke salmon and coho salmon he showed us his trophy big game in the shop and house. Truly a gentleman that will make a trip like this. I hope to take my girls back one day to see him and the beautiful part of this country he lives in.
So now less than 48 hrs of my friend landing, having covered somewhere north of 1500mi we had 7 birds down in 4 states and our hunt was a success. The goal was three states and the last was a bonus. Hunting can always go one of two ways. It can be a grind or it can go quick. I felt really good about the first three states and knew there was a possibility of a fifth or sixth state so I did a little planning. I had the option to go hunt two states kind of on my way home or push more east and hunt yet another new state to me. We chose B and as we were driving my friend had changed his flight to be picked up mid morning in the 5th state. We pulled in around 6pm to a coworkers father in laws property that had a strict bow only rule that was self imposed by him. He takes us around the house where a long beard is picking at the grass. We go down to the lower house/loft/shop where we can park our camper and he swoops us up to show us around the 225 acres we now have full range too. We see another long beard on this trip and as he drops us back at the loft we make a few locate calls. The bird on the ridge by his house eagerly answers as does the other that has worked his way some 200 yds behind us. We make a play on that bird which we do get within 20 yds but bow hunting for a body shot an ethical shot never presents. He pushes off and I elect to go sit in a blind up on the ridge that should produce. My partner takes a work call and stays at the loft as I climb he hill to the blind. At the top of this ridge I see a group of birds behind the loft making there way to my ridge where they will presumably roost. I settle into the blind and that gobbler is maybe 150yds below me answering but content with the hen he was with. Sometime passes and some jakes work there way to my blind also having heard the calling. No sooner do they show up when a little bit older group of jakes come in a push these jakes off. All within 15yds of my blind and without question I could have shot one. That wasn't the goal, it was Tuesday, there were plenty of birds, and I wanted to hunt this long beard. I watch the relative area where they fly up and see half of them take flight into the main roost of the property. I slip back to the loft where my partner and I remanence over the last three days and enjoy a porterhouse for dinner. After taking a call with my wife I go back to my partner and suggest that we put my blind more down the ridge of the other blind to be in range of them flying down in the morning. We grab it, decoys, bow and all and head up the ridge near midnight. We set everything up and head to bed for a few short hours.
