2024 has been an adventure! Loved it, rekindled respect for professional hunters too.
Been trying to get too Maine for many years as I have bear hunted and vacationed there many times in the past. I love the state and the people! But not the holidays Traffic!!!
Drive up I got ended in Connecticut, no apparent damage to my truck. The guy that bumped me , his little X3 SUV didn't look to pretty. Traffic was awful from Connecticut into Maine. Very, very surprising to me, Hartford wasn't bad. Very odd.
So, I E Scouted this place for some time. Had written permission and was almost prepared. Almost but not quite.
First day I arrive at site "2:50A.M." prepared for an hour hike to my starting point. No other vehicles around, great. I start hiking. It was foggy, heavy overcast, so I know turkeys will gobble later than normal. I was thinking around 4:15-4:30 should be first gobble.
No gobbles to be heard! I moved as quick as a fat man can and covered as much ground as I could in the golden time. Nothing. I did happen upon the porcupine below, just couldn't get a good pic of him. Seen a snow shoe rabbit in my walk about as well, again I had to zoom in and not a good quality phone for pictures....
So, nothing, I have by 10AM covered half of this property and need to do some soul searching quick. I need to relocate!!!
I run into a guy on the way out and we talk, he told me of another spot down the road. Ok, cool.
I finally get to the truck around 1PM. My tracker had me at 10.26 miles at this point and I ain't heard a gobble or seen signs of turkey life!
Drive to the next spot and see a LB, drive past him and hit the woods. Wound up called in a Jake and two hens, never seen or heard the LB?
Next day it gets stupid. I return to this new place, am there at 330. Walk to the crest in a blue berry field and wait. Did have a moose woofing at me but waited some time for the first gobble. The gobble was late, probably 4:45. The turkey gobbled 3 times, 6 counties over. So I take off after him.
I made 3/4 of a circle around this turkey and never could get him struck up. I get into a road on a blue berry farm and had an emergency situation I had to address. While taking care of this I thought I heard a gobble. I get back in the road and 600 yards away I see three Toms walking down a blue berry field. I called and they responded, turned and started coming my way. Seriously, I was amazed. I seen them for a solid two hundred yards, three turkeys. They go into a old road bed that was lined with brush and I lost sight of them.
This is where stuff gets stupid.
I am calling, they're answering. I hear metallic noises. No more gobbles.... Bee people are setting out hives to pollinate the blue berries. Finally they leave, 20 minutes later I start calling and nothing. I am sure they didn't leave without me seeing them so I wait. Probably 30 minutes goes by and I see them coming towards me. At this point I only seen two turkeys, assume the first one I didn't see.
I start calling again, they respond. I am excited now! It's going to happen!!! Then I hear metallic noises again and no turkeys. An hour passes and I believe the bee guys have left and I start calling again.
It's back on, they get 60-80 yards out and turn right, I couldn't see them, they are going down a ditch, only hear them as they respond. Finally, I see them, and now there are 5 turkeys, they have ran into two girls. They are below me strutting and gobbling and watching they're new found chicks eat grass. Keep in mind, these turkeys are gobbling good, they respond to everything. I am contemplating crawling to the road bank and killing them.
I hear noise....a guy is walking down the road in the gravel. Turkeys throw they're heads up and walk to the edge of the woods. I see them standing back there watching the walker.
The guy is gone, I wait probably 20 minutes and call...gobble. ok, round 4. Its on. Unreal.
They gobbled a few times and here comes the walker back through.... No joke. This time I am sure they are done. I wait a bit and call and get a response but they now are moving. I try and make a move and have to guess in my move I spook the turkeys. After all of this nonsense, I spook the turkeys!
I start the walk of shame to my truck a mile away, good walk. Seen the Pheasants backs on the way out.
I get to the truck, pick a couple ticks off me "Yes, I use Sawyers" change my clothes and crank the AC. It hot.
Start down the road and drive past a dirt road going up the hill with a cable stretched across it. Up the road is a pile of turkeys laying and standing in the road. I good down the road, turn around and go back. Take some pictures ,look at them through the binos....I see two hens, two LB's and 4 other red heads that I can't ID. They start standing up and milling about. I drive back to a wide spot to turn around, while doing so I thought I should check OnX. Low and behold, I can hunt the joining property and the turkeys are only a hundred yards across the line.
I change my clothes again and beat it to the woods. Get set up and start calling and a hen starts running her beak. Gobblers and Jakes are gobbling, Her and I had a solid half an hour battle! She finally just stopped calling, no gobbles, nothing, I just set there.
Here they come, I pick out what seems to be a good one and shoot. When I shot turkeys were everywhere. I ain't sure how many there were but it was at least 10. At this point I am drained, mentally and physically drained. The first day I got dehydrated from the days drive before and not drinking any fluids. All day I was stiff, sore, battling cramps. The final pics weren't much and I do attribute that to me, just being wore out.
I weighed my options and the following morning I left Maine at 3:47. Oddly enough I was home at 3:47, but there was an AM PM difference. No traffic, it was a good drive home!
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