Happy's Hunt Log

[Happy]

I will do a short recap of the year here sometime in the near future. Have a lot of graduations, birthday parties and work to catch up on. I had a pretty normal year around home and ain't gonna get too specific. The highlight of the year was heading out west and meeting Dana and Jim. Two great guys I would share camp with anyway. Jim was a lot of help getting this Appalachian mountain redneck oriented on Merriams hunting and I had a blast. I plan on starting there and working my way back. Looks like most of you GOATS have done well for yourselves and a huge congrats! I really don't care about how it all pans out. A lot of you fellows had me laughing pretty hard. That was what I was hoping would happen. Will catch up with ya'll shortly.

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[GobbleNut]

Good to see you made it back home safely, buddy!   

[eggshell]

yup, Glad we're all back. I think we all have developed an opinion on Black Hills Turkey hunting, but we'll share that later. I had a great time meeting you all. Sharing camp with you guys (Gobblenut and dick and Happy and son)was a blessing.

[Happy]

Ok. So I will start with South Dakota. The boy and I took off and made it there fairly early the afternoon before we were to check in. We cruised quite a bit a real estate, getting the lay of the land and trying to find turkeys. Several hours and miles later not a single gobbler was heard or seen but we did have a hen located and figured that there was a good possibility there would be a gobbler nearby in the morning. We slept in the truck several hundred yards away and at daylight we were greeted with....nothing.
We quickly went right back to covering ground and trying to find gobblers. Not a lot of real sign and nothing was vocal however I did find a gobbler and hen track later that morning that wasn't there when we went through that section earlier. Made it back to our cabins and met Jim and his hunting partner, got our things situated and headed out again.
This was pretty much the routine until I finally got an a gobbler 2 days before our departure. We struck him and moved in with my boy being the shooter. We had him pulled pretty close before he started acting weird and headed the other way still gobbling. I assumed a hen but further investigation revealed a rock ledge that I assumed was the issue. (I don't believe that to be the case anymore either). We tried circling around him with no success. This totally wooped my boy and he kinda lost all interest in running up and down mountains after that.
The next morning I was ready and waiting on the same ridge we had worked this gobbler. He started off his morning gobbling well so  moved into a very good position and hit him with a few tree yelps to get him oriented my way and waited. I suspected I was in trouble when he just kept right on with his gobbling routine. He never actually responded to me. But it was just me and him now and when he bailed off the backside of the ridge I was ready and I went with him, starting off a cat and mouse game that was to continue for the morning.
I tailed him for several miles before he finally slowed down and got with a hen. Moving in and circling a bit I was getting within striking range but had a major area of concern. We were near a residential area and the gobbler and I were only about 100-150 yards off of the property line. I finally though I had the angle I wanted and started calling to him. He cut me off and the next thing I knew he was drumming and boy was it something. I have never heard an Eastern drum like this one did. I could even feel it. The gobbler is further to the right than I wanted and I caught the tail fan and got my gun trained and his head popped into view right in the dot. Probably about 35-40 yards. Problem was that there was a house directly behind him and slightly above about 200 yards from us. There was just no way in good conscience I could pull the trigger. So I let him go. He and the hen then moved onto the private where he would answer everything but not budge. I even circled the private hoping to catch them on the backside with no luck. Made it back to the truck. Total distance traveled was around 11.2 miles


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[Happy]

That evening I decided to give the gobbler Jim had fired a warning shot at a try. He had graciously given me the location and letbit be known he had no intention of going back so I figured what the heck. Getting up on top of the ridge I gave a quick call and he cut me off, close. I hit the nearest tree and got situated and not 30 Seconds later here they came at a fast walk. It was two tom's and they skirted to my right, staying in some thicker pines and never slowed down, strutted or gave me a look. I couldn't stop them for anything and never got a clean shot so they walked as well.
The next morning I was back on the same ridge with gobbler #1 and plan B already worked out. He never gobbled all morning so I never got to put it to use. He was a fun gobbler though and I suspect he has played a game or two on that ridgetop. To bad we didn't get any more chances to tangle as I enjoy those kind of turkeys.

That was really all the exciting turkey hunting that happen on my end. It was a great trip. I really enjoyed the few visits I had with Jim, Dick,and Dana. They are all great gentlemen that are a pleasure to share camp with. I should have slowed down a bit and prioritized that more especially with the tough hunting. I tend to get tunnel vision when turkeys are involved. Fun was had, we all had opportunities even with the tough hunting and I have a lot of good memories and friendships for it. Here are a few pictures of the few days out there.

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[Happy]

Photos

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[Happy]

Back to the hunting at home. It was pretty typical other than my landowner buddy only made one hunt. I called him on my way back from the Dakotas and he bowed out for the rest of the year so that kinda put an end to my season. I started the year with the new 20 Gauge and a new turkey vest but after a few hunts with them I pulled out my old mossberg and my old vest and they still proved their worth. I ain't gonna share everything but here are two gobblers that made for memorable days

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[Happy]

A hard hunted gobbler that I was fortunate to get the upper hand on after some serious effort. He definitely earned the years he got, living where he did

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[Happy]

The mossberg and vest aren't ready for retirement yet

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[Happy]

Congrats to everyone. I hope fun was had and memories made. I know that this has been a really fun group of guys to share the season with and thanks for all the laughs. I have to get back to life now and that usually ain't as fun as the spring mornings doing what all of us love so much

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[GobbleNut]

Great summary, Nick....and great pictures, as well.  Although I was carrying a camera the whole trip, I never took a single picture or video.  Not sure why not other than I just didn't think to do so at the time.      Glad someone had the foresight to remember to take some pics...   

[crow]

Congrats on a great season Happy, Very cool your son got to go on the trip and experience a western hunt. Neat experience for the both of you.

Hopefully Gobblenut didn't ramble on about Geritol and Ensure to much in front of him, would be sad to scare the boy off of future trips