Happy's hunt log

[Happy]

It's raining and I have to take care of some work issues. No hunting today.

[Happy]

Work again today

[Happy]

Work again today, but I am planning a short hunt Thursday morning, and then it's gonna be getting pretty serious from Friday on. There will still be a few days at work I can't miss, though.

[Happy]

No hunt today. Weather was bad, and I had some issues to address at work. Will be out in the morning though.

[Happy]

Hunted some new ground. Walked a bit saw some old sign. Never heard a gobble, and as Forrest Gump would say, "That's all I got to say bout that"

[TrackeySauresRex]

Ouch! A big almost...
  Same thing happened to me the other day. Guy gets out of his truck, walks in the woods 20 yards in his blue jeans wailing on his slate and he wasn't good at it. The bird I had cranked walked off.

[Happy]

Took my youngest boy out again today to a spot I knew would probably have some gobbling. I was right, we had to do a decent amount of walking and maneuvering, but we got situated with what I thought was a gobbler on our left about 300 yards off or so, and one on our right. It took about an hour and a half, but my boy got to hear a ton of gobbling, witness a gobbler fight, and have a very angry and vocal hen marching right at us. And to top it off, be taking aim at a gobbler as about 5-6 hens and jakes stood about ten yards behind us clucking and getting nervous. It was a tough shot for a 12 year old, and he was twisted pretty hard, the fight having kinda taken the party in a direction I didn't anticipate. He was right at about 40 yards, and only his head was exposed above a log, so I gave the green light. Things were about to go south with the turkeys that snuck in behind us to see what the ruckus was.Unfortunately, he whiffed, but we watched him sail down to the bottom and an hour later, we heard him gobble once. I feel pretty confident the turkey is fine. The boy amuses me. He was sitting and eating ramps with several gobblers being pretty vocal with a couple hundred yards of him like he had all the time in the world. After he got over the miss, we were catching tadpoles and salamanders in the creek. The funny thing is, as he was turned hard right to take the shot, I had my hand against his shoulder, helping him to twist, and his whole body was trembling.

[JeffC]

Thats a great story, awesome you have found some birds and got to see all that action. He will really appreciate it so much more when he does connect.

[Happy]

Those birds are his. I will hunt other birds. I told him I wouldn't hunt them this year at all.

[Happy]

Made it out to hunt this morning. I was starting to feel the itch, so I went and checked on a gobbler I have been keeping tabs on. He has always seemed to have 1 hen with him at all times. He strayed a little too far from her this morning trying to get some side lovin. It cost him

[crow]

Yes sir nice work

[JeffC]

Congrats on the upgrade! Hopefully you can get your son on one next.

[Happy]

That's the plan. Have to work most of this week, but I already told momma he won't be at school Friday.

[Happy]

So we made it out today. It was a pretty morning, and we were running about 15 minutes late, but I wasn't too worried about it. In these mountains, the turkeys aren't exactly predictable on where they are gonna roost. As long as I could hear one in on one of the ridges of the bowl we were hunting, we would be fine. We were targeting. Two typically ran pretty close together with the boss doing his own thing.  This was the boss that came running in last weekend when the other two gobblers came into my calling. Of course, he got run off, and my boy whiffed on one of the two after the fight.
Anyways, on the way in, we heard the boss open up way in the distance and down on the backside of the lip. I didn't pay him much mind as the other two opened up a few minutes later on the ridge on the opposite side from us. They typically had hens but it seemed like they could be coaxed in (At least it worked last week).
It wasn't ideal, but I knew they were gonna come into the bottom. So I got down in there and the boy and I set up with the gobblers about 300 yards out and above us. One was at about our 10 o' clock and one about 1 o'clock. I knew there were hens and they had already hit the ground but I started calling and they lit up. They gobbled at everything I put out there. It was perfectly call and within 10 minutes they were at 150 yards, still slightly above us. I could hear them drumming and an occasional hen yelp. After a few more minutes, they both gobbled. They were together now, still approaching, but drifting left. I had the boy shift a bit, I had quit calling and we were in wait mode. I made some subtle turkey sounds and a few minutes later the boy nodded hid head a little to the right of where his gun was pointed. 4 jakes came slinking across the edge of the clearing, looking guilty. I didn't pay them too much mind and kept looking more to the left where I expected the gobblers when the boy hissed "there's a fan  behind the jakes". Turning my head slightly, there they were, full strut, behind the jakes and following the ladies. I told the boy when it was safe to move and he started slowly shifting right. By the time he got the gun around the gobbles tail fans where all he could see as they worked past us. I let out a few soft yelps and the jakes popped back up over the roll in the hill. I whispered to the boy that he could kill one if he wanted and I heard him snick the safety off.

[Happy]

I whispered at him to shoot
The one on the left, 3 of them were grouped together pretty tightly, and that could have been ugly. The gun never shifted, so he must have been thinking the same thing. I waited for the shot, and it never happened. After about 10 seconds he put the safety back on and started to slowly lower the gun. This caused the jakes to slowly retreat back into the woods. "No shot?" I asked him. "Well," he replied," I wasn't real steady, and I really don't want to kill a jake, I want a gobbler."
We sat there for a bit and let the turkeys work off, whispering about the experience, and he asked me, " What's the next move?" I asked what he thought, and he hit me  with,"Let's circle them."
So circle them we did, back out of the bowl we went, circling around and setting up ahead of them. As we were slipping along the woods inside the powerline that followed the ridge, they started gobbling again. This allowed us to slip within about 300 yards of them where we set up, facing down into the bowl where the turkeys were.