POk3s “semi live” hunting trip.

[POk3s]

The time has finally arrived for me to enter the ring!

Nebraska opening day is tomorrow. To remind everyone, I live in arid southwest wyoming. We have no local turkeys so I have to travel. My turkey season consists of one week off work, and with my standard three day weekends, equates to 10 days off. It ends up being a little more than 9 days of hunting if I don't sleep too much. I then take a long weekend and go to the black hills. That will be in a couple weekends.

But for now, this is my 10 day stint where I have 2 Nebraska tags and 1 Kansas tag in my pocket. My plan is to drive as far as I can after work tonight. No matter where I stop, I'm only going to be able to get 3 hours of sleep, at the most. Usually it turns into a 2 hour nap in the front seat of my truck. I just have to be close enough to where I want to hunt, so that I can be there, geared up, and walking in a half hour before gobble time.

I think it would be kind of cool to update you guys on a separate thread as things roll on. I'll try to add a story and pic or two (or 5) each day, if I have cell phone service.

Good luck everyone! Hopefully I get to see some pics and read some stories by other team members as I lay in my tent each night!

[Yoder409]

Best of luck, brother !!!

Git r done !!!!   

[twyatt]

Good luck!!! Our season starts tomorrow here in VA as well.  I'm so excited I doubt I'll even get 2hrs of sleep, LOL

[Tom007]

Good luck brother!!!

[harleytom]

Best of luck and safe travels


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[Happy]

Be safe and have fun!

Good-looking and Platinum level member of the Elitist club

[Hoosier2]

Good luck brother! 6 days until Indiana youth. It would be awesome to hear some western stories while we gear up in the Midwest.


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[POk3s]

I've got a good one for you guys!!!

Yesterday I left work and drove 7 hours to my destination. Arriving after 2AM local time I made a bed in the passenger seat of the truck and get about 2 hours of sleep before the alarm went off.

A short walk and I was immediately into gobbling turkeys as the sun rose. I'd been here before with my buddy, Brenner, before so it was nice that these birds were in the same place...3 years later. All of the gobbling you could handle, and all I could find were jakes!

I decided I'd back out and go scout people. I'd go see where others were parked and make a plan to walk in somewhere while it was still cool in the morning as temps were forecasted for the mid 80s.

I found a spot with no people, walked 4 steps out of the truck, hit the call and was answered by a gobble in one direction and then a gobble in the other. They were spinning me in circles as I tried to figure out where exactly these birds were, and which one to go after.

Finally I made my mind up and off I went. Of course, as I closed in, the gobbles were about 400 yards onto private land. Typical. I set up 60 yards from the fence and tried to coax them over. Nothing transpired. I wanted to get a look at these birds after dealing with jakes all day, to make sure I was dealing with adult gobblers. So, I walked up to the top of the hill at the property line and spotted a longbeard and a Jake about 200 yards from eachother. The jake was one small rise closer to me, but both were out there a ways.

I called to see how they'd act, and the jake started coming in. I didn't want to deal with another Jake but I didn't have anything better to do. Soon, I noticed the longbeard was on his way too. They met up and seemed to fire eachother up. The bad part is, I'm ON the property line fence and with no cover to move.

I tried to direct the calling behind me so that the birds would hopefully pass by me on legal ground. It didn't work. I called these turkeys into about 6 yards, but on the wrong side of the fence. I did my best to melt into the fence post and a cedar tree, and I guess it worked.

I let the turkeys round the hill behind me and when they were out of site, I sprinted down the hill and set up in the shade about 100 yards off the property line and poured it on them. They gobbled so I did it again...and one more time before I went quiet. 2 minutes later, they had hopped the fence and were on a B line straight to me. When I knew I could kill the longbeard, I did so. The hooks were the real surprise!!!

A perfect hunt to start the year!

[JeffC]

Great pictures and story !! Congratulations

[Tom007]

Wow, that baby will score! Nice hooks, great story, CONGRATS!

[harleytom]

Wow! Great story and hooks! Looks like you may have discovered how good they were the hard way.


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[Yoder409]

Great story !!!!   Great bird !!!!

CONGRATS !!!!

[POk3s]

Wow! Great story and hooks! Looks like you may have discovered how good they were the hard way.


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I even waited until he finished flopping! He was on his belly naturally, so I got spurred just reaching under to check them out! Hahaha! Wouldn't be right if I didn't bleed too

[Hoosier2]

Good hooks on that one. Congrats. Awesome story. It's being a beautiful weekend in the Midwest. Keep after em.


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[POk3s]

Once I got back to my truck yesterday, I cleaned my turkey and headed about 90 miles southeast. I'm well within my right to kill 2 turkeys from the same public land area, but I just don't like to anymore. I know guys are like me and have plans to travel around and hunt turkeys. I don't want to exploit a small area and take more than "my share." That's the beauty of turkey hunting. You can hunt exactly how you want to! I don't mind one bit if others do, but it's just not for me anymore.

ANYWAY...I got to my new location and the mercury rose as high as 95 degrees!!! I had only seen 60 degrees a couple times so far this year. 95 about killed me. I got camp set up and hung out waiting for evening time. About 6:00 I headed out reacquaint myself with this area and find some spots to listen. I pulled up to a spot after driving a bit and immidately spotted a hen and a then a jake not long after. I stayed there for about an hour without hearing anything and tried to locator calls. No dice.

I sped down the road and sprinted up to one of my listening knobs, getting there just after sunset. I hit the coyote howler and was met with gobbles from 2 different turkeys. BINGO. I had hunted them in the same area a few years prior so I quickly looked at the map and had a plan for the next morning.

This morning came and there were gobbles seemingly everywhere. I had only heard the 2 birds but I had at least 4 spread across my side of the creek and then a wod of turkeys over the hill from where i coyote howled the evening before.

I called sparingly at first. After sunrise I could tell everything was drifting away, and I was able to get in an argument with a hen which elicited a few gobbles. Nothing moved toward me however I decided I better make a move.

After battling a few thickets I popped out at a corner of public land where I heard the closest gobbles but thought they were on private. Upon turning the corner I immidately spotted the turkeys well into public and moving further into it. One big strutter and 4 or 5 hens in pretty open country.

Right on queue they made their way over a bald rise, except for a big cedar tree at the point of it. I figured I'd get to that tree (300+ yards away) and then reevaluate.

I sprinted toward that tree and as I got close I really slowed down. The sun was at my back and if I just didn't do anything stupid, I could hunt these turkeys all day if I needed to. That was my thought. I made it almost right beside the tree and so no turkeys. I thought "they're either right in front of me or they're over the next little rise." Right then I saw a gobbler on the other side of the ravine headed straight for me. I figured he was coming to meet up with the group of turkeys I was after but couldn't find. Finally I spotted a hen as she came underneath the fence...also coming right at me. I paused to see what was following her.......nothing...hmm odd. I peered around the tree a little more and the gobbler walked out onto the wide open, about 12 ysrds away.

I raised my shotgun and took aim. Squeezed the trigger and it was stiff like the safety was on. Looked down and it's red. What the hell. I pushed my action closed a little further, aimed back on the turkey and BOOM. I believe I put that shell in a little too carefully. Needed a little extra love to get things in working order!