My family and I hunted Eastern MT Friday, May 10 to Monday, May 13 for our last hunt of the 2013 MT Spring Turkey Season. My son Isaac was with me when I filled my first tag this year but we could not get him a shot. He was supposed to be with me on the hunt that resulted in my second bird, but a rescheduled baseball game prevented kept him at home. So, I two tags notched and he had yet to pull the trigger. Isaac had two tags waiting to be filled and my wife and daughter each had one. My youngest son will be able to hunt in MT next year when he is turning 12.
These extended weekend trips in relatively new country are always fun. I had hunted this country for the first time over a long weekend last season. I had knowledge of where we had worked a flock with two toms on the first day and second location with a single tom on the last day of our four day hunt, but my overall knowledge of the area was very limited. Our initial plans had been to hunt the same location as the first weekend, about 100 miles away, but I liked the added space to roam that this area offered. I knew the numbers were down, but I was sure we just needed another chance to find birds here. I'm also stubborn about proving I can kill a bird in a location where I've had my pride hurt.
We set up camp in the dark on Thursday night and were up at 4:30 on Friday. I'd say "raring to go", but the two youngest kids were struggling with the early alarm. We finally made it out of camp and to the location I wanted to start from. We were starting in the same region where the single tom refused to come in on the last day of last year's four day hunt. We were there at about flydown time, but could not pull a gobble from a bird with an owl call.
We decided to start hiking and calling along the top of the bluff that overlooks the valley where we found the bird last year. We were stopping about every 100 yards or so and yelping into the valley. We were greeted by a gobble on our third or fourth stop. The gobble came from the same location we found last year's bird.
We hustled along the bluff 200 yards until we found an area that we could hike down. It turned out to be the exact location as our initial set up last year. The bird turned into two birds as we hustled to set up and we relocated them with a crow call. They hung up behind a fence, I suspect, for 20 minutes or so before I quit calling to them which coaxed them into moving closer. They began sounding farther again, but I suspected they had moved behind the steep point to our left instead of coming up the open bottom in front of us. They held up there again but some excited calling followed by no calling got them moving again and the next gobbles were directly left of Isaac and Heather as they came over the steep point to our side. I stopped all calling at that point because I was afraid they would bypass Isaac and Heather and end up in our lap. I had Olivia set up towards them to the left, but we were mainly set up to call and they wouldn't appear until they were on top of us from that direction. That would not have been a good scenario.
I suspected that Isaac and Heather could see the birds but could not see them or the turkeys from my position, so I couldn't be sure. They confirmed later that they could see the birds above them gobbling when they crossed over the point. Without any warning one of toms decided to take to the air and pitch down into the opening. His chosen landing spot was almost on top of my wife and son. I was thinking out loud to my daughter, who was sitting with me, and said "He's going to land on top of them" when he suddenly flared right of them and landed within 10 yards. I saw him hit the ground then take several quick steps out of my view into the trees. I again was thinking out loud to Olivia, "Shoot him Isaac, Shoot him......." Boom! There was silence except for the echo and a tense moment when I saw the dust flying from the shot. Then I could see a bird flopping and rolling down the hill. The dust was from the ground behind the bird that Isaac hammered at 17 yards.
I continued to call and hoped the second bird would run down to thrash the flopping tom, but he wouldn't have any of it and ran back to the top of the point before taking flight. My youngest son, my daughter, and I hustled down to Isaac, who was retrieving his bird, and my wife who was grinning from ear to ear. My wife has hunted a very minimal number of days with me and taken two birds but it's been a while, so she doesn't have the ability to react very fast unless I'm coaching her. She was still trying to take in how fast Isaac had reacted on his own when the bird landed so close.
Isaac has hunted with me almost every day for the last five years and this is his 8th bird. This was the first bird that he's killed when I wasn't next to him coaching him through the shot. He reacted fully on his own. I think he did alright.
We hunted the rest of the weekend but were unable to locate any more birds. However, it was a great weekend and we had a great time hunting together.
The family looking over the valley just before the birds responded off to the left in the bottom:
Isaac and my wife, Heather, were set up ahead on the right side of the photo about half way up behind the blowdown that can be seen on the right side of the open area. The tom flew in from the top of the ridge on the left:
Isaac with the bird after he flopped down the hill in the wet grass:
The rest of the gang with Isaac acting like kids that are having a good time:
Hiking out of the valley:
Isaac with the bird after the bird dried out some on the way back to camp:
Some of the country we hunted during our hunt:
Sunrise:
Breakfast:
Eastern MT Roadblock (free range area):
Supper:
