It's a marathon. Not a sprint.
That statement could best describe my whole 2013 season, and I couldn't be happier with a long run!
My season truly begins in February at the NWTF Convention catching up with old friends, and making new ones. This year didn't disappoint, as it was a great show.
To stoke the fires even more, while we were on Spring Break in Tennessee, we had a Longbeard stalking our cabin every day putting on a show. Talk about taunting!
As April rolled around, I began placing out the cameras and spending some time in the truck glassing fields and checking new properties to see the birds and how things were looking. I was especially looking forward to this season as it would be the first time my daughter got to actually join the ranks of turkey hunters. Even though she has tagged along with me in the woods since she was 2, this would be the first Spring season that she could carry a gun looking to tag a bird.
Once the camera pictures started rolling in, I was not disappointed with how things were looking in the woods, and I took some time to set up some spots for us for Opening Morning.
Opening morning arrived, and even though it was a touch cold, we got settled into our blind and listened as the woods awakened around us. We had gobblers to every side, and plenty of hens as well.
Did some light calling, and even though the gobblers put on a show for us we had none come in. About 830, I did some kee's kee's and was met the reply yelps of a hen that was close. She came on in and checked out our hen decoy. After about 10 minutes she finally moved off, and it was then that I told my daughter that we needed to be heads up as there might be a Tom following her around. Sure enough, 5 minutes later I glanced to my right and a Longbeard was working his way in. We go her ready to shoot, and I will tell you know that if you have not yet hunted with your kid, prepare for the highest level of stress you will ever have in the woods. Between kneeling on the ground, holding a shooting rest in one hand and steadying the gun in my other, mouth calling while whispering to her, and trying to not to ignite my pants on the Little Buddy Heater next to my thigh it made for an interesting couple of minutes. The Tom came in, and circled the decoy a few times, which made it tough for her to get a bead on his head. Now my daughter is extremely petite, and shoots a single shot .410 that we had patterned good to 20 yards. Her Dad failed her on this hunt though, as I placed the decoy to close to the blind to keep any potential birds in range. When I finally got the Tom to stop, she placed the bead on his head and promptly shot right over the top of his melon. He jumped, and then proceeded to hang up at about 30 yards strutting and gobbling to the decoy. I could have thrown up, and we both had to take the insult of watching him show off for about 15 minutes. Finally he moved off. She took it like a champ, and we headed to breakfast then chased Longbeards the rest of the day with no success. Her tale continues later.
Over the days, I spent my time taking a few others out hunting and had a blast helping 2 new folks to the sport tag their birds. At the same time, I spent my hours in the woods watching a couple of Longbeards that had my interest.
When my opener finally arrived, I set up on the area where I had been seeing most of the bigger Tom's. Throughout the next couple of days, while I could not get a shot at one of them I noticed they began behaving in what I would consider not a normal pattern for our area for this time of year. After flydown, they would haul across a large field to a bit of property that had been recently purchased that was only a small tract of land. After throwing everything in my bag of tricks at them, I finally changed my approach and tried some different tactics in the mid afternoon.
After setting up on a field edge with heavy briar growth along the edges, I spotted a hen browsing her way across the field. Throwing some yelps at her, she finally had her interest peaked enough to give me a look. That's when I noticed the Longbeard trailing her. When he cut me off with a gobble, she got hot and tried moving away from me while yelping at him to bring him along. That's when I got rude. Matching her tit for tat, her dander got rising enough that she came in to kick the rear of the little hussy in the briar patch. Needless to say he tagged along, and that was not a wise choice. He got sick.
While dressing him, I finally figured out why the birds had been acting the way they had. Winter feeding evidently continued on until Spring.
Next up was Ohio. After some time researching, I found an operation that just felt right. After setting things up, I and a buddy headed south to chase some Longbeards. Hunting in southern Ohio was a quite a terrain change, but my years hunting Kentucky paid off.
We hunted hard for three days and after getting a pattern on two birds, we moved in on the second morning. I got lucky to find one of them all alone and worked him up a logging road. He came to the gun, and even though he hung up while trying to figure out what the shape by the downed log was, he ended up getting sick too.
Pennsylvania was next on the list, and with literally a day and half to hunt we headed out. The landowners we hunt with hate the birds down there, and being pressed for time and with some prodding from the farmer this Super Jake got sick too.
Still found some time for some R&R though as well.
When I got back home, it was time for the girl to give it another go. While I found some good Tom's in my normal spot, they were henned up bad. My daughter also made the point that she wanted to Run and Gun instead of being stuck in a blind, and that made her Dad one happy man! We headed out to another farm I have access on, and quickly struck some birds. Every mistake we made on the first hunt out got corrected, and we had the perfect hiding spot in some brush by utilizing her size to sneak into a hidey-hole. We had a group of 5 Jakes working towards us, and with some soft calling they came in looking for the hen they could not see. My girl could not have made a better shot and rolled the largest one! Success on her second hunt out and I can honestly say that is the best morning I have ever had in the turkey woods! After her busting my chops for getting a little emotional about it, we spent the rest of the morning showing him off to friends and family.
One proud Dad and his hunting buddy;
To wrap up my season, I headed for a hunt in the Sandhills of Nebraska to wrap up the season with some great folks from Hooks Custom Calls at the Cottonwood Hunting Lodge. Besides making some great friends, the hunting was fantastic. Everyone filled their tag, and every hunt for each person was unique and one hell of a show to watch. The things I learned from these guys were great lessons, and will definitely get thrown in my bag of tricks from here on out.
Some of the highlights;
And to top it off, I got to spread the sickness going round the Midwest to a fantastic Longbeard on our last morning.
I have been truly blessed, and lucky to have the year I did and it is definitely one I will never forget as long as I live. There is no better pursuit in my opinion than that of chasing Longbeards and learning the lessons they hand over, and I am already counting down the days until the Fall season here in Michigan.
You all have a great summer, and thanks for looking!
