Cove's Spring 2015

[Cove]

For me, it's impossible to put into words the importance of turkey hunting. It's merely a hobby for most and understandably so, but for me it's 'all consuming'. It's not something I do a few months a year, it's something every decision of my life revolves around. I say that to say, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. It can wreck a good man. I do not post these photos to boast or brag on my success. Lets face it, the failures don't make good pictures but they exist in great numbers. I'm only sharing my experiences for those wishing to follow the journey. The glory is all with the Father and his generosity when creating the wild turkey.
So, I will apologize for the amount of pictures in this thread beforehand. It will be impossible to tell each story in the fashion it deserves to be told. Maybe one day I'll be able to compile a collection I can share, for each of these gobblers has every right to have their story told in it's entirety. But for me, the few months a year I'm truly alive are over and it's back to merely existing until next spring. I hope you all enjoy.
My Spring started in a fury, continued in a fury and ended. . . in a fury. I have had some unbelievable spring seasons but this was a best for me. It all started in sunny South Florida where for 7 days we camped beneath the stars, shared stories with great friends and experienced some of the best Osceola turkey hunting I've ever had the privilege of partaking. We finished several grand slams and started several more if you're into that type of thing. The four of us in camp all found our pair of gobblers in the week of hunting and enjoyed their unusually cooperative nature. Highlights:
My first gobbler came on the second day (first with decent weather), after another group of hunters came in on my backside and almost foiled the whole deal. Luckily, I had snuck in under his hens and their meeting place was right in front of the gun barrel. The TV celebs and their 'guide' were none too happy on the shot, but unfortunately for them they had no way of knowing I was there being they'd parked at a different location. Public hunting woes at it finest.

My buddy Mark finished his long awaited Grand Slam.

Helped friend Kevin add another leg to his Slam.

Others. . . .

[Cove]

I returned to Georgia for the youth season and was able to show my 7 year old nephew a fun Sunday hunt. We were in the action but believe we may need another year or so before it's "time" to seal the deal. As a whole, the Georgia season was very productive. There seemed to be fewer 2 year old turkeys but still workable birds were not so hard to find. I enjoyed every sunrise I was in state and wouldn't trade the nastiest, coldest one for the world.
Nephew's first hunt.

My girlfriend's first gobbler. He made beautiful video I'll be editing soon.



An out of state friend.

Another old buddy with a fine gobbler who also made great video.


Little Brother and I doubled in the north Georgia mountains and these longbeards had me laying down some phenominal footage as well.


Good friend Marc whom I'd left a couple weeks earlier in South Florida made a visit to fulfill another leg of his single season slam attempt. We did so and all 3 gobblers will soon be featured on my youtube channel. (It'll be a busy off season)



Worthy others. . . .

[Cove]

My second out of state run was to new ground, something I really enjoy. The first stop was visiting North Carolina, home of a good friend of mine Eric. He pointed me in the right direction on some state game lands for the opening day. I don't think even he realized how 'right' the direction he pointed me in was. . . . steep, gorgeous country with plenty of gobbling turkeys. I cut my teeth on ridge running hardwoods turkeys and I still enjoy them most.


Next stop Delaware. I had a day to scout since Sunday hunting isn't allowed (can someone not get rid of this already?) and it didn't take long before I was covered in turkeys, literally. Somehow after stumbling into some really fresh strut sign in a sandy road, I walked right into a strutting gobbler and his hens without being busted. I spent the next 5 hours laying on my stomach listening to him drum and the hens stratch before they fed off about an hour before roost time. The next morning had him raring to go.

I made the trip southward and across the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. I found myself in one of my favorite destinations thus far, Virginia. With a little daylight left, I explored the areas I'd researched so diligently on google. I found some hens in a bottom and scratching everywhere. It was shaping up well. After chasing my tail for most of the morning, I found 3 gobblers together in a bottom gobbling on their own. I proceeded to yelp them up in 'expert' fashion and pull a swift, smooth, no doubt about it miss at 18 yards. Hit that one outta the park. Next day, in a totally different area, I managed to find 3 more gobblers with hens in an open bottom. After some convincing, I was able to gather my first Virginia gobbler.


I had an extra day in Virginia and managed to catch up to those gobblers I'd visited on the first day and this time I concentrated.

My next destination was Maryland and it was an unplanned, hail mary of an opportunity. But, I had a couple days and it's only spring for so long. Many thanks to my good buddy David, I was able to locate some birds on my scouting day which was the Friday before the season. Opening day was a circus! Seems alot of people have access to the national forest through private lands, so the 'go deep' approach wasn't working in my favor. After having 2 birds on 2 separate occasions get shot as I was approaching I was finally able to work it out. At 11:35am I slipped between 2 gobblers and claimed the first one to win the race.

[Cove]

The next trip had buddy Marc and I lifting off on May 1st and the first sunrise was spent in Montana after a sleepless night. I was rewarded about 10:00am when we wrestled this beaut of a Merriam gobbler into range.


Marc roosted a pile of birds on another piece of public ground later than evening. We were nestled in tight the next morning and he closed the final leg of his season slam. The birds busted off but quickly reassembled. I was lucky enough to find my way in front of the group before we left for North Dakota and take another beautiful gobbler.

We made our way into North Dakota in the early evening hours. The friendly nature of the people and their generosity had us on birds quickly. We watched 2 gobblers go to roost the first evening, one on either side of a large pasture covered knob. It was unique crawling over the knob and looking down on the them from above, all while they gobbled on their limbs waiting on nightfall. Marc and I split ways before dawn the next morning. His shot rang out minutes before mine and we met at the top for photos of our North Dakota longbeards.

During the photo op, we noticed a hill top in the distance covered with strutting turkeys. Eventually we found our way over there and finished up.

It was a LONG haul from North Dakota to Idaho. Driving across Montana is a task I'm not sure I'd volunteer for again. We did so to make daybreak the following day and that we did, but we were useless zombies. We did locate an area during the late morning hours that gave us our starting point for Day 2. The second day found me crawling through a tangled mess of a clearcut to reach the road a Merriam gobbler and his lady friends had chosen to walk along. It was 7:58am when I caught up to them. I met up with Marc and we regrouped. While I was working things out with my Idaho gobbler, he had been busy finding another piece of state ground that needed our attention. We quickly dove into it and a short while later, Marc had his beautiful Idaho gobbler.

After Idaho was complete we continued on our journey to Washingtion. The first morning found us overlooking one of the most incredible places on Earth. We didn't hear a single gobble, but neither seemed to mind. Moving on to another piece of pre scouted public ground we were able to bump into some birds. That evening we watched a pile of birds fly up at the foot of a steep hillside, the majority were jakes but we knew there were 2 longbeards in the bunch. The next morning we experienced a beautiful sunrise with ample gobbling and hens adding to the fire. The boys were the first to leave the limb and we were able to convince them to climb up the open hillside and approach a clump of scrub bushes. The jakes would caulk everytime the longbeard would drum, we were hunting with our ears because the steep roll in the hill had the birds hidden. I trusted my gut when I saw that big head break the horizon at 35 yards and thankfully it was right, I had a brute of a Washingtion Rio.


His home and where we had, 'our moment'.

That evening I kicked Marc out on the same hillside to find the other gobbler that was gobbling that morning while I went to look over another location. It didn't take long before he announced that our trip had come to close.

Final sunset.

[Cove]

A few more from Washington.



Just after taking my bird, these elk came to investigate.

[Cove]

The final voyage of 2015 had us taking off for Minnesota. We started in a bind as our guns were a day late, the joys of airline travel. The weather was brutal in the beginning with rain and 30mph winds being the norm. It was the 3rd day when my buddy Kenny and I found ourselves in the mix as we called 4 longbeards in for a perfect double.


We enjoyed the moment for a while before stumbling and falling our way out of the steep Minnesota public lands.
Wisconsin was the next destination. I was acting on advice from a good friend, Shane, who was familiar the area and had us on birds quickly. The next morning Kenny and I both scored on great Wisconsin gobblers. My hunt was finished soon after flydown and I was able to listen to the events unfold as Kenny worked his bird in for the shot. Phenomenal public land hunting in the state of Wisconsin.


With a few days to spare, we up and decided Michigan was a great idea. With no prior knowledge and no scouting beforehand, this was truly 'flying by the seat of our pants'. As Kenny drove, I was on the phone with any state or national forest agency that would answer, which isn't many normally. It was very difficult to find any help from the national forest districts but I was able to hit gold with a biologist from a DNR office. It gave us a starting point. We made our rounds, found some good looking public ground and then hit it off with a dairy farmer who claimed to have turkeys during the winter and had 'seen a few' recently. It all worked out for us and we ended up with our Michigan gobblers the very next day.



For the most part, this we the end of 2015. We enjoyed our time on that Michigan ridgetop, had a cigar and both took a little siesta along side our gobblers. We were in no hurry, there was no reason to hurry. We both knew as much as we look forward to the next sunrise, that meant the end was approaching. We eventually found our way back to the truck and turned it away from Michigan and toward Wisconsin again. This would put us closer to the airport for our departure. The next day we relaxed. The last day, it happened to be Kenny's birthday, and God allowed the light to shine on us one last time as a farewell to the best spring season I've ever experienced.

[Cove]

A couple others from the upper midwest.

[Cove]

Not sure why some of these pictures are chopped off on the right. Must be a photobucket issue.

[Cove]

I will forever be thankful for the Lords blessings on Spring 2015. I was able to take a bird in 13 states, 11 of those being new ground. This bring my total to 41 states. It'll be a tall order but I will attempt to finish the US slam in the spring of 2016. It'll all start March 1 in Hawaii with fellow slammer gobble157.

[VAarrowslinger]

What's the name of the YouTube  channel?

[Swampchickin234]

Awesome read and and what a great story and season.   You have some great footage   Congrats brother


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[Swamprunner]

Dave, you are a bad bad man.  People have no clue how much time goes into these successes, and a bunch of ninja and turkey skill mixed in.  Congrats on moving a lot closer to an incredible achievement, and thanks for the help in WA.

Boozer

[cramerhunts]

Congratulations to probably one of the best spring seasons I've ever heard of. Great pictures of great birds in beautiful places. I'm looking forward to looking up your YouTube channel and watching your videos. Your posts make it seem easy but anyone who has been on multi state trips knows the amount of time and work it takes, my hat is off to you! Awesome job and congratulations again. Really enjoyed reading and looking and the pictures.

[Jbird22]

Congrats on another PHENOMENAL season! That is what I call living the dream!

I'd love to know what your youtube channel is as well.

[J. Adams]

What an awesome season!!! Congrats Dave, living the dream indeed!!!!!