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South Carolina trip

Started by dirt road ninja, March 26, 2017, 08:28:07 PM

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dirt road ninja

My first trip to SC will be a hard one to top. I'd been threatening to take davisd9 up on his offer to hunt up there for a couple years and he grossly understated the quality of hunting. I'll from here on out refer to his in-laws farm as Kansas East. I arrived Thursday in enough time for a quick tour and hunt. We set up in field put out a few decoys and started calling. It wasn't long before we had a few hens filtering thru. After a little while we decided to go because we hadn't  seen or heard a Tom, I pick up my lounger and get ready to pack the dekes up and Donald starts telling me Tom Tom to the left. I lay in the brairs and the bird follows 4 hens to around 150 yards straight in front of us. He is strutting all over looking at the dekes, but never acted like he was going to come over despite our calling. We decide that I would take off the vest and try and fan him as time was running out quick. I grab the fan and belly crawl out to him. Well after 5 minutes or so I was 50 yards away and a hen takes off and charges me. That ticked off the Tom, so he broke camp and started heading my way. Now my plan was to let him get close, but the hen was at 5 yards with no sign of stopping, so I raised up the 935 and end the hunt in dramatic fashion. The tss back flipped him at 40 yards I doubt a train could have hit harder. A great start to the trip.
The next morning we set up at another spot and it isn't long before birds are hammering away. A few minutes after fly down we have birds on us. A pile of hens and 3 jakes. They strut and gobble and put on a show. Well while we are watching them a long beard slipped out to our right and we could tell he wanted 0 to do with the jakes. He wasn't a big Bird, but sported a full fan and 8 or so inch beard. Now he comes into range and I'm waiting on Donald to shoot, but he never lifts his gun. I figure he wants to pass it and wait for a giant. I'm not going to be the guy that  shoots a bird his host and buddy pass on, so the bird wonders off behind a lone hen. After we discuss it I find out he couldn't see when it was in range because of 1 tree that was in front of him. He never saw it loop in range. No worries there are birds everywhere, we will find another. That afternoon we fire up another flock of jakes and several gobblers that we never saw, but Donald knew where they were for the morning. We finish out the day with birds gobbling their heads off and us watching jakes inside of 30 yards strutting and gobbling till fly up. A awesome day chasing birds. I'll let Donald finish the story cause my thumb is tired of typing on my phone.

WNY Bowhunter

My mother lives in SC, maybe I should go visit... ;D
"I'm not from New Yawk.  I'm a REDNECK from Western New York!!!"
"It's not a passion. It's an OBSESSION."


davisd9

So glad that Russell was able to make the trip and it was a blast.  I told him that I would be surprised if we did not at least see a bird and be in the game a couple times during his trip but I was surprised at how good the hunting was, especially this early in the season.  I think 2012 was the last time I remember seeing the amount of Toms we were seeing on the farm.  I can honestly say that we saw at least 8-10 different mature birds, and 6-8 jakes.  Have no clue how many hens we saw total.

It was quite exciting to watch Russell kill that first Tom, those TSS 9s trucked him.  It was also a great relief that Russell killed him a bird, as a host you want your guest to get one if possible.  The pressure was off of us both now and we could hunt with some patience.

I wish that I would have communicated better that all I was looking for was a full fanned mature bird so that Russell could have hammered the young Tom on Friday morning.  It was a great show that the jakes and the tom put on.  You could tell those three jakes must have tripled teamed him a time or two as he wanted nothing to do with them.  We did have one jake get pretty close, but we got plenty of strutting and some gobbling.

After that set up we kind of moved around a little and saw some birds but for this reason or that reason we never could get too close to them.  They either were nervous or when we made our move and tried to find them they had disappeared.  The last set up of Friday is where action picked up again.  We set up at the back of a large field that had a good bit of sign in it.  We could see the field fairly well but not as well as some of the others.  Russell had a little better view, let alone he does not need binos to see into the next county, then I did of the field.  We had a hen kind of work around the field early so if nothing else we saw a bird.

A little bit later Russell sends we a text, we were a little far apart to talk quietly, that there is a strutter in the dip of the field.  I get ready and am about to pull every muscle in my neck to see him when the next text reads, just kidding.  What can I say, he got me good.  Anyway, we are calling every so often and start seeing more hens moving around. Then Russell says he sees three Toms, but when we get the glass on them it is jakes again.  They are out there strutting and aggravating the tar out of the hens.  Well it is getting close to fly up and the jakes act like they are going to go away from us so we start calling aggressively to mess with them, why not?  We are doing excited yelps and cutting, going back and forth when they look over and decide to walk our way.

They come walking over at a quick pace, kind of strutting, and we got them gobbling a bit.  During this fun/commotion we hear a bird start burning it up in the field that Russell killed his first bird in.  On this property the birds usually do not gobble too well in the evening and when one does he is pretty worked up.  Well this one was burning it up on the ground.  Finally the jakes went on and we heard them fly up.  The other bird was still hammering, but it sounded as he was in the tree.  I had a pretty good idea where he was and said that is where we will be in the morning.  After walking out and leaving him still gobbling we set up the plan for the next day.  We had a bit of a walk so we were going to get out a bit early than we did the day before.

I hope that I can share the excitement of this hunt through my words.  I honestly have to say it is one of the best hunts I have ever been on, hopefully the story does not disappoint after this short build up.   ;D

We get back to the field and as we walk I kind of explain where the bird is and what I think they will do.  I am 99% sure they will come to the field we are setting up on and I am 95% sure I know how they will come out.  We decide to set back in the same set up of when Russell killed his bird even though I thought they would enter the field about 150 yards down.  This set up gives us a great view of the entire field and allows them to see the decoys very well.  I was also scared to set up too close to where I thought they would be as I was not sure how far in the wood line they would be.

We get set up and after a little bit our bird starts to gobble.  He is not hammering like he did the evening before but is gobbling well enough.  Not too long after that we hear the jakes start rattling some.  The jakes kind of worried me and Russell called it.  He said, "I think those jakes are going to come over here with any kind of commotion."  Any way our bird is gobbling, the jakes are gobbling, we hear two in the distance gobbling, and then we hear another one that is around the bird we were after gobbling, he was a little deeper in the woods.  Finally we can tell they have hit the ground.

A hen kind of flies out to the field and she is feeding around a bit but acting really nervous.  We are calling and getting responded to.  All of a sudden a longbeard runs out into the field about 125-150 yards down gobbling and strutting.  He is just staring at us and strutting.  He kind of acts like he is working his way to us slowly when all of a sudden he kind of takes off across the field, still strutting and looking back toward us but something has him weary.

A loud mouth hen has made her way to the field and she is trying to cut off our calling every chance she gets but she is kind of following the tom and seems like she is being pushed. Well you guessed it, the next thing to pop out the woods is our three jake friends, gobbling and strutting.  The original longbeard is now in the far corner of the field but he is not leaving and acts like he wants to come back.  He is walking the wood line down the field kind of slowly.  We are yelping and cutting making them all strut and gobble some. 

All of a sudden to my right I hear drumming, and it is close.  I tell Russell and he says he heard the spit.  A few moments later there is drumming again.  A minute of two later a tom in strut pops out the woods to our right at 15-20 yards, just as pretty as can be.  He looked fake with as red as his head was but he stood there in strut with his head in alert.  The first Tom saw him so he started crossing back across the field working his way to us.  We neither really had a shot at the second bird where he popped out with out moving some so we just waited and watched. 

It did not take long for him to start strutting toward our spread.  I see him coming so I get the gun ready for him.  He steps into the scope about 20 yards away and I cluck.  When he stops he is center of the crosshairs so I squeeze the trigger and he drops.  After my attention turns back to where the other bird is he is about 80 yards away from our spread looking in half strut. I start trying to do fighting purrs, but Russell tells me to stop as my head is bobbing from all the excitement.  We watch him.

My dead bird starts flicking his tail a little and then the first bird starts mean walking toward him, he picks up pace.  When he gets a yard or two from my dead bird Russell clucks, the bird stop and Russell lays down number two.  A double with a friend that lives hundreds of miles away on one of the most exciting hunts I have had.  It was just incredible.  We celebrated and had to run the other birds out the field.  It was just so much fun.

We had a few other close encounters, a bird at 60 yards and a pair at 80-85, but for this reason or that reason it just did not come together again.  I was alright with that.  It was a great time with a good friend and memories that I will cherish for some time. 

Man, I love the Spring!
"A turkey hen speaks when she needs to speak, and says what she needs to say, when she needs to say it. So every word a turkey speaks is for a reason." - Rev Zach Farmer

Bowguy

Very cool hunt! Congrats again guys!

BABS9

Awesome story guys! Doesn't get much better than that! Congrats on your success.

SwampRooster17

Sounds like y'all had a blast!


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trkehunr93

Good times gentleman!  Envious to say the least.

Turkeykiller12

Congratulations on some great hunting.

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Rzrbac

Sounds like a blast! Nothing beats making memories in the spring.

YoungbuckTX

line 'em up