I'm pretty excited. My third season turkey hunting and my first time limiting out. My fall bird and first two Spring birds were young but my last bird was a beauty. 20.3lbs, 11" beard and 1 & 3/8 spurs.
Season #1: I went once with a buddy. Only heard a few gobblers in the distance but was hooked.
Season #2: Two nice long beards. Skunked in the fall. Got my first bird with a guide in the spring. Watched my teenager get a Jake. Took a huge bird with the same buddy who got me started. Then closed the season watching my brother in law miss an easy shot.
Season #3: My goal was to limit out. Worked hard on my calling pre-season and spent time looking for local places to hunt.
-Fall: Draw for Lake Mendocino and went out by myself. After beating the bushes I finally jumped a flock, scared them off and took my first Fall bird 10 minutes later when they came back.
-1st Weekend Spring: Bird #1. Found a local rancher who let me hunt his land if (i) I didn't let anyone else know I was hunting his property, and (ii) I hired his son as a "guide". My "guide" showed up in cowboy boots, blue jeans, black hoodie and White Sox cap. Luckily I had my own decoy and calls. Called in and havested a Jake myself while the "guide" watched.
-2nd Weekend Spring: Bird #2. Found a guy an hour away on Craigslist who was reasonably priced and let my brother in law and I call in our own birds. We got lucky and had two Jakes come in together. First time blind hunting. I didn't like the blind but can't complain about the double.
-3rd Weekend Spring: Nothing. Went back to the same place without luck. Turned out the guy was hunting the same small lot seven days a week. The birds just stayed next door. We won't be back.
-4th Weekend Spring (Friday): Nothing. Drawn for BCCER. We were the 5th group this season and had a 2.25 mile section along the creek. But the creek was uncrossable so the area was cut in half. I think most of the birds had simply flown across the creek to safety. We went out to scout Thursday. Walked about 100yrds from the parking area and called. Immediate gobble 40-50yrds from the trail. We slid off but didn't know if we had spooked him or not. Walked the remaining 2 miles with no further signs of birds. The next morning we set up on him anyway. No sounds, nothing. Walking the whole 2 miles and back nothing. Tried calling again as we got back and got an immediate gobble. A young bird but smart for his age. He did almost a complete circle around us and was 70yrds at his closest spot. We were going to let him slip away and set up on him again when a young couple came hiking through our closed hunting zone. And that was that.
-4th Weekend Spring (Saturday): Bird #3. Called a duck hunting buddy who hooked us up with a couple of local farmer kids. These kids could hunt and had all the local connections! They had roosted 50 birds in some tall trees next to a pond in an almond orchard. We set up in some saplings about 100yrds out. Our only cover was a sapling, grass 18" high and a few sticks. I've never seen anything like this except TRKHTR's YouTube videos. 50 birds gobbling away before light and then flydown right towards us. Most slipped off to the right. I watch a Jake 50 yrds out and decide to risk waiting for the last group of birds still 70 yrds away. Then the kid is saying, "big bird to the left". This guy got about 45 yrds away and then looked like he was going to slip way. So I took him. He dropped like a rock and we had birds everywhere running and flying away. Too easy but worth it for the experience.
I'm thrilled about reaching my goal and already thinking about next year. I've spent more on land access fees than I want to in future years. I want to work on my diaphragm calling and continue to look for local property I can lease for less cash and/or spend more time scouting the public lands (most of which are unfortunately 2-4hrs away from my house). But for now I have some nice turkey dinners coming!!!
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