Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Turkey scouting tonight

Went out looking for Tom tonight, as the season opens up on Wed. morning. I saw a few birds, a big tom and a couple of jakes, and snuck within about 40 yards of them. Was pretty chilly out there, with temps in the 40's and a wind chill in the 20's, and I forgot my hat.

I waited around and did a little calling to keep the birds interested. I thought I would hang around until they roosted. Well, after waiting around for about 45 minutes freezing my cajones off, just before dusk, a dog comes running through the woods and scatters the birds. They all went different directions, and I had no idea which one was the big tom.

Looks like I'll have to go out again tomorrow and put em to bed. Hopefully it will be a little warmer.

Rick--We've been open almost a month, but the cool weather has kind of slowed thing up. Are your birds gobbling when it's that cold?

The toms are just starting to gobble and strut. I was hoping to roost a tom and see if he would gobble, but the dog kind of changed the plans. I'm going out again tonight to see if I can put one to bed, and hopefully things will work out better. I saw alot of fan marks in the sand on the road, and it was definitely done by a big tom. I'll keep you posted.

I've been scouting too, but at the crack of dawn rather than dusk. Heard 4 gobblers one morning last week. Another morning I got up and went to the mountain at 6am, and didn't hear any. The same morning, Wifey heard a couple from the front porch as she left for work! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
7mm

I put a tom to bed last night, and he was with a bunch of hens. Gobbled pretty good prior to roosting and was the only tom I heard in the area. I worked until 5AM this morning and then blasted out to the woods for the opening day of turkey season. Got into the woods at about 5:40, a little late for me, as the tom was gobbling pretty hot and heavy. I heard a bunch of hens yelping in a white pine about 50 yards north of the tom, and they were right along the river. I quickly set up my decoys on the logging trail that runs down a norway pine grove about 50 yards off the river bank.

I no more than had the decoys set up when I look over and see 3 toms coming into a clearing about 60 yards south of my position. I didn't even have a shell in the chamber, my mask on, or my camo gloves on. I just scooted over to a tree and set up to shoot as the birds seemed to be headed right towards me.

The birds stopped in the clearing and started strutting, 3 big toms all fanned out and gobbling. The hens started cutting and yelping, and soon about 30 hens had flown down from the pines into the clearing.

After about 20 minutes, I was getting pretty tired of holding the gun up. As I started to lower it, a hear something coming up behind me from the north. I freeze, and hear a hen clucking. She starts coming in to my decoys, but freezes when she sees me sitting there. She looked me over for a minute, and decided she didn't like what she saw so she took off.

I decided I better try to get my mask and gloves on in case the toms started heading my way. This was not easy considering I had at least 30 turkeys within 75 yards of me.

I finally got all camoed up, and a big tom saw my decoys and started heading over to check them out. He got within 25 yards and started strutting all fanned out. When he stopped and poked his head up, I put the bead on him and pulled the trigger. Click. Nothing, I guess I had a bad shell. I cycled the action slowly, and got another shell in the chamber. He came out of the strut again, and again the gun just clicked when I pulled the trigger.

By then, I had figured out that maybe I didn't cycle the action hard enough to have the gun fire. So, I waited until the tom started to strut again, and I did a quick pump of the action to cycle in another shell.

The tom heard me cycle the action and poked his head up. As I pulled the trigger, I hoped like hell this time the gun would fire. It did, and the tom tumbled on the spot. When I registered him, he weighed in at 23 pounds, with a 10" beard and 1" spurs. A nice tom. He's in the Nesco roaster right now, and I have some friends coming over to enjoy some turkey dinner and some drinks. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Great story, Rick--congratulations. I'd hate to read the transcript of what you were thinking on those two clicks. Sounds like a stunt I would pull. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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'Bout the second click, I'd have probably jumped up and wrapped the gun around a tree! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Glad you perservered!
7mm

If the gun wouldn't have fired the last time, it would have been thrown at the tom as he ran away. I guess the moral of the story is to have the gun loaded and ready to go before setting up the decoys.

It was an awesome day all around. Cooked the turkey up in the roaster, and some friends came over and enjoyed the game feed. They brought a bottle of wine, and by the headache I have today, I know we had alot of fun last night.

The only down side to whacking the tom right away is now I am done hunting until bow season in September. I guess I'll have to fill my time riding my motorcycle and sailing on the Cat.

Glad it came out so good. I would have been whooping like an Indian on the warpath as I tried to run him down and club him to death!

Sounds like the results were worth it. That and what a story to keep telling.

Rick--you guys only get one a season? We get three, theoretically. All three of mine are still in the woods, so far. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Three seasons?!?! You lucky bastard! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Very funny, Matt. BTW I turned off the "ignore" and read Whatsishame's posts with you above--now he's getting all whiny and self-pitying--"boohoohoo, nobody likes me"....well, yeah, so leave. The man's desire for public humiliation is astonishing.

No kidding. I enjoy open discussion, with actual logic and arguments involved, like you and me have been involved in.

He's something else.

We get one season if we get drawn in the lottery. There are always a few guys that put in for a tag, and don't get drawn. I have been lucky as I have drawn a tag for the last 4 years, though this is the first time I drew the first week. If it had been in one of the last weeks, I probably wouldn't have gotten away with what I did during this hunt.

Our season is broken down into 6 weeks, with the individual seasons running from Wed.-Sun. You get 5 days to hunt, and if the weather sucks, you're pretty well screwed. That happened to me a couple of years ago. I hunted hard the first three days, but it was so windy and rainy, you couldn't get any response to the calling. Finally on Sat., after putting a tom to bed Fri. night, I set up on him in the morning. When the birds flew down, the big tom went the wrong way, but a 16 pound jake came right into the decoys. I took the bird in the hand instead of going after the big tom.

I can't imagine why they don't sell tags over the counter, as we have alot of turkeys in the area now. They say we have about 350,000 in Wis. but I see more turkeys than deer every time I go in the woods, and they estimate our deer herd at 1.5million. I imagine it will soon be otc sales for turkey, once numbers increase to the point that a hard winter will not severely impact the reproduction capacity.

We get three automatically on a big game license. No tagging or check in except on some lottery hunts on big WMAs.

Rick g-

What zone are you hunting in. I drew area 42, which is my second choice area. Usually I draw 22, so Im not sure what happened there. I also have the last period for my time.

I would assume there will be a change to the way tags are issued within a few years. A friend of mine recieved two tags and his wife recieved 0, they both applied for the same area.

I hunted public land in zone 21. That's one nice thing about this area, we have 1000's of acres of public land, and the area I hunted is about 320 acres. I didn't see another hunter in the woods.

I have hunted the late seasons for the past 4 years, and while the birds are a little tougher to call in, I have been successful 3 out of the 4 years. The one year I didn't get a bird, I rolled a big tom with a shot at 30 yards. He went down, got up, and started running away. I cycled the action on the shotgun, and the empty hull jammed in the ejection port, eliminating a follow up shot. I looked for hours, but never found tom. I imagine he made a nice meal for a coyote.

I found the key to success is going out at night and roosting them. Then in the morning, I set up about 100 yards away and try calling them in. It can be tough, but if you locate the decoys where they are easily seen, they will usually draw the toms.

This year I never got my call out of my pocket, as the hens were cutting and yelping so much, I don't think they would have paid me any attention, and the movement may have got me busted. When the big tom saw the 3 decoys I had out, 2 jakes and a hen, he came right in.

Let me know how you do. I was going to post a pic, until I noticed that my dog chewed off the docking cable for the camera. I guess a trip to Best Buy in Wausau is in order. 70 degrees, blue sky, think I'll take the bike. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />