Had a great hunt with Hollar Hunter and Catman yesterday.
Mark (hollar hunter) reached out to me a few weeks ago about trading a turkey hunt on his place for a bass fishing trip on pickwick lake where I fish a lot. I was quick to take him up on that. We went fishing and had a good trip and caught several nice small and largemouth bass.
We planned our hunt for yesterday morning and invited Catman to come along with us. We got to the farm and the temp gauge on the rear view mirror in the truck was reading 24 degrees, I figured they would either be on fire or have lock jaw, it was the latter. We heard 2 different birds on the roost, one fairly close and one way off. The one that was close gobbled maybe 5 times. We set up on him and heard some hens in there with him. They flew down and never heard another peep out of them and never saw them.
We started covering some ground, walking hardwood ridges, calling ever so often trying to strike one, then glassing fields and food plots trying to spot one strutting with the ladies. The woods were completely silent, didn't hear or see a thing. We decided we would go check a couple of more fields before we decided to call it a day and head back home. We were driving to the river bottom field and mark spots a couple of hens up in the woods up a small hollow. We grabbed the bino's to see if we could see anything with them, I heard a gobble on up the hollow from where the hens were. Mark and Jonathan didn't hear it and had me second guessing myself haha. We drove on around and parked and hiked up the hill, blew a crow call and he gobbled down below us 200-250 yards away.
We eased down a small ridge toward them, I blew a crow call again and multiple gobblers sounded off in the hollow. We got a little closer and we set up, pulled out the crystal mistress and gave them a few soft yelps and clucks and 2 cut me off. Yelped a couple more times and they gobbled again. I went silent and waited a while and they gobbled again but hadn't moved. Jonathan pulled out his wingbone we started cutting and yelping back and forth and that was all it took. They cut us off and gobbled a couple of more times and was headed to us we shut up and waited, they hammered again only 50 yards away. I saw two red heads coming and I had my scope on the lead bird, he gobbles 20 yards away, I was waiting on them to shoot but they didn't, turns out they both didn't have a clear shot, I didn't shoot because I wanted them to shoot one and I didn't really want to tag out this early. They went over the crest of the hill, i whispered to Jonathan and told him to soft call to them and I would scratch the leaves. He called, they hammered just over the rise about 10-15 yards. They pop back over the rise and mark shoots one, Jonathan didn't have a clear shot again so they weren't able to pull off the double[emoji20]
9 3/4" thick beard
1 3/8" spurs
Didn't weigh him but I'd say a little over 20lbs
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Mark (hollar hunter) reached out to me a few weeks ago about trading a turkey hunt on his place for a bass fishing trip on pickwick lake where I fish a lot. I was quick to take him up on that. We went fishing and had a good trip and caught several nice small and largemouth bass.
We planned our hunt for yesterday morning and invited Catman to come along with us. We got to the farm and the temp gauge on the rear view mirror in the truck was reading 24 degrees, I figured they would either be on fire or have lock jaw, it was the latter. We heard 2 different birds on the roost, one fairly close and one way off. The one that was close gobbled maybe 5 times. We set up on him and heard some hens in there with him. They flew down and never heard another peep out of them and never saw them.
We started covering some ground, walking hardwood ridges, calling ever so often trying to strike one, then glassing fields and food plots trying to spot one strutting with the ladies. The woods were completely silent, didn't hear or see a thing. We decided we would go check a couple of more fields before we decided to call it a day and head back home. We were driving to the river bottom field and mark spots a couple of hens up in the woods up a small hollow. We grabbed the bino's to see if we could see anything with them, I heard a gobble on up the hollow from where the hens were. Mark and Jonathan didn't hear it and had me second guessing myself haha. We drove on around and parked and hiked up the hill, blew a crow call and he gobbled down below us 200-250 yards away.
We eased down a small ridge toward them, I blew a crow call again and multiple gobblers sounded off in the hollow. We got a little closer and we set up, pulled out the crystal mistress and gave them a few soft yelps and clucks and 2 cut me off. Yelped a couple more times and they gobbled again. I went silent and waited a while and they gobbled again but hadn't moved. Jonathan pulled out his wingbone we started cutting and yelping back and forth and that was all it took. They cut us off and gobbled a couple of more times and was headed to us we shut up and waited, they hammered again only 50 yards away. I saw two red heads coming and I had my scope on the lead bird, he gobbles 20 yards away, I was waiting on them to shoot but they didn't, turns out they both didn't have a clear shot, I didn't shoot because I wanted them to shoot one and I didn't really want to tag out this early. They went over the crest of the hill, i whispered to Jonathan and told him to soft call to them and I would scratch the leaves. He called, they hammered just over the rise about 10-15 yards. They pop back over the rise and mark shoots one, Jonathan didn't have a clear shot again so they weren't able to pull off the double[emoji20]
9 3/4" thick beard
1 3/8" spurs
Didn't weigh him but I'd say a little over 20lbs
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
