megalomaniac
Well-Known Member
Wow, I'm slap worn out after only 3.5 days hunting. I took my 11 y/o son up to TN for the opener, and had a friend meet me on the farms for several of the hunts. Had a blast, but definetly the toughest year I"ve had since the early 90's. I figured I logged around 1200 miles on the truck, plus another 25 on foot. Ethan did pretty well, although he was slap worn out by the afternoon of day 3 and we had to take a break from turkey hunting and go fishing instead.
The past 10 years, I've tried miserably to manage my declining population. Each year, fewer and fewer birds. I don't really care whether I kill one or not any longer, just want to have fun hunts. In the past, I've picked out the biggest, most dominant bird and hunted that one single bird till I either killed him and him alone, or I blanked. That has translated to me focusing on the single bird that lives on my farm to the exclusion of all the roaming young birds that aren't necessarily residents to my farms. This year, I decided to only focus on the nonresident birds, and not even hunt the older dominant resident birds and allow them to breed the few hens we have left until April 15th. After April 15th, if I or any of my guests have any tags left after killing the roaming birds, I'll then focus on the big boys that don't leave the farm.
Opening morning, Ethan and I set out to hunt a small farm that does not hold any resident birds. We found what sounded like a great bird off the property, then set up about 200 yards across a pasture from him. I couldn't even finish a series of yelps without having that bird cut me off gobbling. At 6:20 he flew down onto my property, then covered the 200 yards in about 2 minutes and was in the decoys at 18 yards. He ended up being a super-jake, with all the attitude that goes with it. Strutting, gobbling, mauling the decoys, etc. We had to wait about 5 minutes for him to finish knocking the strutter decoy upside down before he moved away far enough for him to kill him without deflating the decoys. He made a great shot, and his first of the year was down by 6:25.
We took him back to the farm house, checked him in, then dressed him. My dad was in town, and Ethan wanted to spend some time with him, so that gave me the opportunity to hunt for myself. I covered a ton of miles, finally struck a bird around 11 am, and worked and worked that bird for the next two and a half hours looping around him and his harem multiple times. I called in 6 jakes in the process, but could never get that bird to commit. I met up with the guys and we ate lunch and when we got back, Ethan and I loaded up his carcass and drove it to the back of the property to dump it. I brought the gun just in case, and called for a couple minutes. Nothing, so we hopped back on the gator and drove a few hundred yards to the East. Right as I got off the gator, I saw 2 gobblers cross off a neighbor's property headed to the spot I had called from before. I used cows as cover and ran back half the distance I had just driven to get in front of them... Just a couple yelps and they changed direction slightly and came to me... Bang-flop, 35 yd shot, only 40 yards from the back fenceline. 2y/o bird, 10. 5in beard, 1/2 in spurs.
The following morning, Ethan and I headed to the farm that had the bird that gave me the slip the day before. We set up 100 yards from him on the roost, but he and his harem pitched down and stayed out of range for the next hour. We bailed and checked other farms without any success or sightings. Ethan wanted to head out with Grandad again to run some errands, so I met a friend and we continued the pursuit across a couple counties without success. At 5 pm we called it a day, and headed back to the farmhouse to drop off the carcass of the bird I shot the day before. I drove it to a small 40ac hayfield a mile down the road from the farm, and we pitched it. My friend wanted to call there, but I had no expectations... but sure enough, a bird answered about 400 yards away, 200 yards off the property. He closed the distance fast as we set up, and he was 300 yards away or so when a train came by (we were about 100 yards away from the tracks). We couldn't hear anything for 5 minutes as the slow train passed, and when the noise died down, I called and the bird answered from on top of our vehicle we had moved away from. We changed positions, and he came out from the small wood block in the middle of the field 40 yards away. I could tell he had already been shot from the huge hole in the fan, but my friend couldn't see the bird. He was the shooter, carrying my gun since I had already killed a bird this trip. I scratched the leaves like a feeding hen just inside the woodline, and he marched right in got shot at 10-12 yards. I couldn't get a pic of my friend with the bird as my cell battery was low, but I snapped a pic of him before I dressed him while my friend headed out to try to roost birds for the morning. A lot of no 6 shot just under the skin of the body, but very few actually penetrated the muscle of the breast and both thighs. I suppose someone shot at him in full strut, missed the head and hit the fan, then prayed and sprayed with the follow up shots as he ran away.
2 y/o bird, 10. in beard, 1/2 in spurs, crazy heavy for his age... 23lbs
Just after dressing the bird, the farmer across the road fired up a tractor to bushhog his cornstobs... Unbelievably, he pushed 4 hens and a longbeard off his property and across mine, 80 yards from the porch we were sitting on. I loaded up Ethan, we headed out on the gator to cut them off in front of them on my farm, then snuck down a lone fencerow in the hayfield they were in to get into range. Before we even got set up, they were on us at 17 yards. I told Ethan to shoot the gobbler, but he never fired... after 15 seconds or so, the group flushed toward the back of the property. I asked Ethan why he didn't shoot the gobbler, and he said 'I didn't know which one was the gobbler and which were the hens'... Good grief, I have a LOT of knowledge to instill in my son in just the next 7 years before he heads off to college
. As we grilled ribeyes off the beef we slaughtered a few months before, that same bird was gobbling on the back of the farm.
The next day, we decided to hunt the farm the farmhouse is on for only the second morning ever in my life. It was nice waking up 30 minutes later, skipping breakfast, and just walking out the door to the back of the property. We set up where I suspected the bird was roosted, and were pleasantly surprised to be in the middle of 3 gobblers. The bird from the evening before wasn't very vocal, and headed off the property back toward the cornfield right after flydown. The second bird was gobbling from the same location I shot his friend from a couple days before, and the third bird was gobbling well off the property in a block of woods to the south. After the initial gobbling on the roost, everything went quiet. I threw the kitchen sink at those birds without a response. Ethan was bored, pulled his facemask off and was wandering around. About 20 minutes after I had last called, the bird to the south had moved 300 yards toward us and free gobbled from the edge of my property. I tried to get Ethan down and camo'd up quietly, called once, and the bird gobbled once more... even closer. I still couldn't see him, but all went dead after that... I suspect he must have seen Ethan getting into position and slipped off.
We bailed and cooked breakfast, then checked the other farms with no luck. Ethan was ready for a break, so we set a minnow trap in a creek and ate a late lunch... when we came back, we had about 250 minnows in the trap. We picked out around 20, and set the rest free. Headed to the river and caught around 8 or 9 smallmouth, skipped rocks, and generally had a laid-back break from the nonstop turkey action of the days before. After fishing, we stopped by the farm that had the bird with the harem that gave me the slip on opening day around 4pm. We headed down a logging road without most of our gear, not really expecting to see anything. I called once, had a hen answer, so we sat down on the middle of the road. She came up from a bottom field to 80 yards, then a couple jakes followed. I then saw a gobbler strutting behind! There he is, I thought... I finally got to see the bird that gave me the slip opening day. I thought it was strange there were no other hens in his harem, then I saw a 2nd longbeard... I knew then that these were 2 new birds that had moved onto that farm and were not the bird I had hunted before. I called aggressively, forcing one bird away from me, but causing the other bird to commit. He was marching to his death when a group of cows decided to have some fun with him and ran him all over the field and away from me. Ethan and I were so focused on that bird that we failed to watch behind us... 3 of the 6 jakes that I had seen on opening day had moved to us from behind. Putt... Putt... Putt.. we looked behind us and they were 40 yards, mildly spooked. Ethan had been bragging the whole weekend about how he could run down a bird and shoot him before he got away, so I told him, 'now's your chance'... go for it! He took off as fast as he could run after those poor birds... Ethan chased them for about 100 yards, with the jakes gaining 10 yards for every 10 yards he ran. He learned his lesson, we had a good laugh, then snuck out of there with plans to come back this morning.
This morning, we set up in a creek ditch where I saw the 2 longbeards. We had 3 gobbling from different locations on the roost. The big bird headed down with his harem the same direction they had gone a couple days before. But the other 2 birds met up on the logging road we had been on the day before. A hen finally came off the roost and landed 5 yards from us. Ethan spooked her, but I was able to calm her down a bit with some soft calling. She went back to feeding, and after about 45 minutes of the gobblers hung up on the logging road, one finally came into our field. He closed the last 100 yards in 30 seconds, crossed the gap over the creek and ended up behind us where we had initially set our decoys. I could hear him spitting a drumming 7 yards away over the creek edge, but couldn't see him... The other gobbler and 6 jakes came out off the logging road and followed the same path at full speed. I told Ethan we should just take the first bird and leave the other to hunt again next trip. I got him set up to peek up over the creek bank and shoot. As we got into position, the other birds spooked, but the bird in the decoys stayed in full strut. Ethan got on that bird 6 yards from us, forgot to take the safety off, and yanked the trigger with no resounding report. The bird broke strut, moved a yard to our left, then went back into strut. I told Ethan to calm down, squeeze the trigger after I called to get him to break strut. I cutted at the bird, he broke strut, raised his head, and Ethan shot. Ethan's shot was poor and the bird moved away crippled. I finished him off at 20 yards. 7am done for the trip.
Another 2 y/o bird, 21lbs, 9.5in beard, .67in spurs. When I dressed him out, I found several pellets in the tail half of the left breast and multiple pellets in the left thigh and leg. I initially thought these were from Ethan's shot, but after further skinning, found the wound to be gangrenous, which indicated that he was shot several days before. I'm not sure whether he was crippled opening day or juvie weekend, but I had to discard the entire affected quarter as well as half the affected breast.
Ethan wanted to keep hunting, but we both had a lot to catch up on back at home; so we packed up and headed back.
Overall, I had a great TN opener with memories that will last the rest of my life as well as the rest of Ethan's life. I still know of 3 resident birds to hunt after April 15th, as well as another 4 roamers that I'm going to chase this coming weekend. Strange to think that going back to work tomorrow will be easier than turkey hunting 14 hours a day the past 3 days will be
The past 10 years, I've tried miserably to manage my declining population. Each year, fewer and fewer birds. I don't really care whether I kill one or not any longer, just want to have fun hunts. In the past, I've picked out the biggest, most dominant bird and hunted that one single bird till I either killed him and him alone, or I blanked. That has translated to me focusing on the single bird that lives on my farm to the exclusion of all the roaming young birds that aren't necessarily residents to my farms. This year, I decided to only focus on the nonresident birds, and not even hunt the older dominant resident birds and allow them to breed the few hens we have left until April 15th. After April 15th, if I or any of my guests have any tags left after killing the roaming birds, I'll then focus on the big boys that don't leave the farm.
Opening morning, Ethan and I set out to hunt a small farm that does not hold any resident birds. We found what sounded like a great bird off the property, then set up about 200 yards across a pasture from him. I couldn't even finish a series of yelps without having that bird cut me off gobbling. At 6:20 he flew down onto my property, then covered the 200 yards in about 2 minutes and was in the decoys at 18 yards. He ended up being a super-jake, with all the attitude that goes with it. Strutting, gobbling, mauling the decoys, etc. We had to wait about 5 minutes for him to finish knocking the strutter decoy upside down before he moved away far enough for him to kill him without deflating the decoys. He made a great shot, and his first of the year was down by 6:25.
We took him back to the farm house, checked him in, then dressed him. My dad was in town, and Ethan wanted to spend some time with him, so that gave me the opportunity to hunt for myself. I covered a ton of miles, finally struck a bird around 11 am, and worked and worked that bird for the next two and a half hours looping around him and his harem multiple times. I called in 6 jakes in the process, but could never get that bird to commit. I met up with the guys and we ate lunch and when we got back, Ethan and I loaded up his carcass and drove it to the back of the property to dump it. I brought the gun just in case, and called for a couple minutes. Nothing, so we hopped back on the gator and drove a few hundred yards to the East. Right as I got off the gator, I saw 2 gobblers cross off a neighbor's property headed to the spot I had called from before. I used cows as cover and ran back half the distance I had just driven to get in front of them... Just a couple yelps and they changed direction slightly and came to me... Bang-flop, 35 yd shot, only 40 yards from the back fenceline. 2y/o bird, 10. 5in beard, 1/2 in spurs.
The following morning, Ethan and I headed to the farm that had the bird that gave me the slip the day before. We set up 100 yards from him on the roost, but he and his harem pitched down and stayed out of range for the next hour. We bailed and checked other farms without any success or sightings. Ethan wanted to head out with Grandad again to run some errands, so I met a friend and we continued the pursuit across a couple counties without success. At 5 pm we called it a day, and headed back to the farmhouse to drop off the carcass of the bird I shot the day before. I drove it to a small 40ac hayfield a mile down the road from the farm, and we pitched it. My friend wanted to call there, but I had no expectations... but sure enough, a bird answered about 400 yards away, 200 yards off the property. He closed the distance fast as we set up, and he was 300 yards away or so when a train came by (we were about 100 yards away from the tracks). We couldn't hear anything for 5 minutes as the slow train passed, and when the noise died down, I called and the bird answered from on top of our vehicle we had moved away from. We changed positions, and he came out from the small wood block in the middle of the field 40 yards away. I could tell he had already been shot from the huge hole in the fan, but my friend couldn't see the bird. He was the shooter, carrying my gun since I had already killed a bird this trip. I scratched the leaves like a feeding hen just inside the woodline, and he marched right in got shot at 10-12 yards. I couldn't get a pic of my friend with the bird as my cell battery was low, but I snapped a pic of him before I dressed him while my friend headed out to try to roost birds for the morning. A lot of no 6 shot just under the skin of the body, but very few actually penetrated the muscle of the breast and both thighs. I suppose someone shot at him in full strut, missed the head and hit the fan, then prayed and sprayed with the follow up shots as he ran away.
2 y/o bird, 10. in beard, 1/2 in spurs, crazy heavy for his age... 23lbs
Just after dressing the bird, the farmer across the road fired up a tractor to bushhog his cornstobs... Unbelievably, he pushed 4 hens and a longbeard off his property and across mine, 80 yards from the porch we were sitting on. I loaded up Ethan, we headed out on the gator to cut them off in front of them on my farm, then snuck down a lone fencerow in the hayfield they were in to get into range. Before we even got set up, they were on us at 17 yards. I told Ethan to shoot the gobbler, but he never fired... after 15 seconds or so, the group flushed toward the back of the property. I asked Ethan why he didn't shoot the gobbler, and he said 'I didn't know which one was the gobbler and which were the hens'... Good grief, I have a LOT of knowledge to instill in my son in just the next 7 years before he heads off to college
. As we grilled ribeyes off the beef we slaughtered a few months before, that same bird was gobbling on the back of the farm.The next day, we decided to hunt the farm the farmhouse is on for only the second morning ever in my life. It was nice waking up 30 minutes later, skipping breakfast, and just walking out the door to the back of the property. We set up where I suspected the bird was roosted, and were pleasantly surprised to be in the middle of 3 gobblers. The bird from the evening before wasn't very vocal, and headed off the property back toward the cornfield right after flydown. The second bird was gobbling from the same location I shot his friend from a couple days before, and the third bird was gobbling well off the property in a block of woods to the south. After the initial gobbling on the roost, everything went quiet. I threw the kitchen sink at those birds without a response. Ethan was bored, pulled his facemask off and was wandering around. About 20 minutes after I had last called, the bird to the south had moved 300 yards toward us and free gobbled from the edge of my property. I tried to get Ethan down and camo'd up quietly, called once, and the bird gobbled once more... even closer. I still couldn't see him, but all went dead after that... I suspect he must have seen Ethan getting into position and slipped off.
We bailed and cooked breakfast, then checked the other farms with no luck. Ethan was ready for a break, so we set a minnow trap in a creek and ate a late lunch... when we came back, we had about 250 minnows in the trap. We picked out around 20, and set the rest free. Headed to the river and caught around 8 or 9 smallmouth, skipped rocks, and generally had a laid-back break from the nonstop turkey action of the days before. After fishing, we stopped by the farm that had the bird with the harem that gave me the slip on opening day around 4pm. We headed down a logging road without most of our gear, not really expecting to see anything. I called once, had a hen answer, so we sat down on the middle of the road. She came up from a bottom field to 80 yards, then a couple jakes followed. I then saw a gobbler strutting behind! There he is, I thought... I finally got to see the bird that gave me the slip opening day. I thought it was strange there were no other hens in his harem, then I saw a 2nd longbeard... I knew then that these were 2 new birds that had moved onto that farm and were not the bird I had hunted before. I called aggressively, forcing one bird away from me, but causing the other bird to commit. He was marching to his death when a group of cows decided to have some fun with him and ran him all over the field and away from me. Ethan and I were so focused on that bird that we failed to watch behind us... 3 of the 6 jakes that I had seen on opening day had moved to us from behind. Putt... Putt... Putt.. we looked behind us and they were 40 yards, mildly spooked. Ethan had been bragging the whole weekend about how he could run down a bird and shoot him before he got away, so I told him, 'now's your chance'... go for it! He took off as fast as he could run after those poor birds... Ethan chased them for about 100 yards, with the jakes gaining 10 yards for every 10 yards he ran. He learned his lesson, we had a good laugh, then snuck out of there with plans to come back this morning.
This morning, we set up in a creek ditch where I saw the 2 longbeards. We had 3 gobbling from different locations on the roost. The big bird headed down with his harem the same direction they had gone a couple days before. But the other 2 birds met up on the logging road we had been on the day before. A hen finally came off the roost and landed 5 yards from us. Ethan spooked her, but I was able to calm her down a bit with some soft calling. She went back to feeding, and after about 45 minutes of the gobblers hung up on the logging road, one finally came into our field. He closed the last 100 yards in 30 seconds, crossed the gap over the creek and ended up behind us where we had initially set our decoys. I could hear him spitting a drumming 7 yards away over the creek edge, but couldn't see him... The other gobbler and 6 jakes came out off the logging road and followed the same path at full speed. I told Ethan we should just take the first bird and leave the other to hunt again next trip. I got him set up to peek up over the creek bank and shoot. As we got into position, the other birds spooked, but the bird in the decoys stayed in full strut. Ethan got on that bird 6 yards from us, forgot to take the safety off, and yanked the trigger with no resounding report. The bird broke strut, moved a yard to our left, then went back into strut. I told Ethan to calm down, squeeze the trigger after I called to get him to break strut. I cutted at the bird, he broke strut, raised his head, and Ethan shot. Ethan's shot was poor and the bird moved away crippled. I finished him off at 20 yards. 7am done for the trip.
Another 2 y/o bird, 21lbs, 9.5in beard, .67in spurs. When I dressed him out, I found several pellets in the tail half of the left breast and multiple pellets in the left thigh and leg. I initially thought these were from Ethan's shot, but after further skinning, found the wound to be gangrenous, which indicated that he was shot several days before. I'm not sure whether he was crippled opening day or juvie weekend, but I had to discard the entire affected quarter as well as half the affected breast.
Ethan wanted to keep hunting, but we both had a lot to catch up on back at home; so we packed up and headed back.
Overall, I had a great TN opener with memories that will last the rest of my life as well as the rest of Ethan's life. I still know of 3 resident birds to hunt after April 15th, as well as another 4 roamers that I'm going to chase this coming weekend. Strange to think that going back to work tomorrow will be easier than turkey hunting 14 hours a day the past 3 days will be
arty: 
