Spring Turkey Hunt 2007

Part 1

by Lew Claspell

Nebraska Turkey Hunt 2007

On April 4th, 2007 my son Matt and I headed for what’s becoming our annual trek to Nebraska, for some turkey bowhunting action.  My good friends Kerry and Mike had sent me an email on Monday, saying the weather was turning for the worse.  The weather man was predicting rain, sleet, and snow, with temperatures in the low 20s.  Having already setup my vacation schedule, I told them if they were game, we were coming out.  They both agreed and I said we would be in town on Wednesday the 4th, late afternoon. 

We arrived about 6:00 pm, and called Kerry after checking in at the local motel.  Kerry said since it was still early we could drive over to a spot and roost a few birds for the morning.  Driving over to an old farm house we spotted about 20 birds on some private land, and a few on the property where Kerry has permission to hunt.  The two gobblers on this land were a good sign, as they were in the general area I had planned on hunting in the morning.  We then drove over to another spot and glassed a milo field, where we spotted about 200 birds feeding back out of the field to the roosting area.  The skies were starting to cloud up but the temperature was still very mild, as we drove back to Kerry’ house for a dinner of bar-b-que, and to relax and plan the weekends hunt.  The landowner came over for dinner, and I was very happy to meet him.  We then looked over the rack of the buck Kerry killed last fall, which just missed the book.  At about 9:30 we departed and planned for Kerry and Mike to pick us up at 5:30 am.  

At 5:30 Kerry and Mike showed up and we quickly loaded the Double Bull T5, bows, and decoys into the truck.  On the drive over Kerry asked where we wanted to hunt, and I said back at last years honey hole.  Kerry dropped Matt and I off and said he and Mike would be back about 11:00 to pick us up. 

We made our way into the pasture that I planned to hunt, and setup in the dark.   The storm was coming and I staked the blind down from the inside.  We sat in our chairs and listened for turkey gobbles, and started to hear a few that sounded like they were on the other side of the creek.  I called to these birds hoping they would fly down on the right side of the creek, but when they hit the ground they were on the opposite side.  We could see them strutting and coming in, but once they hit the creek they turned and went back the way they had come from.  At 9:00 I suggested we move to another location, as we were not seeing any other birds.  About this time it started to sleet, and snow, but we relocated to the new area with out to much difficulty. Once we were setup, I started yelping loudly with a box call, and could see 3 Toms strutting on the other side of the creek.  These birds also would not fly across the creek, and went back into a draw about a ¼ mile from us.  At 11:00 we packed up and hiked out to the road to meet Kerry and Mike.  We waited for about an hour and a half, before I saw Kerry driving down the county road towards the turn off. Just as soon as they pulled up along side of us, they jumped out and apologized for being late.  They explained they had been pinned down by about 80 birds, and Mike had killed a nice bird at 11:30.  Then the rest of the birds had been about 80 yards from them, so they tried to sit tight and see if another gobbler would come in.  When they left the area, they explained the birds had moved off and were not too spooked. 

We loaded our gear, and then headed for town and the new coffee shop that had opened.  Having a good hot cup of coffee and some lunch really warmed us up, and we talked turkey and elk hunting for awhile then they drove us back to the motel.  We made arrangements to meet at 4:00 pm, to try a spot on the river.  After napping for a bit, I awoke and dressed, then woke Matt.  At 4:00 the guys came by and picked us up and we were off to the river area.  Matt and I would hunt an area about 400 yards, from where Kerry and Mike were going to setup.  We packed our gear in, setup the decoy, and blind and climbed in.  Soon we started seeing a steady parade of deer come from the river bottom towards the winter wheat field behind us.  We could also hear a few gobbles down towards the river.  At one point a bird was coming and the sound of his gobble was so loud, I was sure he was right in front of us, but we never did see him.  At 8:00 Kerry and Mike met us on the road, and we went over to Kerry’ for dinner.  After dinner Mike drove us back to the motel, and we agreed that with the weather there was no real need to get out to early.  The birds were staying in the roost until almost 7:30, so we decided they would pick us up at 6:00.

That night sleep ended much too soon, the alarm went off and I dressed and had coffee then woke Matt.  At 6:00 Kerry and Mike arrived and we set off for the milo field where Mike had killed his bird the day before.  Mike showed us where we should setup, while Kerry took the truck back to a spot about a ¼ mile away.  Matt and I setup the blind, and decoys then climbed in.  The temperature was a brutal 7 degrees!  We could hear turkeys gobbling and soon they were flying down from their roost.  The first of the birds started to make their way up from the gully towards us, and I called softly to them.  We had a steady parade of birds coming in, and both of us missed a couple of shots.  At 11:00 we went over and got Kerry and Mike, telling them we needed some hot food and drink.

 

At lunch Kerry told us we could setup that afternoon near the roost tree, but we would scare the birds out.  He also said we would get some shooting in, and if we waited until dark after the birds had roosted, we may not spook them to bad.  Matt and I agreed that it sounded like a good plan, and they said that they would pick us up at 5:30 that afternoon. 
At 5:30 the guys picked us up and we drove to a spot about 3 miles from where the birds had been roosting, then loaded up and hiked in.  Once we got to the roosting area, we split up, Matt and I stayed on the milo field side, while Kerry and Mike setup west of the roosting trees.  It didn’t take long to start seeing birds moving around, and soon we had about 20 hens and gobblers just out of range from us.  Kerry called me on the radio and asked if we had seen the turkeys behind us.  We had been watching the flock in front of us and had no idea that there was anything going on behind us.  I opened one of the Double Bull windows and spotted close to 100 birds behind us.  Most of these appeared to be Toms and the jakes were chasing each other around just 20 yards away.  I quickly nocked an arrow and tried to get my 20 yard pin on one of the 3 jakes that were close to the blind and chasing each other.  Somehow the shot was off and the birds all jumped in the air, then came back down to earth nothing the wiser.  The mature Toms had moved off and were 47 yards from us and each of them were in full strut.  I noticed a small flock coming in from the north, and positioned Matt for the shot.  There were 2 Toms in this group one was a jake and the other was a mature gobbler.  As they walked by the blind Matt drew and shot, knocking the big bird down and out. 

After the birds started to roost I went out to fetch the turkey Matt had shot.  When I exited the blind there was about 50 birds just to the south of us and they all took flight.  When this happened the roosting birds came out of the tree too. 
We gathered up the gobbler and all of our stuff then met Kerry and Mike for the hike back to the truck.  We didn’t get back the truck until about 10:00 and after snapping a few pictures headed over to clean the bird up.

This story is continued here.