Spring Turkey Hunt 2007
Part 2
by Lew Claspell
Matt got to sleep in the next morning, as I prepared for another blast of sub artic temps.
We had decided to try the milo field for one last hunt before Matt and I had to hit the road for home. Kerry dropped Mike and I off with our gear and took off to scout from a vantage point, he would call us if the birds were coming in from a direction we couldn’t see.
Mike and I grabbed the gear and headed for the corner crossing. Just as we neared the tree where Matt and I had set the blind the day before, Mike spotted the large group of turkeys on the ground. Apparently they had roosted on the ground after we spooked them the night before. Mike commented that this was the first time he had ever seen that many birds roosting on the ground. The birds moved off and we setup the blind and decoys, then climbed in. As the sun rose in the eastern skies, we could spot flocks of birds in just about every direction from us. This birds were mostly staying over on another section of property, and didn’t seem to want to enter the area we where we had setup. Mike saw a Tom to the north of us about 100 yards but we lost sight of it. We called and watched but the birds were using another route into the milo this morning. At 11:00 Mike called Kerry and told him we were ready to get going. As we gathered our gear up, I looked up the road to the north and a Tom came out of the milo and ran back to the west of us! This must have been the bird we had spotted earlier, and it had somehow managed to sneak in around us undetected.
Over all we had a great early season hunt with plenty of birds sighted and a few missed shots. Even with the record low temperatures our group had managed to bag two bow birds, and nobody ended up with frostbite or hyperthermia!
The next week the temps improved and Kerry continued hunting with his young son Maclane. The very first night out, they hunted near the river area, and had a bunch of birds come in. Maclane was able to make a perfect hit on a good bird, collecting his first bow bird!
Early in May, Kerry sent me an email asking if I wanted to try a late season hunt.
That’s just the excuse I needed to get away for a weekend, I quickly accepted and we planned for a weekend on May 11th.
Getting out of work at 3:30 on Thursday, I quickly hit the interstate for the 5 hour drive.
About 45 minutes from town, I called Kerry, who was out spraying weeds 70 miles away. We decided to meet at the motel and formulate a game plan for the mornings hunt. Kerry arrived about 10:00 and said “You sure bring the weather extremes with you”. The temperatures were going to be in the high 80s and low 90s for the weekend. Kerry had been seeing some birds in the pasture I like to hunt, and I said that sounded like the place to be come sunup. At 5:45 the next morning we were on the way to the pasture. Kerry had to work so he dropped me off with plans to pick me up about 11:30. I gathered up all my gear and headed up to the corner area where I had seen birds in the previous trips out.
Gaining the top of the canyon, I could hear several Toms gobbling, it was shaping up to be a beautiful day. As I arrived at the area where I planned to setup, I could see several birds roosted in a tree about 70 yards away. Quickly setting up the blind, I put my decoys out and climbed in. As the early dawn turned to day, the birds flew out and gathered on a hillside to the west of me. There they strutted and chased grasshoppers for awhile then headed for a wheat field to the west. There were several large groups of whitetail deer that came through, and I had a wonderful morning watching and listening to the wildlife.
The day quickly heated up and after about 9:30 the birds seemed to shutdown. Sitting in the blind at this time of year in this area is brutal, the humidity had me sweating, and the mosquitoes were trying to drain my blood. It was as uncomfortable in the blind as I’ve ever been, even when hunting pronghorns in the late summer. I forced myself to stay put until about 10:45 and then packed up my gear and headed back to the parking area. Shortly after arriving at the pick up spot, Kerry arrived and we drove into town for lunch. Kerry said Mike would be in around 5:15 and he would swing by and pick me up for the afternoon hunt. Back at the motel it sure felt good to shower and nap for a couple of hours.
Mike arrived about 5:30 and we loaded my gear in his truck and headed out to the pasture. The plan was to setup close to the roost tree and hope a bird would come by. We setup the blind in a semi flat area, and were not inside for more than five minutes, when Mike says “Turkey”. The hen had been coming in from the north east, and had worked in to about 20 yards before Mike spotted her. She walked by with out a care in the world, and didn’t give the blind a second glance. Mike mentioned that he had been hearing gobbles about 7:15, and as if on cue we heard the first birds cut loose at 7:20. The location we had setup in was in a depression and we could not see for more than 100 yards in any direction. We spotted several birds but they were staying on the hillside to our south, and soon they headed down to another roost area. At 8:30 a nice tom came in and stayed just out of range, and then he walked over to an area by the roost and flew up to the tree top. After the birds were roosted, we packed the gear up and headed back to the truck. Then we went to Kerry’ house for dinner. During dinner we discussed plans and decided to try and setup on a route to intercept the birds going into the wheat field.
The next morning Mike picked me up and we made the short trip to the grain bins, and parked the truck. Getting out of the truck we both could hear gobbling just to the south, and more to the east of us. We packed everything in to an area where I had seen birds on Friday morning, then setup the blind and climbed in. We had not brought any decoys with us for this mornings hunt, having decided that the birds really were not coming to them. We sat and watched a buck come by, and then we could see a few birds coming in from the south of us. There were three toms, which were following a lone hen up towards the wheat. Mike was doing the calling and the birds didn’t seem to care about the hen sounds, instead they were locked on the single hen they could see. At 10:30 we decided to relocate back towards the wheat field. We hauled the gear back up the hill and spotted a few toms across the road, which were content staying on that side. Then we went over to the truck and glassed a canyon to the north, we could see two hens and a handful of toms in this field. We quickly put a plan in to play, and took off on a route that would put us on the opposite side of the canyon, in hopes of calling one over. On the way to this location we had to go by the area where we had been setup that morning, and there were three toms and a hen walking by it! Rule number 1- Never get out of the blind!
Moving in to a small ditch we advanced to an area where the birds had been moving too. We setup the blind, climbed in, and started to call softly. Nothing happened, the birds had moved on unseen. Staying in this location we could see the two hens, that we had spotted earlier walking around to our west, but no sign of the toms. Mike called Kerry on the phone and while they were talking we had an unseen bird come in and putt behind us for a couple of minutes. That afternoon we hunted another area close to a roost, where the birds avoided us. The next morning we tried to get to an area that was between two roost trees. One of the trees had all of the hens roosting in it, while the other had the toms. The plan was to stay close to the hens and hope the toms would come over when they flew down. It was a good plan but we arrived about 15 minutes too late, the birds were on the ground and moved off to the south shortly after we arrived.
It was a frustrating weekend that ended with no birds tagged. Everything we had tried seemed to “almost” work. The birds got the better of us that weekend, and as we sat talking about late season turkey hunting at the truck, I was already planning on next years early season. Driving home I had a big smile on my face, while thinking about the weekend. After all, I was able to spend the time outdoors, and with good friends, and we had excellent chow every night thanks to Kerry. Mike and I had told each other stories all day and had many laughs. It is always a pleasure to hunt with guys that are as passionate about the sport as I am, Kerry and Mike are two of the finest guys you would ever want to share a blind or hunting camp with.
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