Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

shoot them in the face

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • shoot them in the face

    being thats its october,that means its fall turkey season here in Mn.

    me and my son Wes have been spending every weekend and i have been spending any day during the week that im not driving out in the woods hunting.
    Wes's girlfriend Carly comes with on weekend days that she isnt busy doing other less important things.

    its been a long hard fall season,with only a single hen to show for our hard work.
    weve spent many days from before sunup to sundown with nothing to show for our efforts.
    havent seen norheard any birds other than the single hen we took early in the season.
    hunting public land can be tough. this time of year.there are a lot of squirrel hunters,bow hunters,mushroom foragers in the woods which keep the turkey quite and hard to locate.

    well i got tired of all this public hunting and pressure,and knowing that where i work there are turkeys that hang out on the property of our lumber yard.
    so i asked my boss if it were alright if we hunted behind one of the buildings this weekend,he was kind enough to grant us permission.

    we got set up int the ground blind well before sunup today,5:30 am to be exact.sun up wasnt expected until around 7:40 am.
    we knew it was going to rain during the morning(no big deal).Wes and Carly asked if i thought the rain would hinder our hunt.i told them it wouldnt and that i have killed more of them sneaky ground buzzards in the rain,than i have on nice sunny days.

    at about 8:00 am we heard the birds start to sound off,so i called and they responded.by the calls i knew it was a hen flock with some younger birds in the mix.which is alright because in the fall we can shoot either toms or hens.

    they were quit vocal this morning and i kept calling and kept them talking for just over and hour,then we heard one gobble and then they went silent.
    Carly and Wes both loved hearing all the different vocalizations that the birds made and i explained how to tell which birds were which from the sounds they make.

    Carly was worried that since they went silent that they had disappeared.
    i told her that it just meant that they had grouped up for the morning and that they would more than likely come in silent.

    about 20 mins later i looked out the back window of the blind and see several birds coming our way.
    just as they get into shooting distance,something spooked them and they trotted off in the same direction that they had come from.

    i told the kids not to worry that the birds would come back because they didnt fly away or run fast,they just trotted off slowly.

    after about a half an hour had passed i called softly on my friction call.and then just waited and kept looking out the back window of the blind.
    about 5 minutes after i called i can see the flock coming back up the trial towards us.
    i grabbed my binoculars and checked them out before they got into shooting range.8 hens,1 jake and 1 long beard.

    i told the kids to get ready to shoot once they were in range,i also told Wes he gets to shoot the long beard since he didnt get a bird in the spring.Carly was to take the jake.

    the flock is now in shooting range and start to separate a little,just enough to ensure only the intended targets would get shot.

    Wes pokes the barrel of the 835 ulti mag out the window of the blind,puts the tri viz sites on the head of the long beard and lets it bark.the bird dropped right there.
    then Carly slips the barrel of the mossberg 500 20 ga out the window and squeezes of a round,but misses the jake and he runs off in to the brush.i tell her shoot a hen.
    she lines the bead sight up on a hen and squeezes off another round,dead right there.

    WOOOOO HOOOOO! a double.in all the years i have been turkey hunting i have never been privy to a double before.

    the hen weighed abut 8 lbs(pretty average hen for our area) and made a good supper tonight.

    the tom weighed 19.44 lbs,the beard is just a fraction of an inch shy of 12" long,one spur is 15/16ths of and inch and the other is dead on one inch.

    now im going back tomorrow to try and fill my tag.


    P.S.

    the title comes from a saying we turkey hunters have.
    shoot them in the face(that way you dont eat bb's or ruin any meat)
    Last edited by sneakygroundbuzzard; 10-21-2017, 10:33 PM.

  • #2

    Image may contain: 2 people, people smiling, tree, grass, plant, shoes, outdoor and nature
    No automatic alt text available.
    Image may contain: one or more people and outdoor
    Image may contain: one or more people and outdoor

    Comment


    • #3
      That’s one of those awesome memories that will not soon leave !!!! Congrats and thank u for sharing !!!!!
      As for me and my house , we will serve the lord

      Everett Williams ,
      NW Arkansas

      Comment


      • #4
        I am living the hunt through your story thank you .
        what a great story and congrats on those birds .
        thats a SEASON MAKER !!!!
        Very nice . Now I know why you were excited about the birds .Well if we get the Dick pond up and running you are going to be invited ona big bird hunt Sneaky

        Comment


        • #5
          DUCK pond please everyone so sorry my granddaughter loves this site and ran in and jumped on me . Just posted before I could read .
          But the guy we are naming the pond after is Dick?
          Yeah that works lol

          Comment


          • #6
            Gobble gobble!!!

            thats awesome.
            Wandering wherever I can, mostly in Eastern Arkansas, always looking down.

            Comment


            • #7
              Excellent story with detail Sneaky. Now we know where your screen name comes from. Love the action you described. Haven't had that experience and adrenaline rush since I was a kid.
              Pickett/Fentress County, Tn - Any day on this side of the grass is a good day. -Chuck-

              Comment


              • #8
                thanks everyone

                i have never had such a long hard fall season for hunting turkey as i did this year(im usually tagged out on the first weekend)
                i have spent 14 days out in the woods hunting,from before sunup to near sundown on all of those days.
                rarely seen or heard birds.

                but once we got on them,we got on them pretty dang good.

                my son hunted with me nearly every weekend the whole month of october, up until he got that long beard.
                when he and i would go out we would rarely hear or see them,but when his girlfriend comes with they seem to get talkative and like to show them selves.
                she seems to be a turkey magnet,we have this same kind of luck in the spring season as well when shes with us.


                now the freezer is full of wild turkey,(got three this fall,2 hens and a tom)and i am pretty much burned out on hunting for now.(i must be getting old lol )
                deer gun season starts this weekend,but i think i am going to take a few weeks off and catch up on my fall yard work and honey do list(not to mention sleep).
                might go back to bow hunting after gun season is over with,but hunting deer doesnt really excite me like hunting turkey.
                i use deer bow season as an excuse to spend all day in the woods scouting for fall turkey..

                i also need to find time over the winter to teach my sons GF Carly to shoot bow,she doesnt want to shoot turkey with gun any more.she says its to easy and wants more of a challenge.
                we tell her its easy for her because every time shes with we have lots of birds come out and into range.

                so this year the gods of the hunt and forest have been good to us when its come to turkey hunting.
                between spring and fall season we have taken 5 wild turkey and have eaten well over the summer and will continue to eat well over the winter.


                thanks again to all of you for the kind words and putting up with my long winded hunting stories

                Comment


                • #9
                  I looked at the date on this post and don't know how I missed it. I enjoyed reading it and it was like a field and stream article. Thanks for taking the time for making such an interesting post and sharing that great story. Congrats on the double and really enjoyed this post, thanks.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Great turkey hunting story, makes me really want to get after some myself, unfotunately my busiest work months are May through Oct. I snuck out back to pick chantrelles one evening in late July and got within 10yds of a big tom and on my way back with a big bag of chantrelles I scared about 10 of them roosting in the tree tops [or I should say they scared me, wasn't expecting that type of a commotion]. Your story inspires me to get after them next year no matter how busy I am. Any way Nov. is the start of my slow season and rifle season for deer starts tomorrow I'll definitely be going out for that!

                    Comment

                  Working...
                  X