2019 Turkey

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
I work as a mortgage underwriter. Shitty job, but it pays the bills. But the biggest perk, in my opinion, is the flexibility with my schedule the company gives me. Turkey season opened here in MN Wednesday, but it poured all day. Thursday, I got the chance to head out around 10:00 am. Was home by noon. I archery hunt turkeys and I’m a big fan of the run and gun style. There’s a small plot of public land down the road from me (160 acres), so I headed there for my lunch hour. With my new Kifaru Nomad pack, loaded with 2 decoys, I made my way into the woods. There were no cars in the parking lot, but surprisingly, there was a blind set up in the first two spots I went. So what do you do in that situation? Go where the hunters ain’t. As I approached my third choice spot, I heard a gobble about 300-400 yards away. I dropped down, crawled out, and set up my decoys. Then I hunched behind a small pine tree. I yelped. Immediate answer. It felt like an eternity, but in less than 10 minutes, I had a gobbler full strut all the way to my location. My shot rang true, and he didn’t go a foot. This is my 4th year hunting turkeys and second bird. Safe to say, I’m hooked. Turkey carnitas, here I come. Feel free to add your story here FE741105-FA5E-4496-BCB6-9721F63B540C.jpegE7DD1CA9-4716-4703-A29A-512EA7300E52.jpeg6E7527F9-2DE5-4BC4-BA70-0C9F78E3D694.jpeg
 
Joined
Jun 3, 2018
Messages
779
Location
North Carolina
Public land AND the bow, WELL DONE Sir. Congrats on doing it the hard way. Turkey with the bow without a blind ain't nothing to sneeze at. My head is cold cause my hat is off to you. Took me 5 years to get that done.
 
OP
Pezboat

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
Public land AND the bow, WELL DONE Sir. Congrats on doing it the hard way. Turkey with the bow without a blind ain't nothing to sneeze at. My head is cold cause my hat is off to you. Took me 5 years to get that done.


Thanks guys.
 

TheCougar

WKR
Joined
Jun 6, 2016
Messages
3,070
Location
Virginia
I’m stuck in public land purgatory in Texas, so you have the moral high ground with a bow and public land! A friend of a friend told me I could hunt turkeys on his land. I played hooky before work on Wednesday and walked into the woods at sunrise. I had seen very little sign, but he told me there were birds around. I heard a faint response to my yelps, so I moved another 100 yards and tried again. The Tom would weakly reply to my yelps, but that was it. And he was on the neighbor’s land 200 yards away. I had no other choice, so I picked a tree and tried to work him. He was hung up on the adjacent pasture, and he didn’t budge until I used a diaphragm and slate to sound like multiple hens yelling at each other. That broke him loose and 15 minutes later he came in spitting and drumming. It’s my first Rio. I’m headed back tomorrow with my son to se if we can get into more.
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OP
Pezboat

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
I’m stuck in public land purgatory in Texas, so you have the moral high ground with a bow and public land! A friend of a friend told me I could hunt turkeys on his land. I played hooky before work on Wednesday and walked into the woods at sunrise. I had seen very little sign, but he told me there were birds around. I heard a faint response to my yelps, so I moved another 100 yards and tried again. The Tom would weakly reply to my yelps, but that was it. And he was on the neighbor’s land 200 yards away. I had no other choice, so I picked a tree and tried to work him. He was hung up on the adjacent pasture, and he didn’t budge until I used a diaphragm and slate to sound like multiple hens yelling at each other. That broke him loose and 15 minutes later he came in spitting and drumming. It’s my first Rio. I’m headed back tomorrow with my son to se if we can get into more.


Ha! Nothing wrong with private land. A birds a bird. Nice job!
 

vanish

WKR
Joined
May 26, 2016
Messages
550
Location
Colorado
The mornings kicked our butts with henned up strutters that would tease for hours. We had much better opportunities in the afternoon, and finally scored a double on day 3. I've done all the calling in the past but last week my wife asked me to buy her a call - she did the work on these two!

2019 Colorado public land Rios - nearly identical in size with her bird being a half pound heavier. 9 inch beards and about 21-22 pounds.

uc


Now its time to up the game and look for some Merriams. I'll hit our old haunt on a weeknight, but we're going to try some new places on the weekend. Additionally, will be seeing if we can get my Dad his first bird out by his house on the west slope.
 
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Pezboat

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
The mornings kicked our butts with henned up strutters that would tease for hours. We had much better opportunities in the afternoon, and finally scored a double on day 3. I've done all the calling in the past but last week my wife asked me to buy her a call - she did the work on these two!

2019 Colorado public land Rios - nearly identical in size with her bird being a half pound heavier. 9 inch beards and about 21-22 pounds.



Now its time to up the game and look for some Merriams. I'll hit our old haunt on a weeknight, but we're going to try some new places on the weekend. Additionally, will be seeing if we can get my Dad his first bird out by his house on the west slope.

Sweet! Great double!
 

Virginian

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
May 13, 2017
Messages
142
Location
Virginia
The mornings kicked our butts with henned up strutters that would tease for hours. We had much better opportunities in the afternoon, and finally scored a double on day 3. I've done all the calling in the past but last week my wife asked me to buy her a call - she did the work on these two!

2019 Colorado public land Rios - nearly identical in size with her bird being a half pound heavier. 9 inch beards and about 21-22 pounds.

uc


Now its time to up the game and look for some Merriams. I'll hit our old haunt on a weeknight, but we're going to try some new places on the weekend. Additionally, will be seeing if we can get my Dad his first bird out by his house on the west slope.

Beautiful birds. Congrats
 

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
5,659
Location
Sodak
Nice work! I am trying to do the same thing. Two years ago I arrowed a Merriam's but didn't recover him, which kind of broke my spirit for a bit. Took a shot at twenty yards this morning but connected with a tree instead. Must have yanked the trigger is all I can think. Just enough to move it three inches at 20 yards.

I left myself too exposed. They could see me, not enough to freak out, but enough to not fully commit. A flock of twenty or so birds on public land. The gobblers saw me right away and skirted around with the hens but the Jake's and I played around for a bit until I could draw and take a shot. Part of the problem was shooting from sitting. That's really different. I sighted my bow in from a chair with an elevated target. Not the same. Gonna need some practice.

Few questions:
Are you using any sort of a blind? I have a couple simple little fabric and short pole setups I could use.
When will the birds not be in such big groups! I'm only after them because shed hunting last weekend I kept seeing groups of turkeys, but I think it might be easier if there wasn't so many eyes.

What a cool experience. I had the two big gobblers at 8 yards before they turned around. Rookie didn't have his bow drawn. Dang it. Heard em coming too.
 
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Pezboat

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
Nice work! I am trying to do the same thing. Two years ago I arrowed a Merriam's but didn't recover him, which kind of broke my spirit for a bit. Took a shot at twenty yards this morning but connected with a tree instead. Must have yanked the trigger is all I can think. Just enough to move it three inches at 20 yards.

I left myself too exposed. They could see me, not enough to freak out, but enough to not fully commit. A flock of twenty or so birds on public land. The gobblers saw me right away and skirted around with the hens but the Jake's and I played around for a bit until I could draw and take a shot. Part of the problem was shooting from sitting. That's really different. I sighted my bow in from a chair with an elevated target. Not the same. Gonna need some practice.

Few questions:
Are you using any sort of a blind? I have a couple simple little fabric and short pole setups I could use.
When will the birds not be in such big groups! I'm only after them because shed hunting last weekend I kept seeing groups of turkeys, but I think it might be easier if there wasn't so many eyes.

What a cool experience. I had the two big gobblers at 8 yards before they turned around. Rookie didn't have his bow drawn. Dang it. Heard em coming too.


I have the same fabric/pole kind of blind. I don’t really use it anymore though. With archery, I find it’s best to use decoys. Distracts the hell out of them so you can draw your bow. I know a lot of guys don’t like decoys, but I’ve had some great luck with them. And I always try to find good cover in my surroundings. Like this time, I knelt behind a five foot tall pine tree.
 

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
5,659
Location
Sodak
My first setup of the day I had plenty of cover. After following the gobbles it left me on an exposed ridge and I was afraid to push forward any further. I also had on black gaiters and gray pants. Maybe need to revisit that.
Biggest issues was decoy placement. I knew which direction they were coming from(probably) and set it up so they would have to pass by my hide to get to the decoys. Not ideal in hind site.
Overall really happy with the day. My total time in the field trying to kill a turkey is only about 10 hours so coming this close is a good sign. Snowing again now. Fix some things and try again next week.
 
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Pezboat

Pezboat

WKR
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Messages
399
Location
Minneapolis
My first setup of the day I had plenty of cover. After following the gobbles it left me on an exposed ridge and I was afraid to push forward any further. I also had on black gaiters and gray pants. Maybe need to revisit that.
Biggest issues was decoy placement. I knew which direction they were coming from(probably) and set it up so they would have to pass by my hide to get to the decoys. Not ideal in hind site.
Overall really happy with the day. My total time in the field trying to kill a turkey is only about 10 hours so coming this close is a good sign. Snowing again now. Fix some things and try again next week.

I like it. Keep us posted. With decoys, I like to set them up with 1 submissive hen on the ground facing me, and 1 Jake standing behind her. That way when a gobbler comes in, he’ll face the Jake and thus giving you an opportunity to draw your bow.
 

Fatcamp

WKR
Joined
May 31, 2017
Messages
5,659
Location
Sodak
Stopped by the local "Donate your stuff and we'll resell it store".

Got a turkey vest, Cabela's pants, and a long sleeve shirt in Hardwood for $15. Gonna hide better and be able to carry decoys way easier.
 

Jbehredt

WKR
Joined
Mar 4, 2017
Messages
1,702
Location
Colorado
I like it. Keep us posted. With decoys, I like to set them up with 1 submissive hen on the ground facing me, and 1 Jake standing behind her. That way when a gobbler comes in, he’ll face the Jake and thus giving you an opportunity to draw your bow.

This hombre followed that script at 3:50 this afternoon.
0ebf18cff4ae046ea9e610da3ca000f0.jpg
. He never saw it coming.
 

mmcdonough

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 28, 2019
Messages
202
Location
Lake Country MN, Transplant from ID
Went out for my first turkey hunt up here in northern MN. I'm definitely a novice but we live right next to tons of public land and I figured I'd give it a go this year with my bow. Saturday morning we had a Tom gobbling at us just on the other side of some private land at the bottom of a large, logged out clearing. We setup at the bottom right on the property border and tried to call him over for 3 hours but he wouldn't budge. He was pretty vocal though and would respond to anything we threw at him.

Yesterday morning we got about 100 yards from the truck and heard a mixed group of 3-4 going off to our left. We dove in after them and setup at the bottom of this ravine. Called out with some clucks and chirps, they would respond but they kept getting further and further away. Tried to cut them off further up the trail but they were at the bottom of this deep ravine through some thick nasty stuff and they weren't giving an inch.

Like I said this is my first year trying to hunt them out here. I don't really know how they're supposed to act right now but I thought they'd be more responsive. Maybe it's too early in the spring yet? The nice weather hasn't really hit us and the woods are still pretty browned up. To top it off it just snowed again today. I'm hoping by next weekend they'll be a bit more aggressive. At the very least it gives me more time to figure out where they're roosting and where they're feeding.
 
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