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JFT Turkey Tour 2018
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We got out my buddy’s place Sunday a little before noon, and hunted hard, only returning to camp once before dark to get a bite to eat. We saw sign everywhere, but could not buy a gobble until 5:30. We eventually worked a bird and got him close enough to hear him spitting and drumming, but there was a cross fence between him and us and when our decoys (that were visible to him) didn’t come to him, he lost interest and moved on. We heard a few other gobbles that evening, but none close. Just before dark we tried to cut a group of toms off going to roost, but we never could get ahead of them. My buddy had a meeting he had to go to attend Monday morning, but gave me the okay to stay for the Monday morning hunt. I’m glad I did. I wake up just as dawn’s first light is on the eastern horizon. I decide to stick near camp until a bird gobbled on its own. Eventually I hear a few birds a half mile away and begin my trek. I got setup within 150 yards of a roosted tom in a live oak on the edge of a utility easement/clearing. I give him a few soft yelps, and he gobbles, but then I hear a hen start up. I call and she calls back. Several other birds gobble further down the easement to the south. The bird I was setup on eventually flies down to the easement and heads north. Also stops gobbling. I heard three birds fly down from the tree he was in, so I assume he had a hen or two of his own.
I move further south down the easement, and can hear the birds slowly working up this way. A hen continues to yelp, with several different gobblers sounding off. I get setup on a road that comes off the easement and leads to a windmill. Two toms break away and slowly but surely start heading my way. Twenty mins after sitting down, the appear from my left. A strutter followed by a subordinate bird. They skirt the decoys (maybe they don’t care for the name at this point of the season, but are still within shotgun range). I give a few yelps with the mouth call to break the leading tom out of strut. He gobbles, and continues to walk by slowly. I put him down, and the subordinate bird runs behind a small cedar. I give him a yelp, and he pokes his head out enough for a clear shot.
The birds I’ve killed this year have really liked a loud series of yelps on a box call. They could be well within range of my diaphragm calling, but would gobble more frequently with the sheer volume I was able to create with a box, even on calm days.
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Originally posted by Smart View PostOML... he’s not gonna be able to fit his head in my cabin front door now[emoji13][emoji23]
He and PoPo definitely renewed my addiction to bowhunting turkeys over decoys last year on their first trip. And this year was a blast. I’m spending or will be spending way too much money upgrading “tools” for next year.[emoji41]
Oh yeah uh btw....good luck up North this week Clay.
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Travis Hall, CEO of Browning North America and I got a tough one Sunday evening and four before 10:00 AM yesterday morning. We were hunting some really good country in the Hill Country with lots of gobbling birds. Not sure I will go after them again this spring as I am busy chasing other critters.
While a box call can generate a lot of volume, nothing beats a "snuff box" call especially when Cuz Strickland is blowing it. I have hunted with Cuz for many years and he can raise a bird better than anyone I ever saw. I tell him that they aren't really answering him, just shock gobbling back.
Adios,
Gary
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