Originally posted by MooseontheLoose
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Pulled cards in Brady Friday night and was pretty disappointed. Some birds around but nearly as many on cam as there were a few weeks ago. I went and hunted by a roost I found this summer that I scouted a couple weeks ago. Jurassic park gobbling at daylight but the birds were on the opposite side of the creek. They flew down and went the opposite way.
Had a bird as far away as I could hear on my side answer me whenever I called. He worked his way up to about 80 yards gobbling, strutting, and drumming. Put on a great show. Then he stopped it all and walked off. I turned around and saw a cow was standing in my decoys. Literally the only cow I had seen all morning came in the few minutes that bird was closing. So frustrating.
Finished camp chores and began hunting again a little before 2 PM. Walked and called the whole pasture, under the roost, all through the creek bottom, by the water, everywhere, and couldn’t buy a response. About 15 minutes before sunset birds lit up all up and down the creek. Called in the only 2 birds on my side, which were two jakes that put on a good show gobbling and strutting.
I elected to go back to the same spot Sunday morning mostly because I just left all my stuff there. Sunday morning started the same, lots of birds talking on the other side of the creek. Saturday was cloudy and overcast, and Sunday was clear and sunny, but the birds literally pitched down at the exact same minute both mornings. Two different waves of birds pitched down at the exact same minute both mornings. Crazy stuff.
Once they flew down, the birds across the creek went in the opposite direction, so I assumed they were gone. A few birds gobbled way up the hill from me on my side, so I stayed where I was to let them come closer.
After a while of no other action, it got to be 7:45, and I was going to give it until 8 before I got out to go chase the birds up the hill. I let out a loud raucous calling sequence one more time from that spot before I left. The birds across the creek gobbled instantly. They were a lot closer than they were before. They did it to me the day before though, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
At 7:50, I heard it.
WOP WOP WOP, WOP WOP WOP WOP, WOP WOP WOP WOP. I instantly grabbed my bow and knew they were on the way. They just flew across the creek.
Less than a minute after that, the first red head popped out.Soon two more followed. I confirmed that they had long beards and got ready. They had gobbled a bunch all morning from across the creek and three of them were now closing the distance. The sun was behind me and couldn’t have lit them up anymore, and the strutter was just slowly walking and drumming in. It was all you could ask for on a turkey hunt.
The problem though, was that they flew over on the opposite side of where I expected birds to come from, so my decoys were all positioned wrong for them to come in and put on a show. That led them to not do what I needed them to do for a clean bow shot. Although they were in range, they started to skirt the set up and the strutter went behind some catclaw.
After a minute or two of watching I knew they weren’t coming all the way in. They were just at the far edge of my turkey bow range, and with some small brush in the way, I decided to set the bow down. I grabbed the shotgun and broke the beautiful silence of the morning.
10.25” beard and the big spur is 1.375”.
Interestingly, I threw every call I had at them all weekend, all my diaphragms, box call, everything. The only thing they would respond to was the slate call. Even the jakes from Saturday wouldn’t respond to anything but the slate.
This season has been really rough for most of the places I hunt. Glad to finally have filled a tag.
Had a bird as far away as I could hear on my side answer me whenever I called. He worked his way up to about 80 yards gobbling, strutting, and drumming. Put on a great show. Then he stopped it all and walked off. I turned around and saw a cow was standing in my decoys. Literally the only cow I had seen all morning came in the few minutes that bird was closing. So frustrating.
Finished camp chores and began hunting again a little before 2 PM. Walked and called the whole pasture, under the roost, all through the creek bottom, by the water, everywhere, and couldn’t buy a response. About 15 minutes before sunset birds lit up all up and down the creek. Called in the only 2 birds on my side, which were two jakes that put on a good show gobbling and strutting.
I elected to go back to the same spot Sunday morning mostly because I just left all my stuff there. Sunday morning started the same, lots of birds talking on the other side of the creek. Saturday was cloudy and overcast, and Sunday was clear and sunny, but the birds literally pitched down at the exact same minute both mornings. Two different waves of birds pitched down at the exact same minute both mornings. Crazy stuff.
Once they flew down, the birds across the creek went in the opposite direction, so I assumed they were gone. A few birds gobbled way up the hill from me on my side, so I stayed where I was to let them come closer.
After a while of no other action, it got to be 7:45, and I was going to give it until 8 before I got out to go chase the birds up the hill. I let out a loud raucous calling sequence one more time from that spot before I left. The birds across the creek gobbled instantly. They were a lot closer than they were before. They did it to me the day before though, so I didn’t pay much attention to it.
At 7:50, I heard it.
WOP WOP WOP, WOP WOP WOP WOP, WOP WOP WOP WOP. I instantly grabbed my bow and knew they were on the way. They just flew across the creek.
Less than a minute after that, the first red head popped out.Soon two more followed. I confirmed that they had long beards and got ready. They had gobbled a bunch all morning from across the creek and three of them were now closing the distance. The sun was behind me and couldn’t have lit them up anymore, and the strutter was just slowly walking and drumming in. It was all you could ask for on a turkey hunt.
The problem though, was that they flew over on the opposite side of where I expected birds to come from, so my decoys were all positioned wrong for them to come in and put on a show. That led them to not do what I needed them to do for a clean bow shot. Although they were in range, they started to skirt the set up and the strutter went behind some catclaw.
After a minute or two of watching I knew they weren’t coming all the way in. They were just at the far edge of my turkey bow range, and with some small brush in the way, I decided to set the bow down. I grabbed the shotgun and broke the beautiful silence of the morning.
10.25” beard and the big spur is 1.375”.
Interestingly, I threw every call I had at them all weekend, all my diaphragms, box call, everything. The only thing they would respond to was the slate call. Even the jakes from Saturday wouldn’t respond to anything but the slate.
This season has been really rough for most of the places I hunt. Glad to finally have filled a tag.
Heck yeah! Congrats!
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