CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
Turkey season for me started during youth season I was able to take 3 youth hunters out and successfully get them each a bird, two of which were first birds.
My hunting started opening weekend of Nebraska shotgun season. Chase and I were able to gain permission from the wives to go. His daughter being 4 weeks and Gideon being 7 weeks we weren’t sure if they’d be up for it but we lucked out. So we left Friday around 11 am and headed west for the weekend. I had gotten permission from a farmer last spring and he had told me to meet him this year and he’d show me some more areas. As we got in the area I reached out and he gave directions to a field he was working on a pivot in. When we got there they were fixing a tire and I jumped right in and helped. Once the tire was mounted back on we visited and he gave us some more options to hunt. We decided we’d go and scout the areas we knew there’d be turkeys from previous years first. We used some public land to access a glassing point to watch a roost tree that typically holds a handful of toms and a pile of hens. On our way in we ran into a bowhunter that was glassing the birds on the private we had permission to. He had been trying to get the birds to work on to the public for a few days with no luck. (I had done it for years prior with almost no success so I knew his frustration). He told us he’d be trying again in the morning so we decided to be nice we’d just leave the place alone in the morning even though we knew there was two toms there. So we went and scouted a new piece and watched some turkeys fly up but never heard a gobble from them. Though there was a tom firing off on a different piece of public to the south of us. In the end we decided to hunt a spot we hunted last year that we knew what the turkeys typically did but we couldn’t scout easily and weren’t sure if they were even there this year. So Saturday morning comes along and we carry a blind, chairs, and decoys in a mile, up and down some big drainages. We get set up at the fence crossing we had watched toms strut in the year before. As the sun starts coming up we could hear turkeys gobbling in the tree by where the archer was hunting and I think to myself, why aren’t we hearing gobbles closer, there should be toms here. As the sun comes up more I can see a couple turkeys in a tree about 100 yards away. Hopes restored. I get the binos out and start glassing to see they are all hens. They fly down and move off and we don’t hear a gobble any where. We’re thinking this is weird there were turkeys everywhere the last few years why aren’t we hearing them. So I get out the blind and go on a walk about to see if I can find a tom. A few miles later all I was able to come up with was a hand full of hens. No jakes, no toms, just hens. Now I’m thinking this isn’t good. So I walk back to the blind and Chase said he had heard a tom to our south east so we decide to walk in that direction. The sun has been up for a while now and the temps are rising quickly. We get to a pond and find another group of hens. There was a jake with them but they were acting funny. That’s when a coyote came over the pond dam. So they ran off and we decided to go back and pick up our stuff and go to town to grab lunch. We talk to some guys from Mississippi at subway and they said their birds were hammering in the morning but went straight to private land. They chased them as much as they could with the public they could hunt but no luck either. These turkeys aren’t like the Iowa easterns either, they travel, and they travel quick. We have chased bird for 3 miles in a couple hours before and they are always on the move. We decided after the quick lunch we’d see if we could strike a bird up on public land. So we run and gun about a mile and at this point it’s 87 degrees and hot. We stay in the timber thinking if we are hot the turkeys have to be hour too. We have no luck. So the afternoon hunt we decided to go sit the roost tree where we originally scouted as we saw two toms in the field above it the night before. We carry the blind and decoys in and get set up and man is it hot. Chase started feeling sick in the morning with congestion and a sore throat and it had gotten worse throughout the day. I knew it was bad when I look over and he’s dripping sweat and I wasn’t. Assuming he had a fever and it was breaking I told him to just sleep and I’d wake him up in the blind if something showed. Well nothing showed until after sunset and it was all hens once again. We heard a couple toms rattle off on the roost we had hunted that morning but nothing where we were.
Sunday morning I get up and Chase tells me he’s just going to drop me off where ever I want to hunt and he’s going back to the house to sleep as he didn’t feel good at all. I told him to drop me off at the driveway by the original roost tree and I’d walk about halfway between the two roosts and just listen before making a move. So I walk in a mile and lay down in a rye field waiting for the first gobbles of the day and the stars are insanely bright. I’m just enjoying them and wondered if I could snap a photo. To my surprise my phone picked them up
Awhile later I finally heard a gobble and I knew where he was but I waited just to make sure there wasn’t anything else closer. There ended up being a gobble a little closer but I felt more confident about the first tom so I took off in his direction. I had to go two valleys over and he ended up not being where I thought he was but I knew if he flew down south I could make a play on him. He ended up flying south into the property I could hunt and strutted around with his hens before going over a hill. This was my chance to cut some distance so I take off and cross the fence crossing we had set up the morning before and made my way up the hill. There was an old bale ring at the top of the hill I told myself I’d use as cover until I heard him or his hens to determine there location. About the time I get to the bale ring another tom gobbles by the crossing I had just gone through at the bottom of the hill. I put eyes on him and he’s the biggest bodied and bearded tom I have ever seen in the area. He went down the crossing and strutted then ran back up the hill where he had come from. He had roosted by the pond to the south east where the coyote was the morning before. Then he gobbled 7 times when he got to the top of the hill and ran back down to the crossing. Then he went back up again and came back down. I told myself if he turns and goes back up the hill I’m going to run to the bottom and be ready for when he comes back down. Of course he didn’t go back up but instead he circled around me and strutted at 100 yards. I call and he gobbles but the continues going west. So now my minds back on the strutter with hens. I hadn’t seen or heard them in a long time but I knew there was a big drainage that I’ve seen turkeys use before. So I crest the hill and sneak to the top of the drainage and I see him strut about 100 yards away so I back up and make a plan to loop around and get in front of them. I make my way around and catch a hen starting to climb the other side of the drainage. Crap! They’re already down here. I back up and take my vest off and start belly crawling towards the hen. Using my Jake decoy as extra cover. I slowly continue to crawl and 3 more hens make their way up the other side. I’m thinking man I need to get closer or I’m going to have to wait for them to crest the next hill before making another move. Well then a deer shows up and I’m worried if I move the deer spooks and the turkeys are gone. At this point I have no idea where the strutter is, I can’t see into the drainage yet and the hens are still making their way up the hill to the west. I measure the drainage on my phone using basemap and it’s about 85 yards wide at the elevation I was at so too far to shoot. So I kind of sit up a little just to see if I can see the tom and I see another deer heading right for me on my side of the drainage. Great! This is a bust. When all of a sudden I hear cluck to my north. I look and see a turkey. I’m on my belly my gun on the ground to my right. I look a little more and I see another turkey head. They are hens and I look to their left a little more and I see the blue and red head of a tom. I think the hens knew something was up because they were fully alert and walking back towards the drainage but the tom went back into strut and it was now or never. I reached over and grabbed my gun pulled it to me and leaned up in one motion. The tom dropped out of strut and the hens both separated leaving him by himself and giving me just enough time to settle the red dot on him. I squeezed the trigger to watch him fold and the two hens fly away. He definitely didn’t have the biggest beard but he’s a gorgeous bird that’s going to taste delicious. I enjoyed a cosmic brownie and called Chase to tell him I was done and where to pick me up and enjoyed the 1.5 mile trek out to the road.
We come back to Iowa and decide we would get third season tags as one of the farms I could hunt was going to be selling before fourth season. Usually I buy two fourth season tags but with the farm scheduled to sell I figured might as well send it during third season. So Chase, his wife, and I all get third season tags and head out. The goal is always to get Connie a turkey first and then we hunt hard after. Connie had killed 3 turkeys with me and the longest hunt was done before 7am. So she’s always had an easy one. We set up on a field where I felt the birds were using a lot and as the sun rose we were met with gobbles all around us. In my head I’m thinking here we go again. I spot a tom strutting in a tree up on a hillside.
Unfortunately as he flew down he went the opposite direction and never made another peep. We wait awhile in the blind and all the birds seem to distance themselves from us so we decide we are going to make a move on a group of toms that are just hammering. We have to cross a creek and we make our way towards where we last hear them gobble and nothing. I try yelping and no response, moving forward 50-75 yards at a time and no luck. We get to a spot where we decide do we just find a spot to sit and see if they fire back up or do we try to find another bird. Well as we are standing there talking a tom gobbles under 100 yards. We squat down immediately and I can see him side hilling the ridge above us. He works off and we all get to a tree. Connie and Chase about 30 yards ahead of me as I drop back to call. So we get set up and I call and the group of toms gobble up on top of the ridge while we are sat in the bottom. I can tell they are getting closer and they sound like they are going to pop out right down Connie’s gun barrel. I’m watching and looking and nothing. I can hear a Tom/jake yelp and then they’d hammer and I was like man they gotta be right on top of them. All of a sudden they gobble again and they are completely to my 2 o clock while Connie was still aiming at 10 o clock. I don’t know if it was the terrain or what but there turkeys had us fooled. Now they are close enough where you can hear the gobble in their chest. I pick the birds up and have my gun on them as they were further right than Chase and Connie. I can see Connie start to move and I think “oh no” and as soon as I think that I can hear the putting and watch the three longbeards walk off the opposite direction. Chase apologized and said he knew he knew better than trying to get her moved but he gets excited when it’s her. We pack it up for the day as they need to get back home to their baby and decide to try again the next day. The next day we hunted the same farm but went to where I took a youth hunter and saw multiple birds and we sat up same spot because it worked once it’ll probably work again. Once again greeted by gobbles and I stayed quiet knowing I’d be able to hear or see these birds fly down. They fly down and I yelp softly and was met by a gobble. Next thing I know here comes three toms into the field same spot as the 2 toms came from during youth season. Only difference was these toms didn’t have hens. Perfect , right? Not so much there’s a slight hill in the middle of the hill and the toms must not of been able to see the decoys because they just hung up and lost interest and worked off. We tried to chase after them with no luck. But decided we could set the blind up on the far side of the food plot where they tend to come in and hunt in the morning. So we come in the next morning and not a peep close to us. We wait a couple hours then decide to try another spot on the farm. Crawl up into a blind and wait. Few hours pass and we see a couple hens but no toms, no gobbles either. Connie lays down on the floor and sleeps for a bit when 3 toms enter the field at 25 yards. Well in the effort of trying to get Connie up on the gun the toms had worked out of range and disappeared. On a positive note there was a tom hammering to the west of us so we decide to go after it. We cross a marshy swamp and climb up on a ridge and I call and the bird hammers back. I thought he was close, Chase thought he was further away. We get sat down and wait. I call and nothing so I think maybe he’s on the move. Time passes and nothing. After further inspection I think he was close and caught us sitting down or was higher up on the ridge and saw us but no luck either way. So we hunt the rest of the morning and can’t find another bird.
I try to get them to hunt the next day but they didn’t want to so I go by myself and I set up in the food plot we had saw the three toms in a couple days ago and had a tom gobbling to my calls but then he just disappeared. Luckily I had another bird gobbling down in the timber so I took off to make a play on him. There was an old logging road in the timber and I thought that might be where he was so I slowly climbed the side of it and called when I got to the edge. He gobbled but he was down in the bottom on the other side of the road so there was no way for me to get on the road without seeing me. I lay down and just have my gun ready over the top of the edge of the road and he isn’t budging. I decide I’ll loop all the way down the road to where there used to be a bridge and get on his side. Well to my surprise there was an eagle nest and the eagle did not like me near that tree so it’s going crazy. (Great for shock gobbles btw) So I know the general idea of where he’s at and I just need to get around the road. It’s super thick so I wasn’t worried about him seeing me. I don’t even get around the edge of the road and I see the tom drop out of strut and walk off. I’m still trying to figure out how this bird saw me. So plan 3 was to go sit in the field in the middle of the farm where the 3 toms snuck in on us when Connie was snoozing and just sit as the wind was supposed to pick up. So I’m looking for mushrooms on my way there, of course. Climbing this steep hill and I get to the top to realize I climbed up on hill too early. So I had to make my way back down and climb the next one. I get sat up and I wait and finally see two hens and tom enter the field on the complete other end. Well they leave just as fast. I sit and wait til mid afternoon and decide I’ll hunt my way back to the car.
The next day I leave work early and decide to hunt the evening. I thought I might as well set up in the bottom in between the 3 areas they had been roosting. The turkeys have to move through there especially with it being so windy. Well I thought wrong and didn’t see or hear a thing. That concluded third season.
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My hunting started opening weekend of Nebraska shotgun season. Chase and I were able to gain permission from the wives to go. His daughter being 4 weeks and Gideon being 7 weeks we weren’t sure if they’d be up for it but we lucked out. So we left Friday around 11 am and headed west for the weekend. I had gotten permission from a farmer last spring and he had told me to meet him this year and he’d show me some more areas. As we got in the area I reached out and he gave directions to a field he was working on a pivot in. When we got there they were fixing a tire and I jumped right in and helped. Once the tire was mounted back on we visited and he gave us some more options to hunt. We decided we’d go and scout the areas we knew there’d be turkeys from previous years first. We used some public land to access a glassing point to watch a roost tree that typically holds a handful of toms and a pile of hens. On our way in we ran into a bowhunter that was glassing the birds on the private we had permission to. He had been trying to get the birds to work on to the public for a few days with no luck. (I had done it for years prior with almost no success so I knew his frustration). He told us he’d be trying again in the morning so we decided to be nice we’d just leave the place alone in the morning even though we knew there was two toms there. So we went and scouted a new piece and watched some turkeys fly up but never heard a gobble from them. Though there was a tom firing off on a different piece of public to the south of us. In the end we decided to hunt a spot we hunted last year that we knew what the turkeys typically did but we couldn’t scout easily and weren’t sure if they were even there this year. So Saturday morning comes along and we carry a blind, chairs, and decoys in a mile, up and down some big drainages. We get set up at the fence crossing we had watched toms strut in the year before. As the sun starts coming up we could hear turkeys gobbling in the tree by where the archer was hunting and I think to myself, why aren’t we hearing gobbles closer, there should be toms here. As the sun comes up more I can see a couple turkeys in a tree about 100 yards away. Hopes restored. I get the binos out and start glassing to see they are all hens. They fly down and move off and we don’t hear a gobble any where. We’re thinking this is weird there were turkeys everywhere the last few years why aren’t we hearing them. So I get out the blind and go on a walk about to see if I can find a tom. A few miles later all I was able to come up with was a hand full of hens. No jakes, no toms, just hens. Now I’m thinking this isn’t good. So I walk back to the blind and Chase said he had heard a tom to our south east so we decide to walk in that direction. The sun has been up for a while now and the temps are rising quickly. We get to a pond and find another group of hens. There was a jake with them but they were acting funny. That’s when a coyote came over the pond dam. So they ran off and we decided to go back and pick up our stuff and go to town to grab lunch. We talk to some guys from Mississippi at subway and they said their birds were hammering in the morning but went straight to private land. They chased them as much as they could with the public they could hunt but no luck either. These turkeys aren’t like the Iowa easterns either, they travel, and they travel quick. We have chased bird for 3 miles in a couple hours before and they are always on the move. We decided after the quick lunch we’d see if we could strike a bird up on public land. So we run and gun about a mile and at this point it’s 87 degrees and hot. We stay in the timber thinking if we are hot the turkeys have to be hour too. We have no luck. So the afternoon hunt we decided to go sit the roost tree where we originally scouted as we saw two toms in the field above it the night before. We carry the blind and decoys in and get set up and man is it hot. Chase started feeling sick in the morning with congestion and a sore throat and it had gotten worse throughout the day. I knew it was bad when I look over and he’s dripping sweat and I wasn’t. Assuming he had a fever and it was breaking I told him to just sleep and I’d wake him up in the blind if something showed. Well nothing showed until after sunset and it was all hens once again. We heard a couple toms rattle off on the roost we had hunted that morning but nothing where we were.
Sunday morning I get up and Chase tells me he’s just going to drop me off where ever I want to hunt and he’s going back to the house to sleep as he didn’t feel good at all. I told him to drop me off at the driveway by the original roost tree and I’d walk about halfway between the two roosts and just listen before making a move. So I walk in a mile and lay down in a rye field waiting for the first gobbles of the day and the stars are insanely bright. I’m just enjoying them and wondered if I could snap a photo. To my surprise my phone picked them up
Awhile later I finally heard a gobble and I knew where he was but I waited just to make sure there wasn’t anything else closer. There ended up being a gobble a little closer but I felt more confident about the first tom so I took off in his direction. I had to go two valleys over and he ended up not being where I thought he was but I knew if he flew down south I could make a play on him. He ended up flying south into the property I could hunt and strutted around with his hens before going over a hill. This was my chance to cut some distance so I take off and cross the fence crossing we had set up the morning before and made my way up the hill. There was an old bale ring at the top of the hill I told myself I’d use as cover until I heard him or his hens to determine there location. About the time I get to the bale ring another tom gobbles by the crossing I had just gone through at the bottom of the hill. I put eyes on him and he’s the biggest bodied and bearded tom I have ever seen in the area. He went down the crossing and strutted then ran back up the hill where he had come from. He had roosted by the pond to the south east where the coyote was the morning before. Then he gobbled 7 times when he got to the top of the hill and ran back down to the crossing. Then he went back up again and came back down. I told myself if he turns and goes back up the hill I’m going to run to the bottom and be ready for when he comes back down. Of course he didn’t go back up but instead he circled around me and strutted at 100 yards. I call and he gobbles but the continues going west. So now my minds back on the strutter with hens. I hadn’t seen or heard them in a long time but I knew there was a big drainage that I’ve seen turkeys use before. So I crest the hill and sneak to the top of the drainage and I see him strut about 100 yards away so I back up and make a plan to loop around and get in front of them. I make my way around and catch a hen starting to climb the other side of the drainage. Crap! They’re already down here. I back up and take my vest off and start belly crawling towards the hen. Using my Jake decoy as extra cover. I slowly continue to crawl and 3 more hens make their way up the other side. I’m thinking man I need to get closer or I’m going to have to wait for them to crest the next hill before making another move. Well then a deer shows up and I’m worried if I move the deer spooks and the turkeys are gone. At this point I have no idea where the strutter is, I can’t see into the drainage yet and the hens are still making their way up the hill to the west. I measure the drainage on my phone using basemap and it’s about 85 yards wide at the elevation I was at so too far to shoot. So I kind of sit up a little just to see if I can see the tom and I see another deer heading right for me on my side of the drainage. Great! This is a bust. When all of a sudden I hear cluck to my north. I look and see a turkey. I’m on my belly my gun on the ground to my right. I look a little more and I see another turkey head. They are hens and I look to their left a little more and I see the blue and red head of a tom. I think the hens knew something was up because they were fully alert and walking back towards the drainage but the tom went back into strut and it was now or never. I reached over and grabbed my gun pulled it to me and leaned up in one motion. The tom dropped out of strut and the hens both separated leaving him by himself and giving me just enough time to settle the red dot on him. I squeezed the trigger to watch him fold and the two hens fly away. He definitely didn’t have the biggest beard but he’s a gorgeous bird that’s going to taste delicious. I enjoyed a cosmic brownie and called Chase to tell him I was done and where to pick me up and enjoyed the 1.5 mile trek out to the road.
We come back to Iowa and decide we would get third season tags as one of the farms I could hunt was going to be selling before fourth season. Usually I buy two fourth season tags but with the farm scheduled to sell I figured might as well send it during third season. So Chase, his wife, and I all get third season tags and head out. The goal is always to get Connie a turkey first and then we hunt hard after. Connie had killed 3 turkeys with me and the longest hunt was done before 7am. So she’s always had an easy one. We set up on a field where I felt the birds were using a lot and as the sun rose we were met with gobbles all around us. In my head I’m thinking here we go again. I spot a tom strutting in a tree up on a hillside.
Unfortunately as he flew down he went the opposite direction and never made another peep. We wait awhile in the blind and all the birds seem to distance themselves from us so we decide we are going to make a move on a group of toms that are just hammering. We have to cross a creek and we make our way towards where we last hear them gobble and nothing. I try yelping and no response, moving forward 50-75 yards at a time and no luck. We get to a spot where we decide do we just find a spot to sit and see if they fire back up or do we try to find another bird. Well as we are standing there talking a tom gobbles under 100 yards. We squat down immediately and I can see him side hilling the ridge above us. He works off and we all get to a tree. Connie and Chase about 30 yards ahead of me as I drop back to call. So we get set up and I call and the group of toms gobble up on top of the ridge while we are sat in the bottom. I can tell they are getting closer and they sound like they are going to pop out right down Connie’s gun barrel. I’m watching and looking and nothing. I can hear a Tom/jake yelp and then they’d hammer and I was like man they gotta be right on top of them. All of a sudden they gobble again and they are completely to my 2 o clock while Connie was still aiming at 10 o clock. I don’t know if it was the terrain or what but there turkeys had us fooled. Now they are close enough where you can hear the gobble in their chest. I pick the birds up and have my gun on them as they were further right than Chase and Connie. I can see Connie start to move and I think “oh no” and as soon as I think that I can hear the putting and watch the three longbeards walk off the opposite direction. Chase apologized and said he knew he knew better than trying to get her moved but he gets excited when it’s her. We pack it up for the day as they need to get back home to their baby and decide to try again the next day. The next day we hunted the same farm but went to where I took a youth hunter and saw multiple birds and we sat up same spot because it worked once it’ll probably work again. Once again greeted by gobbles and I stayed quiet knowing I’d be able to hear or see these birds fly down. They fly down and I yelp softly and was met by a gobble. Next thing I know here comes three toms into the field same spot as the 2 toms came from during youth season. Only difference was these toms didn’t have hens. Perfect , right? Not so much there’s a slight hill in the middle of the hill and the toms must not of been able to see the decoys because they just hung up and lost interest and worked off. We tried to chase after them with no luck. But decided we could set the blind up on the far side of the food plot where they tend to come in and hunt in the morning. So we come in the next morning and not a peep close to us. We wait a couple hours then decide to try another spot on the farm. Crawl up into a blind and wait. Few hours pass and we see a couple hens but no toms, no gobbles either. Connie lays down on the floor and sleeps for a bit when 3 toms enter the field at 25 yards. Well in the effort of trying to get Connie up on the gun the toms had worked out of range and disappeared. On a positive note there was a tom hammering to the west of us so we decide to go after it. We cross a marshy swamp and climb up on a ridge and I call and the bird hammers back. I thought he was close, Chase thought he was further away. We get sat down and wait. I call and nothing so I think maybe he’s on the move. Time passes and nothing. After further inspection I think he was close and caught us sitting down or was higher up on the ridge and saw us but no luck either way. So we hunt the rest of the morning and can’t find another bird.
I try to get them to hunt the next day but they didn’t want to so I go by myself and I set up in the food plot we had saw the three toms in a couple days ago and had a tom gobbling to my calls but then he just disappeared. Luckily I had another bird gobbling down in the timber so I took off to make a play on him. There was an old logging road in the timber and I thought that might be where he was so I slowly climbed the side of it and called when I got to the edge. He gobbled but he was down in the bottom on the other side of the road so there was no way for me to get on the road without seeing me. I lay down and just have my gun ready over the top of the edge of the road and he isn’t budging. I decide I’ll loop all the way down the road to where there used to be a bridge and get on his side. Well to my surprise there was an eagle nest and the eagle did not like me near that tree so it’s going crazy. (Great for shock gobbles btw) So I know the general idea of where he’s at and I just need to get around the road. It’s super thick so I wasn’t worried about him seeing me. I don’t even get around the edge of the road and I see the tom drop out of strut and walk off. I’m still trying to figure out how this bird saw me. So plan 3 was to go sit in the field in the middle of the farm where the 3 toms snuck in on us when Connie was snoozing and just sit as the wind was supposed to pick up. So I’m looking for mushrooms on my way there, of course. Climbing this steep hill and I get to the top to realize I climbed up on hill too early. So I had to make my way back down and climb the next one. I get sat up and I wait and finally see two hens and tom enter the field on the complete other end. Well they leave just as fast. I sit and wait til mid afternoon and decide I’ll hunt my way back to the car.
The next day I leave work early and decide to hunt the evening. I thought I might as well set up in the bottom in between the 3 areas they had been roosting. The turkeys have to move through there especially with it being so windy. Well I thought wrong and didn’t see or hear a thing. That concluded third season.
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