CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
Now that my turkey season is finally over I’ll put the effort in to recap it. Let me tell ya it was a rough one for me. My goal for this season was to be on 20 successful hunts after being on 13 in 2020 but unfortunately that didn’t go to well and it wasn’t due to a lack of effort. Starting with youth season I went with a good friend and his son on a farm that we’ve had success on before. Friday morning was great lots of gobbles and we were close and in the game. Unfortunately they flew down the other direction to start the morning and things were quiet. Ended up striking a gobble a little later with a purr and the tom came charging in to break the edge of the timber at 15 yards and turn around and disappear just as fast as he appeared. Later in the morning the flock worked their way back towards us and hung out but never did get close enough for a shot.
I decided to hunt first season this year just so I could keep hunting with other people during the typically hot action packed 2nd-4th seasons and I was hunting Nebraska the 2nd season weekend. So the first day of first season me and a buddy from work headed down to the farm we shot our double on in 2020 and it was cold and windy. Didn’t hear a gobble all morning. Three hens eventually showed up but that was all around 1:30 I decided we’d go try another farm that I typically don’t have much luck on. We sit down to wait the afternoon out. Still no gobbling but we see a couple hens milling around. I catch a glimpse of movement behind a cedar tree about 70 yards away and I move my binos up to see what it was and sure enough it was a tom. I call softly and a hen comes around the tree towards us and I tell my buddy to be ready. The tom comes around and pops his head up just looking. I’m not sure if he saw something at this point but I knew something was wrong and just like that he turns around. We goes back to where I originally saw him and struts around. The hen moves off and I tell my buddy if he wants to try to reap him he can. Well that wasn’t a good idea the tom wanted nothing to do with it. I’m looking through my binos and notice something wrong with the bird. There’s an arrow hanging out of him. Which could be why he was a wee bit wary. That was the only action the rest of the day.
Thursday comes around and I decide why go to work when it’s the last day of first season so I drive down to a friends brand new farm that I’ve dreamed of hunting when I drove by it many times and would always see toms strutting so you knew I was excited to hear the news they bought it and I was allowed to turkey hunt. Well I get down there later than I wanted to but and they were gobbling as I’m shutting my car door still needing to get dressed as it was a cold frosty morning. I hop the gate and trot my way towards the gobbles and man when I got to the top of the hill there was too many options. I decided to go with my gut feeling and try to get to a cove in the alfalfa field and I go passed a few toms while doing this but I had a good feeling looking at the aerial map of the farm. Remember I’ve never even stepped foot on this farm before this day. Well I get close to where I want to be and there’s two toms hammering close and at this point it’s bright enough where I knew I could be busted trying to be too aggressive so I pick the only tree close enough that I wouldn’t blow the birds out of the area. And I belly crawl my decoys out kind of to my left when I got to set up. The tree I was left with was on the east side of the field finger and the toms were straight down the finger to my right. I have a big cedar tree on my right side so I can’t see that way at all. Luck of the draw I guess. Once I got sat up and ready the first time the gobbled I cut and helped right back. They fired off again. Soon after I could hear the wing beats as they fluttered from their roosts. Bam!! They light up again and I yelp right back to them.. Then I can hear the drumming.. then the spitting. I catch glimpses of two toms strutting their way toward me through the cedar tree. They couldn’t of been more than 30 yards away and coming. But I can’t shoot through the tree so I am holding tight and the spitting and drumming is getting louder and louder. The come around the cedar tree at 3 yards. Smack dab in front of me. Walking right to left. They see my decoys and continue towards them. I’m swinging with them as they strut past me not getting any further from me but maintain that nice three yards. At this point I’m wondering how the heck have they not busted me. My hearts racing and they are getting to that area where you can’t turn left anymore while you are sitting so I settle in, so I thought, and squeezed the trigger just to watch them run out into the field and I try to shoot again. What can I say turkey fever got me for the first time, I didn’t have my head down and I missed my first turkey with the gun. I ended up hunting for the remainder of the day getting close a couple times but never had another shot opportunity.
The first day of second season I took my buddy out for the morning as I was leaving for Nebraska about midday. So we go to the farm I hunted the first day of first season. We hear a gobble and get set up in a “for sure” area. The tom answers the call and we watch him fly down across the clover food plot and into the bean field to vanish forever. The only thing we could think of was it was super dewy so maybe he didn’t want to be in the tall clover. So we try another farm with no luck and I end up dropping him of and I head to Nebraska.
Good ole Nebraska, if you haven’t heard of a Walker’s Nebraska turkey hunt then you are missing out. Blizzards, impassable roads, getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, loosing the muffler. It’s never a smooth trip. So we get to the place I’ve had some good luck in the past to scout. So we are wrapping around the lake and leave the pavement just to find mud, no big deal right?!! Wrong, we can’t make it down 90% of the roads, I can’t get to the areas I know where turkeys are. So we spend the remainder of the day trying to find birds. We find a few on private but none on public. We meet up with a few other friends later in the evening and go and get some grub and discuss the morning plans. The next morning I tell the guy just to drop me off at the corner of the road we can’t make it down and I’ll walk in from there. I had a 1.25 mile hike just to get to the public land. But man what a relief it was to hear birds gobble when I got there and I knew right where they were from previous years. Unfortunately that was another mile hike so I’m trucking along get to where I can see the roost tree. I watch the flock pitch down and start doing their thing toms gobbling like crazy. They stay on private but I knew it was a matter of time before they made their way to the public so I just stick with them moving slowly as they do and I eventually get to an area where they are on the fence line. I sit in a brush pile and call softly just trying to get a gobble to confirm where they are well all of a sudden a tom comes running towards me so I hold the fan up and sounded like a frenzy broke out toms were gobbling everywhere. Well the Tom runs all the way to 20 yards and hangs up on the fence and decides it was no big deal and leaves. So I crawl towards the birds behind the fan hoping it’ll be enough to coax one through the fence. They have other plans and make their way away from me. So back to the cat and mouse game it is. I follow the birds for a couple miles total before finally giving up on them as they found an area on private they seemed content. So now it’s mid afternoon rain is moving in I talk to the other guys and they are going to drive around some more as they didn’t get on birds so I decide to slowly make my way back to where I was dropped off making a few set ups on my way in hopes of catching a traveling bird. With no luck doing that I’m cresting the final hill on the public to see a strutter and hens in a hay field. So I get down quickly and wait for them as they are heading straight for me after waiting 30 minutes. I wonder where they are and give a look and they hadn’t moved 10 yards so I decide why not pull the fan out and crawl them. So I crawl through the CRP and there’s a seed drill in the hayfield between us so I position myself to crawl behind the drill. Well as soon as the hens saw that fan they came running. You’d of thought they were pissed off toms. All the way in to ten yards. Ends up the strutter was a Jake but there was a longbeard with him and they were headed my way too. That is until the Jake chased the tom away from me. The tom starts making his way back as the Jake turned his attention towards me. The hens now 5 yards, I’m wondering how long it’s going to take before they bust me the tom makes it to 15yards I drop the fan, shoulder the gun, and boom.....boom......turkey wings flapping.... me pulling my binos up to watch the tom as he flies away. Are you kidding me?!?!? Second bird missed in a row. What is going on!! Why is my gun not cycling the third round?!?
Didn’t get a shot opportunity the rest of the trip but I was on a successful hunt with one of the guys when he shot a Jake during the trip...I get home try going through my gun. Put it back together and everything works as it should. Consulted a buddy on the cycling issue he told me to make sure my barrel is seated correctly boom fixed. Not going to say that’s why I missed because after reflecting I can guarantee I didn’t get my head down.
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I decided to hunt first season this year just so I could keep hunting with other people during the typically hot action packed 2nd-4th seasons and I was hunting Nebraska the 2nd season weekend. So the first day of first season me and a buddy from work headed down to the farm we shot our double on in 2020 and it was cold and windy. Didn’t hear a gobble all morning. Three hens eventually showed up but that was all around 1:30 I decided we’d go try another farm that I typically don’t have much luck on. We sit down to wait the afternoon out. Still no gobbling but we see a couple hens milling around. I catch a glimpse of movement behind a cedar tree about 70 yards away and I move my binos up to see what it was and sure enough it was a tom. I call softly and a hen comes around the tree towards us and I tell my buddy to be ready. The tom comes around and pops his head up just looking. I’m not sure if he saw something at this point but I knew something was wrong and just like that he turns around. We goes back to where I originally saw him and struts around. The hen moves off and I tell my buddy if he wants to try to reap him he can. Well that wasn’t a good idea the tom wanted nothing to do with it. I’m looking through my binos and notice something wrong with the bird. There’s an arrow hanging out of him. Which could be why he was a wee bit wary. That was the only action the rest of the day.
Thursday comes around and I decide why go to work when it’s the last day of first season so I drive down to a friends brand new farm that I’ve dreamed of hunting when I drove by it many times and would always see toms strutting so you knew I was excited to hear the news they bought it and I was allowed to turkey hunt. Well I get down there later than I wanted to but and they were gobbling as I’m shutting my car door still needing to get dressed as it was a cold frosty morning. I hop the gate and trot my way towards the gobbles and man when I got to the top of the hill there was too many options. I decided to go with my gut feeling and try to get to a cove in the alfalfa field and I go passed a few toms while doing this but I had a good feeling looking at the aerial map of the farm. Remember I’ve never even stepped foot on this farm before this day. Well I get close to where I want to be and there’s two toms hammering close and at this point it’s bright enough where I knew I could be busted trying to be too aggressive so I pick the only tree close enough that I wouldn’t blow the birds out of the area. And I belly crawl my decoys out kind of to my left when I got to set up. The tree I was left with was on the east side of the field finger and the toms were straight down the finger to my right. I have a big cedar tree on my right side so I can’t see that way at all. Luck of the draw I guess. Once I got sat up and ready the first time the gobbled I cut and helped right back. They fired off again. Soon after I could hear the wing beats as they fluttered from their roosts. Bam!! They light up again and I yelp right back to them.. Then I can hear the drumming.. then the spitting. I catch glimpses of two toms strutting their way toward me through the cedar tree. They couldn’t of been more than 30 yards away and coming. But I can’t shoot through the tree so I am holding tight and the spitting and drumming is getting louder and louder. The come around the cedar tree at 3 yards. Smack dab in front of me. Walking right to left. They see my decoys and continue towards them. I’m swinging with them as they strut past me not getting any further from me but maintain that nice three yards. At this point I’m wondering how the heck have they not busted me. My hearts racing and they are getting to that area where you can’t turn left anymore while you are sitting so I settle in, so I thought, and squeezed the trigger just to watch them run out into the field and I try to shoot again. What can I say turkey fever got me for the first time, I didn’t have my head down and I missed my first turkey with the gun. I ended up hunting for the remainder of the day getting close a couple times but never had another shot opportunity.
The first day of second season I took my buddy out for the morning as I was leaving for Nebraska about midday. So we go to the farm I hunted the first day of first season. We hear a gobble and get set up in a “for sure” area. The tom answers the call and we watch him fly down across the clover food plot and into the bean field to vanish forever. The only thing we could think of was it was super dewy so maybe he didn’t want to be in the tall clover. So we try another farm with no luck and I end up dropping him of and I head to Nebraska.
Good ole Nebraska, if you haven’t heard of a Walker’s Nebraska turkey hunt then you are missing out. Blizzards, impassable roads, getting stuck in the middle of nowhere, loosing the muffler. It’s never a smooth trip. So we get to the place I’ve had some good luck in the past to scout. So we are wrapping around the lake and leave the pavement just to find mud, no big deal right?!! Wrong, we can’t make it down 90% of the roads, I can’t get to the areas I know where turkeys are. So we spend the remainder of the day trying to find birds. We find a few on private but none on public. We meet up with a few other friends later in the evening and go and get some grub and discuss the morning plans. The next morning I tell the guy just to drop me off at the corner of the road we can’t make it down and I’ll walk in from there. I had a 1.25 mile hike just to get to the public land. But man what a relief it was to hear birds gobble when I got there and I knew right where they were from previous years. Unfortunately that was another mile hike so I’m trucking along get to where I can see the roost tree. I watch the flock pitch down and start doing their thing toms gobbling like crazy. They stay on private but I knew it was a matter of time before they made their way to the public so I just stick with them moving slowly as they do and I eventually get to an area where they are on the fence line. I sit in a brush pile and call softly just trying to get a gobble to confirm where they are well all of a sudden a tom comes running towards me so I hold the fan up and sounded like a frenzy broke out toms were gobbling everywhere. Well the Tom runs all the way to 20 yards and hangs up on the fence and decides it was no big deal and leaves. So I crawl towards the birds behind the fan hoping it’ll be enough to coax one through the fence. They have other plans and make their way away from me. So back to the cat and mouse game it is. I follow the birds for a couple miles total before finally giving up on them as they found an area on private they seemed content. So now it’s mid afternoon rain is moving in I talk to the other guys and they are going to drive around some more as they didn’t get on birds so I decide to slowly make my way back to where I was dropped off making a few set ups on my way in hopes of catching a traveling bird. With no luck doing that I’m cresting the final hill on the public to see a strutter and hens in a hay field. So I get down quickly and wait for them as they are heading straight for me after waiting 30 minutes. I wonder where they are and give a look and they hadn’t moved 10 yards so I decide why not pull the fan out and crawl them. So I crawl through the CRP and there’s a seed drill in the hayfield between us so I position myself to crawl behind the drill. Well as soon as the hens saw that fan they came running. You’d of thought they were pissed off toms. All the way in to ten yards. Ends up the strutter was a Jake but there was a longbeard with him and they were headed my way too. That is until the Jake chased the tom away from me. The tom starts making his way back as the Jake turned his attention towards me. The hens now 5 yards, I’m wondering how long it’s going to take before they bust me the tom makes it to 15yards I drop the fan, shoulder the gun, and boom.....boom......turkey wings flapping.... me pulling my binos up to watch the tom as he flies away. Are you kidding me?!?!? Second bird missed in a row. What is going on!! Why is my gun not cycling the third round?!?
Didn’t get a shot opportunity the rest of the trip but I was on a successful hunt with one of the guys when he shot a Jake during the trip...I get home try going through my gun. Put it back together and everything works as it should. Consulted a buddy on the cycling issue he told me to make sure my barrel is seated correctly boom fixed. Not going to say that’s why I missed because after reflecting I can guarantee I didn’t get my head down.
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. What a season right. 
