THA4
A Few Steps Ahead Of You
I will try to not make this too long…… but you know me…… /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
This hunt began 11 years ago when I harvested my 1st 4th season bird. He was my 2nd bird ever and a dandy short beard! But I wanted more, I wanted to kill a 4th season longbeard and it took me 11 years to accomplish that. I have killed a jake the last weekend of 4th season for 8 of those 11 years. for some reason or another I have been unable to whack a true fatty late in the spring.
I have horrible spring allergies and the later in the season it gets, the harder it is for me to be outside. It sucks but I go regardless and am really miserable. I have stuck it out year after year only to come up short. Don’t get me wrong however, I would rather take a jake instead of eating a tag and I am proud of every bird I have shot. But when you set goals, and come up short there is disappointment that follows.
This began last year when great friend, Jeremy King offered for me to hunt his ground during 4th season. I hunted hard, but ate that tag…… We made plans to together break the curse this year, but early to avoid the harsh allergy season.
This week was promised to be exciting no matter what as we planned to hunt Wednesday through Friday, then Pre-fish for a Sunday Bass tournament on Saturday at 3-mile lake. 5 solid days of hunting and fishing…..
I arrived early afternoon Tuesday and we spend some time looking for a killable bird and put him to bed. We did just that and had plans to return early the following morning. I hardly slept as I too excited! Finally the time arrived and we set up the Double Bull with a pair of feeder hens and awaited the morning serenade! Birds gobbled in every direction and as fly down rapidly approached we knew one of these birds would be suckered into range.
A bird gobbled at our calls but was still far off. We waited a minutes and called again. He cut us off and had cut the distance in half. He gobbled a few more times over the next several minutes and we decided to shut up and let him come! He suddenly appeared in the field and gobbled, saw our decoys and came in on a string!
Because Jeremy was the permission holder and doing all the “guiding” we agreed to let him whack the first fatty in the decoys. And with the TK2000 he laid him out at 30 yards!
20 lbs.
9 inch beard
And NO spurs….not broken, just never grew…..
Congrats Jeremy!
Great Hunt, doesn't get much easier than that!
After a 30 minute hunt on the first day, our hopes were high and we thought finding another workable bird would be “easy”. Boy was I wrong.
We hunted hard, very hard, and got very close many times but for some reason or another couldn’t connect. We hunted all day every day. We had hoped to tag out before Saturday as we wanted to Pre-Fish for our tournament.
Friday started out with several close calls. I had actually decided to call it a day as we had some dinner plans. But, as many times before, after I “quit” I get re-energized and opt to head back out. On our way out to the spot where I was going to pop up the blind and sit till dark, we ran across a tom strutting in a small secluded area with a few hens. We decided he was hunt-able and began to move in on him. We got to within 100 yards of where he “should be”, set up and called. He instantly fired back verifying his position. We called and he answered and he closed the distance. Then just out of range the hens took him out of sight and away from our set up to the nearest corn field.
We decided to belly crawl to the fence as we were lower than his position and try to get a shot. We made it there without spooking him and located him but no shot. We waited hoping he would come back through the way he came and we could punch him at 20 yards. We were leaning against some hog panel fence and I put the 10 ga through one of the holes anticipating him to walk along the fence. Well he didn’t, in fact, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The Gobbie had slipped behind a brush pile and out of our sight and ended up crossing a wide open logging road at 20 yards. I was pinned down as I still had my gun through the fence. I was hoppin’ mad! That was my chance and I blew it!
We decided to back out, make supper and try to hit him in the morning……
This morning…..
This was the single most difficult late spring turkey hunting conditions I had ever hunted in. Full cold weather gear, bibs, jackets upon hoodies upon longjohns….. and it was VERY Windy!! 25 mph sustained winds…. I had actually told Jeremy in the truck this morning that I would be fine heading back and sleeping as I figured no way in heck were we gonna smack a birdy in this weather!
After a couple hours of shivering and not seeing anything, we decided to go try and find this bird. He only had a couple places he could be and the terrain allowed for some sneaking. About 20 minutes into the search Jeremy spotted a couple hens from behind a cedar tree already in range. I crawled up found the Tom and introduced him to the Browning Gold 10 ga at 35 yards!!!!
Upside-down bicycle! I had broken the curse and killed a great bird! I couldn’t be more proud and a huge word of thanks to Jeremy as he stuck with me the entire time and pushed me when my attitude went south! These two birds are memories that will last forever!
This Bird and Jeremy had a 3 year history. This was the only bird that frequented the area and has had numerous attempts on his life. He was affectionately known as the “Sewer Pond Gobbie”.
Thanks Jeremy, fantastic weekend!
Here he is:
25 lbs.
9 inch beard
1 1/4 spurs!
Finally broke the curse!!
This hunt began 11 years ago when I harvested my 1st 4th season bird. He was my 2nd bird ever and a dandy short beard! But I wanted more, I wanted to kill a 4th season longbeard and it took me 11 years to accomplish that. I have killed a jake the last weekend of 4th season for 8 of those 11 years. for some reason or another I have been unable to whack a true fatty late in the spring.
I have horrible spring allergies and the later in the season it gets, the harder it is for me to be outside. It sucks but I go regardless and am really miserable. I have stuck it out year after year only to come up short. Don’t get me wrong however, I would rather take a jake instead of eating a tag and I am proud of every bird I have shot. But when you set goals, and come up short there is disappointment that follows.
This began last year when great friend, Jeremy King offered for me to hunt his ground during 4th season. I hunted hard, but ate that tag…… We made plans to together break the curse this year, but early to avoid the harsh allergy season.
This week was promised to be exciting no matter what as we planned to hunt Wednesday through Friday, then Pre-fish for a Sunday Bass tournament on Saturday at 3-mile lake. 5 solid days of hunting and fishing…..
I arrived early afternoon Tuesday and we spend some time looking for a killable bird and put him to bed. We did just that and had plans to return early the following morning. I hardly slept as I too excited! Finally the time arrived and we set up the Double Bull with a pair of feeder hens and awaited the morning serenade! Birds gobbled in every direction and as fly down rapidly approached we knew one of these birds would be suckered into range.
A bird gobbled at our calls but was still far off. We waited a minutes and called again. He cut us off and had cut the distance in half. He gobbled a few more times over the next several minutes and we decided to shut up and let him come! He suddenly appeared in the field and gobbled, saw our decoys and came in on a string!
Because Jeremy was the permission holder and doing all the “guiding” we agreed to let him whack the first fatty in the decoys. And with the TK2000 he laid him out at 30 yards!
20 lbs.
9 inch beard
And NO spurs….not broken, just never grew…..
Congrats Jeremy!
Great Hunt, doesn't get much easier than that!
After a 30 minute hunt on the first day, our hopes were high and we thought finding another workable bird would be “easy”. Boy was I wrong.
We hunted hard, very hard, and got very close many times but for some reason or another couldn’t connect. We hunted all day every day. We had hoped to tag out before Saturday as we wanted to Pre-Fish for our tournament.
Friday started out with several close calls. I had actually decided to call it a day as we had some dinner plans. But, as many times before, after I “quit” I get re-energized and opt to head back out. On our way out to the spot where I was going to pop up the blind and sit till dark, we ran across a tom strutting in a small secluded area with a few hens. We decided he was hunt-able and began to move in on him. We got to within 100 yards of where he “should be”, set up and called. He instantly fired back verifying his position. We called and he answered and he closed the distance. Then just out of range the hens took him out of sight and away from our set up to the nearest corn field.
We decided to belly crawl to the fence as we were lower than his position and try to get a shot. We made it there without spooking him and located him but no shot. We waited hoping he would come back through the way he came and we could punch him at 20 yards. We were leaning against some hog panel fence and I put the 10 ga through one of the holes anticipating him to walk along the fence. Well he didn’t, in fact, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The Gobbie had slipped behind a brush pile and out of our sight and ended up crossing a wide open logging road at 20 yards. I was pinned down as I still had my gun through the fence. I was hoppin’ mad! That was my chance and I blew it!
We decided to back out, make supper and try to hit him in the morning……
This morning…..
This was the single most difficult late spring turkey hunting conditions I had ever hunted in. Full cold weather gear, bibs, jackets upon hoodies upon longjohns….. and it was VERY Windy!! 25 mph sustained winds…. I had actually told Jeremy in the truck this morning that I would be fine heading back and sleeping as I figured no way in heck were we gonna smack a birdy in this weather!
After a couple hours of shivering and not seeing anything, we decided to go try and find this bird. He only had a couple places he could be and the terrain allowed for some sneaking. About 20 minutes into the search Jeremy spotted a couple hens from behind a cedar tree already in range. I crawled up found the Tom and introduced him to the Browning Gold 10 ga at 35 yards!!!!
Upside-down bicycle! I had broken the curse and killed a great bird! I couldn’t be more proud and a huge word of thanks to Jeremy as he stuck with me the entire time and pushed me when my attitude went south! These two birds are memories that will last forever!
This Bird and Jeremy had a 3 year history. This was the only bird that frequented the area and has had numerous attempts on his life. He was affectionately known as the “Sewer Pond Gobbie”.
Thanks Jeremy, fantastic weekend!
Here he is:
25 lbs.
9 inch beard
1 1/4 spurs!
Finally broke the curse!!
