CurtisWalker
Well-Known Member
Figured I’d compile my season into one thread so if people want to follow along they can, if they don’t I won’t be filling the forum with threads. My goal this wear was to be on hunts to kill 20 turkeys. Unfortunately this fell sideways when the youth hunters I planned on taking couldn’t go.
First season
I took Matt out on opening day to a piece I can hunt. Opening morning we got in and the birds were kinda where I thought they’d be. We snuck within 75 yards of the roost. I figured the turkeys would go uphill after fly down like they tend to do so I placed the decoys in the field uphill from the timber. I picked a tree for Matt and unfortunately it was a honey locust so he had to pick another one and I snuck further into the timber. Before we knew it I could see/hear turkeys flying down. Matt could see a tom strutting 50ish yards from him. Perfect he should come straight into the decoys. Wrong he tucked into the timber where I could finally see him and disappeared out of sight. Where I was sitting I could see the bottom field and before I knew it I was watching turkey after turkey file into the bottom field some 20 yards away from me. Unfortunately I was between Matt and the turkeys. So I’m watching 8 or so toms strutting in the field below us with a pile of hens when we start to hear wing beats like turkeys fighting. It escalates so loud that it ended up being white noise with purrs, wing beats, and whatever other noise a group of angry turkeys make. It was the loudest thing I’ve probably ever heard in the turkey woods. Pure chaos. Unfortunately it was just over the ridge and we couldn’t witness what was happening. After the turkeys cleared off we tried to make a move on them and struck out the rest of the morning. No worries though we had the perfect game plan for the next morning. Or so we thought…. Tuesday morning we walk in and not a single gobble. We sat up anyways thinking maybe they were just quiet on the roost. Where 30+ turkeys were roosted the morning before was completely empty. Not even a hen. We finally hear a gobble on the other side of the farm so we take off after it. We stop short of the cornfield we thought the turkey was in and set up Matt about 20 yards ahead of me closer to the field and me behind calling. The tom gobbles again but at this point it sounds like he has made it to the neighbors so we just wait. Matt turns to me and says he can see a hen walking so I softly call and next thing we know we can see a group of turkeys. I look in my binos and it turns out it was a group of jakes. Now if you know Matt a legal bird is a legal bird so I knew it was going to go down. I call a little more and they start working on a string. Matt had one branch obstructing a shot but eventually a bird cleared and he shot one. I couldn’t tell what happened so when he turned back too me I slowly raised a thumbs up. He returned the signal assuring me it was a success.
Second Season/Nebraska
I tend to always go to Nebraska for their shotgun opener. This year I didn’t think it was going to happen especially with it being Easter weekend. Well things fell through and me and my buddy decided to leave on Friday. I have a good idea of the areas and where the turkeys are going to be at so when we got there Friday we just drove around to confirm things haven’t changed. Watched birds roost in one of my favorite locations because I know no one is going to walk far enough to get to them. Then we went back to another roost tree and we’re met by gobbles. So we just parked the car in the parking lot and slept. Opening morning comes and we start walking in way early with the bright full moon. We get to where we thought the gobbles were coming from and just wait. As the sun comes up the gobbles start and we realize they are a little further than we thought. Of course on a normal year this wouldn’t be a problem but this year the water was high and we had a mile walk to get around the cove that you can usually walk across. We get to about 150 yards from the roost and set up. As soon as the birds hit the ground they go quiet. So we are sitting there and I here something in the grass behind us I look over to see two toms running parallel to us. Weird I thought. When they got out of sight we figured we’d move on them and get in front of them. Well when we stood up we could see two hunters walking in. Made sense now that the turkeys were running from them. We spend the rest of the morning trying to strike a gobble. 5 miles later not a bird. At this point I’m stressed because I’m usually on birds at this point and I’ve usually seen plenty of strutters. I wanted my buddy’s first trip west to be a good one. So I made the plan to go to the other roost spot where we watched the turkeys fly up during legal shooting light the night before. I figured we could get in early and close to where they were roosted and kill em when they come back to bed. So we hike in the 2 miles of hell and set up. 5 hours left in the day. The time passes slowly and not a sound. About 30 min left in light a hen starts yelping right behind us. Yes!! This is going to work. 20 minutes left nothing else yet. 10 minutes left GOBBLE!!!! Here he comes…..5 minutes still no sight of him. Legal light ends and still no turkey. So we pack our stuff back up and walk the walk of shame back to the car. With the way things were going at this piece I figured I’d drive an hour and hit up another piece I’ve had great hunts on. We get there at 11pm and a car is sleeping in the parking lot. I’m now stumped but figured we’d just go down the road a bit sleep and listen for gobbles in the morning as I’ve heard turkeys there before. Sunday morning comes and we get out and listen with no luck. We planned on leaving at noon so I drove around the piece to the other side to where I killed a tom a few years ago. I was nervous our luck was out because I hadn’t heard a gobble in this area for two years. We get out and walk in anyways. I get to the edge of the timber and Yelp. Gobble, omg this is actually going to work for my buddy. So we rush to set up and start working this bird. An hour later we realize he isn’t budging. So we start making short moves getting closer to him and setting up and working that spot for a half hour or so. He wouldn’t respond to the call but would gobble consistently so we got to a point where we thought if we would go much further he’d bust us so we just sit next to the tree and call. No response still. Next thing you know we can hear steps in front of us but out of view due to 3 big cottonwoods. The steps stop and we wonder where they went. We stay silent and wait. We have been working this bird for 3.5 hours at this point. After another 30 minutes I call and I hear steps running towards us. I think they are coming from the west and the last steps we heard were to our SW so I figured it had to be the Tom and he looked around us. The steps get louder and louder and I realize they are directly behind us and think dang it’s just a deer but I slowly look anyways and notice a red head pop out from behind the tree I’m on at 5 yards, and another, and another. Ope they are jakes! I tell Chase “they are jakes” he responds “let them come around the tree” so I do and they are still mostly on my side so he told me to shoot first then he’d shoot second so I could cover my ears before he shot. I shoot and kill mine and he misses his first shot but connects on the second two. Turns out this was both of our first jakes ever. 11:30am just in time for photos and to walk out and get home in time for Easter Supper.
First season
I took Matt out on opening day to a piece I can hunt. Opening morning we got in and the birds were kinda where I thought they’d be. We snuck within 75 yards of the roost. I figured the turkeys would go uphill after fly down like they tend to do so I placed the decoys in the field uphill from the timber. I picked a tree for Matt and unfortunately it was a honey locust so he had to pick another one and I snuck further into the timber. Before we knew it I could see/hear turkeys flying down. Matt could see a tom strutting 50ish yards from him. Perfect he should come straight into the decoys. Wrong he tucked into the timber where I could finally see him and disappeared out of sight. Where I was sitting I could see the bottom field and before I knew it I was watching turkey after turkey file into the bottom field some 20 yards away from me. Unfortunately I was between Matt and the turkeys. So I’m watching 8 or so toms strutting in the field below us with a pile of hens when we start to hear wing beats like turkeys fighting. It escalates so loud that it ended up being white noise with purrs, wing beats, and whatever other noise a group of angry turkeys make. It was the loudest thing I’ve probably ever heard in the turkey woods. Pure chaos. Unfortunately it was just over the ridge and we couldn’t witness what was happening. After the turkeys cleared off we tried to make a move on them and struck out the rest of the morning. No worries though we had the perfect game plan for the next morning. Or so we thought…. Tuesday morning we walk in and not a single gobble. We sat up anyways thinking maybe they were just quiet on the roost. Where 30+ turkeys were roosted the morning before was completely empty. Not even a hen. We finally hear a gobble on the other side of the farm so we take off after it. We stop short of the cornfield we thought the turkey was in and set up Matt about 20 yards ahead of me closer to the field and me behind calling. The tom gobbles again but at this point it sounds like he has made it to the neighbors so we just wait. Matt turns to me and says he can see a hen walking so I softly call and next thing we know we can see a group of turkeys. I look in my binos and it turns out it was a group of jakes. Now if you know Matt a legal bird is a legal bird so I knew it was going to go down. I call a little more and they start working on a string. Matt had one branch obstructing a shot but eventually a bird cleared and he shot one. I couldn’t tell what happened so when he turned back too me I slowly raised a thumbs up. He returned the signal assuring me it was a success.
Second Season/Nebraska
I tend to always go to Nebraska for their shotgun opener. This year I didn’t think it was going to happen especially with it being Easter weekend. Well things fell through and me and my buddy decided to leave on Friday. I have a good idea of the areas and where the turkeys are going to be at so when we got there Friday we just drove around to confirm things haven’t changed. Watched birds roost in one of my favorite locations because I know no one is going to walk far enough to get to them. Then we went back to another roost tree and we’re met by gobbles. So we just parked the car in the parking lot and slept. Opening morning comes and we start walking in way early with the bright full moon. We get to where we thought the gobbles were coming from and just wait. As the sun comes up the gobbles start and we realize they are a little further than we thought. Of course on a normal year this wouldn’t be a problem but this year the water was high and we had a mile walk to get around the cove that you can usually walk across. We get to about 150 yards from the roost and set up. As soon as the birds hit the ground they go quiet. So we are sitting there and I here something in the grass behind us I look over to see two toms running parallel to us. Weird I thought. When they got out of sight we figured we’d move on them and get in front of them. Well when we stood up we could see two hunters walking in. Made sense now that the turkeys were running from them. We spend the rest of the morning trying to strike a gobble. 5 miles later not a bird. At this point I’m stressed because I’m usually on birds at this point and I’ve usually seen plenty of strutters. I wanted my buddy’s first trip west to be a good one. So I made the plan to go to the other roost spot where we watched the turkeys fly up during legal shooting light the night before. I figured we could get in early and close to where they were roosted and kill em when they come back to bed. So we hike in the 2 miles of hell and set up. 5 hours left in the day. The time passes slowly and not a sound. About 30 min left in light a hen starts yelping right behind us. Yes!! This is going to work. 20 minutes left nothing else yet. 10 minutes left GOBBLE!!!! Here he comes…..5 minutes still no sight of him. Legal light ends and still no turkey. So we pack our stuff back up and walk the walk of shame back to the car. With the way things were going at this piece I figured I’d drive an hour and hit up another piece I’ve had great hunts on. We get there at 11pm and a car is sleeping in the parking lot. I’m now stumped but figured we’d just go down the road a bit sleep and listen for gobbles in the morning as I’ve heard turkeys there before. Sunday morning comes and we get out and listen with no luck. We planned on leaving at noon so I drove around the piece to the other side to where I killed a tom a few years ago. I was nervous our luck was out because I hadn’t heard a gobble in this area for two years. We get out and walk in anyways. I get to the edge of the timber and Yelp. Gobble, omg this is actually going to work for my buddy. So we rush to set up and start working this bird. An hour later we realize he isn’t budging. So we start making short moves getting closer to him and setting up and working that spot for a half hour or so. He wouldn’t respond to the call but would gobble consistently so we got to a point where we thought if we would go much further he’d bust us so we just sit next to the tree and call. No response still. Next thing you know we can hear steps in front of us but out of view due to 3 big cottonwoods. The steps stop and we wonder where they went. We stay silent and wait. We have been working this bird for 3.5 hours at this point. After another 30 minutes I call and I hear steps running towards us. I think they are coming from the west and the last steps we heard were to our SW so I figured it had to be the Tom and he looked around us. The steps get louder and louder and I realize they are directly behind us and think dang it’s just a deer but I slowly look anyways and notice a red head pop out from behind the tree I’m on at 5 yards, and another, and another. Ope they are jakes! I tell Chase “they are jakes” he responds “let them come around the tree” so I do and they are still mostly on my side so he told me to shoot first then he’d shoot second so I could cover my ears before he shot. I shoot and kill mine and he misses his first shot but connects on the second two. Turns out this was both of our first jakes ever. 11:30am just in time for photos and to walk out and get home in time for Easter Supper.
Last edited:
