Yesterday was a pretty long day for Weasel and I.  I was up at 3 a.m. and ready to go when Weasel showed up at 4:30 and loaded his things in the truck.  A perfect day for hunting, at least here at home.

As we traveled the 45 minute drive we started to see snow in the headlights.  By the time we arrived at the sign in point of the Walk-In access it was snowing pretty good.  We knew it wouldn’t last too long, but it did bring in a dimension to the days hunting that we were not totally prepared for.  But, we mustered on!

At the hunker down point, we set the long hen decoy on a slight rise in the open field and made our ways to our trees of choice.  Not being totally familiar with turkey hunting in the first place we decided to split up and share the hen decoy from different views.  Each blind was about 30 yards from the decoy.  From my vantage point I could barely see it through the tall brush surrounding my tree.

I broke a few small branches off and settled into the small space with my newly made seat planted very nicely under my behind.  Resting my back against the trunk of the small oak I felt very comfy.  The wind blew into my face and when it brought a snow squall, that too pelted me good.  I figured it was just a small part of learning about turkey hunting.

I had been nestled into my space for about 10 minutes when I noticed the morning sky beginning to brighten and it seemed to brighten really quickly.  The overcast sky was lifting and revealing snow on the ground way across the valley to the East of us.  No snow lay on the ground around us as it was just spitting.

The birds began to chirp in the nearby trees and movement could be seen up on a hillside about 200 yards in front of me…deer…And then I heard the first of several gobbles.  The birds were still in the trees and were waking up…gobble, gobble….gobble, gobble.  And then another from a slightly different place.  And then a third.  From my vantage point I thought the sounds were coming from my left side, but Weasel confirmed they were coming from behind my position and high up on another hill.  The sounds had to be bouncing back to me from the hill where the deer had crossed.

When it was light enough for the fly down to occur the birds clammed up!  Not a peep could be heard and where they went is anyone’s guess.  We didn’t see any turkeys.

About 10:30 or so we decided to move to a new location several miles away and try again.  We drove the hour to that spot and then started trekking up the trail in the bottom of a small canyon.  A noisy stream runs down the bottom of the canyon, but we felt confident we would see a turkey.  There didn’t seem to be any sign of others walking on this trail but there were horse tracks most of which were quite old.  We hadn’t walked too far, maybe 300 yards when I saw a turkey running away from us up the trail and then it took flight!  A hen for sure, but are there others?  We didn’t see any more and didn’t hear anything either.  So off up the trail we continued.

The canyon is very steep on both sides and the climb was quite steep in places.  The view around us as we proceeded was not very wide and it just didn’t look like a likely turkey spot, but we continued on.  I have always threatened to take this hike and why not make it today?  On we went.

Soon, we came to a split in the trail.  The stream came down a drainage to the left and the other went right…we went right to get away from the noise of the stream.  Maybe we will be able to hear turkeys gobbling.  We would stop every 100 or so yards and make sounds like a hen, hoping to hear a distant (or close) gobbler…we got no responses all day.

At the end of the trail was a locked gate and a blown down sign saying something about no trespassing and a $200 fine…those who know where we were hunting will relate to those signs.

There was a wide spot on top of this ridge just down from the gate and it had loads of turkey droppings around on the ground.  Weasel figures this is a staging or strutting area that is used first thing in the mornings.  I don’t know, but it sure would be a great ambush place to get a turkey.  The problem is the 2 hours it takes to get there.

The trail back was steep as we descended off the ridge.  We had just climbed up that trail and it didn’t seem that steep to me.  Sure it was a tiring walk up, but we were going slow and stopping often.  Coming down it I could feel my hips beginning to ache and my feet burning.  At the bottom of the 400 yard hill, Weasel spotted a turkey “getting out dodge”, I saw it disappear around a cedar in the bottom of the draw to our right.  We quickly set Weasel down on the point, I cut back about 20 yards and started calling.  Hoping that if it was a gobbler it would come back looking for the lost hen…30 minutes later we were on the trail down off the mountain again.

We saw one other turkey, a gobbler, on the lawn of a private cabin on the drive back home…and that was it for the day.  Oh, except for the very sore muscles in the legs and hips…talk about out of shape!

Today is our day to head back up to the youth turkey hunt!  It’s another exciting weekend for us and the kids!  The weather is calling for a 30% chance of rain on Saturday and I hope that doesn’t materialize.  Some say turkey hunting in the rain is the best time to go…personally, I’d rather hunt them when it’s 60 degrees and not raining or snowing.  So, just like last week, don’t expect any more from the Bears Butt until we come back from this hunt.  I’ll post up the final story from the UWC Youth Turkey Camp on Monday…pictures included.

Bears Butt

May 2, 2013