Well it is now or sometime next week for me!  The weather is going to change to rain tonight so Weasel and I are going to go once again to try and fill our tags!  Those gobblers have us going!  Remember last time we went, we would have been closer to the birds had we stayed in the truck, but this time we are going to out smart them…..ya right.

We have our plan…go in early…go in light…stay mobile…run and gun…don’t stop till you drop…(almost sounds like my younger days hitting the bars).

At any rate, we did our work yesterday and today is our day to play!  Come on turkeys!  Give us a chance to blast your beady little heads off!

More to come later!

Bears Butt

May 14, 2015

UPDATE:

Ya, so today marked our 7th day out trying to bag a turkey.  They are winning!

As we pulled up to the parking place I saw my headlight hanging on a fence post:

YEA!  My headlamp…I tried it quickly but it didn’t work.  I figured the batteries must be dead.  I can deal with that later.

We hit the slope right on time and because I had a new blind to establish I needed the extra time.  First to find my spot and second to get me some cover.  You see I don’t have a store bought blind.

We got there just right and I stumbled around until I had everything I needed in place and then settled in for the duration.   My hopes were high.  Remember that the last time I was here the birds flew down “across the ravine”,  well now I’m across the ravine!

My blind went well and soon I was settled in for what was going to be a “LONG DAY”!!!!  Remember we are getting to the area at 5:00 a.m.!!!!  Turns out we didn’t leave the area until 3 p.m. today!  THAT was a long day.  Try that on your butt without moving very much!  I’ll feel it in the morning.  Here is a picture I took later in the day once the birds had settled down.  You are going to like this story.

So here I sit and it’s still very dark outside.  My view is just what you can see here, not much to either side and I’m hearing stuff…..scary stuff.  Grunt and groans, snapping twigs, something shuffling in the grass…I’m not too comfy, but I stick it out without calling out loud noises.  And to my surprise I’m still alive!

As the morning light came to be, the morning was beautiful but quiet (again)…no gobbles.  When it was time for the fly down I heard a cackle and then saw two hens sail past to my right.  I waited for more but there was nothing else.  Bummer dude!  So they go off on their way up the hill to my right and out of sight.  I wait.  I wait some more.  I wait still.  I’m thinking, “is that it for today”?  No!  IT CAN’T BE!

Time continues to go on and it gets lighter and lighter.  Soon I can see the sun coming up, even though covered with clouds it is up.  And then I hear some “PUTTS”….the birds are still on the roost but they are putting!  That is not normal.  Then all goes silent.

My hearing isn’t that good in either ear, but my left is better than my right and I’m turning my head often to try and pick up any sound I can.  Then I hear it….a gobble coming from atop the far hill!  I look up in time to see 9 heads appearing over the horizon!  All of them looking down toward where I am hiding.  I slowly raise my binoculars and low and behold every one is a gobbler!  9 gobblers!  I’m so excited now I can hardly stand it!    Yes they are far away…like 600 yards, but they can still see my lonely hen decoy.  I carefully reached for my call and gave out a “lonely hen, come and git sum” call….5 of the nine birds raced off that mountain like there was no tomorrow!  My heart was really racing now in anticipation of those 5 birds coming to see what was up with lonely little “Gretc- Hen”.  I twisted my body in all sorts of configurations to get the gun up and ready for the first bearded wonder to come through the brush.  I held my position as the gobbled and came running in my direction.  My side was beginning to cramp up as I help firm and steady.  I was thinking, I can’t hold this much longer, come on big bearded boy.  But nothing came.  I heard them gobble and it sounded like they were right on top of me.  Not one, but at least two of them gobbling at the same time.  LOUD, I might add!  And then out of my peripheral vision I saw two hens sail down and to my right past where I expected the gobblers to come out.  I waited and waited and then heard the faint gobble of one going away….bummer!  Those two hens were taking them away from Grec-Hen.

I calmed myself and relaxed, my cramped side was really paining me bad!  I need a blind with a recliner, hot coffee when needed, a caller, a masseuse and a gun bearer.

Well, that was not the end of the day.

Soon I saw the 4 other gobblers up on the hill take a right turn….that means they are coming my way!  And I can see them!  They came to where I watched them cross the hillside across and over my decoy about half way up the hill.  All 4 gobblers!  They disappeared into the trees.  Weasel is just down the way at the bottom of the hill those birds went across.  Maybe he will get a shot, I thought.

Gobbling continued high and low all morning long and I counted at least 13 gobblers around us.  This was going to be our day for sure.  All we need to do is sit quiet and wait.

Then I saw movement coming down the hill toward Weasel!  I slowly lifted my binocs and sure enough RED HEADS!  5 of them!  OOOOOOO!  Weasel get ready it is show time!  From my angle I didn’t know if he could see them or not and they were as silent as could be….coming in quiet.  Weasel had his decoy out and if they saw it they should come running!  As I watched the show unfold the only one I could see with a beard stayed high.  The others had red heads, but I could not put beards on them.  They came down off the hill and one came in front of Weasel about 30 yards out.  I kept waiting for the sound of the shotgun…..nothing….the birds finished up feeding there and proceeded to go back up the hill and disappear.  DANG!

We continued to wait where we were and heard some gobbles below us…again hoping they would come up to pass by our position….that didn’t happen….We called it a day at 3 p.m.

That is turkey hunting folks.  You think you have them cornered and suddenly you are the one with nowhere to go!

Bears Butt