The turkeys won yesterday, but today is another day!  Head Hammer is going to take out a gobbler!

Weasel, Hot Spark and I are going back to try and intercept them.  Weasel posted another movie from his trail camera which showed them buggers about 20 yards from where I was sitting, so we know they like that meadow.  Rather than going back to my old blind, I’m going to once again set up where I did yesterday, in hopes they do something different than they did.  The little buggers had me going yesterday….the nerve….walking right past my other blind!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Today also marks my day to “lax” out!  What is “lax” out?  Ducolax and Miralax.  For those of you who know what those two “lax” babies do, you know that tomorrow someone is going to see where my head is at!

More later!

Bears Butt

May 11, 2015

LATER:  Not much later, but later still!

The morning dawned beautifully!  Nice and crisp but not a cloud in the sky.  It was kind of an “off” morning in that the birds were not as vocal as they usually are.  Very few robins and crows and I only heard one rooster pheasant!  BUT….the gobbler was in his normal roosting area!  That was a nice sound to hear.  He only gobbled a couple of times before they all flew down and when that action started, it ended as quickly.  I’m not sure how many birds flew down, maybe 9 or 10, but I was busy getting my gun to my shoulder, they were landing right in front of me about 50 yards out!  My heart was pumping hard until I realized they had just landed on the other side of a small ravine that runs down through the middle of the meadow!  DANG!

I’ve read and seen first hand that when it comes to a turkey crossing something like a ravine, creek and even a fence line, they choose not to and this was not going to be any exception.  They were on the other side and working their way up the meadow on that side!

As soon as they disappeared from my site, I was up out of my blind and heading up the hill to cut them off.  I had to move fast to get in position and I literally flew up that hill.  In past climbs it took my breath away and caused a near heart attack….not this time!  I was at the top before I even knew it!  Then across the meadow I went to get setup for them to come walking into me.  I was ready!

Waiting is a tough thing when you know they are coming up slowly feeding their way along, but I was going to sit there all day if need be!  I had seen the big old gobbler that was with them and he was sporting about a 9 inch beard.  The fan tail and beard will look good on my wall!  I waited.  I waited.  I kept hoping I would hear the hens clucking and purring as they got closer, but I heard nothing.

Soon I heard Weasels peacock call and knew he and Hot Spark were ready to head for the truck!  The birds must have done something I didn’t expect….well, I have to expect the birds will do something I don’t expect them to do.  Sure enough, they had gone straight up a very steep open hill right after they disappeared from my site and not up the meadow like I thought they would.  As we stood there whispering our next move, we heard him gobble on top of the hill!  Egging us on!  And so we took the challenge and even though poor Hot Spark was having a difficult time maneuvering the slippery hill trail, she made it!

Nearing the truck Weasel whispered he would bet the birds came up over the top, down the short side of the hill to the fence we were standing by and followed the trail up the fence line.  He bet we would see the birds if we drove the truck up the road.  And that is what we did when we left our parking spot.  And sure as tootin!  There were the birds!  All gathered up and happy as larks!  The gobbler showing off his stuff to the hens as we approached.  I was out of the truck like a blowing piece of plastic bag!  Weasel kept driving slowly and the birds were standing there about 10 yards away!  I quickly loaded the gun and ran for the side of the road.  The birds did not like seeing me that close and took off running away up an open hill!  I snapped the safety off and put the bead on the gobbler, but he stayed in the cluster of hens and hit the top of the hill on a full gallop and then they all took wing and off they went!

Had he separated himself from the hens I would have shot!  Road hunting turkeys!  I can be done!  It isn’t the romantic way of killing one, but at this point who is thinking about romance?

So, there you have another “almost” from the mighty hunters!

Now my mind is focusing on the dreaded “lax” and I don’t mean “re-lax”!

Bears Butt

ANOTHER day in the field.  This one is a Sunday, Mothers Day 2015.  Got the green light to head on out in to the stormy woods looking for Mr. Tom!  I should be going to Church with Winemaker, but it just seems more important to be going after a turkey with Weasel and Squirrel.  Squirrel is so excited!  He called me last night to invite me to go with him and his dad to try once again to get a turkey close enough for a shot.  SURE!  I said!  Of course I’ll go!

Weasel has a different plan up his sleeve as to where to set up this morning so, I’m not sure where I’ll set up.  My spot so far has been a bust.  A good spot for watching what is going on in the valley, but not a spot the birds want to play.  Weasel is planning on putting himself and Squirrel closer to the X.  Perhaps I’ll go up hill as well and plant myself near a small spring seep.  We will see.

I hope to have pictures of dead birds for the “LATER UPDATE” on here!  Until then!  Later!

Bears Butt

May 10, 2015

UPDATE:

My view before the morning light!

Turkeys are about as predictable as a wild boar hog!  Actually I think a wild boar hog is predictable.  So, turkeys are about as unpredictable as …….   I can’t think of anything to compare the unpredictability of a turkey to.  Maybe I need to rephrase what I’m trying to say this way:  Turkeys are predictable…..NOT!!!!

We got to the hunting grounds in perfect time!  We had the mountain to ourselves and made our way through the thick and thin of it to our spots.  It was VERY WET from yesterday and last night’s rain.  Needless to say, we made no noise getting in and around to our spots.  Weasel and Squirrel chose to hunt up high where we have seen the birds go the last three times we have been out.  I chose to hunt near to where Weasel had been hiding, only about 100 yards further up the valley.  A spot where the width of the valley narrows.  I figured if the birds came down off the roost and into this valley they would funnel right up past me and BOOM!  Weasel on the other hand knew very well the birds would do exactly what they have been doing since this years season began….flying straight down from the roost and walking up past our high country blinds we built last year.  He too will be in the “neck” of the trail!  When they walk past him and Squirrel…BOOM!

As the morning light ate up the darkness of the night things were looking better and better.  I had a small owl come and land near to me and squawk a few times and then flew off.  I don’t know what kind of owl it was, but it was small, and grey….anyone?  The light gave way to many deer as they fed up the way past my position.  One is a nice little buck with horns growing and nearing the length of its ears.  He will be a pretty nice buck come the season!  When the pheasants began crowing in the fields below us, the gobbler on the roost also sounded off!  This was going to be his day to die!  He wasn’t exactly in the same spot we last heard him, but close.  He should do just what he has been doing before and that will put him in Weasel and Squirrels laps!  He gobbled several times and then shut up.  I heard a hen cackle as she flew down and I knew it was just a matter of minutes before I heard the echo and roar of Squirrels shotgun.  I sat with ears open and eyes peeled in case they came my way.

Suddenly, there was a turkey!  Across the valley!  Another!  And a third!

Those dirty little S.O.B.’s!  They continued up the trail RIGHT PAST MY BLIND on that side of the valley!!!!!!!!!!!!  They were happy birds, clucking and pecking and walking carefully up the trail!  I thought what I started this paragraph with and tossed in a few expletives and justified it all by verifying they were all 3 hens by peering through my binoculars.  That’s ok Bears Butt, you couldn’t have shot them anyway!  NO BIGGIE!  And then it happened….Up popped a gobbler with about a 9 inch beard!  OH NO!  Right by the blind!!!!!  Yes!  The blind across the valley!  And 5 more birds were with him!  Later Weasel said he saw a jake with him and the others!  My hands found my head and held it tightly!  Expletives were swirling and spinning inside my pea brain!  All those birds went right past my blind!  RIGHT PAST IT!  And then they slowly worked their way up and over the hill.  That was fine by me I was tired of looking at that long bearded critter anyway!

That was it for that spot.  We made our way back to the truck a few hours later and then off toward home.

On the way, we decided to go and see if we could find “Dry Dog’s” turkey.  One he is determined to shoot after work one of these days.  On our way to see if the bird was anywhere near the place he has seen it and low and behold….4 big old birds feeding away in an alfalfa field!  All 4 of them toms!  Of course we didn’t have permission to trespass  and even if we did, it would be illegal to shoot them there as they were only about 100 yards away from homes.  The law says you can not be closer than 200 yards from any building.  Hey Dog!  Go get em!

Bears Butt

So, May 7th and we are off once again in pursuit of the wild Utah turkey.  Turkey re-introduction in the state is probably THE number one, best on the list, things the state DWR has done.  I don’t know how long it has taken, but I remember back many years we had a couple down on the farm.  Those got eaten quickly by predators and I figured that was what would happen with the others being planted.  Well, I was wrong, big time.  Now it is not uncommon to see turkeys where you least expect to see them.  They have done well.

Besides the lack of sleep a turkey hunter gets, he/she also gets to see what is going on in the woods in the spring time of year.  It is far different than in the fall when we usually find ourselves in pursuit of deer, grouse, elk and other game animals.  We also get to see the “hard core” hunters that are out there chasing these very illusive animals.  There is a slim chance you can bag one from the road, but very slim.  These are “get your butt out of the truck” animals and usually FAR from any road.  I’m still learning a lot from these guys.

Today the weather is raining.  Why would anyone go turkey hunting when it is raining?  That is something you do for ducks and geese.

Here is something I THINK I know about hunting turkeys in the rain.  1) Other hunters would rather stay in bed when it is raining.  2)  Turkeys don’t like rain because they can’t hear their enemies coming up on them from behind or overhead.  Especially in the canopy of a forest.

So, for me, there will be less hunter interaction, which means I’ll have the woods to myself or at least with other hunters who “care” about what they are doing and probably will turn around if they come into my area and see my setup.  I think.  Also, it means the birds will be out in the open, away from cover in order to “see” rather than “hear” their predators coming.  That is, all but me.  I’ll be waiting near by to blast the fist legal tom that comes up the trail!

So, me and “head hammer” will once again be in the woods.  OH YA!  Weasel too!

More to come later in the day!  Wish us luck!

Bears Butt

May 7, 2015

UPDATE:

Our longest day in the turkey fields!  We got home about 3:30….Almost 12 hours from the time we left.  So, let me tell you about the day!

I said hunting in the rain huh?  We got to our normal spot and donned our rain gear and headed off.  A steady rain until about time for fly down and then it quit.  Everything was wet and muddy!  The mud up there sticks to everything and causes your boots to fill up and you don’t have any traction.  Color us mud!  As for the birds….no gobbles…and we saw two hens go up and over the hill.  No toms to be heard or seen.  So, off we headed to Hardware.  On our way we saw a gobble off the side of the highway!  A quick stop and hot pursuit but no bird.  Never saw it again!

Coming down the canyon we decided to drive over into Left Hand Fork and while there I talked Weasel into going and looking for some morel mushrooms I had seen a couple of years back.  We did find a couple but only picked one of them.

I think leaving one for seed just might be a good thing.  Also, as we were looking around we found a turkey nest full of eggs….all busted and pecked!  A gobbler had found the nest a week or so ago and did his thing breaking them up to keep the hen “hot”.  If she would have been sitting on that nest there is no way you would have seen her or it.  I just happened to see an egg that was laying outside of it and thought maybe it was a mushroom.

Back on the road we decided to go inspect another area we knew about but had never gone into to hunt.  The hike is steep and if you plan on going into it, make sure your legs are in good shape! Mine are not, but I made it and am glad I did.  About half way to a place we figured might hold a turkey, we were catching our breath.  Weasel said, that looks like a good strutting area down there.  He put his glasses up and sure enough there was a turkey walking across the field.  Upon further investigation we both saw a beard on it!  We watched as it started to climb the hill up the canyon from us and put a plan together to intercept it.  We hurried as quickly as we could to get above it, but we didn’t go far enough and it crossed above us into the next drainage.  There we saw it traversing another clearing.  Again we watched as it appeared to going in a certain direction.  To intercept it we would have to hustle and get over and up a hill without being seen.  So, be backtracked and made a quick dash for the spot.  We separated, me low, Weasel high.

AND THEN THE RAINS CAME!  Boom!  BOOM!!!!  Flash!!  FLASH!!!!  BOOM!  BOOM!  For a rain it was awesome!  For the dry year we have been experiencing, it will help with our water problems.  For two turkey hunters without our rain gear (back at the truck), it was a soaker!  And God didn’t have enough fun with the rain, he threw hail at us the size of marbles!  BAM!  BAM!  It was ripping the leaves off the trees and I went to hiding under the canopy of the biggest oak tree I could find!  To heck with that gobbler, I’m getting wet here!

I didn’t know at the time, but Weasel had an emergency rain parka in his backpack which he put on and stayed somewhat dry….me I looked like a drowned rat fink!  I have a hat that has a drop down face mask attached to it and I put that on to cover my ears which were getting pelted from the hail!  Ouch!  Ouch!

After about 30 minutes of getting drenched the sky started to lighten up and the thunder and lightning moved up the valley.  I left my position and went looking for Weasel.  He was down the hill a little bit trying to locate me.  When we got together we started back to the truck.

Now for a little testimonial:  I have a brand of skin tight under clothing made by “Under Armour”.  It is advertised to help keep you warm in the cold weather by trapping your own body heat and wick away moisture from your own sweating while doing just that!  I’m always skeptical about advertising like that.  BUT LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW!  If it wasn’t for that Under Armour I would have frozen my butt off in that rain and hail!  Not only did I get soaked to the bone, the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees and the wind was blowing.  Sure I was wet and I knew it, but at least I wasn’t cold!  My body heat kept me as comfortable as possible thanks to that Under Armour.  Good stuff folks!  Bears Butt Approved!

Well, we didn’t get any turkeys today, but we learned a thing or two….One biggie for me is to pack an emergency poncho rain jacket in my pack!

And I saw an upcoming buck that just might turn out to be a biggun!  It already has buds about 3 inches long and some mass to them.

Maybe we need some of these umbrellas!

Bears Butt

Turkey day once again!  This morning it is time to take Hot Spark out and try and get her a bird.  Weasel is going to set her up in his usual spot while I will be about where Conner and I were on Saturday.  Yesterday Weasel and Squirrel didn’t have the fortunate luck to have the birds drop in on them from the roost and so, we are hoping today will be the day!  One thing I have learned about turkey hunt is this….They don’t do what you think they will do….EVER!

We have had a lot of lessons in the past, both from people who have hunted turkeys their whole lives and have hundreds of kills under their belts and the birds themselves.  Each lesson adds to our volumns of “how to get it done” book, but how many have we put on the table?  One from my first ever hunt in Missouri and one last year for Weasel.  I have taken two shots at birds that busted me sitting in my blind and we have had a bunch of birds tease us from “close but too far to shoot”.  Turkeys!  Someone sure named them right.

So, here it is, 3 a.m., I’m driving and taking Tracker (videographer), Weasel, Hot Spark and myself.  3 guns and a camera.  We will be covering two different, but close areas and hope the birds like what we have in store for them.  My shell of choice, per popular vote….Head Hammer!

More to come later!  For now it is a cup of coffee and load the wagon time!  For all of you heading out on this, the first day of the general Utah turkey season…I wish you luck!

Bears Butt

May 4, 2015

UPDATE:

Boy did 2:30 a.m. come quickly!  But with a cup of coffee in me I was packed and ready to go pick up the rest of the gang!

Whatever happened to grabbing your gun and heading out?  Those days are long gone I’m afraid!  Gotta have the gun, shells, hydration pack, goodies to eat, a bi-pod gun holder, blind, Decoys, calls….and the list goes on and on.  Depending on who is going that could weigh the pack down significantly.

We got away a bit behind schedule but we made up for that on the other end.  We hurried from the truck down the trail to our hideout spots!  But not before I got a cool pic of Weasel and Hot Spark with the full moon shining behind them.

They went their way and I went mine.  Our goal was to kill 3 turkeys this morning.  The air was crisp and there was some heavy dew (rain) on the plants and the ground was sticky and slick, but that just made it more quiet to sneak in.

Once I was set in my natural materials blind I decided to take a couple of pics before I settled in to wait until the morning light.

There is “Hammer Head”, my shell by vote!  The black bag is my soft cushion I picked up at D.I. for a buck.  My slate call handy.  Hydration pack with the spigot ready.  Now to just settle in and wait.

My view is a very good one and any turkey that comes my way will be well within shotgun range by the time he can see me.  I’ve got this one!

So, the morning light came.  The deer went past my position pretty much all morning long and only saw the decoys I had out in front of me.  The gobbler was roosted right where he was on Saturday and unfortunately for us, we had other hunter company.

Let me ask you this:  You are hunting along, doing everything right and expecting to fill your turkey tag any minute.  You have heard the repeated gobbles of a gobbler still on the roost.  Suddenly in front of you is another hunters blind and decoy.  What do you do?

What I would do is say to myself….Crap….and turn my butt around and high tail it back the way I came.  Hoping I hadn’t busted things up for the hunters in the blind.

Well folks…our two guest hunters continued right on down the trail past the three blinds (Weasel and Hot Sparks, Trackers (videographer) and mine.  Happy guys for sure.  Ya, they were quiet, but still, WTF!  Just sayin.

OK, they got past us before the fly down.  But was it them that caused the birds to do what they did today?  I don’t know.  The birds came off the roost and stayed high on the hill, proceeding up out of the trees and over the top.  Feeding away like nobodies business.  The Tom was strutting his stuff all the way up and over, but I noticed something, I could still see his tail all fanned out, when what to my surprise (NOT) our two guest hunters standing about 100 yards away from them on the skyline!  Waiving arms and suggesting to each other how great they were and what a wonderful land they were hunting in.  The birds came back on our side of the hill and launched in full flight down and over to the East.  Thanks guys for sending them back our way, sort of.

OK, we aren’t done yet.  When I first saw the turkeys heading up and over the top, I quickly abandoned my post and ran to Weasel and Hot Spark and suggested they get up and head to a spot up the draw to cut them off.  I figured they would travel a similar route to the one they used on Saturday.  Then I booked it back to my spot and nestled back in.  That is when the two dudes showed up on the ridge and sent the birds in the opposite direction of Weasel and Hot Spark.  Nothing was working in our favor.

Well, as time went on the gobbler was separated from his hens and trying to relocate them.  I thought for sure I had a chance to call him in.  He came a ways, but then got back with his 3 hens and went off in the direction they wanted him to go….away from me.

Weasel and Hot Spark tried to get in front of where they thought the turkeys might go, but they didn’t know about the dudes on the ridgeline and the fact that the birds flew down East.  They finally worked their way back to their blind and settled in.

ENTER HUNTER NUMBER 3!

A lone dude, sneaking and calling, sneaking and calling.  He saw the blinds!  He continued on down the trail sneaking and calling!  Weasel even whispered to him “Have you seen any turkeys today”?  The guy looked at him and went right on by without a word!  Then he stopped his travel about 50 yards down hill and turned around and went back up past the blinds!!!!!!!   OMG!  (I like the acronyms!)

We kept our heads.  After all it’s the opening day of Utah’s general turkey season.  We are on ground that is pretty good for holding turkeys.  It isn’t easy to hunt, but still fairly close to a lot of hunters AND what the heck, we are a sharing bunch who like to chat with other hunters when we get the chance!  Why didn’t they stop in and share our blinds with us?  Share a cup of coffee or a trail snack?

Well, the morning hunt went just like that and so we packed it up and decided to get out of there before we busted someone else’s hunt.

The decision was made to take a ride up toward Hardware Ranch.  We have seen turkeys up there before…and off we went!

On the way we saw this tree that will someday not be standing and decided to take a picture or two of it….Beaver Sharn!

It’s a big old tree and when it goes down it will hit the highway!  I hope nobody is coming down the road when it happens!

So, we go up past Hardware and decide to take a hike.  Move slowly, call every 50 to 100 yards and hope we can get a gobbler to sound off.  Hot Spark is going to take the shot.  Weasel will do the calling.  So, up the trail we go!  About a half mile into it, we are on a call spot, Hot Spark is ready and in the lead next to a corner in the trail.  If a gobbler hears the call and comes running down the trail she will be on it like stink on you know what.  Weasel sounds off with a soft yelp.  Hot Spark jumps up from her position and runs down the trail past Weasel and then past me.  She is not a happy girl!  What is going on?  SNAKE!!!!!  Sure enough, there was a rattle snake crossing the trail just in front of us….it was at least 3 feet long and maybe even 4 feet long.  12 solid buttons on the rattles and big and round.  This baby would make a fine belt for a guy the size of Fat Duck!  Or any of the Hurd Brothers for that matter!

These pictures don’t do it justice, but it was a HONKER of a snake!

Tracker got some good video of it and all the buzzing it was doing.  I’ll have to hear it once he posts something up cuz I can’t hear crap.  I only barely heard it once and we hung around it for at least 10 minutes while it tried to scare us off.  Hot Spark was easy for it to scare off, the rest of us weren’t as bright as her.

Well, that ended our turkey hunt and we headed down the trail leaving old mister buzz worm to find his next prey.

All in all I’d say we had a pretty good day.  Saw a Gobbler, saw lots of deer, saw a snake….YA!  It was good!

Bears Butt

It looks like Weasel and Squirrel were beaten by the turkeys today.  They did manage to see at least one Tom but because of other hunters in the area they were not afforded the opportunity for a shot.  DANG!

So, tomorrow, Weasel, Hot Spark and I will be venturing out to try out luck.  I will be borrowing a shotgun from Conner as Hot Spark will be using my youth sized shotgun.  That is all fine with me.  Conner’s shotgun needs to have a turkey kill under its pump action!  I hope to do just that in the morning.  But in order to do it, I have to have the right shell in the action.  Which one would you choose from these three choices?

Head Hammer!  Strut Stopper!  Big Beard Bagger!

Bears Butt

May 3, 2015

YES!  Finally time to go after a tom turkey!

Yesterday was the first day of the Utah youth turkey hunt.  They have three days to hunt turkeys before the general turkey season opens up.  Of course yesterday was a school day and they chose to get “sum learnin” rather than hunt, so this morning, being Saturday, we are all excited to get into the woods and find them a bird.  Everything is right for this mornings hunt.  A full moon (tomorrow) according to the calendar, but looking outside right now, I don’t think we will need flashlights to get to our setup areas.  No chance of rain and absolutely wind still.  Temps will be approaching 80 degrees.  Couple all of that with a chance to go hunting with two of my Grandkids, my oldest son and a brother in law, who by the way will be video taping todays activities and one would be hard pressed to say anything else but that… “it just don’t”….get no better than this!

This morning it is Conner and Kenzies time to try their hands at filling tags!  We have a plan, but will the turkeys follow through on their side of the deal?

Weasel has been tracking them with his trail camera and we have a pretty good idea about their whereabouts but there have been a couple of glitches in the system we might have to take out before the turkeys cooperate.  The only way to find out is to be on the site before first light.

In preparation for this hunt, which has been nothing but fun, I have come to the realization that I need a helicopter.  My pack weighs about 50 pounds and then toss in a portable blind with another 20 pounds, two decoys which add bulk plus 5 pounds and this old man is going to have quite a time maneuvering the hills we have to traverse.  I should have been working out like I did for my elk hunt two years ago.  I have to say this….should I perish on the hillside it will have been worth it!

Over the few years I have been turkey hunting, which isn’t many, it’s been turkeys 100 and me zero….at least here in Utah.  My buddy in Missouri found me one in less than 20 minutes and I was able to put him on the table, but since trying it on my own they are kicking my butt.  I’ve had them within 20 feet several times.   I’ve thrown lead at them twice, both on the wing.  I’ve watched them walk away from me.  I’ve watched them walk toward me.  I’ve had them fighting right behind my blind and picked up the feathers after the battle.  I’ve had them fly right over my head.  I’ve watched as other hunters had them jump from under their feet and fly away.

It comes down to just plain luck as far as I’m concerned.  You pattern them until you just know deep down in your heart they will do nothing less than what you have been witnessing for a month and the day you try to intercept that pattern….they aren’t there.  And yet, go on the internet and see some guy hiding behind a decoy walking right up on a big old tom and shooting it from 5 feet as it is coming toward him!

Well, today I hope Conner and Kenzie both get a chance to at least aim at a tom turkey.  If they can seal the deal all the better, but let’s get real, the chance to be with them in the field will be more than worth this 2 a.m. awakening, the hours drive and half hour walk in the dark woods!  Let’s giterdun!

Bears Butt

May 2, 2015

LATER:

What a beautiful day!  Warm, dry and very much spring like!  We arrived at our destination in perfect time!  Still very much dark and with our hike ahead everyone was pretty excited to be getting on the hill.

There is a whole lot that can be said about a good bright headlamp!  I’d like to have one of those 1000 lumen ones (we all know you have to turn it on before you put it on your head or you will get whiplash from the light beam blasting forward), but with the ones we have we made it safely down to our hiding spots.

I had on my hydration pack filled with goodies on my back and Trackers folding blind on my front.  I felt like a turtle!  Turtle Butt!

Conner and I had our blind put up in record time and were settled in for the long wait until daylight!

Conner don’t like the flash!

So we sat waiting patiently and listening to the world awaken.  It was a very fine morning to be out and about.  Conner and I had both of the decoys out in front of us and in a pretty good spot for the birds on the roost to be able to see them.  Why I didn’t take a picture of them out in the grass is beyond me, but here is what they looked like back at home.

Weasel reminded me to place the hen facing our position and the gobbler with his butt toward where we expected the birds to be roosting.  I guess from what he has been told or read about, the real birds won’t be intimidated by the gobbler if it is facing away.  What do I know?  So, with us waiting and the decoys out, we began seeing animals moving even in the wee bit of light we had.  The morning sun comes up way to quickly when you are on the side of the mountain and today was no different.  As the light got brighter and brighter our hopes for a gobbler were boosted when we heard the first gobble from the roost!  Perfect!

We were in a great spot and Weasel and Kenzie were on the X!  This was going to be a remarkable day of turkey hunting.  The light continued to brighten and when things were just right I told Conner to get his gun ready as the birds were going to fly down any minute.  The gobblers were sounding off all over the mountain.  Some close, some in the distance and then the hens began to speak up.  We thought we could hear 3 different toms gobbling.  And then all went silent!  We did not hear them fly down, but in my mind they had to be on the ground because they shut right up.

We waited and watched for any sign of a turkey walking in the grass.  I saw a lot of deer, but the only turkeys I saw were going up and over a distant rise, walking away from us.  6 hens and one big old gobbler.  It sure is fun to see them strutting like they do.  We didn’t give up as there were more birds somewhere on the mountain.  We held our spot until about 8 and then called it a day.

One can not go out hunting without the all famous Kipper Snack breakfast.

We know that there is still a lot of good hunting between 10 and 2, but with 5 of us we figured that would be too many to go spot and stalking and so we called it a day!  Back at the truck I reminded everyone that we could possibly see a gobbler as we were driving out of the mountain and to keep an eye out.  Sure enough we spotted a bunch of hens and one big old tom!  The kids put a good sneak effort on him, but the hens spotted them and took off for the deepest forest they could find.  Mr. Tom was the last to leave but he went sprinting off to join the hens.  I’m not sure he even knew there was any danger around.

So, all in all it was a successful day.  Sure we didn’t kill anything, but the kids got to hear several toms sounding off and it was Kenzies first time to hear them.  She was almost under the roost of one and to her it was very loud!  A fun day for sure!

Bears Butt