Here we go again!  This will be Weasel and my third attempt to get a shot at one of these birds.  Today we are taking Conner with us.  It would be so nice if he could get a shot.  That alone would make my entire season a success.

What do I expect today?  Well, first off it’s Saturday.  Secondly it’s going to be over 80 degrees, sunny and no chance of rain.  A real big change from what it was on Monday.  I’m thinking I won’t even need my coat even at 4 a.m. this morning.  I’ll take it, but probably will regret it by 9.

So, there will no doubt be people all over the hills.  I’m leaving Gretchen in the truck (she is my hen decoy) and Weasel and I have talked about the days expectancies already.  We will be in our blinds long before anyone else gets on the hill.  Then as they come, they will spook the birds (fresh off the roost) right up and into our hideouts.  BLAM!  BLAM!  BLAM!  3 down and it’s off for home!

Sounds like a plan to me!

Most of the time I like to avoid the weekends and holidays, but with Conner in school, we have to go when he can go.  Today will be a regular zoo out in the hills, but that is part of the plan, right?  He needs to see just what it’s like with lots of people around, so when he does get to go out and not see a crowd, he will appreciate the hills to himself.  It’s a whole different situation.  Today we are planning on the crowd to help us herd the flock into our lair.  We will sneak in quietly, hide up as usual, and wait for them to flush them our way.  Where we are hunting there are two major drainages, one is an easy walk from the parking area and this one usually gets most of the foot traffic.  The other takes a bit of hiking for the hunters and it makes them feel like they are really hunting.  The travel along a dirt road for over a half mile, and then they drop in and hike the bottom of the draw.  The birds have come off their roosts by the time the people arrive (usually) and when they see the movement of the “troops”, they run like heck.  Where do they run?  Right to the spot we are set up in!  Either that, or they fly to another zip code.

More to come later.

Bears Butt

May 3, 2014

Well the Gobblers got us again today!  But we did manage to see a couple of hens….let me tell you about our day!

Started off early again, left town at 4 a.m. straight up!  No go backs, no problems.  We arrived at our destination with plenty of time to make our mile long journey in the dark.  We got to Weasels stand and made him a new blind in a slightly different spot.  We figured he might have a better chance hiding in this new spot and have two shooting avenues, one on either side of his blind.  When that was done, I went to my blind and modified it just a tad.  I put a big piece of dead wood over top of my shooting window, which covered me completely and so the only thing the turkeys can see will be the muzzle of the shotgun just before the smoke fills the air.

The air was crisp and it was going to be a wonderful day, a slight breeze and a high expected in the low 60’s.  Much better then Monday.  As the morning got brighter and brighter my hopes began to get higher and higher as well.  I had deer walk very close to the blind and two of them laid down about a hundred yards away.  My concealment is perfect.

My ears were very focused on hearing the gobbling that almost always takes place just as it gets light enough to clearly identify the surroundings and the far off hills.  The sun came up and still not a sound of a gobbler could be heard.  All the other birds were doing their usual, just no turkeys.  Weasel called the morning hunt over about 8 a.m. and we headed for the truck to decide what was the next plan on the schedule.

It was way too early in the day to go home so we decided to go to another spot some distance from where we were and so we headed there.  We had just arrived at that destination when Weasel spotted two turkeys not even 50 yards away, maybe closer.  A quick examination with binocs proved they were both hens….dang!  Well we took ourselves a little hike and didn’t see nor hear anything in the way of turkeys.

Back at the truck again we decided it was time for a snack….Kippers and Viennas with crackers…yummy!  I even topped it off with a Hostess apple pie!  And then down the road we went to destination number 3.

This destination was a blind one for us as we have never done this one.  But I had heard through good sources there were turkeys in the area…so off we went.  It was a long hike but a pleasant one.  The trail was in the bottom of a very narrow canyon and didn’t look “turkey-ish” too much, but we plodded on as quiet as we could.

I spotted a very faint turkey track in the dried mud in the trail and called Weasel back to see it.  He nodded it was a turkey track, but I’m not sure he was convinced.  A few steps later I called him back to another and for sure it was a turkey track!  And then just a few short steps later a turkey up the trail launched itself up and flew away, up the trail it went, flapping and getting out of town.  Dang it again!  We do that alot!

I ask you professional turkey hunters out there:  In a case like this, is it wise to set up and try to call the bird back?  Or just keep plodding up the trail and hope to see it again?

We kept on going, but slower and much more quiet, even though we were being very quiet in the first place, that bird just happened to see us before we saw it.  As we went up the trail the turkey tracks became much clearer and it was obvious turkeys were there.  At a point up the trail several hundred yards from where the turkey took flight, we could hear distinct turkey sounds ahead of us and so we quietly and quickly set ourselves up in a rock slide area, I hid behind a tree and called, while Weasel set up with his shotgun pointing at the trail.  If I could get the bird to come back down the trail to us he would fill his tag easily.  No bird.

We followed the trail again for a hundred more yards or so, hoping to hear the turkey sounds again, but he must have just kept on going up the trail.  We decided not to bust him again today, so we turned around and headed for the truck.

Whenever we are out in the woods we keep a close eye out for garbage and if at all possible we haul it back and toss it in the trash.  We have done this for many years, today was no exception.  As we proceeded down the trail, I just happened to look to my left and saw something red….TRASH!  It was about 20 yards off the trail and nobody else would ever go over and pick it up, so over I went.  BUT WHOA!  This doesn’t look like trash at all:

Butt has found a Geo Cache!  Let’s look inside!

Well, everything else except Bears Butt Dot Com’s card was in there.  A cool stash of goodies and a neat sign in sheet, but no pencil or pen.  So, all I could do was drop in my card.  The canister went back to the spot it was found and I placed a nice big rock on top of it to disguise it better.  Had the rock been on it I would have never seen it.

So, it was a very nice day weather wise, and a very nice day hunting wise.

Turkeys 2, Butt and Weasel ZERO!

Bears Butt

April 30, 2014

OK!  It’s our day two of the 2014 turkey hunt.  I know it is really the 3rd day of the season, but it’s our 2nd day of being able to hunt the little feathery critters.

Game plan?  Same as before.  Git there, git em killt.

I don’t have much time to let you know everything because time is of the essence, but at least you know I’m out there….me un Weasel.  I’ll let you know more later.

Bears Butt

April 30, 2014…last day of the month!

The turkey season is officially underway.

Weasel and I had planned to leave town at 4 a.m. for our one hour drive to the hunting area.  We add to that a half hour to hike to the hunting spots and get set up.  We figured it would get light about 6 a.m. and there is nothing worse than still be hiking into the hunting area when the birds are awake.  So this plan will work.

I arrived at Weasels at 3:55, I figured we needed the 5 minutes to get his stuff loaded up….his house was dark….Oh Oh!  So I texted his cell phone….no response.  Next I hit the house phone figuring the noise it makes would wake them up, if they were still asleep….It rang, a light came on and a very tired sounding Weasel voice answered like…”The alarm didn’t go off, give me time to make a cup of coffee and put my clothes on, I’ll be right out….click”.  At 4:15 we were on our way….well almost, we had made it about 2 blocks when Weasel said, “Turn around, I forgot my juice”!

In this case his juice is the stuff he puts in his binky…I mean his e-cig thingy.  So back we went.  He was very quick and once again we were on our way….4:20!  Oh well, what are plans for if you can’t break them sometimes.

We arrived in perfect order at the hunting area and found that we were the only ones there!  Great!  We love a whole mountain to ourselves, especially turkey hunting.  We made the quick hike to our blinds and got set up.  It was cold and it had skiffed a bit of snow during the night.  The sky was also very dark and it began to snow on us again.  The ground was saturated and the clay in that part of the country is unforgiving as it packs tightly in the cleats of your boots making them very slick…if you fall on your butt, your butt will become very slick too.  Have you ever had clay packed in your butt cheeks?  It ain’t real fun.

Weasel and I arrived at his blind and with a quick hand shake and “good luck”, I was on my way down to my blind about 300 yards away.  My head lamp is not too good but I made it safely and didn’t fall down once.  I felt good about that.

When you have waited a year for the turkey season to begin, you think of all sorts of things you need to do and NOT to do.  Weasel wanted to take a picture of his view from his blind, but he also wanted not to disturb the birds on the roost, so he took this picture (I enhanced it to be able to see “something”)

That stick looking pointing thing and lower X is his shotgun leaning against his shooting sticks.  The lights way out are from the homes in the valley below.  My blind is just under the far left light….wayyyyyy over there in the scary part of the mountain.

I had to make some quick adjustments to my blind or the birds would see me for sure.  A whole year of being beaten by the weather had pretty much destroyed it, but it didn’t take too much time to get it up enough to hide behind.  Still some work was needed, but it was getting light and I needed to be very quiet. This is my view.

As I sat there in the early morning the birds began chirping in the trees around us…first the robins, and then the smaller birds, then a far off crow, and a pheasant  and then what we came for….GOBBBLE GOBBBLE GOBBBBBLE!  (Turkeys spell their gobble with 3 or more B’s depending on the candence).  Before long I distinctly heard the voices of at least 5 different long beards down the hill below us.  My adrenaline was beginning to build.  It did not matter that is was blowing snow into my face nor did it matter that the temperature was right at freezing.  I was hunting turkeys and they were right below us.  It was going to be a very favorable day in the field.

From my vantage point I could see the vehicle sitting way off in the distance and higher in altitude than we were.  I could also see other vehicles traveling the road.  Some of them stopped next to our rig and it was obvious they wished they were where we were, or at least that they could find a turkey.  They would sit there obviously glassing the hills for signs of gobblers.  Some even got out and sounded off with their calls, trying to get a gobbler to answer back.  The birds were being quiet for those folks, but we knew where they were and that we were in “the” spot!

About an hour after sunrise, the birds started to make their alarm sounds, a sound of “putting” and the whole flock was doing it.  When a turkey putts like they do, it means Danger to them all, and they usually scatter in all directions.  And even though we did not see them, we made that assumption as there were very few gobbles after that and the ones we did hear were distant.  But, being died in the wool turkey hunters we sat still and patiently waited for the big one to appear.  They are cautious critters, and move slowly and deliberately, listening and looking for signs of danger….ALWAYS!  People say they can see a hunters eye lashes  and hear that same hunters heart beating and that if a turkey could smell they would never get shot.

As the hours ticked slowly by, the wind began to pick up with a fury.  I’d guess in the 20 mph range and it was about all a guy could stand to sit there knowing the birds would rather be on the down wind side of the hill….certainly not where we were.  It was four hours after first getting sat down that Weasel got up and came down to discuss our strategy.  The obvious decision was to get off the windy ridge.

We hunted slowly down toward where we had heard the turkeys and the wind was very mild down in that “holler”….suddenly I saw a turkey lift off the ground and fly low down and away from us….DANG!  We are very good at getting busted by these birds.  Had we seen him before he saw us, we might have been able to set up and call him up to us, but NOOOOO.

And so we began working our way back up toward the truck, stopping every couple hundred yards, setting out the decoy and calling, hoping beyond hope a gobbler would either sound off or come running in.  Neither of those things happened.

So, there you have our first day scoop.  It was a fun outing and we did get to see a Great Horned Owl standing over its nest of little ones.  Most people don’t ever get to see that in their lifetimes.  We were blessed.

Bears Butt

April 28, 2014

The opening day of the 2014 turkey season has finally arrived.  It is sort of crazy how it makes you feel and even at 3:30 a.m. I don’t feel one bit tired.  Sure a very short nights sleep, but the excitement is there, just like when I was a kid for the opening of the fishing season.  It’s crazy.

Walt Gabbard has written many songs about it and he has hit the nail on the head.  To bed at 3, up at 4 with the alarm clock set for 5, turkey drummin in the holler, gotta git on the caller, aint no time fer wastin, he’ll be off the roost an struttin. (Those aint the words to the song, but they could be).

Weasel and I have our plan and it begins where we left off last year.  Sitting on our butts like good little turkey hunters are supposed to do and hopefully we can put a couple in the bag first thing.  I know for sure, my butt is setting just like last year when I missed my only opportunity of the season.  That big old bird came in quiet and was only 10 feet to my left when he suddenly appeared.  I’m not sure if it was more surprised than me when we made eye contact, but he sure got out of Dodge fast and right behind him was a blast from my Hevy Metal 20, only he turned left as my shot string went right.  He should be sporting a full 10 inch beard this year.  Wish us luck!

It’s been a long wait!

Bears Butt

April 28, 2014

Ah the crow!

Our very own Utah Division of Wildlife Resources is entertaining a Crow hunting season for the state of Utah, beginning in 2014…that’s this year folks!  Do you want to hunt crows?  Can you tell the difference between a crow and a raven?  You are not supposed to shoot ravens!  Only crows.

Why would you want to shoot a crow? Is it messing with your stuff?  It doesn’t take much to make me want to shoot almost any animal, be it bird or critter.  So, it’s nice to see the DWR thinking about allowing us to shoot these birds.  I haven’t done a lot of study on them, but it seems the crow is smaller than a raven, so that should make identifying them easier.  But I’m certain a lot of ravens will go down by accident during the scheduled hunting seasons…oh well….”Cried the raven…Never More….”

The proposed new season says it will have a 10 bird daily limit….WHY?  The law also states that if you shoot a crow, you have to remove it from the property on which it was shot (harvested) and dispose of it by tossing it in a land fill that allows the disposal of animal carcass’, burying it on the land where it was shot, or incinerating it.  It says nothing about “eating it”!  So, why a limit?

I suppose that 4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie, would equate to about 1 and 8 crows baked in that same pie….why not?  But blackbirds are not on our list of “shoot-able” (harvest-able) birds, so let’s substitute crows.  And a 10 bird limit would allow us to make a more meaty pie…more is always better right?  MMMMM, crow pie!

I went looking for recipes for crow and did manage to find some, but then I was reminded about the old saying “Have you ever had to eat crow”?  That question has always had a negative connotation, meaning that crow is not good tasting and to have to eat it….well, you just messed up big time.

But with recipes, I have only found one that did not work out so well…remember the Vienna/Kipper Enchiladas?   All you have to do is cook/boil/bake/BBQ/smoke or what have you long enough to make it tender, and add enough disguising spices and sauces to it to cover the original taste and suddenly it is good.  It must be the same with crow.

Breast the crow is what I found on the internet, as the rest of the bird is basically nothing.  Clean them up with water, soak them in some sort of concoction of your desire to start the breakdown of the original meat smell and taste for 24 or more hours and then do the boiling/baking/slow cooking/ BBQing/smoking etc. that makes you feel like you are the king/queen of the land and then cover the whole “cooked” pile of meat with some sauce that totally disguises the flavor…..MMMMMMM.   I first think of hot sauce on my tongue and the burning sensation with no flavor whatsoever.  Yes the meat did get swallowed but at what expense?  Wait until tomorrow….come on ice cream!!!!!!

In my search I did find a very interesting YouTube video of a guy, obviously a red neck sort, that was trying his best to produce a good informative video to help people like me understand how Crow tastes, but his language prevents me from posting it up on this “family friendly site”.  He did say it wasn’t too bad, but when you see his method of cooking it leaves a lot to be desired and only a person starving to death would eat what he cooked.  I’m not sure he had all his faculties about himself when he did it either.  You will have to do your own research to find him, but he IS there.

So, let’s have a crow season Utah!  I like the idea, I’m just not sure I want to dine on my harvest.  Check this out:

And so, was it the “fennel”?

Who wants to go on the hunt with me?

Bears Butt

April 27, 2014

I picked up a shotgun like this one, a Mossberg Model 500 that is flexible enough to be made shorter for younger shooters or short guys like me.  I picked it up the year that Conner got to go on the youth turkey hunt with the United Wildlife Cooperative folks.  Now he is taller than his dad and I get to set up the shotgun for me.  With that and the upcoming turkey hunt (tomorrow), I attempted to put camo wrap tape on it to cover up all the black coloring.  But beings how (not really appropriate wording) it is a pump shotgun the tape around the pump handle, ejection port and shell chamber just wouldn’t cut it.  So what does a guy do in a situation like this?  I thought about just leaving it like it was and making sure I was hidden into the shadows while on the hunt, but then I told myself, NAH!  And headed to the store for some paint.

With a little bit of testing and braving the whole idea, knowing full well a little paint would not hurt the functioning of the gun, I attacked the project with vigor.  The result?  A fully camouflaged shotgun, ready for tomorrows hunt!

My first ever camo job on a gun.  Shall we look closer?

I made an attempt to stitch together a view of the other side of the gun, but you will quickly see the errors of my abilities to do that:

And there you have it!  Another masterpiece by none other than Bears Butt!!!!!

Bears Butt

April 27, 2014

Our turkey hunting season begins for the youth this Saturday and as always, opening day of anything gets me going real good.  I found this down home video on taking care of the bird once you have it on the ground.  I think you will like it as much as I did….”Innerds” and all!  Enjoy!

Bears Butt
April 22, 2014