Season c report.

[bmc]

Hi Everyone,

 

My wife, Mary and I made our way down to Nimrod, MN for season C.  She would be using a Mossberg Bantam 20 gauge shotgun and I was using my Bob Lee Natural recurve.

 

The weather forecast had us wondering if we should have waited for season D.  LOL

 

We set blinds on Tuesday afternoon and at the first spot where we usually hunt we saw 2 jakes.  We then went and set the second blind up and saw a hen hanging out in this area.

 

Wedensday's miserable weather kept us inside for the day, but at least we got to catch up with our host's who we haven't seen since last summer.

 

Thursday morning I woke up and headed to the blind where the jakes had been on Tuesday.  I settled in and turned on the heater I had brought.  I looked at my phone and it said the temp was 24, felt like 12, with winds 15-20 mph.  I was confused if it was the end of April or the first week of November.  I heard a couple gobbles, but never saw a turkey.  At 11 am, I had enough and walked to the east side of the pasture to see if there were any tracks and sure enough, there were two sets of fresh turkey tracks going south along the edge of the woodline.  There was also 2 sets of older turkey tracks going north.  I'm assuming it was from the 2 jakes we had seen.  I took down the blind and moved it over to the east side of the woodline where I saw the tracks.

 

As I was pulling out onto the county road, I looked to the north and on the woodline, I saw 2 strutters with 4 hens.  Luckily, this area was part of the same farm we had permission to hunt.  Thursday afternoon Mary and I hunted the same blind I did in the morning and didn't see anything.  I then went to blind 2 and took it down, planning on moving it to where I had seen the strutters.

 

Friday morning had us heading to where I had seen the strutters and hens.  As I was setting up the blind, we heard a couple different toms gobbling from the roost.  We decided to not put out decoys because the area was open and I didn't want the turkeys to hang up if they saw the decoys.  Mary and I settled in and about 9:30 am she saw 2 toms and 2 hens about 100 yds east of us.  I made a couple soft calls just to let them know we were there. They fed out into the corn field and then headed back into the woods.   About a half hour later they came back out and started feeding towards us.  The one tom strutted almost the entire time that we saw him.  The other tom would go into half strut but seemed reluctant to go into full strut, I'm guessing because his buddy was the more dominant tom.  

 

One of the hens was out front and passed by our blind at 4 yds.  I was afraid she was going to bust us and it would have been all over.  Luckily, she fed by us while the strutter and the other hen were out about 35-40 yds.  The other tom was feeding along towards our blind and I tapped Mary on the knee and plugged my ears.  She slid her 20 gauge out the slit in the screen, took aim, and BOOM!!!  The other tom and 2 hens both ran off, while we bailed out of the blind in celebration! 

 

I really don't know who was more excited!!  We took a bunch of pictures and headed back to the truck.

 

We went back out in the afternoon to the other blind to let the area where Mary killed her tom, cool down.

 

Around 6:30 pm, we hear footsteps right outside of the blind.  It was a doe that had to have almost tripped over the rope that was anchoring down the left side of the blind.  After checking us out a bit, she went out to our decoys that were 10 yds away and cautiously approached the hen decoy.  The doe actually sniffed and licked the beak of the decoy.  She then jumped back to see what the decoy would do.  When nothing happened, her and her buck fawn fed off into the distance.   I got a 3 picture sequence of that, but I sure wish I would have got video instead.

 

A short time later, Mary saw the 2 jakes to our right.  I knocked an arrow and my heart started trying to jump out of my chest.  I calmed my self down and got ready to take a shot if one presented itself.  The jakes were nervous and skirted around our decoys.  The second jake stopped between 25-30 yds.  Mary encouraged me by saying I know you can make that shot.  While I have practiced shooting this distance quite a bit, it was all at large 3D targets, not a small target like this.  I came to full draw, anchored, and sent the arrow on its' way.  The right and left looked perfect, but the arrow landed at the jakes feet.  He never knew what happened and he and his side kick just fed off towards the roost.

 

We hunted Saturday morning where Mary shot her  Tom and saw 2 hens and we did hear 2 or 3 toms gobbling.  We hunted that blind again in the evening and the landowner just north of use was doing a bunch of work w/ heavy equipment.  We never saw a turkey and wondered if his activity kept them away?

 

Sunday morning I went back to the same blind as the day before and never heard a gobble and never saw a turkey.  Again I wondered if the landowner's activity the night before kept the toms from roosting by us as they had the previous nights.  I probably should have hunted where I missed the jake.

 

Because of the bad weather forecasted, we packed up and headed for home Sunday afternoon.  We had a great hunt and witnessed the interaction between the doe and decoy that simply amazed us.

 

This was Mary's first tom and 2nd turkey in her 4 years of hunting.  Her tom weighed 19 lbs, had a 9 1/4" beard, and 5/8" spurs.

 

Mary has been battling a auto immune muscle disease the last year and a half.  She really struggled walking, to the point she doesn't think she'll be able to do this hunt next year.  We are trying to come up with some ideas that could help her out like a battery powered golf cart or a ATV with a muffler silencer.   Has anyone used either of these or something else to help someone get to and from the blind?

 

Thanks!!

 

Brian

[ANYFISH2]

I havent personally used either.  But if she wants to hunt, and that is what it takes to do so i say go for it.  I like the golf cart idea.

 

Get her to the blind, move the machine off a little ways, and walk back to her.

 

Great story Brian, and the best of luck to you and your wife.

[monstermoose78]

 

If the land owner uses equipment the wheeler should not bug the to much. Just do as anyfish said. I know deer hunting up in the arrowhead we park our wheeler right under our stand and it has not been an issue. I would say I would head out earlier to give it time to settle down. 

Congrats to your wife!!

[Archerysniper]

Congratulations to your wife on a great Tom. I brought my uncle that was a double amputee turkey hunting for years till he passed away. I used the 4 wheeler to get him to the blind and just made sure we were really early and mobed it away from us after dropping him off. Once his health really started failing we hunted out of his truck and he still got birds. 

[bmc]

Thanks for the info. guys.

 

I'll have to put some work into our old ATV so it is operational for next season.

 

I'm going to try and get out a few times around home and arrow a turkey. 

 

Going to check out a spot tomorrow on a friend's land close to home.

 

Brian