Hunter’s Journal

It’s the Friday after the Nebraska opener and I have 4 guests on this hunt.  We split up into 2 groups on a creek line gobbling their brains out.  The birds start flying down and move to the south of us.  I wait ½ hour and can’t take it, I have to find out where those birds are heading.  2 guests and myself carefully move through the cedars and discover a group of Tom’s, Jake’s & Hen’s continuing south.  We set up and start calling with soft purrs and the Jake’s start moving our way.  Of course the old Tom in the group wouldn’t put up with that so he makes his way too.  At 40 yards he hangs up and boom a clean miss!  We meet up with the others and decide to move to another farm.  The birds aren’t talking at all (no gobbling) so this makes it more difficult.  We spend our afternoon watching birds move through a 400-acre field before we decide to set up in a different location in the direction they were heading.  I spread the guys out waiting for birds to move in on us.  About an hour into it a mix of jakes and hens (about 20) move in on us.  As I’m watching the guys I discover the bobbing head of one of them trying to sneak a peak and yep it happened, putt, putt, putt and they were gone.  I peak up into the field below us and see 5 hens being pushed by a huge Tom with a lesser Tom bringing up the rear.  The clouds were moving in and the rain started.  The Tom pushes the hens quickly through an opening 18 yards from myself and one of the hunters.  He raises his gun a little too fast and the old Tom takes off, boom – another clean miss.  There’s more to this day and more to explain but at the end of the day all 4 had taken a shot with the exception of one, which took 2 shots and not 1 bird to show for it.  I’m not sore at them, I just feel bad for them, as they had heard the story of the last weekend where we harvested 6 birds in one day.

Saturday starts with at the farm we ended at on Friday night.  We set up in virtually the same area as the night before.  Again Gobblers surrounded us and they flew down in the other direction.  This brings us to the afternoon.  We set up in a meadow where a nice Jake quickly meets his maker.  We move to a meadow that I’ve watched Tom’s strut in later in the afternoon.  2 Tom’s and 2 Jake’s start making their way across the field.  As they feed across the field in a zigzag motion the anticipation rises.  At 30 yards Eric raises and takes a nice Tom.  We’re celebrating his accomplishment and setting back up incase more birds are on their way when we hear a shot about 200 yards behind us.  I have to admit I was a little freaked out as I thought someone was trespassing on our lease.  Come to find out one of the guys had moved without me knowing and smacked a nice Tom too.  The sun set and we were heading back to the truck with 3 birds for the day.  At 9:30pm the rain started and continued through the night.  The boys were discouraged to say the least that the rain was still in full swing at 5:30am.  We arrived at a different farm and drank coffee until 6:00am when they decided to call day 3 of the hunt a bust.  We headed for the hotel and at 9:00am they headed back to Denver.  The lesson here is don’t count your (bearded) chickens before they hatch because at noon the weather broke and sun and birds came out but, the guys were well into Colorado by that time.

Until next week, have a safe hunt and may the Tom of your lifetime gobble his way into your lap.  Brady