May 2007
Monthly Archive
Last NE hunt of season
Posted by Rachelle on 23 May 2007 | Tagged as: Turkey
Our last Nebraska client of the season was a gentleman by the name of John who arrived at the hotel in Lexington around 4pm, Monday 5/14. We decided to do an afternoon hunt, and then got cut short by threatening weather. I sensed that John was disappointed in not seeing or hearing any turkeys. I promised him that I had the turkeys patterned, and we would have no problem harvesting one in the morning.
Alarm was set for 4 am, but didn’t go off, so I guess after so many mornings hunting turkeys, that I just woke up. It was 4:20, so we hurried up and got dressed and out the door around 4:30am, got set up about 45 minutes to 1 hour before sun up. The wind was blowing 35-40 mph, making it hard to hear. SO after getting no response from the turkeys in the roost, or after flydown, I was beginning to think the tom I had patterned had changed what he was doing.
The decoy was set out in front of us 15 - 18 yards. Finally at sun up the tom gobbled to our left at about 50 yards in the creek bottom and I looked at John standing to my right leaned up against a tree, asked him if he heard the gobble, and he said yes. The tom finally showed himself a few minutes later right where he had been coming out for the last 8 weeks. He was gobbling his fool head off, making his way toward us when all of a sudden he let out 3 putts and disappeared into the tree line. So I turned to John and asked him, did you move, and he replied no. As I turned back to my left John and I caught a flash out of the corner of our eyes and saw a coyote attacking my decoy. The look of surprise on the coyote’s face when he attacked the decoy was, I don’t know what that was or what just happened, but this isn’t good. As the coyote turned tail and bolted off, the decoy lying flat on the ground right in front of us, John and I darn near laughed our heads off, thinking we’d have to reset. However, it wasn’t 30 seconds later that the tom reappeared, this time within 40 yards. Although he was very cautious, I gave a couple of soft purrs, he closed the distance to within 30 yards and I called the shot. John dropped him where he stood!! This tom had an 11″ beard and 1 3/16″ spurs.John shot this bird at 6:20am. After taking some pictures and going into town to have breakfast, we headed to another farm.
At around 8:30 we decided to make a couple of locate calls in the creek bottom, where we got 3 toms to respond. They were about 200 yards in front of us, so we hurried to get set up. I called again and it seemed as though they were coming back to us. I told John to turn his body more to his left. After about 10 minutes I called again; it appeared as though the birds were now moving away from us. Not knowing why, I told John we would sit here for a while longer just in case a bird decided to come our way. I decided about 30 minutes later to make another call, and could tell the birds were definitely moving away from us. We moved.
John and I walked, called and set up countless times, trying to locate those birds, nothing. It grew later in the morning so we went back to the truck to refill our water and get a quick snack, and decided to move on to a third piece of ground to see if we could get lucky. After about 3 hours of walking and calling with no response, we decided to go back to the farm where we had heard the birds, knowing that the birds would be roosting somewhere on the creek bottom.
John and I set up where we could see multiple alfalfa fields. We were hoping to see birds coming back to the trees, so we could move and set up on them if needed. At 4:05 I told John that we should move into the creek bottom and set up. We started into the field and about 50 yards into the field I spotted a hen walking across the field at about 80 yards in front of us. I hit the deck and John followed. I told him there was a hen in front of us. Thinking that she had busted us, I got up on my knees. With binoculars in hand I scanned the field and THERE SHE IS. I told John that we needed to get back into the trees. I had John take the lead just in case there is a tom with her and he can get a shot.
Into the creek bottom we went. Moving to some hay bales, John poked his head up around the bales, and does what I can only describe as a turkey hunting bellyflop back down into the bottom of the trees. As I tried not to laugh out loud I asked him what that was, and he informed me that there was a tom walking about 50-60 yards out in the field. We made a quick run in the creekbed that was a little wet, running about 70 yards in the bottom and came up where the only opening was. While lying flat on our stomachs I raised my head to see the tom at about 45 yards. A couple of minutes go by, I raised my head again and could tell the tom was going to pass right in front of us, so I told John to get on his knees and raise his gun very slowly. I raised up and guessed the tom to be within 30 yards and I told John to shoot when he was ready. After not hearing a shot I asked John if the tom is still coming towards us, he nodded, I told him to shoot and Boom the shot goes off! I stood up to see another successful shot, shook John’s hand and stepped off the distance. The distance was 8 yards.
The time was now 4:25, and John had a smile on his face as big as a kid’s at Christmas. We headed back to the hotel, wondering what it was we were going to do for the next couple of days, as the hunt was for 3 days. John decided that 2 turkeys were enough for him and we left for Denver in the morning.
Atkinson Expeditions/Guide
Brian
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