I thought I would get this hunt started with some pics and Mike will jump in and fill in some of the details after he gets home and settles in.

Mike and I have talked about a turkey hunt for a long time and we finally got it done. We had a great time, lots of birds and I have no idea how many gobbles we heard or how many birds were seen but it was plenty for the small field we spent most of are time in.

 

We had three fun days of gobblers!

 

Jakes!

 

Hens!

 

Bearded lady's!

 

 

Some of Mike's selfbows!

 

And a little blood to!

 

Tracy

I cant wait to see the rest of this one!

C'mon boys... Spill your guts!  

I bought a new hen decoy to try out this year, there exspensive but after what we seen happen the last few days I think it was well worth the money.

Mike got there late in the afternoon and we rushed out and set up as fast as we could and climbed in the blind. Right away we had some hens come in and work all around the decoys talking and checking out the hen decoy the most.

The really seemed to like her.

 

 

Soon after I peeked out my side window and there was two nice gobblers 20yds away coming outof the timber. They seemed a little timid of the strutting decoy and started to move off gobbling at are every call.

 

 

It all happened pretty fast and before we new it another hen and a couple big gobblers came into the field a couple hundred yards away.

Mike gave a few yelps and they headed are way.

 

Both looked like they had been beaten up a little and didn't want to come in stopping about 35yds out strutting and gobbling.

 

 

Tracy

Cool!

Thanks for sharing.

Now I'll get my      while waiting for Mike to join in.

Thanks again!

God bless,Mudd

Then another big gobbler and a few more hens!



Deer were filtering into the field now also and I was thinking this was great way to start the hunt.





Tracy

I know how it ends, but I sure have been waiting on this one buddy      

That first afternoon was great, we had hens all over us but the big boys stayed out of range by about 15 yards. They would come no closer than around 35  yards. They hung around then followed the hens to the other end of the food plot. That hen decoy was the real deal, the hens loved it but the longbeards liked strutting for each other.

I've been wondering how the hunt went. That bloody arrow says a lot.

On with the show!!

Yep, Just when we thought we had a chance them dang hens headed of strait away from us and out of the field.    The one thing we did notice was all the turkeys kept coming and going out the same way in the field, It looked like we needed to move the blind.

We were back early that afternoon right after lunch, we pushed a few hens out of the field when we got there. But after setting up again and climbing in the blind we had hens coming back shortly. This is were we really saw how well the new hen decoy would work because we didn't set up the strutter this time.

The hens came up talking the whole time walking around her then started preening and finaly laying down beside her like they were best friends.







This would happen over and over the next few days.



Tracy

The hens acted like the decoy was their watch dog and felt like taking sun baths for hours. If the longbeards would have acted the same we would have had it made. After watching the turkeys end up at some time or another at the end of the field we decided to move blind to that end of the plot and thought we would have it made. For the next couple of days the hens and jakes were our best friends.
We thought we had it made at daylight the next morning when after hundreds of gobbles the turkeys were coming our way and less that 50 yards behind us.

This is a *most-excellent* thunder chicken hunt!

Thank you for sharin'!

Shoot straight, Shinken

 

At this point I need to say Mike is one heck of a turkey caller with his voice and one of the best owl callers I've ever heard. Curt Cabrera is the only other person I have heard that is so good at calling without a call.      :D  

Mikes right hundreds of gobbles and they were getting closer and closer. Both of us were checking everything making sure nothing would go wrong when the time came to shoot. We had a slight breeze and the decoy was moving around slowly looking quite good and there was a couple hens down the field. Everything was perfect!

Tracy

Tracy really knows how to show you a good time and had tons of game. Those birds that were coming fast and 50 yards or less and it looked like it was going to be a done deal real quick. The trail that the birds used coming into the field was a short three yards from our blind. Now all of the sudden for reasons unknown to us a hen behind us started alarm putting and the whole flock left with no turkeys coming into our decoy the rest of the morning. All we could figure was a coyote or bobcat came to all the talking these birds were doing.
The pm was about the same as before with hens all over us. I told Tracy with all this dusting and feather cleaning these hens were doing we were going to get some rain and rain it did. So the next morning I left the sinew backed osage at home and pulled out the Black Widow PCH and told Tracy just watch, that I would kill something now.

Dangit Man! You should have seen are faces when those turkeys went crazy putting and leaving the area.  :mad:  But nothing we could do about it.

More in the morning, Finish this up!

Tracy