SpurHunter
Well-known member
So after getting foiled on the afternoon hunt Thursday night by the flock of jakes on the loose, I figured we would hit the area I heard big boy roosted early and get right up in his kitchen. </p>
Same story...best laid plans and all that...emoLaugh </p>
Since he was gobbling like crazy at 6:55 Thursday morning, I wanted to be in the woods by 6:30 Saturday, we almost made that....we crept in to the spot I wanted about 6:45 and as I was trying to get an exact bearing a turkey busted off the limb above us! DOH! Too close! We froze and didnt hear anything else, so I went ahead and placed the deeks out, and we got settled in behind a smallblind "fence" of sorts I had in the truck. As we got ready, I notice movement in the tree in front of us about 50 yards out.....I see tail feathers going up! Its still dark and I cant make out for sure if its big boy or a jake. As he struts on the limb, he finally get clear and I can see hes a jake. emoScratch Why would a jake be roosted with the long-beard? Well, he wasnt, turns out the lighter it got, the more turkeys we started seeing. 7 in all, about 4 jakes and three hens. My soft tree yelps, didnt work, cuts, yelps, clucks, you name it didnt fire ol thunder boy up, but got the hens good and worked up. The only one of the hens to do a true fly-down cackle got the dominant bird to gobble, but he was hundreds of yards the exact opposite direction I was expecting him. This being a very small tract f ground, I am pretty much hand-cuffed to chase a bird, I am having to hunt them as they feed or search for hens. We let all the birds get off the limb, and then I got to work fighting with the hens. One ol gal was quite pissed I would dare challenge her, and we cut each other off for about 20 minutes or so. She was still trying to prove her dominance in the flock when we left her to get into the blind closer to where I heard that only gobble. Essentially I was closing the distance, and using her to help draw him to us. She was still mad as a hornet 20 minutes later when I would call, but I could not get him to answer at all, still just the one good-morning gobble. emoScratch </p>
After an hour of daylight Storm wanted to get out and see what we could rustle up, and we scouted a little bit looking for sign. I found another, possibly better, ambush site closer to that field the birds are using in the evening, then we went back up to where the birds had been roosted, and found 4 jake strutting together. That led me to believe the big boy had taken the hens from them, and banished them to a bachelor party while he did his thing. He also didnt need to gobble now until he was done with them, and I had a trip to Wheeler I had to get on to, so we left shortly after that.</p>
I have hunted the same bird for an entire season before, and they just get wiser and more aggravating, but this one will be very satisfying when Storm clobbers him this year. emoEvil</p>
Same story...best laid plans and all that...emoLaugh </p>
Since he was gobbling like crazy at 6:55 Thursday morning, I wanted to be in the woods by 6:30 Saturday, we almost made that....we crept in to the spot I wanted about 6:45 and as I was trying to get an exact bearing a turkey busted off the limb above us! DOH! Too close! We froze and didnt hear anything else, so I went ahead and placed the deeks out, and we got settled in behind a smallblind "fence" of sorts I had in the truck. As we got ready, I notice movement in the tree in front of us about 50 yards out.....I see tail feathers going up! Its still dark and I cant make out for sure if its big boy or a jake. As he struts on the limb, he finally get clear and I can see hes a jake. emoScratch Why would a jake be roosted with the long-beard? Well, he wasnt, turns out the lighter it got, the more turkeys we started seeing. 7 in all, about 4 jakes and three hens. My soft tree yelps, didnt work, cuts, yelps, clucks, you name it didnt fire ol thunder boy up, but got the hens good and worked up. The only one of the hens to do a true fly-down cackle got the dominant bird to gobble, but he was hundreds of yards the exact opposite direction I was expecting him. This being a very small tract f ground, I am pretty much hand-cuffed to chase a bird, I am having to hunt them as they feed or search for hens. We let all the birds get off the limb, and then I got to work fighting with the hens. One ol gal was quite pissed I would dare challenge her, and we cut each other off for about 20 minutes or so. She was still trying to prove her dominance in the flock when we left her to get into the blind closer to where I heard that only gobble. Essentially I was closing the distance, and using her to help draw him to us. She was still mad as a hornet 20 minutes later when I would call, but I could not get him to answer at all, still just the one good-morning gobble. emoScratch </p>
After an hour of daylight Storm wanted to get out and see what we could rustle up, and we scouted a little bit looking for sign. I found another, possibly better, ambush site closer to that field the birds are using in the evening, then we went back up to where the birds had been roosted, and found 4 jake strutting together. That led me to believe the big boy had taken the hens from them, and banished them to a bachelor party while he did his thing. He also didnt need to gobble now until he was done with them, and I had a trip to Wheeler I had to get on to, so we left shortly after that.</p>
I have hunted the same bird for an entire season before, and they just get wiser and more aggravating, but this one will be very satisfying when Storm clobbers him this year. emoEvil</p>
