Charlie Elk

pseudonym of a man

Archives for June 2017

Video of Wisconsin Wild Turkey Hen with Poults; Video added

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Here is another hen with her brood this morning. A beautiful hatch, despite that it has rained 15 out of the last 17 days here. Either it’s an old wives tale that getting wet will kill poults when less than 3 days old, or Wisconsin turkeys have evolved to tolerate it.
I count 13 poults. Only saw the one hen, but I suspect her cohort(s) was/were nearby. Two or more related hens will often lay eggs in the same nest, take turns setting, serving as sentinel and raising the brood, with adjacent barren hens and male turkeys announcing danger in the neighborhood.
Notice this hen has a slight beard – never shoot bearded hens.
How old do you think these poults are on June 29, 02017?
At 44.27° N Latitude in Wisconsin.

Update June 30, 2017 – Next day video

Going the other direction today. Four poults flew 3′ off the ground, by tonight they’ll roost in the trees.

More video July 1, 2017

Waited a long time for them to cross the road, to get a good count on the 13 poults (believe there’s 7 in the first group). Haven’t seen another hen yet in the last 3 days, so they must be all hers. It’s rained 16 out of the last 18 days here too. Join the AWTHDA, members receive access to exclusive content.

How does she protect 13 little ones by herself?!

To Protect the Young – Sassy Hen Sashaying in The Corn Video

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Courtesy of  American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog Association

Accidentally got too close to a hen turkey with poults and she didn’t like it. Flew at my head twice before the video started. Then she acted like a Killdeer with a broken wing, so I’d follow her and get away from where she told her babies to hide. She was indignant and fearless, determined to make me leave – I did! She had a slight stubble of a beard – don’t ever shoot bearded hens. Wisconsin – June 2017

Hard to Stop Turkey Hunting

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The last day of Wisconsin’s 2017 wild turkey hunt dawned quiet, very quiet; at least as far as turkey sounds are concerned.  The usual bird rush hour was in its normal fine form, but on this morning the turkeys apparently had other plans.  The season has been rewardingly long this spring from the first week in April hunting Colorado Rios, moving up to Wyoming Black Hills for a snowy Merriam and back to

Take time to teach the next generation of hunters.

Wisconsin for some youth hunt mentoring until my first Wisconsin tag validation the last week of April.  Not a morning missed, rain, shine, or somewhere in between and now here I set wearily reflecting on it all to the sounds of silence, the 30th of May with no complaints or regrets.  Yeah, I missed a turkey or two and zigged when a zag was needed more often than I care to remember.  It’s not good to focus on negative thoughts because if you do, they become self-fulfilling prophecies.

As the morning birdie rush hours fade into memory, I stand, stretch and give thanks.  Wild turkey season has come to an end for me…Until later while walking the dogs, a lone gobbler takes to flight out of the VPA field and glides lazily to the opposite woodlot.  It’s 1:30 in the afternoon, the season is still open, and I have two unpunched tags left.  VPA is private land that the Wisconsin DNR leases for public access, the field is open for hunting but as is so typical the woodlot is not enrolled, so it is closed to hunting without permission of the landowner.

The internal debate heats up; tiredness makes its nagging request just to forget him and rest.  While the prey drive says “two open tags and several hours to hunt a gobbler you can call out to kill.”

I feel sorry for the poor dogs after promising them on my return this morning that my hunt was over until the fall season and Vic would get the hunt the next time.  Funny thing about plans, they are subject to change, and here I am setting up in some long grass barely able to see the freshly planted corn field, calling on a tongue teaser to what seems like wide open empty spaces.

2017 spring’s most effective call for me

As 3:00 rolls around my sanity in some quarters would be questioned and the of quitting continues to grow in appeal.  The sun seems searing in intensity; you’d think the biting gnats would have their wings burned off, sadly it just appears to energize their bloodlust.

Time crawls to only 3:15; Has my watch stopped?  Ok, enough for one spring; as I roll off the gobbler lounger to take a final 360 look around a neon blue spot moves on my right…How in the heck did he get that close without being seen? And, as always, these birds come in from the direction least expected.

Rarely, is movement helpful when a standing tom is staring at you at close range.  However, he must have thought another turkey was moving around in the long grass causing him to up periscope for a better look-see, a fatal mistake.  I rose to my knees and looked at the twitching gobbler through the shot-tunnel in the grass.  Must be a mirage! Another tom is closing fast, heading directly to the dead bird and the end of my barrel.

Two toms, side by side.

For a moment I thought it was just a dream, so I waited for the empty field to rematerialize.  But you know, the weight of 40+ pounds of turkey over your back brings reality into focus.  On the half mile stroll back to the truck there was a moment or two when the memory of turkey tags still available and the season does not close until 8p something…hmm.

Run’n’Gun or Sit’n’Wait: Why Not Both?

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By Huntfishtrap

Most turkey hunters seem to fall into one of two camps – on one side you have the people who prefer to sit in one spot and wait for the turkeys to come to them, while on the other you have the folks who like to keep moving as much as possible. And both camps generally think their way is best. It’s kind of like politics, only (usually!) more polite. They each have their pros and cons, and you can be very successful using either strategy, but I prefer a more situational approach, where I let the needs of a specific hunt dictate what kind of tactics I use. I think the following story illustrates the benefits of this approach very well. 

Going into our 2nd shotgun season this past spring, my hopes were high, as I had roosted 3 birds on one of my favorite properties a few days before. I expected a relatively short hunt on opening day, and my expectations were met, although not quite in the way I envisioned. Despite picture-perfect weather that morning, there was very little gobbling on the roost anywhere within earshot, and none at all on the property I was hunting, nor on the neighboring one where I also had permission. I set up anyway, and stayed until 7 AM, but heard nothing close except for a few hen yelps. I knew there had to be gobblers around but was getting impatient, so decided to go elsewhere in search of more cooperative birds. 

I drove to another property a couple of miles away from where I’ve often had good luck later in the morning. This is a small farm, only about 35 acres, but I’ve killed a number of gobblers there. They generally roost on the neighboring properties and congregate on this one after fly-down. I set up just inside the woods on the back side of a small cornfield and made a few series of yelps. After my 2nd or 3rd series, a gobbler answered me from the neighboring property to the north. The tom was about 300 yards away, so I decided to cut the distance between us as much as I could, and eased down over the crest of the hill on which I’d been sitting until I was about 75 yards from the property line. I don’t know if he spotted me moving, or just wasn’t that interested, but after the 2 initial gobbles, I never heard from him again. After a fairly dull half-hour, I decided to make a move and headed back up to the ridgetop where I’d started out. I walked to the end of the ridge, which overlooks a very large valley, and pulled out my loudest aluminum friction call. The first series of ear-splitting yelps brought a faint response from a distant gobbler way off down the valley, so I elected to drop down to the valley floor, even though I knew I couldn’t get very close because the property ends just past the base of the hill. 

When I got to the bottom of the hill I called again, and the still-distant bird answered again, but this time another, a much closer tom gobbled as well. I quickly found a spot with decent visibility and hunkered down next to a tree. The gobbler answered my next series of calls enthusiastically, then went silent for a few minutes. Finally, he gobbled again, and I could tell he had closed the distance quite a bit, but was circling around me on the hillside above. He continued to gobble as he moved but didn’t deviate from his course, and I was unable to move because I knew he could see down into the valley from his position on the high ground. Eventually, he circled far enough around the shoulder of the bluff that I figured he couldn’t see my position anymore, so I grabbed my pack and gun and took off running around the base of the hill, trying to get ahead of the bird and cut him off. Running up the steep, 300-foot bluff nearly killed me, but I knew I had to beat him to the spot where I wanted to set up. Thankfully he kept gobbling every so often, so I could keep track of his position. I huffed and puffed my way to the top of the bluff about 100 yards in front of the gobbler, and just over the crest of the hill from him. I crawled up behind a large oak tree that offered good cover and scratched out a few soft yelps. He hammered right back, and I thought it would be over quickly. But even though he gobbled heartily every time I touched a call, he wouldn’t budge from what I now assumed to be his strut zone on the ridgetop. I knew I was between where he was and where he probably wanted to go, so I settled in to wait him out. 

After a 20-25 minute stalemate, during which time he didn’t seem to move more than a few feet in any direction,

Wonderful Iowa Turkey

I suddenly saw a red head pop over the crest of the hill, peering down the slope in my direction. The head was quickly followed by the rest of the bird, as he came walking down the ridge toward me. I already had my gun up and resting on a fallen tree branch, so it was a simple matter to swing it over a few degrees and track him with the muzzle as he approached. After navigating a patch of thick saplings, he finally popped out into the open at a mere 20 yards and stopped. A trigger squeeze later, and my first turkey of the year was flopping his way down the hillside. 

Given his behavior and the fact that it was relatively early in the spring when most older toms would still be flocked up with hens, I assumed I was dealing with a 2-year-old bird. But when I bent over and grabbed a leg to pick him up, I almost fell over in shock. He had perfectly matching 1 9/16” spurs,

Perfectly matching 1 9/16” spurs, both razor-sharp

both razor-sharp. He was otherwise relatively ordinary, weighing just under 24lbs, with a wispy 9” beard. But judging by the spur length, he was definitely an old turkey. That fact made the successful conclusion to the hunt even more rewarding. 

Looking back on the hunt later, I realized I had utilized both patient and aggressive tactics to kill that bird, and most likely would not have been successful had I stuck with one or the other. It was a good example of why you should let the turkey’s behavior determine how you hunt, rather than sticking with a predetermined course of action. Planning has its place, but to be a consistently successful turkey hunter, you sometimes need to be able to change things up on the fly and adapt to the situation at hand.

Wisconsin 2017 Spring Wild Turkey Harvest – with all the details

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Here are all the 2017 spring wild turkey harvest/kill stats you could ask for from Wisconsin.  The first chart is the kill by county, sex, and age. Scroll down for the number bagged by the number of hunters and continue scrolling down for all the harvests/kill from 1983 to 2016.

An interesting number 384 bearded hens were taken during spring 2017. Sauk County had the most, 20, bearded hens taken.

  Type of Turkey Total (ALL)
Hen Tom
Age of Turkey Age of Turkey
Adult Juvenile Adult Juvenile
Kill Kill Kill Kill Kill
County Of Kill 9 . 664 144 817
ADAMS
ASHLAND . . 85 16 101
BARRON 2 . 311 92 405
BAYFIELD . . 149 23 172
BROWN 2 . 518 92 612
BUFFALO 6 1 524 130 661
BURNETT 1 . 211 49 261
CALUMET 1 . 236 63 300
CHIPPEWA 5 . 546 117 668
CLARK 5 . 591 164 760
COLUMBIA 15 1 988 226 1,230
CRAWFORD 4 . 751 122 877
DANE 13 2 1261 245 1,521
DODGE 10 . 762 151 923
DOOR 2 . 554 63 619
DOUGLAS . . 111 28 139
DUNN 5 . 636 133 774
EAU CLAIRE 2 . 539 101 642
FLORENCE . . 86 21 107
FOND DU LAC 10 . 667 166 843
FOREST 1 . 83 13 97
GRANT 8 . 864 148 1,020
GREEN 8 . 612 115 735
GREEN LAKE 2 . 394 115 511
IOWA 27 2 971 132 1,132
IRON . . 30 9 39
JACKSON 8 . 571 146 725
JEFFERSON 4 . 597 134 735
JUNEAU 6 . 614 108 728
KENOSHA . . 49 12 61
KEWAUNEE 7 . 465 63 535
LA CROSSE 4 1 477 85 567
LAFAYETTE 8 . 422 46 476
LANGLADE 2 . 284 61 347
LINCOLN 2 . 360 87 449
MANITOWOC 14 . 786 160 960
MARATHON 12 1 1036 246 1,295
MARINETTE 1 . 504 141 646
MARQUETTE 6 1 709 153 869
MENOMINEE . . 2 . 2
MILWAUKEE . . 4 1 5
MONROE 7 . 780 163 950
OCONTO 9 . 690 165 864
ONEIDA . . 154 40 194
OUTAGAMIE 3 . 540 124 667
OZAUKEE 4 . 268 59 331
PEPIN 3 . 212 49 264
PIERCE 4 . 573 123 700
POLK 3 . 359 105 467
PORTAGE 2 . 669 147 818
PRICE . . 220 56 276
RACINE 2 . 82 16 100
RICHLAND 17 . 704 125 846
ROCK 6 1 595 105 707
RUSK 1 . 293 70 364
SAUK 20 . 1019 175 1,214
SAWYER . . 103 25 128
SHAWANO 9 . 1006 136 1,151
SHEBOYGAN 16 1 642 132 791
ST CROIX . . 492 139 631
TAYLOR 1 . 553 105 659
TREMPEALEAU 5 . 521 123 649
VERNON 4 . 711 163 878
VILAS . . 74 23 97
WALWORTH 4 . 350 91 445
WASHBURN 1 . 185 52 238
WASHINGTON 4 . 607 114 725
WAUKESHA 1 . 494 142 637
WAUPACA 21 . 1155 228 1,404
WAUSHARA 7 1 525 183 716
WINNEBAGO 2 . 308 91 401
WOOD 4 . 492 131 627
Total (ALL) 372 12 35400 7521 43,305

 

Below is the number of hunters who each bagged the number of turkeys.  

Example from the chart 32,476 spring turkey hunters bagged one turkey each.  215 hunters bagged 4 turkeys each, etc.

Bagged By number of Hunters
1 32476
2 3368
3 761
4 215
5 79
6 36
7 18
8 5
9 5
10 7
11 2
15 1
21 1

 The historical number of permits issued, harvest and

permit success for spring turkey hunting, 1983-2016.

Year Permits Harvest Permit Success
1983 1,200 182 15.2%
1984 1,950 303 15.5%
1985 2,025 496 24.5%
1986 3,675 793 21.6%
1987 6,040 1,478 24.5%
1988 11,070 2,486 22.5%
1989 21,280 4,400 20.7%
1990 29,877 6,465 21.6%
1991 37,414 6,846 18.3%
1992 43,925 8,798 20.0%
1993 61,767 12,316 19.9%
1994 71,420 12,637 17.7%
1995 68,588 15,323 22.3%
1996 75,812 18,000 23.7%
1997 92,734 20,992 22.6%
1998 101,141 28,338 28.0%
1999 112,256 33,168 29.5%
2000 132,318 38,686 29.2%
2001 151,522 39,211 25.9%
2002 160,101 39,336 24.6%
2003 169,277 42,970 25.4%
2004 186,608 47,477 25.4%
2005 193,826 46,183 23.8%
2006 200,869 46,662 23.2%
2007 205,306 52,428 25.5%
2008 208,972 52,880 25.3%
2009 218,133 52,581 24.1%
2010 214,356 47,722 22.3%
2011 210,384 40,133 19.1%
2012 201,984 42.612 21.1%
2013 217,798 37,804 17.4%
2014 210,496 41,815 19.9%
2015 208,250 40,975 19.7%
2016 212,772 45,501 21.4%

Do Hunters really do this? Are there Those Who are That Dumb?

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Stunning.  The old saying “no good deed goes unpunished” is more accurate than we’d like to admit.

This wild turkey habitat demonstration area was not for just habitat but also a place disabled hunters could be taken out hunting.

Why would anyone who hunts destroy signs like these?

Or This?

This takes a crackpot. Not a crack shot.

Come on there are shooting ranges all over Wisconsin with much better targets than this.  As my rage subsided and my brain begins to work it came up with other possibilities.  Perhaps it was not hunters, rather some other entity whose cause would be advanced by bad Hunter P.R.

Many signs in this hunter were shot up

Maybe some rabid anti-hunters.  Sobering to think they might have taken up arms.  But then I remember members of the Human Society of The United States advocating vandalism on hunting lands to make hunters look bad.  A few years ago I some found alcoholic beverage containers strewn about the parking areas of a WMA during a fall hunting season. Being a concerned hunter and good citizen, picked up the litter on my way out.  A few days later I returned and found the same type of litter.  On my fourth hunt, there was more of this litter.  Clearly, this problem was not random, reporting it would be a waste of time without more evidence of the identity.  However, being it was hunting season I did not want to waste time.  In a discreet location, up went an old trail camera.  A week later more bottles were dumped along with several beer cans.  I recovered the camera for review after my hunt.

A few years ago I some found alcoholic beverage containers strewn about the parking areas of a WMA during a fall hunting season. Being a concerned hunter and good citizen, picked up the litter on my way out.  A few days later I returned and found the same type of litter.  On my fourth hunt, there was more of this litter.  Clearly, this problem was not random, reporting it would be a waste of time without more evidence of the identity.  However, being it was hunting season I did not want to waste time.  In a discreet location, up went an old trail camera.  A week later more bottles were dumped along with several beer cans.  I recovered the camera for review after my hunt.

After getting my turkeys cleaned and my dog settled in it was time to check out the camera images.  The camera caught the culprits including their license plate number. Called the sheriff to report and emailed the photos.  Each of the four litters were fined $700 and asked the judge for leniency because they were trying to help get the area closed to hunting so that animals would no longer live in fear.  Turned out these creeps wanted to stop hunting and figured if hunters were made to look dangerous more people would become activists on their side.

My mission on Saturday was not finding a bunch of shot up signs rather find turkeys, in particular, turkey poults and make notes of the type crops planted or not planted.  I found plenty of deer, many does had twins and triplets in tow!  The hen turkeys had 4-7 poults each with many hens still sitting on nests.  The extra nest setting is probably due to all the rain washing out their first nesting attempts.

On Monday I will be contacting the nice lady in charge of Wisconsin’s voluntary access program to find out where I can purchase some replacement VPA signs to put up.  The very last thing we need are landowners who are considering signing up their lands for public access seeing what they will most likely assume are unappreciative hunters.

I don’t think hunters vandalized those signs.  What is your opinion?

Update: 6/20/17

I have been in contact with WDNR and found out these signs had been replaced previously and now they have been shot up again, outside of any hunting season.  Makes me suspect it might not be someone who hunts.  Also, I did not make clear in the post street signs were shot all the way to the location of the NWTF sign obliteration. 

 

After The Storm

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by FirstBubba

From no bird since 2011 to the spring of 2015!
At least I’m not greeted by thunder and lightening this morning! Meant to be up by 5:00 AM. When my bleary eyes finally locate a clock, it’s 5:26 AM!
Coffee and dressed and I’m out the gate at 6:03 AM! Not bad for an old, fat cripple!
It’s 6:43 AM when I stop at the gate and it’s beginning to break day. Quite a difference from the deluge of two days ago! The air is still, quiet and nearly 60°. The sun promises a cloudless, bluebird sky! AWESOME!
Somewhere across the bottom, a gobble breaks the silence! I quickly gather my gear and head out across the still soggy pasture, birds gobbling from time to time. The crystal clear notes tell me they’re still on the roost.
I set the “deke” and make my spread. Then the “Gobble Fest” begins. I must be hearing 10 to 15 birds from three different directions.
Low lying fog spreads across the bottom. The fog is beautiful, and I take a few pictures. Two coyotes stop and check the hen decoy before moving along.
Muffled gobbles tell me birds are on the ground. Buffing the slate call, I throw out a “cut” or two. They’re greeted with gobbles. Yelps and purrs are more often cut off with gobbles than not!
Checking the camera, I see the batteries are getting low. Retrieving the four new batteries from my coat pocket, I pop the old batteries out and drop the new ones in. I replace the camera on its monopod and shove it into the soft ground and realize that two birds are almost to the pecan trees! One looks to be a very nice bird! Oh, well!
Checking back the way they came in, I see a big white head about 30 yards out.
What do I do now? The gun is resting on its tripod, probably 70° from where the bird is! I contemplate my next move.
I lift with my right hand on the wrist of the stock and slap the fore end with my left, lifting the gun out of its cradle.
Startled, the bird stares at me as I swing the shotgun into position and slap the trigger!
He’s mine!

Not as big a bird as the “Rain Storm” gobbler, but a VERY pretty bird! 16 pounds 3/4″ spurs 9″ beard

 

Beyond The Patterning Board; X-Rays of Shot Turkey Head/Necks

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By FirstBubba

Due to a rather “brisk” discussion on another blog about turkey ammo, I could think of no other way to prove that #8 shot IS adequate for turkeys than xX-rays of harvested birds.

First and foremost, I’d like to thank Dr. Kerri D’Arbonne, DVM and her husband (both avid hunters!) of Chisholm Trail Vet Clinic, Duncan, Oklahoma for the use of their equipment for this endeavor.

My apologies for the mess I had to clean up afterward! LOL! Secondly! This project was my maiden voyage to the “Sea of Xray.” These shots aren’t “exactly” what I had in mind, but hope they help!

Let’s go with “layout” first.

Left to right: Turkey #1 was taken at nearly 35 yards, quartering away right to left. Turkey #2 was taken right at 30 yards, broadside traveling left to right. Turkey #3 in the neighborhood of 15 yards moving right to left.  The first shot is a side view.

 

Shot #2 is a frontal view. Left to right: Turkey #1 was taken at nearly 35 yards, quartering away right to left. Turkey #2 was taken at 30 yards, broadside traveling left to right. Turkey #3 in the neighborhood of 15 yards moving right to the left.

 

Left to right: Turkey #1 was taken at nearly 35 yards, quartering away right to left. Turkey #2 was taken at 30 yards, broadside traveling left to right. Turkey #3 in the neighborhood of 15 yards moving right to left.

(Told you I were no expert! LOL!)

  • All three birds dropped at the shot.
  • All three birds were taken with 2.75″ Winchester Super-Handicap
  • Heavy Target Load @1250fps with 1 1/8 ounce of #8 lead shot.

Plain Jane Remington 870 12 gauge with an aftermarket “extra full” choke tube.

The “brisk” discussion was mostly over whether #8 shot would maintain enough kinetic energy to penetrate deeply enough to break bones (vertebrae) out to 40 yards.

Note on bird #1, the two #8 shot that appears to be behind the right eye. Those two shot HAD to transect the entire head to reach their position.

I believe “turkey specific” ammo is overrated and over priced. Why buy 5 to 10 rounds for $2 or so per round when I can get a box of 25 for 5 to 7 bucks?(depending on sales. I AM a tightwad! LOL! )

I also believe that the 3 and 3.5-inch ammo tends to cause otherwise good hunters to attempt shots well beyond the 40-yard mark, resulting in wounded and unrecovered birds.

Therefore, I shoot 2.75-inch ammo and call birds in as close as possible.  I believe “pattern density” kills, not shot size. The more pellets you deliver to the target, the higher your chances of delivering a fatal pellet strike. Therefore, I shoot #8’s to deliver as thick a pattern as possible.

I’ve burned lot’s of ammo at sheets of newspaper and butcher paper to get an idea of “pattern density,” but what REALLY happens when you pull that trigger?  A specific percentage of pellets in a ten-inch circle at 30 yards?…40 yards?  Guess what guys; A turkey head ain’t that big!!

I’m hoping these X-rays give others a look at what happens that the patterning board just doesn’t tell you.

IF you are comfortable with the ammo you shoot, the range you shoot and the pellet size you prefer, DO NOT change because of my beliefs! I’m not suggesting everyone change ammo, but if you’re looking for different ammo options, here is one!

If you have a hunter friendly vet in your area, talk to them. Xrays reveal a lot about pellet performance!

The Kamikaze Bird, by huntfishtrap

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By, HuntFishTrap

The morning of May 5 brought clear skies and mild temperatures to my corner of Iowa, and I was itching to get back into the turkey woods again, after a 2-week layoff following the hunt for my first bird of the year, back in our 2nd shotgun season. We’re allowed two gun tags for spring turkey hunting here in Iowa, and of the 2 one must be for the 4th and final season, for reasons I have never heard explained by the powers that be.

Being strongly averse to rising early in the morning, I elected to set my alarm for 6 am, and then hit the woods after fly-down. Since it was a weekday when most of the competition would be at work, I elected to go to a public land spot where I had long wanted to kill a gobbler. The property had produced a number of close calls over the years, including missing a big longbeard two seasons prior, but I had always seemed to be snakebit there.

I pulled into the deserted parking lot a little after 7 and set off into the woods as the rising sun painted the just-emerging maple and oak leaves with shades of gold. I walked about a ½ mile into the timber before stopping to call for the first time, knowing from past experience that calling close to the parking lot is usually a waste of time on public land. The first series of yelps did not produce a response, so I kept going, stopping to yelp a few times every couple hundred yards or so. My destination was a ridge overlooking a large oak flat that often held birds, and I had almost reached it when I heard a faint gobble from somewhere off in the distance. I cut loose a few loud yelps on my go-to long-distance aluminum pot call and received an answer. Still, could not tell exactly where the bird was, so I eased up to the top of the ridge and tried again. This time the far-off gobbler was joined by another, much closer bird, somewhere down on the oak flat in front of me. I quickly scanned the trees around me for a good spot to set up and chose a large oak tree with a deadfall in front of it which acted as a sort of natural blind.

After settling in, it didn’t take long to ascertain that the distant tom was way down in a big valley on the other side of the oak flat, and was most likely a lost cause. But the closer gobbles were only a few hundred yards away, and it sounded like there might even be more than one bird. My first few series of calls brought immediate responses, and it sounded like the bird or birds were moving closer, but then they seemed to begin to lose interest. So I started switching calls, looking for something they’d like, but without much success. The occasional gobble would ring out, but they didn’t seem to be answering anymore. Finally, I got to one of my three wingbones, which I rarely use, and mostly carry for emergencies. That was the ticket, as they – by now I was certain there was more than one – started responding again, and began working their way closer. The birds got to within 200 yards, then hung up, and a stalemate ensued. I would call, they would gobble, but wouldn’t come a step my way. I knew the area quite well and didn’t think there were any obstructions that would prevent them from moving my way, so after about 30 minutes I was getting exasperated. Finally, I’d had enough, so decided to make a move.

I eased back over the ridge until I was certain the turkeys couldn’t see me and started looping around one side. The open oak woods didn’t offer much cover for trying to sneak up on anything, but I knew there was a small ditch on the far side of the ridge that I could use for cover if I could get there. I made it to the ditch and followed it as far as I could, until reaching the point where I had to climb out in order to keep moving in the right direction. At this point, I figured I was still at least 150 yards from the last gobbles I’d heard, but at least I was now on their side of the ridge. I elected to stop and call just before reaching the top of the bank above the ditch, but before I could get my wingbone out of my pocket the toms gobbled again, but they sounded much farther away. I cut loose with a little wingbone music and received silence in reply, tried again, the same result. I was standing there a little despondently, trying to figure out a new plan of action, when I heard what I thought was a hen putting just over a small rise in the ground, about 100 yards in front of me. That was followed immediately by a loud commotion that sounded like several turkeys running in the dry, crackly leaves.

I figured I had somehow spooked part of the flock I’d been hearing, and almost started to jog up to the top of the knoll to see if I could catch a glimpse of them, when a red head popped over the hill in front of me, followed immediately by two more! I froze in consternation because I knew that standing in the middle of the open woods without any cover near me was a recipe for disaster. But thankfully when they lowered their heads they disappeared behind the rise in the land again, and I could drop to my knees and scramble several feet backward until I was up against an oak tree. I just had time to raise my trusty 870 and steady it over one knee before they came trotting over the hill, headed right for me. At this point I was not certain what kind of birds were coming in – the gobbles I’d been hearing all morning had sounded a little choppy at times, like jakes – but the first bird in line was a nice long beard, and he was determined to be first to the party. He came trucking right toward me, beard swinging from side to side, while I tried to make myself small against the oak. While he was coming in, I heard a loud spit-n-drum from beyond the rise and saw a fan pop open, so I knew there were still more birds coming but was focused on the one at hand.
He paused at about 40 yards, and I almost shot him, but just as I was about to squeeze the trigger he kept coming, and I kept tracking him with the gun muzzle. Even in the heat of the moment, the thought popped into my mind, “This bird is like a kamikaze – I’m going to kill him, or he’s going to run me over!”. Finally at 25 yards, he started to slow down, and finally stopped and started giving me the old hairy eyeball, so I centered the bright fiber-optic bead on his glowing head and sent 2 ounces of #5s on their way. The gun boomed he dropped like a stone, and turkeys took off in every direction behind him.  There were at least 5 or 6 different birds, a mix of jakes and toms. I will never know what made that flock suddenly reverse course and come right to me after essentially disregarding my calling for the previous 2 hours, but I’m not complaining. Sometimes the unpredictability of turkeys is bad, and sometimes it’s good.

When I looked at my watch, I saw that the time was 9:35 am, only 5 minutes later in the morning than when I killed my first turkey of the year, two weeks before. This bird would then tip the scales at 20 ½lbs, with 1 1/8” spurs and a 10 ½” beard. A nice 3-year-old tom. After snapping some photos, and stopping to enjoy the beautiful day for a while, I loaded the bird into my pack and set off on the 3/4+ mile walk back to my truck. The hard part of the hunt was just beginning, but it was a small price to pay for such an awesome morning in the turkey woods.

Are Turkey Hunts like Chess Match or Card Game of Chance?

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What do you think?  Is a wild turkey hunt more like a game chess in the woods or is it more like the card game solitaire?  

Something, perhaps mostly unknown about charlie elk is the fact it took him five wild turkey seasons before he finally killed a gobbler.

What took him so long?

After all, he helped Minnesota catch grouse for the Minnesota/Missouri turkey/grouse exchange release program so he should have learned something about turkeys during that long restoration period.  Well, not so fast.  Charlie was an accomplished big game hunter who frequently stalked within longbow range of bedded cervids across the North American Continent.  And then, in the early eighties along came the wild turkey opportunities.

After finally being drawn for a Minnesota turkey license in the zone where a band of turkey nuts, including Charlie had released turkeys from Missouri years before; the young, cocky, self-assured Charlie was humbled by a bird with a brain about the size of a walnut.  It is amazing how a feathered bird-brained creature could be so elusive.

He planned all his hunts so carefully, doing research to determine in advance where the turkeys roosted, where they would want to go from roost and how they would get there, all to no avail.  Then late one morning he saw a truck with plates from Missouri pull into the parking area, an elderly gentleman stepped out walked around surveying the area and then did some cutting on a long box call.  Answered by a robust gobble, not more than 100 yards down the trail Charlie had just walked back to camp.  The veteran hunter headed down the path and soon a there was a gunshot.   The fellow came walking back with a very nice turkey over his shoulder.

The mistake Charlie had been making, in his humble opinion was that he’d been hunting turkeys using many of same tactics as he used for hunting big game.  Big game animals do things for reasons that are quite apparent to an experienced hunter.  Whereas the wild turkey does things that are apparently done for well, maybe no clear reason at all.

A lot of turkey behavior, if not most, is random, much like the shuffling of a deck of cards.  For example, if a turkey is flushed and somewhere different with suitable habitat and maybe an available hen during the spring— that turkey is likely to be just as content in the new location as he was in the previous one, he’ll just roost in whatever tree is convenient as it gets dark. Once this randomness soaked into charlie’s sometimes, most times, dense head, he has killed a turkey in every season he has hunted over the last 40 years.