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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 19, 2007 19:21:15 GMT -5
April 19, I went back to where I had spooked a couple of birds last week. I had been there each time at midmorning, so this would be the first time at sunrise. I eased across the power line, and did not have to wait long. The first gobbler sounded off up the ridge in front of me about 250yds. I started making my way up the ridge and heard another bird to my left. I got where I felt I couldnt go anymore and I set up about 35yds from the edge of a pasture that had alot of broomstraw in it. The gobbler pitched out on the edge of the pasture to my right about 200yds, and gobbled about minute. I began to call a little and started hearing other gobblers all around. One came through the pasture and stopped in front of me about 75yds, and another to my left about 150 yds. Three gobblers that close to me, gobbling like crazy.They gradually slowed down gobbling, and left me. The other gobblers behind me were still cutting a rug. I turned around and slipped down near the creek. I called and three birds answered me. They were about 80 yds, and were closing fast. They gobbled again and I could tell one was a jake. I yelped, and the asnwered, and two more behind them gobbled. I could see the heads coming toward me, and I got my gun ready. They would come out to my right at about 25 yds, and I was ready. All three stepped out, and all three were JAKES!! One putted and I didnt want them to spook the other two behind them, so I clucked twice. All three gobbled, and the first jake, who was bigger, had the gobble of a mature tom. I remained frozen with my gun up, and the jakes off my right shoulder at 20 yds. They putted a couple more times and continued to my right down the creek. I knew two more were in the bottom with me, so I remaimed on alert. After 15 minutes I called, and they answered but had moved back to the powere line.I crawled up tp power line and could see the road pretty good, and hoped that they would walk to me. It was now 9am and it had been the most gobbling I had ever heard. I made a call aboth groups gobbled. THis happened four or five times for the next 15 minuted. Neither group would come out into the road, so I crawled across the road to the other side, and could see a couple of the birds walking away from me to my right. I called, and everybody answered again. This set off a reaction between the two groups for a few minutes.TURF BATTLE! I decided to slip around the group of longbeards and get in front of them. I made a big turn to my left and got in front of where I thought they were going. This was a nice hardwood stand of trees, but still thick enough where you couldnt see more than 50 yds. I set up and called, and BINGO, they answered about 75 yds in front of me coming my way. They turned toward their left and stopped at about 65-70yds where I couldnt see them. They gobbled on and off for about 15 minutes, and slowly walked away up the ridge. I could kick myself! I had slipped in front of them, and I should have just sat down and not called at all. 10:30, it was over. 10 gobblers. I heard more gobbles in those couple of hours than I have all season put together. I'll give them another try in the next couple of days.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 20, 2007 15:54:36 GMT -5
I went back to the same place as yesterday, hoping one of the longbeards would like to go home with me. I set up on the powerline, and waited, and waited, At 8:15 ish, I started out, and I heard a gobbler sound off on his on. I quickly set up and there were two gobblers.They were in the hardwoods, and I was about 80 yds from them. I remembered how the jakes sounded like the big boys, but man, these sounded good. After about twenty minutes I caught movement to my left and I saw a hen followed by two gobblers, all of them feeding along. They got to about 50yds, and I raised my gun. The tom stood erect, and his head was very vibrant with the red,white, and blue. I checked his beard length first, and he was a dadgum JAKE! So was the other one. I watched them feed out of sight and walked to the truck. I told myself, well, at least next year there will be alot of 2 year old gobblers.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 20, 2007 21:18:49 GMT -5
An old friend called me today, and asked if Id like to chase a trophy tom, and I told him that was a stupid question. Of course I jumped at the chance, because this fellow has akot of good land to hunt. He had tried this tom a couple of times and he wasnt successful, and asked if I could help out. we met and he told me what the bird had been doing mid day, so we went to a field on the propertry where he was positive the bird was hanging out. This field had alot of 15 year pines, new saw tooth oaks, and instead of grass, it was solid CLOVER!. We set up and I made my first cluck,bingo ! He was right where my bud said he would be. I clucked a couple more times, and he gobbled two more times, each time closer. after about ten minutes, I looked to my right and saw a hen walking in the direction of the gobbler. Game over, he never gobbled again. We got up cautiously, and decided to go around him. As we got up, we looked down a small food plot, and there he was. He stopped about 60 yds from us, and the hen cut him off from coming closer. We made out way around him and set up on the other end of the food plot. We could see him at about 175yds through the pines we were in, and when we called he started our way. He closed to about 125 yds, and we saw the hen was still with him.He would come no further. After 30 minutes of clucks and purrs, we decided to slip out and try him again later tomorrow.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 29, 2007 10:36:15 GMT -5
Last day of 2007-I was invited by a friend of mine that is a preacher here in my hometown who is originally from Alabama and played football at Auburn.He has taken a few birds and I was there to help him out if I could. We went a friends house we both knew and we heard one gobbler sound off and he was across the street, where we couldnt hunt. He gobbled twice and that was it. We went to one of my spots close by, and we heard a gobbler at the edge of the clearcut. We set up in the edge of the woods, and I heard another bird to my left, about 250 yds away, and he sounded good. We moved to about 75 yds of the power line and began calling. He never gobbled again and I heard a shot from the property beside us shorlty thereafter. 2007 turkey season had come and gone.
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Post by Dan The Man on Mar 18, 2008 21:48:05 GMT -5
2008, I have scouted several times in the upstate and I feel the birds will be about where they are now. I am looking forward to taking a particular tom, who was a renegade jake last year. he lead a group of four other jakes and jumped on and beat the hell out of any gobbler I was working last year on this one particular piece of property. I heard him and two of buddies gobbling the other morning, right where they were last year. I'll be about 80 yds down the hill, with gun ready April 1st. I hope to take out two of those bullies from last year. I got invited to hunt the SCarolian opener in the lower part of the state this past weekend, and it was a good trip, but I shot and missed. There were not alot of birds, but enough, and you have to be ready when the time comes. I called a tom from about 100 yds toward me and my partner(who had only killed 1 bird in his lifetime) and he was to shoot. The bird was walking straight toward us, gobbling just a few times as he was walking. He started angling to our right, and my bud was on my left. The tom got to about 45 yds and I told my bud to shoot. I repeated it to him several more times, and he still hadnt pulled the trigger. The bird took a couple of steps toward the woods, and I took the shot. I didnt want to let a nice bird get away, but I did. I missed the shot. and the bird ran into the woods. Disgusted! P*#@ed off! Insert any word you feel here. I apologized to my friend, and told him if you hunt long enough this will happen to you also. The truth about turkey hunting! The only good thing about this is the season is only starting.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 2, 2008 17:30:50 GMT -5
April 1st. several close incounters, no birds bagged. I had my B mobile with a real tail setting in a river bottom at daybreak. I had heard 4 toms here last week and I was excited. My hunting partner was on the other end of the property, so I had this river bottom to myself. After a hour went by with no sounds of turkeys I was very disgusted. I was about to get up when I heard two squirrels start barking like crazy. something spoked them, and I didnt have long to wait to see what did it. I had my back against a oak and a small flooded area at my back. I heard a small splash of water at my immediate left. I saw out of the corner of my eye a bobcat! It was about two feet from me, and he was sneaking up on my decoys. He saw me when he got beside me and hauled butt to my left. I picked up my decoys and took them back to the truck. I dropped back into the bottom further up river at 11am. I heard a gobble, and was pumped. I made my way closer and called abd two birds answered. I set up and the birds were about 150 200 yds out and they were hot. They gobbled on and off until 11:30, and they shut up. back to the truck I went.When I got back to the truck my buddy was waiting for me, and he had bagged a nice goobler. He didnt have big spurs but he did have a 11" beard.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 2, 2008 17:55:02 GMT -5
April 2 2008 My buddy had taken a nice goobler tuesday and he said there were gobbler tracks everywhere on the back part of our property. Alot of the timber had been cut, and there were alot of open areas. We arrived early, and walked into position. we heard the first bird below us, roosting along a creek with cut areas on each side of him. I eased down to the creek and set up. The gobbler sounded off to my clucks and scratching in the leaves. I hoped he would pitch out along the creek near me. Another goobler sounded off up the creek behind me and was closer. I took a quick look and decided I was moving too much and turned backed to the first bird. The first bird had pitched out silently to the center of the clear cut, 125 yds, and gobbled a couple of times. I can hear the other tom approaching, but cant move. The terrain behind me and to the right is a steep hill up, and I remember my younger days of moving too much, so I stayed still. The gobbler in front of me has angling away from me, when I hear PUTT PUTT behind me! I didnt turn, clucked a couple of times, hoping neither bird would spook. The bird behind me left quickly Im assuming. I waited a couple of minutes and yelped. The first tom gobbled but had travelled quickly down the creek. I jumped up and gave chase. I went 100 yds, called, he gobbled. He was starting to go up to another cut plateau, and was about there already. I called, and he gobbled again, on top of the hill in the clearcut. I crawled up the very steep ridge slowly, and I got about 30 yds from the top and he gobbled right in front of me. I was pointing my gun almost straight up it was so steep. I edged a little closer and was able to make the angle better, but still not good. There were small trees that had been cut and were pushed up between me and him, not very high,but I couldnt see him. I clucked and he gobbled right in front of me. I was moving my eyes very fast from side to side to catch a glimpse of him before it was too late. PUTT! PUTT! Where was he. I finally saw the top of his head as he was leaving Dodge!He flew to the next ridge, game over!. I'll be back there tomorrow with B Moble and on top of the ridge waiting for him.a
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 8, 2008 6:28:21 GMT -5
I hunted in the same spot with my bud the last three days, and we had the entire place to our selves. The birds are not ready, as they gobble very little in the tree and very little on the ground. We had an oppourtunity thursday about 11 am. We were on seperate ridgesacross from each other, and could hear each other as we called. We heard a bird gobble to our calls and The bird was on his side. After about ten minutes I heard a loud putt, twice, and I knew the jig was up for my bud. I then heard four shots, and yelled out "Did you get him?" He didnt answer, and I crossed the creek and up the ridge to see what happened. He said that he clucked once after the gobble, and he heard a cluck back at about 30 yds. He had his gun in place and waited for the tom to appear. He said the putt came from behind him, as two toms circled him while another was still in front. They began to take off and let go with his shotgun . He is a very good shooter, but didnt knock anything down. Disgusted we walked back to the truck, and we noticed the gate was open. we didnt have long to wait to see who left it open. We heard a vehicle coming up the logging road, and around the turn came a "logging truck" which had just dropped off a bulldozer somewhere. UNBELIEVABLE! The driver half waved to us as he drove by, and we didnt wave back.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 8, 2008 6:31:48 GMT -5
I didnt go saturday morning as it rained all night and forcast for rain most of the day. I got a call from a friend that told me another of our friends took his 14 year old grand son out, the toms were responsive and the young man took his third goobler of the year. I went out that afternoon and walked along way but didnt see or hear a thing.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 8, 2008 6:48:35 GMT -5
Sunday morning I took a friend of mine who is a doctor, and had never taken a bird. We went to a place I hadnt hunted, and we wer greeted with goobles as we got out of the truck. I felt like I knew what the bird would do, so we went around him and set up where I had heard him go in preseason. He goobled a couple of more times, hit the ground and shut up. I could hear about three more birds in the distance, so after about an hour we moved to the power line. Afterabout an hour, we got a response and we set up with my friend up front. I could see movement coming our way, and my friend was ready. There were two birds, and the first bird was a jake but the other was a nice tom. My friend shot, and Im watching the long beard. I thought he had missed the tom, but he had shot the jake. The tom was still within gun range, and I whispered to him to shoot him. I could have taken this bird, but my friend said he couldnt see him, and within about 3 seconds he was gone. My friend apologized, I told him not to worry, we will come back and get the big boy later. At 2 pm a 17 yera Ive been helping called me and we took off back to woods. we went to two spots and heard nothing. He said there was another spot where he deer hunted last year that looked good for turkey. we pulled up between two houses and got out. I told him we werent going to take guns because the neighbors were watching. we walked arounf the place and I saw no signs of turkeys, and as we got to the end of the property there was a creek with a jigh hard wood ridge above it. I called and a tom answered. I turned to him and said,"How fast can you get to truck and get your gun?" He was already on the way. The bird was hot and gobbled on his own, and was coming. I backed up and didnt called anymore, and hoped my buddy could get back quick. It took about ten minutes, and when he got back I sey him up where I thought the tom would approach, and I backed up 25 yds. I called once, the tom answered, and began to rack the leaves as a hen feeding. He gobbled and was getting closer. I couldnt see my friend, but I knew the tom was close. My friend shot, jumped up, turned to me with his arms in the air, and ran to his bird. He had a 10 1/4" beard, not quite 1" spurs and was 18 lbs. His first longbeard. We were both excited and called his folks to have the camera ready for some pics.
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Post by Dan The Man on Apr 17, 2008 16:19:32 GMT -5
I can sum up every day since my last post and close but no cigar. Everything you can imagine that can go wrong has. From silent toms coming behind me WHILE Im about to pull the trigger on a tom in front of me. Putting and getting nothing. Ive moved at the wrong time and didnt move when i should have. This monkey on my back is very heavy and Im hoping to knock him off tomorrow.
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Post by Dan The Man on Feb 15, 2009 10:41:54 GMT -5
Ive scouted a couple of times with my hunting bud Kenny. We have found several new places, and there is some very good sign already. we cant wait to get after em'.
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Post by JerseyHunter on Feb 15, 2009 20:11:11 GMT -5
Hey bro good luck.
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Post by Dan The Man on Mar 22, 2009 10:48:13 GMT -5
Ive scouted several times in the last couple of weeks, hearing toms everyday except one. It was about 40 degrees the last two mornings, and frost on the ground. I will be out more this next week and pinpoint as many roost areas as I can before April 1st comes along.
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Post by LongSpur39 on Mar 23, 2009 8:48:30 GMT -5
Line em up brother!
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