PEAX Equipment

2023 spring turkey!

Not much happening for the first 2 hours this morning. This one fired up behind me about 730, gobbled probably 50 times and I shot him at 750am. He came from behind me, my trail camera in front of my setup caught me on the way out to pick up my decoys. The heart was sure pounding, fun morning!
I am out of WI tags, may pick something up for one of the last 2 weeks. Heading to Wyoming to trout fish for 5 days so I will miss some of our 5th season.20230503_082219.jpgdf237b42-0439-46d8-b1d7-4de0dd699bb9.jpg
 
It was close for me today, but instead, two other people shot birds very close by and about 15 seconds apart. Not sure what was going on, but I never got a chance. Hunters are everywhere, even places I've not seen them before. So it goes on public.
 
Typically I'm pretty aggressive when I'm hunting turkey, however, this morning it was patience and little calling. I had multiple turkeys gobbling north and south of me, all far away and in property i don't have permission on. The birds south of me sounded like they were going away from me. The birds to the north i figured were gonna eventually make there way to my mother in law's field, so headed to the back end of it and sat down. The toms were gobbling sporadically on there own and slowly getting closer. Approximately 45 minutes after i sat down they gobbled about 150 yards out. I didn't like where i was, so i got up and crept up 50 yards and sat back down. Yelped softly, they answered, slowly got situated and waited, a few minutes later i caught a glimpse of him moving threw the riverbottom. There about 50 yards out now and coming right towards me, slowly clicked the safety off. Once they got to 20 yards, the trail bird popped his head up and offered a clear shot. 24 pounds 9 inch beard. 20230503_120538.jpg
 
My wife and I drew 2nd season tags here in CO for a unit we've done well in the past. We wouldn't have much time this year and it would be complicated by a 15 month old daughter.

Friday night we set up the new popup camper near the SWA. I was up first, so at 430am I left the family asleep and drove over. Oops, my phone thought I crossed the timezone and I was an hour early. Slept on the dog bed for 45 minutes and headed out.

Birds were not roosted where i hoped, but half an hour of gobbles let me know there were some around. Calling has not been useful on this property, too many birds, and it played that way again.

Around 7am I found a flock 400 yards out in the great wide open. I snuck along the fence line, sometimes on hands and knees to get where I hoped they were headed. Luck worked in my favor, except I was in plain sight of the hens and the gobbler was out of sight. I was just lyung face down next to a yucca. Finally, at 8am I saw a fan, lifted myself up a few inches and pulled the trigger.

Looking from where the tom was back at my hiding spot.

View attachment 274256

View attachment 274257

Unfortunately, we had to bail before my wife could get out due to some unrelated circumstances.
Now THAT is one handsome shooting iron
 
Been on toms all season but mostly stayed 50-100 yards out. Finally had one gobbling on the roost and got set up and called and he came in strutting and gobbling. I guess he thought we might be on a tv show or something to play the game perfectly. Long beard #5 at 30 yards. Was a good hunt. 8CD0C5DE-3506-48FB-BE0E-AF327A4A13F3.jpeg
 
Little visitation teaser for our hunt tomorrow morning here in Pa. out the back window.
So I gave this 2 yo a pass this morning knowing that a couple bigger birds are in the area. Then a logger came in and the 4 Brothers dropped by and this 2 year dropped by.
Tomorrow Tom will do for the skillet.
***Update on the weekend Hunt
Did Saturday morning hunt today and had a big boy behind me drumming and gobbling @8:45 then the logger returned game over. I'll have to make another trip to Pa. this month.
 

Attachments

  • 20230504_182529.jpg
    20230504_182529.jpg
    1.5 MB · Views: 10
  • 20230505_064651.jpg
    20230505_064651.jpg
    899.7 KB · Views: 2
Last edited:
Live look in from the turkey woods. I thought I was going to get one to play at first light but I never could see him. I’m working on making a big circle around a bird to get in front of him. He’s been gobbling every 15 or 20 minutes but is going away from me down the valley.
View attachment 274494
They love to gobble at me as they are walking the other direction. Just to let me know that they aren’t going to buy what I’m selling.
 
Filled my third virginia tag this morning so I tagged out . At Eight thirty he was gobbling off in the distance was gobbling all morning but then he went quiet. My buddy who hunted with me today gave me a new gobble Tube. I decided to give it a shot and hit the gobble and 15 minutes later. I had three hens and a long beard standing in the high grass. I couldn't see the length of the beard but it was a big bird so I dropped in the end of my season for virginia.
 

Attachments

  • 20230507_101809.jpg
    20230507_101809.jpg
    3.2 MB · Views: 15
Last edited:
One week to go. Hopefully I can get out this week after work. Been Tom’s strutting behind the house every night but I can’t bring myself to sit back there, yet. There’s been another group working across the road a little further away, I’d like to try and get the northeast Iowa slam. Turkey, trout, mushroom all in the same day.
 
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
113,597
Messages
2,026,309
Members
36,240
Latest member
Mscarl (she/they)
Back
Top