Average Joe Hunting Adventures with Dan and CJ

[Lostinthewoods]

It's refreshing to see that those such as yourself put in the time and effort to help clean up the refuse dumped by so many people who aren't caring and responsible enough to pay the small dump fees set up by most municipalities and counties but opt to just go trash up the countryside to the detriment of all. It really chaps my butt to find such sites and leaves me to wonder just what kind of people would be guilty of such, thinking that nature will eventually reclaim it and no one cares; well, thanks for caring.

It chaps me too. Especially when dump fees can be so small, areas have collection days where they can take it for free, etc.
What frustrates me the most is that the people don't care one bit. "It's someone else's problem now".....

No worries though. There will be at least 20-30 people out there cleaning up that day and we will make it look good again!
I've also been writing on a couple local forums and Facebook groups about this stuff. Asking for dump sites that we can clean up and asking them to keep an eye out for people doing this...... hopefully it makes some what of a change!








It's pouring outside right now and will end around midnight, so tomorrow's turkey hunt is a GO!
I'm so excited because there won't be any extra weekend pressure. Plus with this rain I'll be able to find fresh sign!


Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some turkey pictures for you!

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Teaser....

 

[bobbydean]

I admire cleaning up the woods.

The teaser I will not comment on, but look forward to the story.

Good guys!

 

[Lostinthewoods]

I admire cleaning up the woods.

The teaser I will not comment on, but look forward to the story.

Good guys!

It got hot very fast out here!
I wanted to make sure I got the bird gutted, breasted, and in my fridge quick!
I'll post the story now

 

[Lostinthewoods]

I really wish I had some awesome story where I told you I mastered the birds and defied all the odds, but....that's not the case.
I went out to a spot early in the morning where some birds have roosted before and set up with another guy.

After a few hours of calling and not seeing anything, we went to another spot.
The second spot was a clear cut and burn that they probably did two years ago.
Our plan was to sneak up to the clear cut and sound off into it and see if anything responded.
Before we even got set up to call a bird started firing off in the center of it! WOOOHOOO! Game time!

He was on the other side of a little knoll so we cut the distance using some terrain to our advantage.
We got within about 100 yards, I set up a decoy, and we snuck into some cover.
My buddy started calling and the bird started responding.
After about 30 minutes of talking back and forth to the bird he shut up.
My buddy started to get antsy and asked if I minded if he tried crawling up to get a better look.
He did a large flank around and I sat there continuing to call and waiting for something to happen.

BOOM BOOM..... my buddy was shooting way over on the other side of the clear cut.
I got my phone out to call him and looked up. From a completely different direction I saw this giant bird gliding down directly do my decoy!
It didn't take long for me to realize it was a big turkey and that it had a beard.
I snapped my safety off, he landed at my decoy, and BOOM.
3" turkey shot is pretty effective at 10 yards!

We still have no idea what honestly happened.....

I personally think that this bird was already coming in, got spooked by my buddy shooting, and basically made his way towards the timber quicker.
Everyone down here keeps telling me that birds will roost real late on this range because they are so used to getting shot out. So they think it could have been coming into my decoy....never the less, the tag is fill and I killed my first long beard!!!!!!


What a great way to start off the 2017 season!
He was 17lbs, 10.5" beard, and 1" spurs!


I am glowing and can't wait to get back out.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

This will be some good eating!!!

 

[Mudranger1]

Awesome!

 

[tarheel]

Congratulations, kinda hard to turn them down when they fall into your lap.

Our season opens in two weeks and the river bottom and swamp I hunt will probably be like virgin territory since it and the surrounding farmland were flooded by Hurricane Matthew and remained so for several weeks. I haven't been to scout the area out as it's a 4 hour drive so will just have to roll the dice and hope they moved back in.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Congratulations, kinda hard to turn them down when they fall into your lap.

Our season opens in two weeks and the river bottom and swamp I hunt will probably be like virgin territory since it and the surrounding farmland were flooded by Hurricane Matthew and remained so for several weeks. I haven't been to scout the area out as it's a 4 hour drive so will just have to roll the dice and hope they moved back in.

Good luck to you on your hunt.
I hope they are thick in there and fly into your lap!

I know it's way different terrain, but since being down here I have seen many "swamp birds".
So it's very possible they are back.

Please let us know how it goes!

Awesome!

Thanks!

 

[duckhunt]

Congrats. I am loving this thread.

 

[sn.outdoors]

I took my daughter out to see if I could find the matching side of the shed I picked up the other week, and to attempt to relocate the elk herds I'd seen in Feb.

As far as accomplishing those goals... Well..... I saw one elk, and found zero sheds. We did have a good time, and I was able to get 8 miles of hiking in with a toddler plus gear, food, and toys on my back.





The sheer amount of public land out here amazes me. I will never see every nook and cranny out here, but I'll try.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Congrats. I am loving this thread.

Thank you!
Glad you are enjoying it and thank you for following along!

 

[tarheel]

I took my daughter out to see if I could find the matching side of the shed I picked up the other week, and to attempt to relocate the elk herds I'd seen in Feb.

As far as accomplishing those goals... Well..... I saw one elk, and found zero sheds. We did have a good time, and I was able to get 8 miles of hiking in with a toddler plus gear, food, and toys on my back.

The sheer amount of public land out here amazes me. I will never see every nook and cranny out here, but I'll try.

In the midst of all that beauty and grandeur, the most precious thing there is wearing white polka dots.

 

[sn.outdoors]

In the midst of all that beauty and grandeur, the most precious thing there is wearing white polka dots.

Definitely. Although, when my wife asked if she had fun her response was, "No. All we did was walk around and look at things. There was nothing out there." She'll eventually learn that's the entire point.

 

[sn.outdoors]

I snuck in some more father-daughter time before dinner. I "needed" to get some velocity readings on a random sample of reloads I did last week.



The winds were pretty high so I didn't do any group testing, but I think "minute of ground squirrel" is good enough for now. I'll be posting in the firearms section on the results of this budget rifle build once I have everything put together.


And yes... We both wore ear pro and safety glasses. No, my 3 year old did not shoot that Booner whistlepig... Her time will come.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

I'm pretty pumped right now.

I just put in my Oklahoma controlled hunt applications.
I should have enough points to draw a hunt I've been DYING to do!

Here's to hoping! :hump:

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Forgot to mention that I picked up my Colorado PP today as well

 

[Lostinthewoods]

So things are about to get very interesting for me, but it's very suiting for this thread.
I've mentioned before that we have to make back ups for the back ups for the back ups and always have to be flexible.
When our work says we have to do something, then that's final and our "plans" will fall to the waist side.

I just found out that I am probably going to miss out on my New Mexico turkey trip and Kansas turkey trip now because Uncle Sam needs me to go do some things.

For any of you that understand what OPSEC is, you know I'm not going to be saying much, but for those of you who don't...
I've basically got to leave at some point soon, to go do some things, in some places not in the US.
So what does that mean? My plans change a bit and I need to shift my focuses a little, no big deal!

Right now I should be packing my truck and trailer up, turkey hunting Florida, and preparing for my KY hunt next week.
Instead I am prioritizing the honey do list, making sure my wife and baby have exactly what they need for the duration of the time I'm gone, and just spending some quality family time!
For any of you who have kids, you know fast they can grow! So I want to make sure I'm getting as much Remi Mae time that I can because she will grow a lot in the time I'm gone.

The nice thing about my wife is she is a pro at this stuff, so we are knocking the "need to dos" out so I can still get a little hunt time in.


I also plan to utilize the time I have left to get some solid woods time in!
This may sounds silly, but I agree with it. They always teach us to balance ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually; especially before we go on "trips".
So my wife knows that I need some woods time before I go

So with my remaining time I'll be trying to kill my second FL gobbler tag with a bow, hunting Kentucky gobblers, and SHED HUNTING.
The last part may sound weird because I am in NW Florida.... why would I want to shed hunt here?

Other than the obvious answer of "I love the woods" or "I can shed hunt and scout at the same time", I'm also on a mission!

My goal is to find this bucks sheds!










I found this old buck in October of 2016 when I moved here and it's been a slow chess game since then.
Just when I thought I had his number, it turned out he had mine.
Or there were even a few chances I decided to sit somewhere else and he came in front of my stand at daylight.... you know, the joys of hunting!

He carries some nice mass, he's got some junk, and I just really want to hold those horns!
So I will be spending a lot of this summer scouting the piece I hunt to get a better idea of the layout and so I can find these sheds!!!!


I've got to get back to cleaning the house though. I'm trying to get it done by noon so I can head out and have some woods time!


Enjoy your weekend everyone!

 

[Lostinthewoods]

Doh!!!!! What a day what a day.....

After I finished up a bunch of projects around the house I decided to run off to an archery only area where I knew some birds lived.
People know they are there and hunt them, but I think once we get later into the season the pressure slows down.

I walked about a half mile in to a giant field that I've seen then in before and glassed.
Down at the opposite end of the field (approx 700-800 yards away) I saw a black body and it looked like s turkey.
I had no idea what it was, so I cut back in the timber and cut the distance. I popped out again around 200 yards and I saw it again.
When I saw the red head I knew it was go time.
I'm not picky when it comes to bow hunting a turkey. Especially as a noob. A red head or anything with a beard is fair game!
I cut back into the timber and came out again about 125 yards away.
This is when something kind of hit me.
You know how when you see a big deer or a big elk, you don't even need to really access it, you just know it's big and mature... well that was this bird...
He was a tank! Beard dragging, giant head, and he looked like a bruiser.
He was mulling around in the corner of the field so I crept closer to a point I felt like I could make something happen.
I was in some good cover with a lane and I was EXCITED!
I messaged one of my buddies "man, I'm 80 yards away from the biggest bird I've ever seen in my life... he's alone, I've got no blind or decoys, what should I do?????"

He told me I should get my slate and call quietly.
Ok, I can do that....

I look down into my binoharness where I keep my calls and wouldn't you know it... I lost my third striker of the year .

Well guess I have to use my mouth calls....
I popped one in and started calling.
At first he was just kind of sitting there cleaning himself and feeding, but then he started to go the other direction.
I figured whatever I was doing wasn't working, so I started calling a little different. This time I put a little more emotion behind it!
He stopped and looked around, but didn't fully commit yet.
So I started calling again, but this time I rustled some leaves around too....GOT HIM.
He changed his course and started making his way in towards me.
The demeanor of this bird just screamed smart... he never gobbled and he never ran.
He cautiously made his way in to me. About 45 yards out I heard him making this noise.
It sounded like he was clucking. I've heard alert noises before and this was not it.
So I figured he was just trying to locate me.
About the time he hit 43 yards he was about to pop out into my lane.

Now for you experienced turkey hunters, don't have a go at me when I say this next part because it was just something I never considered...
I drew when he got behind my draw point and held as he came out at 40.
If I would have let him come in closer he would have bagged me drawing.
He was walking, stopping, walking, stopping, at about 37 yards I picked my mark and shot.
I watched my arrow soar right by the bird.... close close close close close!
It was the right height for the shot, but went a few inches to the right.... ahhhhhh!
He flew about 8 yards and looked around. I didn't move or make a noise in case he wasn't too spooked. He walked the opposite direction of me and went off into the wood.

I was not pleased!!!! I hate missing!!!!
I was riding such a natural high up until that point.
Here I was calling in (with a mouth call) an old bird on public land. It felt great, until the arrow didn't meet its mark!

After I called a few of my turkey friends to ask some questions, they really broke it down to me that vitals on a turkey are nothing like vitals on a deer or elk.
Most of them limit themselves to 25 yards or less and I will now do that too.
I'll be back out there tomorrow with some decoys and hopefully some better luck!


I decided after the hunt to pop into a spot that I hunt out there to pull a camera from deer season....
GONE! Someone decided that they wanted the camera....
I've had a few cameras stolen now, but this one ticked me off the most.
It's on an active military base, so that means someone with a DOD id stole it.
General public are not allowed to hunt it. So that really got my blood boiling!
No worries though, no reason to dwell over it. I guess I just need to hide them even better now on a place I didn't think I need to.



Tomorrow will be a better day!




Here is a little guy that was hanging out by me today while I was doing some calling.

 

[Lostinthewoods]

What another interesting day!

I woke up at 3 am, got out to my spot NICE and early, and waited for the sun to come up.
Around 6:30 I started some calling and got a bird to respond. He was a bit further out than I had hoped, but he was talking with me. I figured he was approximately 120 yards away.

After a few minutes of talking he went quiet. I figured he flew down and was either coming my way or had already found another hen. After 10 minutes I saw movement out in the field I was on. It was a hen and she was running right towards where the gobbler was. No!!!!!!!!!!

No worries, I was set up next to a field that I was expecting mid day action at. I've scouted this field twice. One day it has three gobblers in it around noon just feeding and the other time was yesterday when I found that solo bird.
I figured that once the gobblers broke away from hens they went out here for some mid day searching or it's just a place they hung out.
I set my jake decoy up over a hen so I could hopefully rial one of them up when they saw it.

Around 9:50 I decided to start calling again. About 10 minutes later I saw a bird coming my way. It was a hen and she fed right towards my calling. She came right into my decoys and hung out for a little while. It was exciting to listen to her talk to my decoys and then I watched her walk off. I was fired up because everything seemed right.
Then my mood quickly changed. I saw movement again come from across the field.
This time is was something large... a deer maybe? Nope.... I threw my binos up and saw a hunter coming from the woods. The well marked, clearly off limits woods that all the animals like to stay in. I was LIVID! Again, this was on a military base. So what in the world is this guy doing hunting in an off limits area on a military base. I know he saw my decoys because he started walking away fast. He went even faster when I jumped up and started walking out his way. He was at least 500 yards away and unless I sprinted I wasn't going to catch him, but I hope he knows he was bagged. All I wanted to do was talk to the individual and see if they knew it was off limits and remind them that it was if they "didn't know". Now that he ran I will call and notify a couple agencies tomorrow. I'll also be on the look out for this guy again. As a person I hold myself to a certain standard, but as a military member I have to hold myself to a higher standard. I do this because any negative actions can reflect back on your career. So it blows my mind that someone would knowingly enter an off limit zone. Oh... this off limit zone is behind a firing range....
Not smart!


Needless to say I wasn't pleased, so I decided that was my sign to head home and hang out with the family. I spent the rest of the afternoon playing with my wife and baby and I cooked them up a nice little treat. Smoked short ribs and naan pizza! Yum!