Ben's semi-live 2024 hunt thread

[TheBenHoyle]

It's Tim e to start the 2024 hunt thread. I went out yesterday for coyote. I really don't know what I am doing, so my strategy it just to be out in the woods and hope that my call will bring one in.

So far I have been unsuccessful and this year was no different. But I got to spend some time with a buddy and I moved a game camera that will hopefully provide some intel on my turkey hunt at that location in April.

I also got to pick up the Euro mount from the buck I shot in November and the skull from the doe I shot in 2022. All in all it was a good day.

So far I have a few turkey hunting weekends planned for 2024:
2nd season Special Hunt Area with a buddy - I hunted turkey here last year and had a close encounter but didn't connect. That is where the game camera is.
3rd season hunting with an outfitter in West Central IL with my dad. I haven't hunted turkey with dad since 2017 I think, so this will be a nice trip.
5th Season special hunt area solo - I have hunted deer in this area a couple years ago. I don;t have it all figured out yet, but this hunt should offer me a chance to learn more about the area, and I believe turkey population is very high.

In the fall I will probably be going to Ohio with my buddy who has family out there for the rut. And I will try to get a couple of my other buddies out to get them to connect with a deer. I'll try to hunt with my recurve a little more than I did last year. My fall plans are not set yet, but you know I'll try to get a lot of time in the woods.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I just finalized my Spring 2024 turkey hunting plans. Unfortunately one of my weekends is going to be a little dicey because it is right after my daughter's birthday and she is also being confirmed in the church that Friday night.

Hopefully I can get a couple good days of hunting in that season because it will be a rematch with the public hunting area I went to last season and heard a ton of turkeys, but only managed to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time.

In the meantime, I ended up temporarily hanging my 2023 euro mount in my shed. I have some wood to make a display with but it is fresh cut and it will probably be a good 12 months until I they are dry enough for me to try finishing that project.




I feel like it is in a safer place on the wall that on a shelf where it can fall and break.

Unfortunately my eyeballing where to hang it wasn't a great success. It doesn't balance well, but this is just a temporary set up.




I really love how different every rack is so different. These 2 bucks are about the same age and they were shot within 1000 yards of each other but the one is very ivory and the other one is so dark. I know it will be several months before I am back out after their brothers, but I can't wait to see what I can bring home next season.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

It's just 6 days and counting until I get to go out after turkeys. I have an Illinois north zone second season tag for a state park that I hunted last year. I had run ins with turkeys last year and am looking forward to bringing one home this year.

I am also bringing my buddy along. He hasn't gotten a turkey for a number of years and he only has Saturday to hunt, so he'll get the first shot.

But in other news, I just submitted my request for the hunters education waiver for Hawaii. We are headed to the Big Island and Kauai for our 20th anniversary this summer and after a lot of research I have decided to book a 1-day archery hunt on the big island for a Black Hawaiian sheep. It is a feral sheep that is derived from a domesticated breed. I'm looking forward to experiencing a part of Hawaii that isn't the beach or the absolute top of the island.

I'm pretty excited about this experience. I am hoping that sometime in the next 5 years I can take a trip to Hawaii specifically for hunting and this should be a good first step for me to learn a lot about how it all works out there.

 

[TheGreek]

It's just 6 days and counting until I get to go out after turkeys. I have an Illinois north zone second season tag for a state park that I hunted last year. I had run ins with turkeys last year and am looking forward to bringing one home this year.

I am also bringing my buddy along. He hasn't gotten a turkey for a number of years and he only has Saturday to hunt, so he'll get the first shot.

But in other news, I just submitted my request for the hunters education waiver for Hawaii. We are headed to the Big Island and Kauai for our 20th anniversary this summer and after a lot of research I have decided to book a 1-day archery hunt on the big island for a Black Hawaiian sheep. It is a feral sheep that is derived from a domesticated breed. I'm looking forward to experiencing a part of Hawaii that isn't the beach or the absolute top of the island.

I'm pretty excited about this experience. I am hoping that sometime in the next 5 years I can take a trip to Hawaii specifically for hunting and this should be a good first step for me to learn a lot about how it all works out there.

Good luck! Killing turkeys on public in IL ain’t no cake walk.

 

[Dave N]

Good luck! Killing turkeys on public in IL ain’t no cake walk.

Yeah, first you have to find some public!

 

[TheGreek]

Yeah, first you have to find some public!

Ain’t that the truth!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Ain’t that the truth!

Honestly, killing turkeys anywhere is a struggle for me, but I have taken one from public land before. So I at least know it can be done.

 

[Dave N]

My one and only turkey hunt was on private and I shot a bearded hen. Loved eating it but never went again.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

So I had read online a bunch of people saying that it takes 30 days to get your exemption from Hunters Safety from the State of Hawaii, which you need in order to buy a license.

I have about 2 months before we go the Big Island, so I wasn't really worried about the timing, but I just go my exemption number and I submitted the request online last night. Perhaps it helps that I have a Hunters Safety card from a previous course and I was able to send in a picture of it.

The long and the short of it is I can buy my license and keep daydreaming about that hunt.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Side note, I boiled the shoulder blades and front and back upper leg bones from the buck I shot last fall. I ended up with 25 cups of stock. Used 4 cups in a venison stew and froze the rest. First time for the stew and first time for making stock. Pretty happy with both.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

I knew this hunt was going to kick my butt and I was right. A lot of walking and big elevation changes added to early mornings and not early enough nights add up to me being real tired.

It was ultimately unsuccessful in terms of shooting a turkey, but it was very successful in me learning more about the way that turkeys use this public land. If I was able to spend more than 2 days hunting this tag I would most likely be able to fill it, but I'm happy with the effort I put in and the knowledge I gained. I think I will put more effort into hunting this piece of ground in the fall as well.

My buddy was only able to hunt with my on Saturday and we had some hot gobbling that eventually petered out when a he showed up and busted us. Put-put-putting...

We had some other gobbles but they were far off and ultimately not interested.

I found a pretty flower and some turkey feathers.






On our walk out we found a turkey egg that had been discovered by a nest predator.




And when I came back several hours later to try to roost a tom I found another egg about 15 yards away from the first.




That makes me pretty sad, but all I can really do is shoot raccoons when I see them I guess.

Sunday morning I went out by myself and I tried setting up in a completely different place than I had ever tried before. It was pretty good in that I had gobbles all around me, but none were close or responsive. I had a couple turkeys pass by at about 50-60 yards, but I couldn't see them well enough to know if they were hens or toms. That was the extent of my action, but I did spend some time scouting around for good trees to shoot an arrow from in the fall.

All in all it was a really good couple of days out in the woods. And now I need to rest up for next weekend when I'll be after turkeys with my dad in Central Illinois.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

True confession time, I am a complacent archer who doesn't practice as often as I could. When I first got a bow I shot a lot and I shot from all sorts of distances, even out to 50 yards. And I missed a lot of shots on deer...

Then I shot my first deer and I had proof of concept that I could do it. After that I stopped shooting as much. I would shoot regularly for a few weeks before the season and fell confident at 20 and 30 yards and then I wouldn't really shoot during the season. I felt a little guilty about it, but to be honest I have only missed twice in 6 years and in both cases it was due to not having the right range, not my aim.

All this is to say that I feel very confident at 30 yards and closer. But on my ram hunt in Hawaii the guide is saying I should expect shots of 30-40 yards. Now I used to be good at 40 and 50, but that has been a long time. So I have told myself I need to get out and practice 30 and 40 yard shots.




Well that is 40 yards tonight. I think I'm pretty happy with that. Obviously I'll keep at it, but I am a lot less worried about whether I'll get it dialed in.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Heading out to do get to central Illinois at noon today. Gotta pick up my dad on the way. We are doing a semi-guided turkey hunt together tomorrow and Sunday. Really hope we both get a bird. Should be a good adventure.

In other news, I took my bow into the shop to get a new set of strings and cables. And I put in my deposit for the ram hunt in Hawaii in June. Lots of fun coming along in the next days, weeks and months.

 

[duckhunt]

Heading out to do get to central Illinois at noon today. Gotta pick up my dad on the way. We are doing a semi-guided turkey hunt together tomorrow and Sunday. Really hope we both get a bird. Should be a good adventure.

In other news, I took my bow into the shop to get a new set of strings and cables. And I put in my deposit for the ram hunt in Hawaii in June. Lots of fun coming along in the next days, weeks and months.

Ram in Hawaii sounds awsome.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

You could take away all pins and shoot instinctively. That works well <30yd for me. Or have you tried MPBR pin? You could set a single pin at say 40yd and just aim accordingly if closer.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Ram in Hawaii sounds awsome.

let's be honest, anything in Hawaii is pretty awesome. But yeah I'm pretty excited about it.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

You could take away all pins and shoot instinctively. That works well <30yd for me. Or have you tried MPBR pin? You could set a single pin at say 40yd and just aim accordingly if closer.

I don't think I need to do anything different, I just need to keep practicing. The majority of my shooting I feel is pretty solid, but I do get lazy if I haven't been keeping up on my reps. And when I am lazy... who knows what could happen.

Conversely, when I shoot my recurve, I have to shoot instinctively. Every time I have tried to learn gap it just fuzzes up my brain. But somehow if I just shoot instinctively it works.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

So I'm back from two days of turkey hunting with my dad. It was a lot of walking and listening and calling and not seeing any turkeys... The first morning we had a gobbler and it sounded like he was closing in and then poof no more gobbles. We had another gobbler fire off about noon but after a couple gobbles, a bald eagle started flying overhead making bald eagles noses and the gobbler decided to be quiet and stay down in the wooded draw...

This morning we were rained on and slogging through muddy wet grass. No gobbles, just wet boots... In terms of turkey production, the weekend was a bust, but in terms of spending quality time with my dad it was a real big win.

And let me just say, for a guy who is just a few months shy of 78, my dad was able to handle all of that walking and discomfort like a champ. I just hope we get a chance to take another turkey hunt and that it ends up being a bit more action packed.




Here's a picture of the mighty oak that 400 years in the future will be someone's kitchen cabinets...



And that is a picture of my dad totally blending in to the natural environment. He had some orange on his hat and I told him to put his face covering over his mask and poof he disappeared.

One more turkey tag left. It will be more of a public land scout on the Wednesday after Mother's Day. I don't expect to encounter any turkeys, but I do want to get out and investigate places to deer and turkey hunt in the future.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

My last turkey hunt of the spring season is set up for tomorrow. It is on some public land in the northwest corner of Illinois. It should be a nice day. I don't think I have much chance at tagging a turkey, but this is an area I want to learn more about so it is more of a scouting for future hunts type of trip.

It's pretty busy at work and we had a short trip to Boston over the weekend so I am very behind schedule. I am excited for this hunt, but it is hard to focus on it with everything else going on. Seems more and more that is how my hunts end up. Months and months of anticipation and once the time comes I am almost too busy to savor it. That's something I need to work on going forward.

Anyway, hopefully I will have good news to report on Thursday.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Mark up another Spring turkey season with no turkeys for me.

But that doesn't mean it was a bad season. It ended yesterday with a great morning of turkey encounters and exploring new territory.

As I walked in at legal shooting light I almost tripped over this nest.




I can't decide if I think this was predation or if it is evidence of hatched turkeys. I hope it is the latter.

I was hearing gobbles but they were kind of far away so I kept moving. Found a spot to set up and felt good about my chances, but after an hour or so listening to distant gobbles I decided to make a move to get closer hopefully.

I found wild Columbine flowers, which was neat.




I basically spent all morning moving through the woods and then setting up to call in a spot. and then moving on.


I saw a lot of neat stuff, including this mossy rock outcropping.



At one point I spent about an hour talking to a turkey but I never got it to come out of cover.

I think I found a nice spot to set up with my bow in the fall and I would even try my first spot or that second spot again next turkey season.

My next adventure is the hunt I have scheduled in Hawaii in June. I'm going this weekend to pick up my bow the I just got new strings put on. Then I'll need to practice practice practice for the 30-40 yard ranges.