We got to our destination mid day on Thursday. That night a few birds were put to bed but the next morning resulted in a lot of "so close". That evening everybody had a plan on where they wanted to be, and being that I've killed a few birds, I just wanted to stay out of everybody's way so I went for quite the hike. The private land we were hunting borders some state land and I found some birds on a neighboring property headed towards that state land to assumably roost for the night. I got on my high house to try and circle around when I ran into a big steep canyon. I loudly yelped a couple times just in case there were some birds in there and was greeted by a gobble on the opposite side. I saw the hens feed out into an opening and although I couldn't see the gobbler I knew he was there.
I dove down into the canyon and all but sprinted through the bottom and up the other side. I was about 200 yards from the bird and hadn't made a sound for 5+ minutes when a hawk circled over the birds and let out a screech. He answered with a gobble letting me know he was still there. I continued up the steep canyon wall and got on top. There was a road cut through the upper quarter of the steep hillside which worked great to my advantage. I popped my head up over the road and saw the hens below me at less than 10 yards. They were calmy milling around but one started to putt and head to the right. The rest followed, and so did I.
As they eased their way back onto the open hillside I saw the tom through the brush. He was also less than 10 yards so I eased forward, stood all the way up and let him have it as he lifted his head to see what I was. One of the most enjoyable hunts I've ever had because of how I pulled it off. Very much like I hunt other species so it just "felt right". I snapped a few pictures and off I went. The turkey "packout" took me about 45 minutes to complete.
Here are some pics
That evening everybody had a plan of where they wanted to be and what they wanted to do. I simply just wanted to stay out of everybody's way so I went for a long walk. The private land we were hunting borders some state land and I found some birds on a neighboring property headed towards that state land to assumably roost for the night. I got on my high house to try and circle around when I ran into a big steep canyon. I loudly yelped a couple times just in case there were some birds in there and was greeted by a gobble on the opposite side. I saw the hens feed out into an opening and although I couldn't see the gobbler I knew he was there.
I dove down into the canyon and all but sprinted through the bottom and up the other side. I was about 200 yards from the bird and hadn't made a sound for 5+ minutes when a hawk circled over the birds and let out a screech. He answered with a gobble letting me know he was still there. I continued up the steep canyon wall and got on top. There was a road cut through the upper quarter of the steep hillside which worked great to my advantage. I popped my head up over the road and saw the hens below me at less than 10 yards. They were calmy milling around but one started to putt and head to the right. The rest followed, and so did I.
As they eased their way back onto the open hillside I saw the tom through the brush. He was also less than 10 yards so I eased forward, stood all the way up and let him have it as he lifted his head to see what I was. One of the most enjoyable hunts I've ever had because of how I pulled it off. Very much like I hunt other species so it just "felt right". I snapped a few pictures and off I went. The turkey "packout" took me about 45 minutes to complete.
Here are some pics
The sunset as I packed out my bird
I dove down into the canyon and all but sprinted through the bottom and up the other side. I was about 200 yards from the bird and hadn't made a sound for 5+ minutes when a hawk circled over the birds and let out a screech. He answered with a gobble letting me know he was still there. I continued up the steep canyon wall and got on top. There was a road cut through the upper quarter of the steep hillside which worked great to my advantage. I popped my head up over the road and saw the hens below me at less than 10 yards. They were calmy milling around but one started to putt and head to the right. The rest followed, and so did I.
As they eased their way back onto the open hillside I saw the tom through the brush. He was also less than 10 yards so I eased forward, stood all the way up and let him have it as he lifted his head to see what I was. One of the most enjoyable hunts I've ever had because of how I pulled it off. Very much like I hunt other species so it just "felt right". I snapped a few pictures and off I went. The turkey "packout" took me about 45 minutes to complete.
Here are some pics
That evening everybody had a plan of where they wanted to be and what they wanted to do. I simply just wanted to stay out of everybody's way so I went for a long walk. The private land we were hunting borders some state land and I found some birds on a neighboring property headed towards that state land to assumably roost for the night. I got on my high house to try and circle around when I ran into a big steep canyon. I loudly yelped a couple times just in case there were some birds in there and was greeted by a gobble on the opposite side. I saw the hens feed out into an opening and although I couldn't see the gobbler I knew he was there.
I dove down into the canyon and all but sprinted through the bottom and up the other side. I was about 200 yards from the bird and hadn't made a sound for 5+ minutes when a hawk circled over the birds and let out a screech. He answered with a gobble letting me know he was still there. I continued up the steep canyon wall and got on top. There was a road cut through the upper quarter of the steep hillside which worked great to my advantage. I popped my head up over the road and saw the hens below me at less than 10 yards. They were calmy milling around but one started to putt and head to the right. The rest followed, and so did I.
As they eased their way back onto the open hillside I saw the tom through the brush. He was also less than 10 yards so I eased forward, stood all the way up and let him have it as he lifted his head to see what I was. One of the most enjoyable hunts I've ever had because of how I pulled it off. Very much like I hunt other species so it just "felt right". I snapped a few pictures and off I went. The turkey "packout" took me about 45 minutes to complete.
Here are some pics
The sunset as I packed out my bird
LOL
