Family Man's 2020 Season Log

[jeremy.b]

This year I'm starting up my hunting log in time to catch the spring turkey hunting adventures as they unfold!

Last couple years threads:

2019 Thread

2018 Thread

The family is doing well, we're weathering the Covid-19 storm fairly well (still employed, had a decent stock of TP when it ran dry, etc).

Sprint Turkey hunting plans

In prior years we've usually been able to head up to north Idaho in the spring and get in chase some birds around, but with Covid-19 that particular trip probably won't happen until summer.

I have been in touch with Andy (who I hunted pronghorn with in Idaho last Sept) and we had started planning on trying to connect and chase some birds in SE Idaho, but then the Idaho F&G suspended out-of-state tag sales due to Covid-19. I'm still pondering a trip or two up to go help Andy chase birds anyway, we'll see!

So that leaves me to actually find birds in Utah for my own hunts. I had started the scouting process last spring and ramped it up a couple weeks ago.

I took my oldest Joshua on a trip to one area only to find out that the trail system I wanted to get to was up a gated road that didn't open until later in the spring. Good news for lack of pressure, bad news for taking the kiddo on a hike! We made the best of it and went on a hike in one of the spots we like to go (and did see one group of turkeys on private)

I also took another trip with my 2nd oldest Caleb the following weekend to check out a further-away spot. We didn't see any sign or hear any birds (other than almost running over 3 chuckars) but had a fun trip anyway.

The whole family got in another hike to get out of the house that weekend too!

Then this last weekend I headed back on my own to the gated area where I had taken Joshua. I hiked up the gated road and into the trail system I wanted to hit. I found a few birds and a whole lot more elevation than I had planned (2200 ft gained and lost in 7 1/2 miles). It was an amazing day to be out in the hills though!

I even managed to stumble (literally) into a decent muley shed.

There were enough birds spread across a few drainage's that this looks to be a pretty decent spot. I'll still try to dig up a few more options in case it ends up getting more pressure than I like though.

One thing I have noticed is the birds are not very talkative down here compared to north Idaho. Or maybe I don't know how to call them yet! All part of the fun and I'll keep this thing going as things start coming together.

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Good luck finding those birds. Thanks for sharing your adventures.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Keep us posted ,I'll follow along. 〽

 

[jeremy.b]

Thanks guys!

I took Joshua back out last weekend into the general area I scouted on my last trip.

Right off the trailhead we struck up a gobbler, which was fun for both of us, but I have my doubts on how long that bird will stick around (or say alive!) come season opener.

We had a good little climb into the area I wanted to check for birds. We stumbled into nice bull elk along the way that already had quite a bit of antler growth going. He must have shed pretty early this year. We kept an eye out for sheds, but no luck on this trip.

We did strike up at least one more bird in the area I wanted to check out, and I have a pretty good plan on how I'll approach the area when season opens up.

I also was thoroughly impressed with Joshua on this trip. We hiked ~6 miles (over half off trail) and 1600 ft of elevation and he handled it all like a champ. I just had to keep him fed along the way . I don't know many 7 yr olds that would do as well as he does on these trips. I know his dad wouldn't have done as well when he was 7!

 

[jeremy.b]

Utah's general turkey season opened up on Monday 5/4 (so yesterday!).

I had made some plans and took some PTO so I could see if my scouting would pay off.

My plan was simple; grab my bivy gear & head up Sunday afternoon to the area I had scouted the couple trips before. I'd hopefully locate a bird or two, set camp for the night close by and get on them right away in the morning.

There were a couple reasons I wanted to go up the day before and stay the night

1. It was a bit of a hike in and it would shave off tons of drive & hiking time vs going up in the morning
2. Hopefully I'd get out in front of any competition that would try to come in that next morning

The hike in was generally uneventful & started out with some beautiful weather (although the forecast called for rain that evening).

I could feel the extra 15-20 lbs of weight in my pack from my gun + bivy gear though!

I hit a ridge overlooking a series of grassy sage flats/draws where we had turned up the birds the weekend before and listened for a bit. Eventually I heard a single gobble a ways out on one of the benches and then some hens calling in a draw right below the ridge I was on.

I wasn't able to exactly pin the location of the gobble so I relocated a another knob 1/2 mile up the ridge to listen again. While i was listening and trying to get a bird to shock gobble for me the forecasted rain started coming in.

There was a nice patch of timber dropping off the face of the knob down the grassy draw below. I wandered down in and found a nice bench in the timber and eventually a great spot to bivy out of the rain for the night.

The rain set in for a bit and oddly enough the turkey I had heard started gobbling quite a bit. He was definitely out on a set of flats past the draw I was overlooking. The rain let up and I decided to leave my gear and hit the next ridge across the draw to get a better location on him.

I dropped down to the draw and as soon as I hit the open grassy bottom I heard a gobble a ways down the draw. A good chunk of the draw is really open so I found a spot further up the draw to cross where I was out of sight.

I thought it might be the same bird working his way toward the timber to roost (I had not turkey called at all yet). I continued up the ridge on the other side of the draw from camp knowing I'd still be able to get good locations on any bird in either the draw of the flats beyond that ridge.

As I neared the top of the ridge a heard another gobble, this time it was in the bottom of the draw and sounded like it was directly between me and where my gear was, great...

I hit the back side of the ridge to try to see if I would hear anything out on the flats beyond.

Nothing did make itself heard so I assumed the bird I had heard behind me was the only bird of in the area and had just covered a bunch of ground to get to his favorite roosting spot, which conveniently was within 300 yards of where i planned to camp.

Now, I had to figure out how to get back to camp without spooking this bird!

There were a series of dirt bike trails that circled the draw and should keep me out of eye sight. It would mean me taking a 2 mile detour instead of the 1/2 mile direct approach back to camp. But, if there was only one bird in the area then I had to do what I could to not spook it, so off I went!

It took a while and the rain set back in within 15 minutes of me heading up to the dirt bike trails. I had brought spare clothes so I didn't have to really stress getting too wet. The rain did make things muddy enough that I had to keep from loading my boots up with mud and turning them into skis on the down hills though!

Here's a shot looking back down the draw toward the timber where I planned to camp and had heard the bird gobble.

I made it back to camp around 8, set up my shelter and bivy, changed and settled in for the night. The rain had conveniently stopped about the time I got back to camp of course.

I also heard the turkey gobble a couple times while setting up camp and he was easily within 400 yards of my setup.

Sleep was hard to come by (I wasn't cold or wet, just a bit restless), not helped by a set of dirt bikes that rolled through around 9PM. I have NO idea what they were up to, and of course I assumed they had similar plans to mine and that I might have competition in the morning.

 

[jeremy.b]

Eventually I did crash and woke between 4 & 5 AM to the sound of a light snow pelting my tarp... Thankfully THAT didn't last long! I waited until close to 6 and started breaking camp down when it was just starting to get light enough to see in the timber.

I eased down through the timber to the edge of the draw, staying on the edge of the timber. I was able to get a shock gobble from a raven call worked the edge of the timber toward the bird.

The bird started firing off fairly regularly so I had a good fix on its location. Also, each gobble ALMOST sounded like a double gobble (so two birds in unison), but the gobbles were SO close together I couldn't tell for sure.

As I worked toward the bird(s) another tom fired off WAY further down the draw. Then, to my complete surprise another tom gobbled back UP the draw, not far from where I had dropped down from my camp. I had NO idea that bird was there. I was already committed on the first bird and I finished closing the distance to around 100 yards away where the bird(s) were still roosted in the timber. There was a fir with good cover about 35 yards out in the open of the draw that would be a good setup. I slid out, dropped the pack and got settled in an called a couple times. No response from the bird(s) but I was very confident they heard me.

Shortly after setting up the bird(s) fired off on their own and were clearly on the ground but seemed to hang up on a little ridge (still up in the timber) for a bit, occasionally gobbling. Eventually there was movement and I caught sight of two toms dropping through the timber. They were still 70 yards out and would have to get to the creek to be in range. They came down out of the timber and crossed into the open, but further up the draw where a little rise blocked them from me. I tried a call again, but no direct answer. The top of the rise was only 20 yards away so I re-adjusted to cover it if they popped over and called again, no direct response. After a few minutes the birds did fire off a couple times on their own just over the rise, probably 50-60 yards out.

Then, unexpectedly they started putting. I was very sure they couldn't see me, and then to add further confusion a NEW bird fired off directly above and behind me (well within 70 yards) followed by immediately putting as well. I did the "take 30 seconds to turn your head" maneuver but I had no view of the new bird through the cover I was in and some patches of oak where it sounded like he was at. Within a couple minutes the first 2 birds calmed down and gobbled a couple more times. I never was able to pick out the new bird and didn't hear from him again.

So I sat waiting a touch longer and then caught movement above me on the rise, the two toms where circling into my location and were finally in range! I had cover to adjust and swung up and got on the lead bird. He cleared some sage gave me a clear shot, I dropped the hammer and down he went!

I grabbed the pack and hustled up to him. He was a 2yr old bird, but one of the SMALLEST turkeys I've ever seen! I'm guessing he weighed 13-14 lbs at MOST. Which is good in a way since I had to pack him out whole (have to leave head and beard attached to transport in Utah).

Here's a shot looking from where the bird was at to where I was setup (the bottom of the fir tree center-right) and the timber they were roosted in across the draw.

I tagged and cleaned the bird, strapped him to my pack and headed back to the truck. The rain the night before made the climb out and down a bit of a pain, especially with the loaded pack & bird, but all good work. Might need to invest in some trekking poles though, I took a couple spills when I got too much mud loaded up on my boots that would have been avoided with some poles.

Man, talk about an eventful morning though! All told I think there were 5 different birds in that draw, and NONE of them responded directly (that I could 100% tell) to MY calls. Just a different behavior than I have seen up in Idaho. The birds still do normal spring turkey things though and I was fairly confident they would get close enough if they didn't have hens and I was well enough concealed (which I was), I just had to wait them out and let their curiosity close the deal.

I know most folks wouldn't bivy in for turkeys, but I'd do it again (minus the rain hopefully!) next year. All in all a bit of hard work but a very satisfying trip!

 

[kansasdad]

Nice!

Your turkey environs sure are different than mine.

As you were telling your story, my brain jumped ahead, and thought that maybe you were going to tell us that a lion had spooked your birds.

Thanks for the story

 

[Dentrimental]

Nice Job on the turkey general season birds don't come easy here in Utah!

Great story telling too. Keep it up!

 

[jeremy.b]

Nice Job on the turkey general season birds don't come easy here in Utah!

Great story telling too. Keep it up!

Thanks! All of the research I did definitely tempered my expectations. On the other hand there was a consistent theme of folks having success by getting away from easy açcess.

With that in mind it was a matter of looking over the Utah hunt planner and the turkey distribution layers and ownership layers to pinpoint likely spots to try and then getting boots on the ground.

It also helped a ton going in with plenty of experience chasing mountain birds in Idaho and some of the tricks learned along the way (always try to get either above the birds or to where they already want to go and being patient enough to let them come in if they commit without over calling).

 

[jeremy.b]

Nice!

Your turkey environs sure are different than mine.

As you were telling your story, my brain jumped ahead, and thought that maybe you were going to tell us that a lion had spooked your birds.

Thanks for the story

This is certainly not classic Midwest ag or bottom land country! The fact that these birds are in the same habitat as elk paints a pretty good picture of the kind of country they can live in that is publicly accessable.

 

[duckhunt]

You are off to a great start.

 

[jeremy.b]

I really was a great spring. We even managed to get up to Idaho and hunt the last 3 days of the Idaho spring season. I'll probably post a recap of that hunt before long.

Update time!

I had applied for a mix of tags in Idaho, Utah & Wyoming. Unfortunately I struck out on EVERY. SINGLE. DRAW. (even ones with decent odds!).

That left me with what I can do for OTC tags!

For a few years I had been threatening to go do a early Nov whitetail hunt up in Idaho. After getting my last batch of (unsuccessful) draw results I reached out to a few buddies in Idaho and most are interested in going. Time will tell for sure, but right now it looks like we'll be having a full-on whitetail camp with 3-5 of us. I'll be returning to some old stomping grounds on that trip and I'll be heading up in August to cruise around and get re-acquainted with the country. Its been 10+ years since I've hunted some of the areas I plan to go on that trip. More to come as that develops.

Beyond the whitetail hunt, there's only 2 other options I'm weighing:

• OTC Archery elk hunt up in Idaho.
  I can still pick up a tag as a lifetime license holder, but they are going fast. I could return to some of my old elk hunting stomping grounds, but I'd really need to commit to a full 7+ days of hunting to try to get it done. I'm not sure this is the year for it. I'll cover some elk country in my trip up in August and then probably in Nov as well and if I like what I see on those trips I might plan to commit to the OTC tag next year.
• OTC Multi-season elk hunt in UT (need to make a decision soon too).
  I have to admit this doesn't excite me at this point, although I'm happy to be convinced otherwise! I don't know much country down here yet for elk and by many accounts the general season pressure is insane. The pressure is really what kills it for me. I had enough of that at times around Boise that I have REALLY hard time investing in hunts where I have to compete with dozens of other hunters. Maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion, we'll see.

It is sad to say this looks to be a fairly quiet year for my hunts. That could change of course, but sitting here right now the ID OTC elk hunt is really the only thing that I could foresee coming around in addition to the planned OTC whitetail hunt.

 

[MN_Bowhunter4]

Sucks about the draws but sounds like you’ve got a few options left! How about some small game close to home to supplement things? I’m not familiar with UT but there’s got to be some birds around!

 

[jeremy.b]

Sucks about the draws but sounds like you’ve got a few options left! How about some small game close to home to supplement things? I’m not familiar with UT but there’s got to be some birds around!

There is definitely some options! The spot I took my 2nd oldest turkey scouting seemed like a good spot to find some chuckar (since I almost ran over 3 of them!).

My oldest will be able to hunt small game next year in Idaho, so I'm thinking about taking him along to look for some forest grouse too at some point.

 

[Sheffield5k]

You know I actually logged on to start my own live hunt thread for this year but apparently I haven’t made enough posts yet even though I’ve been a member forever

I was a little disappointed to see you haven’t added our marathon scouting trip yet

+1 post

 

[jeremy.b]

You know I actually logged on to start my own live hunt thread for this year but apparently I haven’t made enough posts yet even though I’ve been a member forever

I was a little disappointed to see you haven’t added our marathon scouting trip yet

+1 post

Haha! Just had to give me a couple hours man!

Update time!

@Sheffield5k and I have been making many plans and schemes to fill out our season. The central theme has been (mostly) focused on the whitetail hunt in Nov up in Idaho.

We threw together plans to head up and check out the main area I planned to hunt and I hit the road on Friday morning. Shortly after picking @Sheffield5k up I was handed a nice softball sized gift courtesy of a passing dump truck.

Glad I have a $0 deductable!

We connected with another buddy (Mike) in Boise who will be joining us in the Fall and headed on up to central Idaho.

The initial area/plan was to get eyes and boots on the ground in a spot that I spent quite a bit of time chasing elk and whitetails in the early 2000's.

We managed to get to our camp spot with plenty of daylight left and took drive/hike down through one portion of the area.

It was amazing how different the country looked after 15 years! WAY more grown in and a decided lack of whitetail sign (although there was some elk sign to be found).

We wandered back to camp and hung out for the evening.

The next morning we hiked up through a different part of the area to take a look over some cutting units that usually were productive in the past. Once again, 15 years turns wide open cutting units into brushy messes, closes off trails and brushes out roads!

This is overlooking a unit that used to be completely bare and grassy:

After a couple hours we made it back to camp, not finding any deer sign on that hike either. We jumped in the truck and drove out the last area and the theme continued; no deer sign, everything was way grown up.

I'm sure there were deer around, but they were already pretty dispersed back when I hunted the area before, and now with the cutting units maturing a ton I suspect they are even more spread out. So with that in mind we packed the rest of camp up and headed out to a neighboring area. One I had never been in, but one that showed a better diversity of habitat than the first spot.

On the drive through the new area we checked out one small cutting unit that you could actually see into.

Eventually we got far enough into the new spot to take a quick break, wandered literally 100 yards off the road and found plenty of fresh elk and deer sign.

It was getting on toward the afternoon and we planned to sprint back down to southern Idaho that afternoon/evening, and we had seen enough of the new area that it was definitely more suited to chasing whitetails than the first spot was. We made the call to called it a good initial scouting trip and hit the road, making it down to @Sheffield5k 's place that night. I hit the road early the next morning and made it the rest of the way down to the SLC zoo the following morning.

While we have some other plots and schemes cooking (I'm looking at you Idaho 2nd draw!) we're definitely in a good spot to work out the details around the Nov whitetail hunt.

It was also a humbling experience seeing how an area I used to know SO well had changed so drastically. This was a good thing though and I'm working out all kinds of back-up plans/areas by looking over other old stomping grounds with a new eye via escouting.

More to come as things evolve!

 

[MistahMoon]

As i am soon to be relocated to Boise for work from texas, am eager to follow along on the western version of whitetail hunting!

 

[jeremy.b]

As i am soon to be relocated to Boise for work from texas, am eager to follow along on the western version of whitetail hunting!

Nice! You'll generally have to travel minimum of 2 hours north of Boise to get into whitetails consistently (although there are pockets found closer, but they really are smaller populations).

From there its a giant mix of country/habitat. We're planning to start out focusing on large conifer woods deer (mostly to shed competition & pressure), but within an hour or two of our main spot we can be hunting mixed agricultural/pine/grass country that has various patches of public ground.

To the east of Boise you can find whitetails down in the wooded river bottoms, which is a theme that carries on into Montana as well.

 

[MistahMoon]

Nice! You'll generally have to travel minimum of 2 hours north of Boise to get into whitetails consistently (although there are pockets found closer, but they really are smaller populations).

From there its a giant mix of country/habitat. We're planning to start out focusing on large conifer woods deer (mostly to shed competition & pressure), but within an hour or two of our main spot we can be hunting mixed agricultural/pine/grass country that has various patches of public ground.

To the east of Boise you can find whitetails down in the wooded river bottoms, which is a theme that carries on into Montana as well.

awesome info...cant wait to finally get up there and get in the woods.

 

[jeremy.b]

Updates!

The fall has been moving along and we'll be headed up to deer camp in a couple weeks or so (assuming weather/road conditions cooperate!)

I've been keeping moving through the summer and on one of my hikes in August I ran across this goofy guy

Notice how his passenger side antler drops over his face, can't be comfortable!

We also got in a nice little hike with the boys to celebrate my wife's birthday in late August (they would have thrown rocks for hours at the lake...)

Eventually I turned my attention to getting my guns ready for the season. I had my 30-06 bored out to 338-06 early in the year and had not finished working up a load for it yet, so that little project needed to start back up. I took stock of my reloading components and found a problem... low on primers. Guess what is sold out everywhere due to the ammo shortage... Primers

I reached out to Mike and Andy who would keep an eye out for me in their neck of the woods and snuck over to my LGS one evening and got lucky:

That should hold me over for a year or two!

Now on to my load work-up for the 330-06. I had picked up a batch of bullets to try from Hammer bullets and had run a few velocity ladders with them in the spring but started running low on powder (RL 17 & 16). I did some digging and was able to pick up a 8lb jug of 2000-MR that others had luck that gets pretty close to RL 17 performance. After it showed up I ran a couple more velocity ladders then moved to groups... and it was ugly... Like 3-4" ugly at 100 yards.

There was good news though, I swapped from regular large rifle primers to the mag primers in my Tikka 270 win loads and went from a bit under 1" down to well under 1/2".

I have never shot groups like that before so even with the poor performance of the 338-06 I was sure pleased with how the 270 was doing!

I got in touch with Steve at Hammer bullets, tried another powder or two in the 338-06 and same results, so the gun didn't like those particular bullets. Steve straight up offered to replace them with one he thought would work better at no charge and added them to an order I wanted to do anyway. I had read about how well Hammer takes care of their customers and I am happy to say they still continue an amazing level of service!

The first outing with the replacement bullets in the 338-06 was much better, very first group was just shy of 1" without doing any tuning. I'll be hitting the range again this weekend and should have the 338-06 ready to hunt before the trip.

I busted out my portion of our camp setup this week to dry run everything to make sure its still working and in good shape

And so far so good (Levi was having a particularly good time with the tent!)

The hunting party has solidified into myself, @Sheffield5k, Mike and another buddy Tim. Plans are being finalized and everyone is spending FAR too much time on our group texts instead of trying to get productive work done during the day!