MT 2017 Spring Turkey Hunt Thread

[hobbes]

Congrats Hem. Looks like a great trip.

We had a tough day yesterday. I took my wife out after we got all kids to school, so it was late morning. We heard gobbles at the second place we checked. They weren't more than 200 yards from the truck, so we quickly moved into the trees and I started calling. The two toms must have been lonely because it took no more than 5 minutes for them to come in. The front one almost ran into the open at 27 yards, beard swinging, and my wife missed him. She (we) was disappointed but there was nothing to be done.

I took my 14 year old after school and again we had a tom coming in on a string that decided to veer around us then proceeded to strut, drum, and gobble just uphill from us out of sight but in range for 10 or 15 minutes before leaving us a with a few parting gobbles as he left.

Both experiences were fantastic but neither ended how we hoped. We've still got a week and a half, so we'll keep after them. Good luck to all those still chasing gobbles.

 

[phutch30]

I would bet there are two turkeys running around living out their last days where u hunt

 

[Bugle 'Em In]

I would bet there are two turkeys running around living out their last days where u hunt

Having an encouraging message like this from Montana Turkeys public enemy #1 is a good thing Good luck Hobbes.

 

[POk3s]

Great write ups and pics guys! Wish I could go back up there and fill more tags!

 

[phutch30]

I was hoping to do a sweep of western MT but alas, the hunt for Weasterns in R1 proved fickle. I had 7 eastern jakes come in my best spot and my other spots were quite. I couldn't sweet talk anyone into letting me shoot any of the adult birds I found on other properties. See what next weekend has in store.

I took this nice hybrid 1st stop on Sat morn on my way North. MAN was he hot!

 

[hobbes]

That's a beautiful bird. He appears to be a hybrid.

We were only able to get out for a few hours Sunday morning but could not find a bird that was interested. I think we could have done better if we'd have done a late morning hunt.

 

[phutch30]

Whos going out this weekend besides me?

 

[phutch30]

Closed out the season just about perfect. Rat Fink and I headed to western MT for Sat and Sun. My son unfortunately couldn't make it. We arrived in the area we wanted to start in before light and found birds in the trees. But no joy. The world went quite after flydown and we struggled to find birds. At noon we found some in a field and eventually got permission to try for them. When we got back to where we had seen them they were gone. While trying to find them in the trees, a couple birds on the other side of the valley were going nuts. We thought maybe the birds we were looking for had moved over there, we were hoping we could call them back...about this time one popped down in the trees below us and quickly came in gobbling. Boom Ratfink had bird #1



Mean while the birds across the valley never shut up so we went looking for the landowner. We stopped at an obvious house on the property, but were told they just rented, and the landowner had told them no hunting, but they lived across the creek below this house. So we drove down the driveway to a closed gate, with no trespassing/no hunting signs on it. I said what the heck lets go get yelled at. So we went through the gate and drove down the drive way through another gate and stopped at some hot tape blocking the driveway at the house.* As I got out of the truck I could see a woman standing back in the shadows kinda glaring at us. I was really thinking this was a bad idea....it got worse when I got out and 15 feet from the porch was a bird feeder with a hen calmly feeding 10 feet from us. I gave my speal and got a "wweeeellllll, you know we kinda have to many around, so maybe taking a few out would be good" YEA BABY! :hump: Then she pointed us to her brothers up the rd who owned the other end of the farm. He also let us on. We drove up the rd about 3/4 of a mile and went up a hill to some fields where we had heard the bird and as soon as we peaked into the field I spotted 2 strutters about 100yds away under a big pine. I moved to a little better position and called.* Both toms lit up and a hen started cutting like crazy. So I started cutting and cackling and all three started coming.* They didn't have to come far and they were hot hot the hen didn't seem very happy her toms were leaving her and kept up a steady stream of ticked off cutting. But by then it was too late. A pull of the trigger on the 20ga and I was out of tags in MT.




By now it was late afternoon and we were both zombies from lack of sleep so we went and made a hobo camp with a tarp and crashed out for 10hrs

Woke up to a clear chilly morning. We decided to go give the birds from Sat morning another go. When we got to the property it took some doing to get a gobble but we got one and moved in on it. It turned into 3 with several hens. The lighter it got the more vocal they all got. One problem we had was we had a irrigation ditch between us and them and wasn't quite sure how close we were. We could hear it, but couldn't see it till it got light. The toms flew down and milled around below the roost and wouldn't come to us. Then the hens flew down and I turned up the calling to try to get the hens to come over and drag the toms. They did come...to about 5yds off the ditch...which was 60 yds in front of us. Then they walked over the hill. They were still hot and gobbled to almost every call but u could tell they were slowly moving off. Fink turned and gave me the crawl up??? motion and I agreed so he crawled up and stepped over the ditch and knelt up and @ 20 yds he was suddenly out of tags too.




I had a great season this yr. I filled 5 tags and I was allowed the opportunity to participate in a additional 10 successful turkey hunts that put 14 long beards and 1 jake on the ground. I hunting all over the state. I never made it to r6 this yr and failed to kill a weastern but theres next yr.

 

[hobbes]

Congrats Phutch. Great way to end the season. I never got to pack a gun again after my dad's bird. On Friday and Saturday I got my two sons out on the same piece of western Montana public where I killed my third one. We had several birds gobble early but they were all following hens. About the time you'd expect them to lose the hens, they'd just shut down. I think on my own, I'd have eventually found one that would turn on, but wet feet and lots of hiking makes teenage boys hungry. The combo of an early morning and a big late morning breakfast at the local diner then makes them sleepy, so back to the hotel we went. It was still a good couple of mornings and one evening to spend with them.

I always feel like it ends too soon, so I'm struggling with the idea of a memorial day weekend hunt in either WA or NE to extend my season. I don't need to spend the money and will likely stay home, but I've done it on more than one occasion so I never quit considering it until May 31st.

 

[Hem]

Way to finish the season Phutch.

 

[Bugle 'Em In]

Holy crap Phutch...that is one helluva season! GREAT job to you and the crew you rolled with. Certainly enjoyed following along via this thread this spring. If your fall is 1/2 as solid as your spring, you're in for a fun one!

 

[phutch30]

Congrats Phutch. Great way to end the season. I never got to pack a gun again after my dad's bird. On Friday and Saturday I got my two sons out on the same piece of western Montana public where I killed my third one. We had several birds gobble early but they were all following hens. About the time you'd expect them to lose the hens, they'd just shut down. I think on my own, I'd have eventually found one that would turn on, but wet feet and lots of hiking makes teenage boys hungry. The combo of an early morning and a big late morning breakfast at the local diner then makes them sleepy, so back to the hotel we went. It was still a good couple of mornings and one evening to spend with them.

I always feel like it ends too soon, so I'm struggling with the idea of a memorial day weekend hunt in either WA or NE to extend my season. I don't need to spend the money and will likely stay home, but I've done it on more than one occasion so I never quit considering it until May 31st.

I hear ya man. The withdrawls are rough. I usually have ID salmon fishing to get me through but they closed the season this yr. Gunna have to go look for a bear I guess