Day1: Well after missing three straight openers due to work, I finally got a break and was able to get a Saturday off. I hunted MCC property Saturday morning and even in driving rain, super cold weather, and freezing 25mph winds, I was able to coax a gobbler near my blind. As I watched the nice long beard make his way down toward my dekes, a group of 5 coyotes decided they wanted turkey for breakfast and chased away every turkey int he area...
Day2: After working Saturday nigt and getting off of work at 2AM, I got home and packed up my gear and the wife. Now my wife has never been out hunting with me and since she's been complaining that we don't go on dates any more, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take her with me and call it a "date". We get into our area on MCC and immediately we are greeted with gobbles and its still 45 minutes from fly down. We get settled in and wait for fly down. We hear gobbles all around us from at least 5 different roosts. I hear the nearest birds fly down and I mimic a hen flying off her roost. Right away I am replied back with gobbles. The only problem is the real hens are going off and they pull the toms in the opposite direction.
We just sit and wait and around 0830 hours, we begin hearing gobbles getting near our blind. Now at this point my wife is getting squirly and complaining that every part of her body is in pain from sitting. Oh she's also 2 months pregnant so she now needs to use the restroom also. The gobbles ie down and thinking there are no gobblers in the area, I tell my wife that now is the time to do her thing. Right as she comes back in the blind and get settled in, I make a three note yelp and right away 4 gobblers blow up 30 yards in front of us. I tell my wife not to move as 3 plump jakes and a hen make their way in to our little clearing.
The hen begins challenging my DSD hen decoy and literally starts trying to fight with it. All this commotion is driving every tom in the area nuts and all we hear i gobbling all around us. As the jakes walk off I see a large tom 80 yards ahead in a dry creek bed following another hen. Unfortunately after the jakes walk off none of the larger toms made it our way. Just as my wife stats complaining that her back hurts, three different jakes come in near our blind to my left. One of them had a rather longer beard and with my wife wanting to go home, I decided to pop the biggest one of the bunch. Final score: 18lb jake, 5inch beard and little knobbies for spurs....
Day3: gain I head up after getting a good nights rest, I head back up to MCC land near the area where I killed the jake. I was determined to get the big guy I saw the day before. I reach my spot and after a short walk, I stop and blow on the coyote howler and immediately I get gobbles from 9 different birds on 4 different roosts. My initial set up yields 12 jakes that came in by trios and pairs at different times. After waiting until 0900 hours, I move to another larger clearing and as I set up my deke, I see a hen crossing the clearing. I put he decoy only a few feet in front of my blind as not to alarm the hen. I set down and before I can get settled in I hear gobbles to my right. I get some what settled in and give a quick cut and 4 yelps. Right away I get gobbles back from birds to my right and birds to my left
As three jakes to my right make their way into the clearing, I can see three huge toms with a really pissed off look coming in from my right. The largest tom starts kicking the tail feather off the jakes and the other two toms and once he is alone he begins strutting literally 5 yards away from me. As he turns around I maneuver my gun up and I see that he sees me move. He puts his head up and as he gave me a second opportunity, I put the hammer on him in the form of a #4 3.5inch Winchester HD load. He goes down like a sack of rocks and the hunt ws over. Final tally: 21lb bird, 9.5in beard, 1 in spurs.
It was such a nice weekend and now I have one more bird left to complete the season.
Day2: After working Saturday nigt and getting off of work at 2AM, I got home and packed up my gear and the wife. Now my wife has never been out hunting with me and since she's been complaining that we don't go on dates any more, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take her with me and call it a "date". We get into our area on MCC and immediately we are greeted with gobbles and its still 45 minutes from fly down. We get settled in and wait for fly down. We hear gobbles all around us from at least 5 different roosts. I hear the nearest birds fly down and I mimic a hen flying off her roost. Right away I am replied back with gobbles. The only problem is the real hens are going off and they pull the toms in the opposite direction.
We just sit and wait and around 0830 hours, we begin hearing gobbles getting near our blind. Now at this point my wife is getting squirly and complaining that every part of her body is in pain from sitting. Oh she's also 2 months pregnant so she now needs to use the restroom also. The gobbles ie down and thinking there are no gobblers in the area, I tell my wife that now is the time to do her thing. Right as she comes back in the blind and get settled in, I make a three note yelp and right away 4 gobblers blow up 30 yards in front of us. I tell my wife not to move as 3 plump jakes and a hen make their way in to our little clearing.
The hen begins challenging my DSD hen decoy and literally starts trying to fight with it. All this commotion is driving every tom in the area nuts and all we hear i gobbling all around us. As the jakes walk off I see a large tom 80 yards ahead in a dry creek bed following another hen. Unfortunately after the jakes walk off none of the larger toms made it our way. Just as my wife stats complaining that her back hurts, three different jakes come in near our blind to my left. One of them had a rather longer beard and with my wife wanting to go home, I decided to pop the biggest one of the bunch. Final score: 18lb jake, 5inch beard and little knobbies for spurs....
Day3: gain I head up after getting a good nights rest, I head back up to MCC land near the area where I killed the jake. I was determined to get the big guy I saw the day before. I reach my spot and after a short walk, I stop and blow on the coyote howler and immediately I get gobbles from 9 different birds on 4 different roosts. My initial set up yields 12 jakes that came in by trios and pairs at different times. After waiting until 0900 hours, I move to another larger clearing and as I set up my deke, I see a hen crossing the clearing. I put he decoy only a few feet in front of my blind as not to alarm the hen. I set down and before I can get settled in I hear gobbles to my right. I get some what settled in and give a quick cut and 4 yelps. Right away I get gobbles back from birds to my right and birds to my left
As three jakes to my right make their way into the clearing, I can see three huge toms with a really pissed off look coming in from my right. The largest tom starts kicking the tail feather off the jakes and the other two toms and once he is alone he begins strutting literally 5 yards away from me. As he turns around I maneuver my gun up and I see that he sees me move. He puts his head up and as he gave me a second opportunity, I put the hammer on him in the form of a #4 3.5inch Winchester HD load. He goes down like a sack of rocks and the hunt ws over. Final tally: 21lb bird, 9.5in beard, 1 in spurs.
It was such a nice weekend and now I have one more bird left to complete the season.
