Mid Season Report

[Fan Club]

Have had two great mornings this weekend.
 
Saturday- I had three gobblers working at once at 8:00 a.m....on three adjoining properties! One to the east, one to the south and one to the west. I'd call and all three would gobble. Do you think I could get just one to come onto the land I can hunt? All three stood their ground and sounded like they were working strut zones...get a little closer, and then the next gobble a little farther. Pissed off a brood hen and had a shouting match with her bringing her to within about 10 yards of my position. Thought sure a live deke and all of that racket would bring in a tom. Nope. Gobbling petered out about 10:30.
 
Sunday- Took my 12 year old grandson, Ryan, on his first turkey hunt. When I went to wake him up at 5:00 a.m. he was up and already dressed in his camo! We went back to the same spot and heard the first gobble at 5:45, off the property to the SE in the pines. We set up at the property line and when the bird flew down he left the pines and headed south. He must have been pacing the field edge...I have never heard a bird gobble that much in my life. I didn't think a bird could gobble that much. Ryan quit counting at 150 gobbles about 7:30 a.m. Ryan got the bird to gobble at his slate call and crow call, a big thrill for him. After two hours of this it became comical....we would hear him back in the pines to the SE...then back to the field at the south...then in the woods to the west. We pissed off the same brood hen and got her within 20 yards of our blind this time. I got him to gobble at the gobble shaker and then, why not...I pulled out my kee-kee whistle. The bird went crazy and finally started to come in! Only problem was, it was 8:30 and by now we were sitting in full sun. He got within about 90 yards to the SW and I had to try and get around the tree. Ryan was also moving too much trying to see the bird and we got busted. He last gobbled at 9:00 a.m. and totally shut down, never to be seen or heard again.
 
What a thrill though. I was upset that Ryan missed all of the action Saturday morning and was hoping for a repeat performance...which we got in spades. No exaggeration, this bird had to gobble over 200 times in 3 hours. It gives me a sore throat just thinking about it.
 
But I'm sitting here smiling.
 
We'll be back after him next weekend, the season runs until May 31 st.
 
Jeff

[Fan Club]

Scored an awesome 3 yr old gobbler on the last morning of the Michigan season (May 31 st) with an epic hunt.

The Alfalfa had grown to over knee high on the farm I hunt but they cut it last week. I tried to hunt the cut field the very next day but they showed up to load the cut alf. Saturday I was there before dawn and I put the pretty boy and hen deke on the field edge and sat in the timberline. I started calling at daybreak and added intermittent gobbles with a shaker tube. A jake came into the dekes at 6:45 and then wandered off. After 15 minutes I called again and got an immediate gobble from behind me in the woods. I shut up and 10 minutes later I see "Ol Tom" coming down the field edge spitting and drumming in full strut through the morning mist. A awesome sight.... alas no video, however it is endelibly burned into my brain. The only gobble I heard turned out to be Tom's last. I took him at less than ten yards.

I got a bird in Missouri, a homestate Michigan bird and took my grandson out for the first time. A perfect end to a great season!



JB

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: Fan Club

... an epic hunt...

...it is endelibly burned into my brain....
 
...A perfect end to a great season!

 
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Congrats to you on a great ending to this chapter!
 
Let's keep in touch.

[Fan Club]

Thanks Joe, and thanks for hanging around this ghost town.
 
I wish I knew how to resize the pics so they will load. #$%@*&!
 
JB

[Gobblerman]

Hey, Jeff, kudos on the last day gobbler, and getting your grandson initiated.  Sounds like you had a great season.
  I was just wandering around the forum and saw your post here.  I hope you don't mind a New Mexican sneaking in on the Michigan site. 
  I haven't posted much lately...too much going on, but now have more time to talk.  Let's hope a few of us stick around during the slow months.
 
Jim