All Things Habitat - Lets talk.....
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The boys are out strutting
- Thread starter scott44
- Start date
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
I can't wait for tomorrow morning!:cool::D I think I'm going to get less sleep tonight than I do the night before deer season opens.:D Calls are ready, dekes are ready, the 1100 is throwing between 9 and 14 #5's in the vertebrae and skull at 50 yards. Now I just need the birds to cooperate. Already told work I wouldn't be in until at least 11am for the next week or until I get my tom.;):D
scott44
5 year old buck +
Good Luck!
j-bird
Moderator
Stay out of the woods if your name is TOM!!!!
I have a bird taunting me. My season doesn't open for another week yet and I am not a turkey hunter. However every evening I know exactly where he is at as I hear him gobble time and time again from the same general location. I think I saw him a week ago or so and appears to be a nice bird. I fear going after him will spawn another wild passion - and I'm not sure I or the wife can handle another one.
I have a bird taunting me. My season doesn't open for another week yet and I am not a turkey hunter. However every evening I know exactly where he is at as I hear him gobble time and time again from the same general location. I think I saw him a week ago or so and appears to be a nice bird. I fear going after him will spawn another wild passion - and I'm not sure I or the wife can handle another one.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
j-bird, you must bring him down!
BTW guys, no luck this morning,:( had at least 3 possibly 4 gobbling for about 30-45 minutes this morning, but they got tight-lipped early and must have moved off in a different direction. Hens were making quite a racket for a while as well. One lone hen came through and crossed the logging road as we were packing up. Saw a bunch of strutters on the ride back into town, all on private. Heard one shot this morning to our east on private land, fairly close to where we were set up, so it could have been one of the ones that we heard earlier.
BTW guys, no luck this morning,:( had at least 3 possibly 4 gobbling for about 30-45 minutes this morning, but they got tight-lipped early and must have moved off in a different direction. Hens were making quite a racket for a while as well. One lone hen came through and crossed the logging road as we were packing up. Saw a bunch of strutters on the ride back into town, all on private. Heard one shot this morning to our east on private land, fairly close to where we were set up, so it could have been one of the ones that we heard earlier.
scott44
5 year old buck +
Keep at it Good Luck!
j-bird
Moderator
If I get a wild hare I may give it a whirl, but it just isn't a priority for me. To be honest if he sticks around I would rather have someone take a kid and get him than myself. He may not even be around by the time season opens here so we will see. I ain't losing any sleep over knowing he is out there.
Hope you are able to track one down for yourself.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
Well this morning went almost exactly like yesterday, but the tom's talking stopped even earlier, about 20 - 30 minutes and not another peep out of them. We moved about 250 yards south of our first setup, but it wasn't far enough. By the time we adjusted, they had all crossed the road and were strutting in the cornfield on the private land. It is such a deceiving situation with the steep bluffs and open farm fields being able to pinpoint where the birds are actually at and what way they are traveling. The sound carries farther and echoes much differently than it does back on the flat, wooded ground in Juneau Co that I am used to. One step closer to figuring them out, as long as they don't change their pattern now. We had to cut the hunt short this morning, due to an early meeting I had at work. We saw even more birds strutting on private land driving back into town today than we did yesterday. I have all day off tomorrow, so look out birds!;):D
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
Day 3, still no birds down. My charge is finding out exactly how frustrating these birds can be, but he is running on about 4 hours of sleep a day just so he can actually get some hunting hours logged, so I understand a bit where he is coming from. We got closer to the birds today than in the previous 2 days, but still no luck, for us anyway. We got on them at first gobble, but they had already made up their minds before flying down that they were going to be heading straight away from us toward the private land to the south. Followed them up a 200' ridge and had the tom bent out of shape, but the hens pulled him away twice before they crested the ridge. Heard 1 shot about 5 minutes later. We may abandon that area tomorrow for another one we scouted. My partner did get pretty pumped up when we had a flock of hens and toms all cranked up about 75 yards across the road from the second public area we were hunting on this morning. I don't think we could have called them across the road from the cut cornfield into the thick woods we were in, but it was fun trying! Saw 2 huge rooster pheasants this morning as well, standing at the roadside about 75 yards apart cackling away.:cool:
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
Opening Saturday on public land in WI, got to love a car(or more) in each parking lot. Oh well, such is the game. Had at least 2 birds gobbling across the valley early, started coming our way and must have got intercepted by some hens. Within minutes of us hearing the hens, the gobbling stopped and the next time we heard a gobble they were a 1/4 mile in the other direction.:mad:
Dropped off my buddy so he could get some sleep and went on a scouting run and to stop and ask permission to hunt a coworkers dad's farm. He told me to stop any time, but no one was around.:( He has like 2 other farms, so I'm sure he was at one of the other ones. Busy time for them. They have about 30 new calves and still have about a dozen more pregnant cows.
Dropped off my buddy so he could get some sleep and went on a scouting run and to stop and ask permission to hunt a coworkers dad's farm. He told me to stop any time, but no one was around.:( He has like 2 other farms, so I'm sure he was at one of the other ones. Busy time for them. They have about 30 new calves and still have about a dozen more pregnant cows.
Terrific_tom
5 year old buck +
Saw 11 turkey today 10 hens and 1 gobbler. Gobbler walked thru food plot 80 yards out paying no attention to decoys or calls. Then to add insult on drive home, mile and half from land a gobbler is on side of road just a struttin away. Not much gobbling today but birds were moving.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
Went to try out a new spot on a county forest property yesterday morning, got burned by the maps and aerial photos. It shows access from the south, and after driving there in the dark Sunday morning, I think that is incorrect. :mad:Where it shows road access is right through an apple orchard and was apparently on private property and we stopped and turned around once we got to the camper and fire ring at the bottom of the hill. I couldn't even tell where the road continued on to the public land, even though it was shown on both my Delorme Atlas and the WI DNR website?:confused::oops: So we ended up driving around to the north side parking area(s). Found that one and got out only to walk about a half mile back in there and realize we were a good mile and a half from where we wanted to be because we parked in the "lower" parking area and we needed to be parked in the "upper" parking area on top of the bluff.:mad::confused: Walked back to the car and drove to the "upper" parking lot, by that time it was well past prime time. Got out to check the area, saw a really nice rooster pheasant with a hen! We walked to where we thought the birds might be and set up to call, sure enough we got an immediate answer, from the bottom of the valley right where I had initially tried to drive in that morning from the other side of the property.:( Talk about disheartening.:( I knew there would be birds in that area, we just couldn't find a way to get to them without a 400' vertical climb down into the valley from where we were. Totally sucked, so we called it a day and went to visit my buddies dad at his farm again to ask if we could hunt. Finally got in touch with him and he was all fine with it, he even gave us the intel on the birdy areas. Then I wake up to a windy downpour this morning.:mad: Hopefully I can score a bird for my neighbor tomorrow, as it is his last day to hunt.
j-bird
Moderator
Well Wisc - I am starting to think I may just let that bird on my place do his thing. Sounds like it can be rather frustrating chasing these goofy birds around. Season here opens Wednesday, but I haven't heard my bird in the bottom as of late so he may have wandered off. I'm trying to find some time to look for shrooms and turns out I don't have to be any where near as sneaky to hunt them!
I hope you get one to cooperate for you soon.
I hope you get one to cooperate for you soon.
wiscwhip
5 year old buck +
I just got off the phone with the County Forester a bit ago and as it turns out, the access road from the south that is shown on the maps is an easement that is only allowed to be used by the county for dam maintenance, it is not accessible to the general public. I told the Forester it should be designated as such on the map on the county website to prevent folks from trying to access the forest from the south end, as it was their map that put me in a situation that could have easily been determined as trespassing and that upset me a bit. They could at least put a note on the website that said something about no south access or south access is for county vehicles only, or even post a single sign at the entrance to the field road stating that was the case. It would prevent issues with the surrounding landowners, as I am sure by looking at those maps that I am not the first and only one to have tried to access the county forest from that road.:mad: I then asked if the only way to access the dam area was by a 2+ mile walk down hilly, winding horse trails or a 400' vertical decent from the upper parking lot and he said that yes, that was the case.:rolleyes: I then mentioned that a 4+ mile walk or 800' vertical decent/accent to and from the parking areas didn't really work for folks with bad knees and it would be nice if the county would work on possibly purchasing a better easement for access to people with disabilities(not that I am considered disabled, but I could be if I so choose, as my orthopedic surgeon said he would sign the papers any time I wanted).
