Getting closer!

[scruffy]

Getting closer to getting a turkey with my pardner.  Wednesday evening I called in a tom to 30 yards but couldn't see him, the forage was too thick.  I heard him walk across the creek 30 yards to my left and sat ready against my deer stand tree hoping he'd walk into my mowed shooting lane.  Then a few minutes later I heard him walk back across the water.  I snuck down to the creek, saw his tracks and a 4" long feather.

Yesterday morning I put the feather in my box call for good luck and walked out the door.  While on the deck I could hear gobbling around 250 yards away.  HEY, the feather worked!!!!  :eek:  Anyway, I moved in to around 100 yards, as close as I could with the full moon and crunchy leaves, and gave some tree yelps but he wouldn't respond to me.  He kept gobbling at the moon and at day break, no where to be seen, no gobbling, no nothing...

This morning I went out and sat up 15 yards from the creek, half the distance from the creek to the tree stand tree where the tom came up wednesday evening.  At 4:45am I reached my spot as 2 toms shock gobbled to an owl hooting 150 yards down the creek on the north side (same side as me).  Then at 5:05am I let out a tree yelp.  Nothing.  Then an owl had a delayed objection to my tree call a few minutes late and 3 toms around 100 yards south west of me gobbled.  Since the lone tree yelp hasn't worked all season for me on my place I tried firing them up.  WHEW, I don't think I've heard so much gobbling!!!  :eek:   They were shaking the trees!  I'd as much as touch the call, gobble gobble gobble.  One cluck would set all three toms off for multiple gobbles!    After fly down they cut the distance almost in half, sounding off from a small opening just over the fense.  From my vantage point, lower in elevation, I couldn't see them but by they gobbling that's where I guess they were at.  I went silent and hoped they'd come 40 yards to the creek through the hole in the fense (which I'll fix after turkey season  :wink: ),   Nothing!  10 minutes passed and then I thought I heard hen yelps to the northwest a ways, maybe 100 yards.  A minute later, yep, a hen!   :x  I got back on the slate but it was too late, the toms gobbled but they were on the tail of the real hen, all of them moving away to the west...  After 20 minutes of nothing I packed up and headed for the house to change and go to work.

Live and learn I guess.  I'm kicking myself now for dropping off the calling after I had them coming in and gobbling strong.  I gave a real hen the opportunity to lead the toms away, the toms probably though I moved, they might not even know there were two "hens"...  Of course if they would have come in I wouldn't be second guesing myself.  They were probably 60-70 yards when I stopped calling.  Another 10 yards and I'd of been able to see them.  

Tomorrow if I can get them fired up again like today I'm not going to stop calling until I see the whites of their eyes over the pardner's red bead.  :wink:  These toms, atleast today, wanted a hot loud hen.  Live and learn.

later,
scruffy

[22KHornet]

Good luck this weekend scruffy.  Saturday will probably be the last day I get to go  hopefully I will get a turkey though.  Second season and both days of last weekend there are some turkey's running around on the future father in laws place that borders ours.  I am going to go set up in a nice little corner off of a cornfield and give it a whirl.  Family is all gone to a cousins graduation in Oklahoma so I will be able to go out by myself.  Dad has been a little impatient and taking off before I would.  Anyway good luck and keep your feather handy :grin:

[scruffy]

the future father in laws place that borders ours.

 :eek:  :eek:  :eek:  :eek:  :eek:  :eek:  :eek:  :eek:

My inlaws are also close, about a mile down the road, about a minute away.  Which is why I don't understand why my wife will spend hours on the phone with her mom....  Why not drive down there???  :?

Hey, sounds like a good set up to me.  A corn field I drive past every day has turkeys feeding around 7:00am almost everyday.  It was planted yesterday afternoon and the turkeys were back out again this morning catching bugs (and probably digging up some seed...).  Actually another field bordering me had turkeys in it two nights ago just before dusk eating, the farmer says it's common for that spot.  Hmmm.  I'll find out tomorrow morning if I permission to hunt that farm or not (pending on if a youth hunt is going on or not by a friend of the owner).  If I'm able I might have to hit that field corner next to the creek I've been hunting either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.  Especially if it's raining lightly!  I should be able to walk up the creek with my knee high boots and get in really quietly.

Hey, thanks for kicking on a light bulb!!!  Good luck!

later,
scruffy

[WNY_Whitetailer]

Man...I'm getting excited for tomorrow morning now...I can't wait to get out there and scare up some birds...Gotta love the adrenalin that runs through you when old tommy three toes gets all worked up.

[scruffy]

Ok, I think I might be another step closer to getting the toms to come in.  Today, no gobbling, but the previous 5 days I've gotten some gobbling.  Some days only one tom, some days a few toms.  But nothing ever comes over.  I know some days they were henned up (heard the hens yelp) but other days with only one tom maybe not.  Anyway, while I was out checking fense and stuff I wondered over by my future deer stand tree and noted work I have to do around it.  I have a 1/3 acre of level fertal black dirt infront of the stand on the other side of the creek that is choked by the overly thick trees.  If I cleaned out the dead, sick, thorn, and hedge trees (leaving 3 trees on that 1/3 acre....) it would make a beautiful small staging food plot for deer and also for the turkeys before moving out of the timber and into the bigger plots and beyond into the corn and bean fields.  The timber staging plot, surrounded by thick timber and having water from the creek, should also draw in the big bucks that don't want to leave the timber but are hungry for some good grub.  

So as I'm making mental notes of the trees that need to come out I note a big hollow dead tree that an owl has been living in.  :shock:  Light bulb!  :idea2:  Almost every morning the owl is harrassing the toms, defending his territory I guess.  Soooo, I'm cutting down that tree first.  Actually it's so rotten I'll probably push it over.  It's a willow that's been dead for as long as I've owned the place plus another 10 years probably....  I figure the owl will move either west or east, hopefully pushing some turkeys back my way.  :wink:

I hate to displace the owl, but at the same time 2 of the last 6 mornings out there I thought he was going to take my head off when I started in cutting and such on the slate call.  I've had my tower buzzed coyote hunting before by hawks, it's not all that fun!  And, the tree is right in the middle of one of my shooting lanes for my deer stand..... I guess the owl's evicted....  I hope he comes back to visit, there's just something about the hooting that interests me.  One night I got into a screeming contest with him on my hawk screamer.  He's got no fear!  You have to respect that.

(oh, and yes, I'll be sure he's not in the tree when I cut it down.  One good scream on the hawk locator and I'll know  :wink: )

later,
scruffy

[22KHornet]

Hey scruffy glad to here that I am not the only one that can't seem to get a gobbler in.  Got to my little set up last Saturday and everything was perfect exept one thing, this time all the gobbling was going on on our farm were I had been the weekend before :? .  No luck but I did call up a couple of hens and they hung around and chatted with my call for about 15 minutes.  Well at least I am getting better and can call up a hen, maybe that is the trick call up the hens and the gabblers are bound to follow :grin:

[scruffy]

One of the funnest times I had 2nd season was calling in a boss hen.  She was ready to kick my hind end.  She came from over 300 yards and into 15 feet.  I had her all confused.  She came roaring up the ridge and right to where the sound came from, I sat froze laying prone under a pine tree with my decoys 20 feet infront of me.  (she was also eyeing my jake  :wink: )  Then she'd walk away and I'd fire up for a second, she'd come right back, look around, start to walk away again, I'd fire her back up.  Finally she went about 20 yards away behind some bushes and we "talked" for 15 minutes, not nice talk either.  I was hoping since she came from over 300 yards a tom might also come to check out the "chick fight" from far off.  But no tom came.  But this was also during 2nd season on the farm where there must have been well over 10 to 15 hens per tom.  

The tom's were probably too wore out to walk that far...  :wink:

later,
scruffy

[ScatterGunner]

i'm going out saturday or sunday morning depending on the weather.

i went last year, my first time, a newbie, got wet, got bite by bugs, the closest turkey i saw was in the freezer at the local food-mart.

this year a friend who is an accomplished turkey hunter is taking me out on my land in northern new york. i can't wait. i'm using factory ammo, a 28" turkey barrel and an xtra full turkey choke on my synthetic pardner.

can't wait !!!

sg

[scruffy]

Hey, let us know how it goes!  

And don't forget the deet, I use 29% for most everything, and then sometimes spray my boots and the top of my had with 100% deet (nasty stuff I don't let it touch my skin!).  Makes a world of difference on ticks and bugs!  Alot easier to sit still when you aren't being eaten and your blood sucked!

later,
scruffy

[WNY_Whitetailer]

Good point on the bug spray...I forgot mine last weekend.  Luckily the little critters weren't too bad.  I'll have to remember it this weekend.  Going to be a little warmer than the last couple of weekends.

[044]

Hey guys you might want to try a little trick I use with the bug spray.I take a can of yard guard and spray a semi circle on the ground on the up wind side of me. keeps em back for awhile.

[scruffy]

Hey griz, thanks for the tip, unfornately I didn't see until today and my seasons are over.  :cry:

Well, no turkey for me...  :cry:

Friday the wife didn't sleep so I drove her to work (RN, works 12's at the hospital) Friday night so I didn't get home until almost 8:00pm.  I wanted to do some calling earlier to call some toms in to roost closer since I've had no luck roosting them.  But, after one short call, 4 deer walked into my new clover plot I was sitting next to.  Two bucks and two does, one carrying twins insides by the looks of it, w-i-d-e load...  They grazed past me about 15 yards infront of me before finally making there way out of the grass, long after shooting and roosting time.

Saturday morning I got up at 4:15am and went out.  There was a tom over yonder a bit on the neighbors, but nothing close.  I called until 7:00am and then packed up to go pick up the wife from work.  I got home around 8:30 and talked to a bow turkey hunter that was on the neighbors at 9:00am on my way back out and he said at 7:30am a jake came up looking for me but I had already left....  :roll:  Figures...  I set up in a different spot and as soon as I struck the slate, gobbles, 3 or more toms.  I thought they were coming in, actually they might have, I felt them very close, but the brush was really thick.  Only my decoys head was sticking up above the weeds.  My heart raced as I heard branch after branch break coming towards me from a stand of trees.  I waited, purred, waited, clucked softly, waited waited silent for 30 minutes, nothing.  I relaxed and was silent until noon came around and then headed in for lunch.  When i got up I looked down and saw dried mud around the end of my barrel on the bottom side.  I opened the breech to unload and looked down the barrel, completely plugged with dried mud.  :eek:   I know when I loaded the shotgun before entering the timber the barrel was clear because I always check but somewhere along the line it found some mud.  Very very scarry.  I needed to do better at looking at the barrel when I set down, and probably always will now.  That shook me up a bit as close as I was to shooting!  Then Saturday night I called around 6:00pm sporadically, every 30 minutes or so, hoping to pull the toms closer to roost.  

Sunday morning I got up at 4:30am and headed out, set up, and as sat there letting the outdoors calm down from my rustling the gobbles started.  One from behind me my east timber, two beside me across the creek on my timber, and a couple across the fense.  All were less than 100 yards.  I called very very softly and at 6:10am, BOOOOM.  From over across the hill....  The toms stayed silent and then started gobbling again on their own around 6:45am so I started calling again.  At 7:00am, BOOOOM.  From over across the hill again....  The toms started gobbling again around 7:30am but were all farther west now.  The one behind me slipped into the creek just out of my sight (found fresh tracks in the mud when inspecting the creek later in the morning) and I assume the other two toms on my place also headed west.  I don't know where the toms were that were being shot, or where they were coming from, but I don't think they were the ones I was calling.  But there are alot of hens with the toms I was calling also.  The bow hunter I talked to also said that as many as 15 hens at one time would come into his setup of decoys.  He said no tom or jake came in, which didn't matter, with 30 hen eyes looking around he wouldn't be able to draw anyway he said.

He said he was getting ready to draw on a big tom earlier in the day and the tom took off and right behind was a coyote, running mach 4, turned, grabbed his decoy off the rod, and carried it 10 yards before realizing it was rubber and spitting it out.  The coyote looked at the rubber decoy on the ground just long enough for the bow hunter to give the coyote a broad head through the chest.

All in all I'm happy with the season.  This was the first year I've had turkeys on my place, and I wasn't expecting that.  I spent the first half of the season travelling all over multiple counties to find turkeys when I had them right under my nose....  But there is bit of disappointment having another tag go unfilled.  But next year I can get a $1 landowner tag and hunt my place instead of a $23 state tag.  :grin:  

Oh, and I bought some hs strut "tone trough" mouth calls and am figuring them out.  Next year I won't be a slate only caller.  I'll also use my new box call and add in some mouth calls.  Live and learn!

later,
scruffy

[22KHornet]

No turkey for me either  :cry: .  It was wierd though.  We heard some gobblers Sat morning and got within probably 75 yds and called away.  Everytime we would call boom all 3 or 4 gobblers would go off.  This went on for about an hour, never heard such a racket.  Anyway after about an hour the quited down and left.   Dad and I went back to the truck dorve to a new spot to glass the erea we had just called.  Sure enough there on the hillside where we could not get to was 3 toms all puffed up :? Stupid turkey's.  Oh well mabye next year.   :grin:

Later

[scruffy]

Yea, I agree, dang turkeys anyways....  :?

I just got done (taking a break) from glassing my places for deer.  At just after 6:00pm two decent bodied bucks with 4" tall and very thick antler stubs walked into the new west food plot, munched a bit, then walked down the shooting lane infront of my west deer stand tree (stand going up this summer) and then hit the plot planted last year infront of the house (they were 85 yards from the deck) and munched there way across and entered the timber via the path I cleared with the chainsaw and tractor and followed it infront of my east deer stand heading towards my new east food plot.

Oh, it's going to be along time till December!  :cry:

But that route was my doe setup.  When the bucks feel some hunting pressure they wont be out the open, so I have plans in the west timber for some small food plots surrounded by mature oaks running along the creek.  That'll be my buck setup.  Water, food, cover, deer stand back on opposite side of creek, ultra slug 20, federal barnes expander slugs.

Now if it'd ever dry up so I can get across the creek and start the art work.

later,
scruffy

[lik2hunt]

Scruff - Just want to say "Thanks" for this and all the other posts you've made about tommy hunting lately. Though our season here is almost a month over I am still learning from your posts and am going to incorporate the tips into my fall season (archery) and next spring's serason. I am new to turkey hunting as of this year, only got to go out twice, but I saw more as I traveled the roads this year than I ever have in the past so it kept my mind occupied with the strategy and fantasy hunts all during the day. I drive a truck and make deliveries around our state so I get a lot of time to think about hunting  :wink: . We're both gonna get one next year, heck maybe two or three   .
BTW - can you post up again about the different loads for your Pardner and how they shoot thru that modified choke barrel, especially the Hevi-shot specs? Thanks  

[scruffy]

Hey, no problem.

Pattern % in 30" circle at 40 yards (results will of course vary from shotgun to shotgun)

Lead
IC-----50%
Mod---60%
Full----70%
xfull---80%
xxfull--85% (superfull)
xxxfull-90% (ventilator)

Hevishot
IC-----70%
Mod---80%
full----88%
xfull---92%
hevi---94%
xxfull--93% (superfull)
xxxfull-90% (ventilator)

This is with 6 shot I believe.  When you get into 4 shot it's easier to overchoke so you want a more open choke.  I've read more than one report of people shooting #2's for duck and #4's for turkey saying the best patterns they got were from a mod choke.  My pardner mod and 870 mod both love the 3" mag #2 hevishot, coyotes, badgers, skunks, etc hate it.  That's the load I primarily run through them.  I use #4's for turkeys and it's a good load out to 40 yards, haven't tried patterning farther, but will before next season.

But for a mod choke, I'd run the bigger shot sizes, the bigger the shot size the more open the choke is optimal, so a Mod choke will shoot #2's and #4's the best.  Tighter chokes will like #5's and #6's.

Going tighter than the mod's hevishot pattern is tight enough for only having a truglo front bead sight.  Tighter than that and I'd need better sights to center the really tight pattern.  The tighter you go the easier it is to miss, and those darn tom's don't always hold their heads still, especially when they're close.

Edit:  Also some more info, for those that like number:
Rem Choke specs -
ic------.718"
mod---.709"
full-----.691"
xfull---.687"
xxfull--.665" (superfull)
xxxfull-.655" (ventilator)

Remington barrel restriction - bore .727",
ic------.009"
mod---.018"
full-----.036"
xfull---.040"
xxfull--.062"
xxxfull-.072"

Notice the .004" difference between a full choke and extra full choke....  I'm not sure how .004" difference can make a 10% difference in pattern...  But that's from numbers I've gotten from Remington and other hevishot web sites.  And numbers vary a bit from site to site...  But I'd bet independent studies (ie no money to be gained by selling turkey chokes) would show the full and xfull, only .004" different, pattern pretty close to the same.  Expecially with larger #4's.

Oh, one other note I'll throw out, Remington's hevishot rounds have a special wad that keeps the hevishot from touching the barrel, or atleast to a minimum.  On theory I have for hevishot patterning so good is the fact that this wad protects the shot from damage caused by a rough forcing cone.  Typically a rough forcing cone can tear up copper plated lead, but the tougher protected hevishot passes the cone without being torn up.  I think that makes the hevishot more forgiving in less than perfect turkey barrel.  And why, on turkey barrels with alot of work done lengthening and polishing the forcing cone, hevishot results aren't as dramatic as some off the shelf shotguns.

Don't get me wrong, probably 90% of the hevishot pattern increase over lead is from the flight properties hevishot has, but I think the wad that is used also aids in those patterns, especially in less than perfect barrels.

Anyway, here's my pardner's diet:

Win 2 3/4" foster slugs for deer (will be using bennekes this fall), Win 2 3/4" #4 and #6 on pheasant (depending on how tight the pheasants are staying), Rem 3" mag #2 hevishot (or steel shot) for ducks and geese, Win 2 3/4" #6 for turkeys in the dense timber, Rem 3" mag #4 hevishot for turkey in the open, Fed 2 3/4" mag #4 buckshot or Rem 3" mag #2 hevishot on coyotes, Win 2 3/4" #6 on squirels and rabbits, win 2 3/4" #4 on crows, Win or Fed 2 3/4" #7 1/2 skeet loads on clay pigeons, Rem 3" mag #2 hevishot or Win 2 3/4" #4's for varmints around the farm like skunks, possums, coons, and badgers (use #2 hevishot maily on badgers, really breaks them up by breaking every bone in the pattern circle!).

Later,
scruffy

[lik2hunt]

Scruff - Thanks for that post. Been outa commission for a little while or I'da got back sooner. (See my post under the cheap red dot thread). You really have honed that diet down for your Pardner. I like those different specs and variations of load to critter. That really proves that a guy really only needs one of these NEF/H&R guns for all occasions. Ya got me wishing I hadn't sawed mine off now...NOT :grin: ($39 for another is not a bad thing).  I find it really hard to resist building a massive collection of 'em. It IS addicting.

My stable presently holds:

H&R Ultra Hunter 25-06 w/ extra .223 bull barrel
NEF Huntsman 50 caliber
NEF Pardner 12 gauge sawed-off to 23" (just sent away for extra 24" Turkey barrel w/ choke)
Mossberg 500 12 gauge 28" Accu-Set w/ extra 24" Slugster barrel
Mossberg bolt action .410
Savage Mark II FXP .22 LR
Barnett Rhino Mag Crossbow w/ scope, quiver, and bolts.