Opening Day – Gobblers Hot

Saturday morning I continued my quest to bag a gobbler with archery equipment.

I headed to the ranch in a good frame of mind and photographed a golden eagle nesting on the way out.

Click on the photo and you’ll enlarge the eagle.

Arriving mid morning I set my hunting clothes out next to my folding chair, picked up my box call and sent a string of yelps out to see what would happen.

While dressing, within a few minutes after calling, a gobble sounded in the distance. All right, I thought, they’re around.

I was feeling rather casual about this hunt, so I took the chance of yelping one more time.  A gobble sounded closer than the first.

As I put my boots on, movement caught my eye and a gobbler popped up only twenty yards away. Talk about not being ready…..but I didn’t really care.

My plan was to hide in an old barn, while setting a decoy out where I would have an opening to shoot. Two other openings might provide a chance for a shot as well. I moved my chair into the barn and set out the single hen decoy. Holding the box call outside the door, I let out a few yelps. I expected quick action as there seemed to be more than one gobbler in the vicinity.

Sure enough, as I faced the decoy, a gobbler appeared behind me and it passed by one of the other openings. Soon, another gobbler appeared and followed the first. They were both mature toms with long beards. Excited, I tried to think on my feet. I turned and tried to draw my bow as the second gobbler passed through an opening, but it didn’t work out.

Then the big bird turned and headed back to an opening. I drew the bow and tried my best to get on the bird. Thinking I would be on target I released an arrow. Nothing. Not even a feather.

Realizing that I probably had executed a perfect example of target panic, I tried to calm down and take advantage of the fact that the first gobbler was still  standing 20 yards away and I’d probably get another chance. I could see the bird and it wasn’t going for the decoy. Instead it was behaving a bit nervous and began to walk in the direction of the departed gobbler which had flown off after the shot.

I concluded that I should make a single yelp to stop him when he approached the opening.

As he neared the opening, I drew my bow and yelped as the gobbler stepped into view, framed within an old doorway. The gobbler stopped, providing a perfect broadside shot at 20 yards. Taking more time to aim, the stationary gobbler would be mine. At the release, the arrow smacked the bird and it ran over the brow of the hill and out of sight. It appeared to be a perfect hit, but I’d been through this scenario before, so I tried to remain objective and go through a thoughtful progression of evaluating the situation.

I departed the barn and removed some of the gear that was weighing me down. Sliding under a barbwire fence, I studied the feathers left behind and spotted my arrow. I was disappointed to see that the arrow had no blood or moisture on it. The arrow had passed through feathers, but apparently not the turkey’s body. I searched the area anyway, and found no evidence that the bird had received a damaging blow.

Two twenty-yard shots and no turkey – not even a good hit. At least I was gaining experience. As I wandered and checked the area for any sign of the gobbler, a different gobbler appeared over a slight ridge, I ducked down and lost sight of him. It appeared that he might be heading my way, so I sat on the ground and pulled an arrow, but before I could get my bow vertical, he appeared about 20 yards away, staring at me. Eventually, I tried to raise the bow, but it didn’t work. Before I knew it the bird was 40 yards away and departing the area.

I followed and set up next to a large oak tree. I yelped with my mouth call and before long the gobbler returned, but he passed by too far out and I was afraid to call as I was sure he’d spot me. After he disappeared again, I tried a call and he gobbled, but didn’t return. Later I observed that he had found some hens and was preoccupied.

Waiting patiently, I hung out by the large oak. It was about four feet in diameter and provided lots of options for hiding. I sat where I could observe the turkeys. After a while a large group of birds showed up – five jakes. They had a bit of a confrontation with the gobbler and then high-tailed it out of his way. Apparently they didn’t was to get their butts kicked. They wouldn’t even gobble.

I was very optimistic that the jakes would come if I called, and I expected them to pass up hill from me as I’d seen other birds travel that route. After calling, I waited and the young turkeys did almost exactly what I expected, but they stayed out at about 35 yards, further than I wanted to shoot. When the passed out of sight, I stood and moved to the opposite side of the tree. Once again I relied on calling to bring them back.

The unfortunate part of standing behind a large tree is that you are blind and cannot look around to tree or turkeys will see you if they are present, so I was forced to wait patiently, ready to shoot. After about five minutes, a jake stepped out about five yards from me.

I waited. A second jake, and a third appeared. I knew there were more so I waited for the last one. As I prepared for a shot, one of the jakes acted alarmed and the others noticed.

When the last jake stepped out, he quickly moved away from me to about 20 yards. With bow drawn, I was prepared to shoot. I steadied on the bird and released. Thwack. I hit him hard. Amazingly all five jakes walked off and I could not tell by their movement that any of them had been hit. This was disappointing.

When I found my arrow it was covered with moisture and feathers. I had definitely penetrated the bird completely with the arrow. I watched for a sign of the jakes. Soon one and then another appeared about 200 yards away. They were behaving routinely. I counted four. Thinking that one was down, I waited for several minutes and encountered a rattlesnake. That’s the one I videoed with my cell phone for my previous post.

This rattlesnake was not happy with me.

After about 30 minutes I trailed the group of turkeys to a run of oaks and came upon them. All five were back together. Bummer, I knew one was hit, but apparently this would not be the day for taking home an arrowed bird.

Later in the day, I believe I located a single jake hiding out in the brush and as I headed home a few hours later, spotted four jakes standing in an open field, not far from where I’d encountered them.

Their buddy was missing.

Archery hunting is usually exciting, and often disappointing. It’s much more challenging than hunting with a firearm and success is more appreciated. Failure is difficult to accept. I’ll have to take this experience and use it to my advantage. It will take a while to fully digest it.

Wildlife was abundant on the way home.

This deer grazed, surrounded by spring wild flowers.

Roadside turkeys paid little attention to my truck.

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Elk Hunt a Roller Coaster Ride

I guess all elk hunts are up and down. That’s the nature of the beast. Off to a great start, while setting up camp, we heard elk bugle on nearby ridges.

My new Eureka tent was quite roomy and comfortable.

On day two, we spotted elk in the open and many of them bulls. It was looking like a slam dunk. Day three was the same, with elk appearing all around us.

Day four and five brought overcast weather and swirling unpredictable winds. For two days I hunted without seeing a single elk, while hearing only a few weak bugles. And, other hunters seemed to be one step ahead of me. Efforts to return to a couple of my old haunts, backfired – once due to a herd of sheep and the second time when two hunters showed up just ahead of me.

Southeast Idaho has a great mix of habitat for elk and deer.

I was a bit discouraged, but on day six, things turned around. Rob pointed out a knob where he’d seen a herd bull bugling two days in a row. Wes and I sneaked into the area and called with success. Several bulls came in to check out my calling. Wes had four young bulls grazing within 50 yards of him, but the thick cover prevented any clear shots.

A two-point bull walked past me at 25 yards, but didn’t stop long enough to give me a good shot. I had my bow drawn.

In the evening of day six, we set up next to some bugling bulls and waited to see what would happen. A five-point bull passed by at 35 yards, giving me a broadside shot. The arrow hit him a little far back and we never picked up much of a blood trail. Day seven was spent looking for the arrowed bull, but it was to no avail.

Wes found a few drops of blood and then half my arrow. The bull ran quite a ways, making the blood trail difficult to follow.

Elk are extremely tough animals, but I was surprised that we didn’t find him. I believe the shot was not fatal, but I’ll never know for sure.

Late on day seven, I loaded up my gear and headed to Nevada and my muzzleloader mule deer hunt. Much like this post, the elk hunt had flown by.

A week isn’t enough time to properly hunt elk in the rut. But, I had the Nevada mule deer tag and was determined to give it a try. Rob and Wes didn’t have much more action after I left, but Wes had received ample indoctrination during the excitement of day six and tracking of day seven.

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Two Trips in One

I’m preparing to depart on an Idaho archery elk hunt and a Nevada muzzleloader mule deer hunt at the same time.  I’ll be hunting with my brother, Rob and cousin, Wes. The Idaho hunt will be a week followed by a week in Nevada, where I’ll be joined by Jerry Lowery.

Loading for two hunts isn’t a big deal, but the archery and muzzleloader gear adds a little to the detail work and requires a little more practice. I haven’t been shooting the bow as much as I normally would.

The latest addition to my muzzleloader hunt is a new rifle. I gave up on the Remington muzzleloader and purchased a T/C Triumph. The Triumph, sometimes known as the Michael Waddell Bonecollector model, is a superior muzzleloader. It’s easier to clean, lighter, more reliable and more accurate. The biggest factor in accuracy is the fiber optic site.

The fiber optics allow me to hit targets out to 100 yards just like the good old days when I could see. I am optimistic that I’ll be able to bring home a nice buck.

So the plan is 7 days of elk hunting and 7 days of mule deer hunting. We’ll be in Southeast Idaho, near the Wyoming border for elk. Plus I have a general season deer tag in Idaho as well. But, we don’t normally see many bucks while elk hunting. The Nevada hunt will take place near Eureka.

I’m planning to make a couple posts while on the trip. These locations are somewhat remote, but there will be opportunities along the way.

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Books Bull

I appear to be growling as I kneel over this six-point bull. A neck shot drained the blood from this bull quickly and I heard him drop with a thud.

Rob dropped me off in darkness at the base of one of two Idaho mountains we called The Bookends – The Books for short.

 

We each had our own mountain, but I wasn’t too sure about mine. I’d hunted it once or twice before, but found no elk.

 

The climb up the back side of the mountain would put the wind in my face, but I realized I’d left my grunt tube behind, so I’d be bugling into my cupped hands at best. I was not optimistic about my chances. As I reached the elevation I prefered for hunting, I listened for elk.

 

With no encouragement from me, a bull elk bugled from up wind. What luck. I looked around and picked a good spot to kneel. I preferred kneeling over standing as the lower profile doesn’t spook the elk as readily.

 

It couldn’t have happened any better. I bugled using my mouth diaphragm and the bull answered. Making no other sound, I waited and a very large bull elk sauntered up to me. He stooped broadside at 15 yards and I drew my bow. He caught the movement and turned to look in my direction.

 

Before he could do anything else, I released  my arrow and it penetrated deep into his neck. No, not where I was aiming, but it did the job. The one-bull elk stampede lasted for about fifteen seconds before he crashed – a big crash.

 

When I walked up to him, he was a bloody mess, but I let out a whoop of joy anyway. Having nobody around to help me hoist him into a more appropriate position, I set the camera up and took the picture with him upside down, just as he had landed on the steep hillside.

 

That's me on the left and Rob on the right. I can't remember the names of the two guys in the center of the picture. We enjoyed their company as they hunted from the same camp as us for several years.

That was 20 years ago.

 

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Gaming for a Big-Game Tag in 2011

It’s easy to spend money and not go hunting. I once came across an interesting character who used to put in for Los Banos Wildlife Area in the waterfowl lottery. One weekend he was drawn and arrived three days early so he could be first in line for the Saturday hunt. He got the space blind he wanted, but quit hunting at 8 AM so he  could get back to the parking lot in time to be number one for the Sunday hunt.

You don’t have to spend a lot of money to kill a nice bull elk. Rob arrowed this one in 2004 and tagged it with an Idaho over the counter tag.

For this year, at least, I’m back to hoping for a tag. Hoping is not as good as just flat-out buying in terms of ease of planning and satisfaction with the result. I’m not really into gambling, so the process of gaming for a tag is a real drag. I do it every year anyway.

Of course there are still some over-the-counter options and we’ll be using that one this fall by purchasing archery elk and general deer tags in Idaho. We’ll be hunting in a group of four during September. I’ve also purchased an A-Zone tag and preference point with my first CA deer tag. Next year we should have enough preference to hunt a California X zone. These things are good.

This is a typical A-zone blacktail. I'll try to arrow one of these on our ranch.

However, gaming for a high value tag is not looking good in California this year. I have eight preference points for Antelope, Elk and Sheep this year. Eight is one less than the maximum, so I’m in the 20% that have to get extra lucky and the odds are very poor. In most cases, even the holders of nine points will need luck – especially in the sheep category and they have a chance for 100% of the available tags.

California has three species of elk, but it takes a lot of luck or money to hunt them. I photographed these Roosevelt elk while on a blacktail hunt near the Marble Mountain Wilderness.

I’ve never had much luck in draws, but I drew an archery antelope tag one year and an Anderson Flat archery deer tag another year. Didn’t bring home any venison, but I did have the opportunity.

 A quick look at my California odds shows that I have a less than 1 in 450 chance of drawing an antelope, elk or sheep tag combined. That’s a chance, but not much of a chance. That’s at a cost of $24.39 for 1/450th which comes out to $10,975.50 for a 100% chance. If I hunt until the age of 81 (unlikely), my remaining lifetime chance is 20/450 or 1 in 22.5. Doesn’t look good for hunting elk, antelope or sheep in CA unless I spend the money to purchase a tag. 

My personal choice for the elk lottery was the Cache Creek bull elk hunt. Somebody will get it.

In Nevada, I’ve been buying bonus points for several years. I currently have three points, which means I may get lucky on a deer, elk, antelope, sheep or goat tag. My chance of drawing an archery mule deer tag alone is almost 50% and when that is combined with the other four choices I selected, two rifle and two muzzleloader hunts,  the mathematical odds are that I’ll get some kind of tag, but it’s not for sure.

 

 

For antelope, I put in for an archery tag that has a high percentage chance of drawing, so I may get that one. I didn’t calculate the odds for elk, sheep and goat, but they are very low.

I paid $4,500 for a Nevada landowner tag the year I shot this buck. I think the prices are down slightly now.

 In Colorado, I opted to purchase only preference points for deer, antelope and elk. One of these days I’ll have to get serious and put in for an actual hunt. The cost of the preference points for three species came out to $25. I have seven points for elk and antelope – about five for deer. That comes to about $200 over the past seven years. I hunted twice for deer with my bow.

For the third year in a row I entered the Utah lottery for tags at the Wildlife Conservation and Hunting Expo in  Salt Lake City. The hunts offered looked good, but by the time I purchased a Utah hunting license and paid for the chances, it added up to about $250. It would be worth it if I got drawn once, but so far I haven’t had a sniff. That’s $750 invested over the last three years.

Finally I purchased five chances for the California Open Zone tag for $27 and two chances for a Owens Valley tule elk tag at $10.80. All together I spent about $558 for these draws. That’s a lot cheaper than $10,000 for a Nevada landowner elk tag, or maybe it’s not?

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Fat Sow

How do I know this is a fat sow?

I’ve had hunters kill a pig like this one, but they are uncommon around Livermore. Wild pigs seldom get excessively fat, but apparently the great grass year has provided well for this pig. My guess is that this pig weighs almost 300 pounds. She was about 250 yards away when I snapped this photo (a couple of weeks ago).

 

Her bulbous body makes her head look small and she looks like she’s filled with helium. When we slaughtered the fat pig I mentioned, it was loaded with extra fat. It’s also possible that this pig is pregnant and full of piglets almost ready to be born.

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Last A-Zone Archery Hunt a Bust

Couldn’t put together a successful tree-stand hunt this year. My plan to invest my time on days with the best moon phase back  fired as the weather didn’t cooperate. Cool weather set in and that wasn’t the best for my tree stand as its success depended upon the deer using the nearby pond.

On the last attempt, not only was the weather cool, but the wind was inconsistent and blustery. I finally gave up when it shifted and blew directly towards the pond. Definitely no way to hunt deer.

Five yearling deer came in to drink, but didn't stick around very long.

Scrub jays and squirrels were hanging around.

This guy checked me out.

On the way home, I photographed a couple bucks feeding on the dam of a pond. The one on the left is probably a shooter. I don’t think he’s an old deer, but he would probably have drawn fire.

A couple blacktail bucks feeding in the afternoon.

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One Surprise, Otherwise an Uneventful Day in the Tree Stand

Per my plan, yesterday was a hunt day. Arriving in my stand about 10:00 AM, I sat until 1:45 PM and then got down to take a look at a pond improvement project with Rob. I have to admit the work site looked pretty rough. Lots of grass covering rock hard dirt that we’ll have to excavate by hand to make sure we don’t hurt any critters. A bull dozer could do finish the work in an hour, but it will take us several days, with Rob doing the bulk of the work.

The view from my tree stand.

Back to the tree about 3:30 and five yearling deer including one legal buck were bedded about 100 yards from my stand as I climbed up. The five deer walked right past my stand before laying down.

Stayed in the stand until 6:30 PM when the wind shifted to down hill making it very unlikely that anything good might happen. The high point of the hunt was when this hen turkey arrived with at least eight polts. Like the quail, the turkey must have been late nesting as the polts are quite small.

We don't normally find turkeys in the canyon, so maybe this brood will be the start of something good.

Tomorrow will be my last archery deer hunt for this year. I’m hunting during the day as that’s the only time when the wind is good for this site. I’m also scouting around looking for a site that will work during the morning and evening breezes, but they are hard to find. Maybe by next season.

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I Hate Running Over Critters

Snakes, like this gopher snake, like roads for sunning themselves.

Yesterday was a very hot day at the ranch.

I chose not to hunt, just scout and prepare for next weekend. As I drove past my tree stand I noticed that a doe was laying in the shade about 15 yards from my seat. Wonder if I buck had been around.

Quail were everywhere and many were quite small. As I drove the four wheeler down a road through brush, something very small darted in front of me. I was shocked to see two baby quail about two inches tall running directly in front. I slammed on the brakes and barely avoided them.

Last year the quail were about three quarters grown by archery season. This year none of them were half grown. Must be due to the late spring, but there are sure a lot of them.

Jumped a nice buck near the site where our friend Joe shot a very good buck last year. Good buck spot.

Put my ground blind near a stock pond and added some brush around it. Two does and a fawn were standing near it when I returned a while later. Maybe it will work out.

Checked out a new pond for tracks thinking it might be another tree-stand site. Not hardly a track at the pond. Wonder if the water is poor.

It was so hot that I could barely function. Decided to leave for home about 6:30 and drove my bike right over the front of my trailer raming into the back of my car. Fortunatly it just bounced off the spare tire and left me with the front wheels over the front rail of the trailer. Pretty exciting, but I just drove it back off. No harm no fowl.

Ran over a very large rattle snake on the way home. I normally watch for snakes, but with the sun low and my sunglasses on, I didn’t realize it was a snake until the deed was done.

Hated seeing the smashed rattler wiggling in the road. He was a four footer and quite fat.  Thought about taking a picture of the disembowled snake, but that would have been too rude.

He was also somewhat alive so I dispatched him with my shovel. For some reason I like snakes – not to play with like we did when we were kids, but just to watch and I hate running over them.

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Broke Out the GPS Today

An interesting thing I’ve learned over the past couple deer hunting seasons is that my GPS can help me determine the best times to hunt and fish.

Yes there is a program on my Garmin eTrex Legend called “Hunt and Fish.” After establishing the location, you enter the date and the GPS unit tells you if it’s a good day or not. The date can be rated poor, average, good or excellent.

I’ve noticed that good and excellent days definitely seem to have more activity.

For July the 24th and 25th are rated good and the 26th is rated excellent. I guess I’ll be out there on those days.

The GPS unit also states which hours of the day are best. Might as well give it a shot. I’m becoming a believer.

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