Tom’s Tom

We had hunted the morning, in a location about two miles to the north, but nothing showed. About 11:30 AM we shifted to a spot where a gobbler had been hanging out. After about 30 minutes of sparse calling, a gobbler sounded off from behind us. I suggested to Tom that he turn to prepare for an approach from that direction.

Within a minute, a second gobbler appeared and fanned out about 150 yards away in the opposite direction from the first gobble. Tom managed to scoot around just as a hen turkey passed by at ten yards. The strutting bird couldn’t resist following the hen and soon Tom had his chance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnKQnk27jZc&feature=youtu.be

My heart sank after the gobbler took off at a fast walk. Fortunately he didn’t last long, and Tom caught up with him as he dropped and rolled down the hillside a few yards before coming to rest on a level spot.

It was a great ending to turkey season.

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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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Turkeys Active – Wolf Stakeholder Meeting

Turkey season opens this Saturday (March 30) and the gobblers are gobbling.

I sat on a rise overlooking (and overhearing) a canyon where most of our turkeys live. Gobblers sounded off from several locations. Hoping that this season will provide more action than the past few. I’m planning to be in attendance for the opener.

My new Mathews bow will be with me. I’d better take a few more practice shots.

My iphone says the weather will be rainy. A serious rain could curtail my trip, but it seems unlikely that the rain will fall very hard. We could sure use the rain. Before long it will be too late for this year.

Tomorrow I’ll be in Redding to attend a Wolf Stakeholder meeting. It will be interesting to see how the group reacts to the latest movements by our only wolf (OR7). He headed north (back) into Oregon a few days ago.

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Todd Foster’s Gobbler

Todd Foster attended the MDF Central Coast Chapter banquet last month and got carried away in the auction. The results? A spring turkey hunt. Today, we completed the transaction.

At daylight it sounded like there were gobblers everywhere, but by 8:00 AM, we were beginning to wonder where they went. 

Here’s a youtube link to Todd’s version of the hunt. Just click on it and watch.

http://youtu.be/J6Z84F6vSPc

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Fence Gobbler

Here's a vineyard turkey in full strut.

Here’s a gobbler that stopped on a vineyard fence to strut his stuff. Turkeys are active, but following hens which often makes them difficult to attract. Click to get a close up view of him and the nearby black phoebe.

This time of the year, hens are receptive to the toms and will lay one fertilized egg each day until they have completed their clutch, which is normally about a dozen eggs. Once the eggs are laid, the hen will set on the eggs and incubate them. With luck, the polts will hatch out in about 30 days. By beginning incubation at the same time, the eggs will hatch nearly simultaneously.

When, in another week or two,  when the hens begin to sit on eggs, the unsatisfied toms will become more vulnerable to hunter’s calls and decoys.

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Youth Hunt, Another Lesson

“How long will we sit here?” asked little Mason Nevis.

“Until the turkeys come,” I replied.

Silence.

I wondered what the little guy thought of that. Maybe a tough reality, but I didn’t want him to think we were going to give up easily and start bouncing from tree to tree or attempting to sneak up on turkeys. In my world that is not real turkey hunting.

I believed his no-reply was an endorsement of my statement.

We waited another hour and I continued my sporadic calling. A tom appeared in a flat about 200 yards to our right and slightly down hill. A second and a third followed him across and opening.

I continued to call and they gobbled. I could still see one of them and he turned towards us and sprinted. “Get ready,” I told Mason.

We had done some dry firing with the H&R 20 gauge single shot, but he had not fired  live rounds from this borrowed shotgun and I knew that he was at a disadvantage.

The turkeys gobbled again, closer and I knew they were near, but couldn’t see them any more. We waited and waited, but they failed to show. Most likely they’d been intercepted by a hen turkey and led away – following what males in heat follow.

We waited some more. Now it was time to retract my statement.

“Let’s move down to the spot where I saw the turkeys,” I announced. We were on our feet stretching, gathering decoys and I’m certain both Mason and his father, Mike, were happy to be moving.

We carried our gear about 300 yards down the gradually sloping hill past the area where the toms had stood an hour before and I looked for a spot to set the decoys up where they could be seen and we could hide against a reasonably large oak. Mike hid beside a log out of the line of fire.

About 75 yards in front of us, the canyon dropped off steeply and that’s where most of the turkey calling was coming from.

We placed the strutting tom decoy and receptive hen twenty yards in front. The distance was important as it was the distance at which Mason would shoot the gobbler.

Sitting behind Mason, who was left-handed, gave me a good view of his sighting. Unfortunately, I had not brought shooting sticks, which would have helped his aim by supporting the weight of the shotgun as he waited. I was concerned that the ten-year old, who weighed about 75 pounds, would have trouble holding the gun up as the birds slowly worked their way to the decoy.

“Maybe one will come running in,” I wished to myself. But that seemed unlikely for toms still following flocks of hens.

In position, I made a few soft yelps with my mouth diaphragm. Deep yelps, of a boss hen. And, an answer came from the canyon.

Another deep yelp. I responded in kind.

Then a gobble and several back-up gobbles. Things were heating up and the birds were only about 100 yards away – just over the drop off.

I continued the yelping and the responses were positive. We were about to have action.

Turkeys rose up from the canyon. First a bright read head stared in our direction.

“I can see one,” I told Mason. “Stay still.”

The tip of a tail fan appeared and finally four gobblers, one in full strut. Their heads were like neon signs. The sun glistened off the tail fan of the dominant bird.

Later Mike said it was surreal, and he was right.

The four gobblers and a hen turkey approached. The hen veered to our left and the gobblers could now see the big strutting tom decoy. The three jakes were leery of the big intruder, but the dominant strutting tom was well aware of the challenge - but not sure whether to stay with the hen or defend.

His head jerked up as he spotted the squatting hen decoy. Now he was mad – no sex allowed for this intruder. He approached directly towards the plastic gobbler. I whispered to Mason to cock the shotgun. The target bird was at 25 yards and getting closer. 

“Wait till he reaches the decoy and then shoot,” I whispered while making yelps which seemed to keep the toms gobbling and distracted. At 20 yards, I coaxingly told Mason, “Shoot.” 

Shifting slightly to line up the barrel, the birds caught sight of the movement. Now they were all staring.

I felt like a discovered burgler. My head was spinning. It was all up to Mason. I waited and watched the barrel make circles around the gobbler’s head. Now the strutting bird turned and began to slowly move off – floating away. I felt helpless.

I didn’t want to put pressure on Mason, so I said nothing. Then, just as it appeared he was about to pull the trigger, the big bird stopped directly in front of two jakes. I’d seen this before and I didn’t want three turkeys dropping at once.

“Wait,” I whispered. “Three are lined up.”

Mason must have got the message, because he held off – impressive.

As the birds moved apart, still at 25 yards I said, “OK, now.”

Watching the circling barrel, I wished for a dead bird. The little 20 gauge popped and the gobblers walked away. I could see no obvious damage.

I was dizzy and disoriented, I could have thrown up.

It was a wonderful, but painful.

That wasn’t everything that took place on Monday. We tried again after lunch and had another close call, but Mason didn’t take home a turkey.

We all experienced a bunch of the good stuff that comes with hunting and it will be with us for a while. For me, it was one of my most exciting hunts ever.

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Mending Fences – with Distractions

The pace of work changes when you spend a couple days in the hills. It’s really hard to get in a hurry and there are many distractions. The main event- mending fence. The sub plots – turkeys, wildflowers and other photo ops.

Rob and Terry looking down at a half mile of very old or non-existent fence, an intimidating project.

 (Click photos to enlarge.)

When you’re working on a project that looks overwhelming, it pays to not get in a hurry – so we didn’t.

The starting point for the fence project was at the top of a very steep drop off into a spot we had to exit the same way we went in. In other words what you carry down, you also carry up unless it’s fence material. A few hours per day is all we could handle on a project like this. A couple hours of hanging on to the side of a cliff while working is enough.

In the mean time distractions were all around us. On the way in I came across a group of four old gobblers that have been a making a living eating grain from horse feed.

These old toms have been hanging out near the neighbor's barn.

Wild flowers were blooming. Johnny-jump-ups, shooting stars  and butter cups were everywhere. The yellow and white flowers seem to bloom early while the blue flowers like lupins seem to bloom later on. There’s likely a reason, but I don’t know what it is.

Johnny- jump-ups (wild pansy) are a butterfly host plant.

The plant, which most locals call johnny-jump-ups, is also known as wild pansy or yellow pansy. The scientific name is viola pedunculata. It is a host plant for the Callippe Silverspot Butterfly, which is endangered. http://essig.berkeley.edu/endins/callippe.htm

Other early favorites include the shooting star (“mosquito bills” variety). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodecatheon_hendersonii

Mosquitobills shooting star.

While checking the spillway on one of our dams, I found a fresh mountain lion scat. The scat, about the size of my labs scat tends to be clay-like and greenish is color when it’s fresh – and if really fresh, extremely stinky.

Mountain lion scat. This is a medium-sized scat.

We also found a few stinkbells in bloom, but they seemed to be a little past their prime.

The stinkbell is somewhat rare.

The scientific name for the stinkbell is fritillaria agrestis.

The California buttercup is very common on our ranch.

The scientific name for the buttercup is ranunculus californicus.

With some fence progress and obligations at home, I departed while Rob and Terry continued to work on the fence. On the way home I came upon more turkeys. This time two gobblers were hanging out with three hens. Looks like nesting time is about here, but they were not very active.

These birds slipped into a creek and moved quickly out of sight.

It’s a little early in the nesting season and the turkeys were not in full breeding mode. The gobblers were more interested in eating than strutting for the hens.

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Hunting Turkeys at Daugherty Hill Wildlife Area

Daugherty Hill WA is one of the top public hunting spots for turkey hunting. The habitat is perfect for turkeys and turkey hunters. Located between Hwy 20 and Brownsville, you need a pass to hunt during the first part of the season, but don’t let that stop you from hunting in the later part of the season.

My best guess is I bagged this gobbler around 1990. He came in quickly early in the hunt.

The best hunting is over the hill from the entrance near Dry Creek that runs out of Collins Reservoir. I’ve always found that spring turkey action is best near running water, but not too close. You’ve got to be able to hear.

There are two units added since my last hunt at Daugherty Hill, the Darby Unit and the Donovan Hill Unit. Check out the maps at http://www.dfg.ca.gov/lands/wa/region2/daughertyhill.html. This entire area is perfect turkey habitat so I wouldn’t be surprised if a gobbler showed up anywhere on these DFG properties.

I’ve always at least heard gobblers on my Daugherty Hill hunts. Granted I haven’t been there for about ten years, so you might want to get some updated info. However, I’ve found that good spots are good spots. I’ve bagged a couple gobblers there.

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Looking for a Place to Hunt Spring Gobblers?

 

Here are a few suggestions.

You can hunt one of the many public hunting areas in California. I’ve posted info about several of them on my blog. Check the archives for Cache Creek Wildlife Area and Daugherty Hill Wildlife Area. I’ve been on several successful turkey hunts on these state-owned lands.

Rob bagged this gobbler at Cache Creek. Not sure what year, but about fifteen years ago.

 

The Wilson Valley is an attractive place to hunt, but a bit of a hike.

The first turkey we ever called in was on a Cache Creek hunt, we were shocked and he strutted in to 15 yards from Rob, who never quite drew his bow. Yes we were archery hunting for turkeys before we ever came close to killing one. Finally, we came to our senses and began hunting with shotguns.

If you’re serious about turkey hunting, you must also check out Fort Hunter-Liggett and Spenceville. I’ve also had success on these public areas. In fact, I believe I bagged the first spring gobbler ever recorded at Fort Hunter-Liggett.

I wrote about this a long time ago in California Hunter Magazine. Here’s how it went.

In April of 1988, I made a call to the check station at Fort Hunter-Liggett. The following weekend would be the first turkey hunt of the season. A voice on the phone told me that there were only two spaces left and asked which area I wanted to hunt. I responded that I didn’t know any of the areas, so it really didn’t matter. He suggested Area 2 and I said, “fine, thanks.”

Fort Hunter-Liggett is beautiful in the springtime.

Leaving home, I was pessimistic about my chances for turkeys. No birds had been killed at Fort Hunter-Liggett during the previous season. That ment forever as the previous season had been the first turkey season ever at Fort Hunter-Liggett. The report I received was: turkey hunters – 28, kills 0.

However, as I left the check station I felt a twinge of optimism. As I drove to the hunting area to look around, the habitat was impressive. There was plenty of good cover and food. I also knew that Fort Hunter-Liggett harbored large populations of quail, deer, wild pigs, dove and band-tailed pigeons. Why not turkeys as well?

It was about 5:30 AM when I climbed a ridge overlooking the center of the area. I found turkeys and also two hunters, but after the hunters became disenchanted and left for parts unknown, I decided to pursue the same birds which they had been harassing.

Stopping at a nearby flat, I sat down and made a couple of calls with my mouth diaphragm. A gobbler responded from about 300 to 400 yards to the east. I placed my single hen decoy in the open about 20 yards from a brush patch in which I hid. The remainder of the story was textbook. 

I sat still for only a few minutes before the bird walked in straight towards my decoy. As he stood next to it, completely involved, I fired a load of #5 buffered shot at him from my old Winchester Model 12. I don’t know if I hit him, but he flew skyward as I blasted again and again.

On the third shot he fell and landed with a thump, about 35 yards away. According to the check station attendant, this was the first turkey  ever taken at Fort Hunter-Liggett. It is still a prized memory and it involved a great deal of luck.

By the way, it was also my first turkey  – killed after many unsuccessful hunts.

Now if you want to hunt in the East Bay, you can attend the Central Coast Chapter of MDF’s banquet tomorrow night (3-36-2011) in San Jose. They will be selling a one-day turkey hunt on a private ranch located near Livermore donated/guided by your’s truly. We’ve had pretty good success on that property, but every year is different.

For tickets and information: http://www.muledeer-ccc.org/index.html

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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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