Getting Closer

With youth weekend only a few days away it was time to get in some site specific scouting.  While my preferred method of turkey hunting a a bow, at 11 years old,  my son Nate uses a 20 ga. shotgun. Eventually he'd like to hunt turkeys with a bow so until he can draw enough weight to make an arrow lethal, a good pattern of shot is the ethical way for him to hunt.

We spent the better part of an hour setting posts to support the patterning paper and revisiting basic firearm safety before breaking a single shot. Lecture over and Nate slid  round into the breech of his single shot 20 ga. Winchester. He took aim at the spray painted facsimile of a turkey head and neck , cocked the hammer and began squeezing the trigger. Boom, the report momentarily broke the silence of the late afternoon. Breaking the barrel kicked the spent shell in a tumbling arc terminating in my outstretched hand. The bras was warm and felt good on my cold hands.

The pattern was really nice at 20 yards and serviceable at 30. His aim was spot on so the remainder of the box was sent downrange from a variety of shooting positions. Nate has been shooting almost his entire life and must send a tin of pellets through his Beeman every week so he is a very good marksman. With shotgun testing finished, the time to head to the woods and locate some birds was next.

We are fortunate to have several neighbors who own large tracts of land and allow us free reign to hunt the parcels. Most of the land is a mixture of hardwoods (mostly maple, oak, ash, and beech) and softwoods (pine, hemlock, larch) set along hillsides with a few benches and wet areas. There are hayfields but nothing plowed. All together there are a few hundred acres. The cold temperatures and lack of sun have kept the snow until just recently. Most of the scouting has been going for early morning walks and listening for gobbles.

The local woods

When scouting I am very hesitant to use any call but a crow or owl as locators. Calling as a turkey might find birds but the paranoia of educating the toms or having them believe the "hens" they seek are just playing hard to get has me leave my calls at home. Several walks revealed three good locations for gobbling and evening roost walk have verified the locations.

This is one big oak tree. The 11 year old is for scale.

Never sounding a turkey call during the preseason isn't perfectly true. Part of the enjoyment of hunting turkeys is building my own calls My favorites are scratch boxes and the unusual vibrating tongue. I've never made a boxcall but did receive one as a gift. This call, padauk and cherry, was made by JL Custom Turkey Calls (http://www.jlcustomturkeycalls.com/index.html) and is kept in my car to be available for practicing while waiting to pick up my children from afterschool activities.

JL Custom Turkey Call box

Mud season has been so terrible this year.  To avoid driving on dirt roads, my car was left at a friend's house with close proximity to asphalt roadways. Commuting to the car has necessitated transferring my belongings from one vehicle to another. The mud has become firm enough to warrant bringing the car back to the house. While transferring my belongings from the truck to the car, the JL boxcall slipped out of my hands and onto the driveway. Just for fun I ran a few clucks, purrs and yelps before placing the call into the car.

Thirty minutes later while sitting at my computer the faint sound of gobbling comes through the walls. "No way." must be the perceveration on the upcoming season making me hear things. The sound is heard again but louder. My daughter is on the couch and mentions the gobbling. Sure enough, gobbles from three birds emanate from the woods. My best guess is they were less then 150 yards from the house doing their best to locate the "hen" yelping from the driveway. In all the years making calls and practicing, tuning, and experimenting outside there has never been such vocalization from the birds in the woods living near the house. The call is most definately heading into the woods with me this season.

Just some random scratchings in the woods

Youth weekend starts in seven hours so it's off to bed for the 4:00AM start to the day.

They will disappear once the season opens but it is so nice to dream