As I am sure most of you read this weekend Gobble Scout was in full swing in Eastern Iowa. I was out a little late Saturday morning, but was very excited to hear 5 gobblers. These 5 birds were in the same timber as last year and I believe that should give me a good opportunity at them. I also heard 2 birds on a second property. They are close to the group of 5 and with a slight move it might make them accessible. I visited a third property and have gotten text updates from my inlaws at this property and they have been seeing birds in the afternoons and could offer both a morning setup and an afternoon setup. This weekend I am planning on visiting our Jasper County property in hopes of hearing birds and maybe formulate a plan for opening day with Tyler.
Tyler has been hunting the past 3 years with me and I feel this is his year! I have two new decoys and I hope with these decoys it will seal the deal on any bird that sees them. I will post video of them when I am ready to put them out on the market.
FYI I will try to continue to comment and keep this blog current as the season progresses.
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Update to Gobble Scout 2012. Went down to our Jasper County property this morning to listen for Thunder Chickens. It was quite foggy but it allowed for me to do a little sneaking closer than I had planned. This wasn’t a bad thing. I did not hear the numbers that I have heard in years past but I believe that was due to the fog. What I did hear was a quite huntable bird that if he stays in the same place will put him on the ground by 7:00am Monday! That’s right I’m putting a time on our success. Tyler will be up with the 12ga 3 1/2″ #5 Winchester Supreme shells and as long as he shoots straight I think this will be a successful opening day. The weather looks like its going to be in the low 60’s and cloudy in the morning. With the Cloud cover it should keep the birds on the roost a little longer and give us a few more moments to setup. It’s raining pretty good outside right now and hopefully tomorrow is windy to help dry out the fields, cause if not it’s going to be a long (1/2 mile) walk in the mud!
Make sure to follow on Facebook (Facebook.com/amoutdoors) or on Twitter (@amoutdoors) as the season continues for up to the minute updates from the blind!
End of First Season update.
So far I have been out only 2 days and by now I’m sure everyone has seen the videos. Hunting can be funny sometimes. We have worked hard for 4 years now to get Tyler a good opportunity and this year we got two! But this just wasn’t a year that was meant to be. Both days we had the same bird come in before 7am and if you have been following this post then you know that I said we’d have him down by 7am. I can honestly say this is the first year that I had a bird patterned and knew where and when things were going to happen. Unforunately, things happen. Nothing you can do about it. You just have to dust yourself off and keep at it. I know I’ll have Tyler in the blind next year and I know he feels bad about what happened but if nothing else we learned a lot this year, and because of that we will be better prepared in the years to come.
Looking forward now to Second season. I have tomorrow off and the original plan was to head to Eastern Iowa for a 4 day hunt. Due to the old man and surgery for kidney stones we are staying home tonight. I have given it a lot of thought and decided I’m going to give that bird one more chance. I’m gonna move about 150 yards and use RoboTurkeys to my advantage. I wont have the gun with me. I’ll be using the Bow. So we’ll see what my Decoys can do. If they can bring this gobbler in close again for the 3rd time, then I say they are as good if not better than any decoy that is currently on the market! We are having storms tonight, so the good news is this weather should keep the local farmer out of the field atleast for the morning. Provided that bird is still in the area, and I would guess he is, then I think I’ll have a crack at him by 7:30am. But if not it was worth a shot. Then we’ll head out to Eastern Iowa and we’ll see if what I learned from Gobble Scout 2012 pays off or not! Either way I’m out in the blind chasin tail!
End of Second Season update. Spent 3 full days in Eastern Iowa hunting my In-laws land. Great weekend to be chasing birds! First day out was Saturday and first thing off the roost came in a nervous hen. She did not like the hen and Jake decoys. But once I made RoboHen feed a couple of times and turn… she calmed right down and came into the spread. The Tom however was not as easily convinced. He eventually came in on a good pace right up to the Jake decoy, but must have thought he was going to lose the battle and walked right on out of sight before a shot could be taken. I watched him strut after some hens for over an hour before the fog rolled in and they disappeared.
Sunday I went back out to the same spot and only setup the hen decoy this time. Right at 6:30am the Tom from yesterday flew down and walked right into the decoy. At a short 18yards I pulled the shot and completely missed him to the left. He wandered off to about 30 yards and stuck around long enough for me to nock a 2nd arrow and get the shot off. The shot was a little low but with the 1.5″ cutting diameter of the Trophy Ridge XL it looked like I had him. I filmed him wander off to about 100 yards before crashing in the picked corn field. I gave him 10 mins and started to creep up on him, arrow nocked. At 40-45 yards his head popped up as he was not dead. I tried to decide what to do but in an instant it was decided for me. He jumped up and started to gimp away towards the timber. Not wanting that I took off in pursuit! After a short case he was able to gain enough speed to fly. He flew across the creek. Not wanting to push him I headed back for breakfast. At 8:30 my father-in-law (Allan) and I drove to the other side of the creek (as it was too high to cross) and began our search. Around 9:45 when we had almost given up I retraced my steps and started where he would have landed and went to the first gooseberry bush and BAM!! He dove into deeper cover and we now knew where he was. Still Alive though. Allan stayed on one side and snuck around to the other and was able to see enough of him to fire the finishing arrow. I now had my first Eastern Iowa Archery Turkey!!!
That afternoon I took Katelyn off and bought my 2nd Archery tag with plans of tagging out for the year.
Monday morning I headed to the other side of the family’s land, a place I’d never turkey hunted before. I arrived early enough that the turkeys had not woken up yet and was able to center myself on the property to await the first gobble and that would tell me where to head. Like an alarm clock went off the timber was alive! Every direction it seemed had a gobbler gobbling. So I decided I would split them all and sit right in the middle. By 6:18am I had the first tom in view at 50 yards and at full strut. He answered each of my calls as coming in. I had decided that with a new property and with all those toms that I would reset the Jake out with my hen. But that was almost a deal breaker with this tom. After 12 mins of subtle coaxing he finally closed the gap to 20 yards. I couldn’t wait any longer and played my hand at trying to shoot him out the side window. He must have seen the arrow coming because he jumped just before impact and that little bit made the difference. My arrow just got meat and by the look of film nothing vital. As I gave this guy plenty of time to expire if it would even happen I was able to call in 4 more toms!! They put on a 22 minute show I will never forget. The closest they got was 30 yards but knowing I possibly had my season ending bird down I wasn’t going to take a shot so it was all for fun. After those toms left it was 9am and I picked up the trail of the bird I had shot. I will tell you this, tracking wounded turkeys suck! There aren’t blood trails and those buggers hide the deepest darkest, unobvious places imaginable. But after an hour and a half of looking I finally stepped on him which sent him bolting for the next county. I gave him some more time and after looking another hour I found neither hide nor feather of him. Still with my tag unfilled in my pocket I packed up and called it a successful weekend.
Oh well, that allows me to head back out this weekend and maybe get another opportunity at an archery bird this year.
End of season 3 update. Only made it out once this season but hunted right here in Story County. I took one of my work buddies (Joe) out with me. I don’t know what it is about him and this property but we never see a single gobbler. They always come in pairs. Right off the roost we had two Tom come from our South and headed North. I got a little over zealous on our spot location when I heard them thundering from the trees and really put us out of the path of the birds. I have an idea on how to hunt those birds come 4th season if their pattern holds up. Gonna take a week break of hunting and fishing and will be back at it on May 10th! Until then good luck everyone.
End of Season 4 and End of Turkey Season update. The year ended and early was better than late for me. Only hunted once in 4th season due to work and just other obligations. I heard zero gobbles in the morning (it was the stillest morning I hunted too) and saw zero birds. So a rough way to end. I ended up with the bow kill in Eastern Iowa the hard way and then had the two misses by Tyler first season. It was rough not hunting with Dad this year but will look forward to fishing now and then Whitetails this fall. I think next year we need to get a group together and go hunt turkeys out of state. We need a turkey camp!!! I’ll start doing some research for that and I think I have a place picked out already but I will need to get a little move saved up first. Thanks for following my turkey season and hopefully this blog was fun to follow. ON TO FISHING