Hunting done... Time to go fishing

[TritonGlenn]

Just got news this morning at 6am - the buck quota has been reached in my area. I have had "0" shooter does on my cameras all season long. I can still hunt pigs and if a shooter doe starts coming around, then it's game-on again, but the 11 pointer I've been after gets a pass this season.



I'm frustrated. This will be my 8th year hunting and I havent released an arrow on a buck yet.



If I had something other than the three scrawny year-old looking does showing up, I probably wouldn't be so let down. But with what I'm seeing, plus the buck closure, I just ain't very confident about my chances this year.



Oh well... Time to go fishing, I guess. First ABA tournament for the season is this coming weekend on Choke Canyon.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Glenn,

Are you hunting public land?



Good luck on Choke! Your first TX starts and we are about to start catfishing!!!

 

[TritonGlenn]

Carlos,

I hunt an Army base (Camp Bullis). It's affordable ($80 for a circle of land that's mine for the year), but the quotas are very low for each area. Each area has a number of circles in it, and the quota is for the entire area. Once the quota is reached, all of those circles are affected. The low quotas were noted ahead of time, although the never released numbers to us. They just let us know when it's reached. I guess someone shot one yesterday that pushed us to that number.

All the best,

Glenn

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Glenn

I have shot on Bullis in the past..quite a few years ago, I do remeber seeing a good bit of deet then now that you mention it.



Pretty cool you can buy you a circle of land just for your use.

 

[Dan J.]

Don't feel too bad. I've only hunted only a few times this season and saw scads of doe, a few spikes and a four pointer, but no shooter, yet. I took a nice, fat 2-3 yr. old doe last week and am picking it up this week. That'll keep me in jerky through the holidays. I may take another one late season, but I'm usually good with one. That is, unless Bullwinkle shows up!:lol:

 

[TritonGlenn]

carlos,

Yep. Pretty cool that they even allow hunting on a military facility, so I gotta be happy to at least get a chance to shoot one. I had a little more than a month's worth of weekends to hunt but I only hunted half of the days (mostly due to wanting to keep the wife happy - "Don't overdo it" was all I had in mind this year).



I still have pigs to shoot - but they haven't been showing up in the daytime lately.



And then there is Turkey - which I know pretty much nothing about hunting. I never see gobblers, just hens, but I hear them periodically. I hit my slate call a week ago, right before dark. Just four little scratches across it with my rosewood striker and I got a gobble back in the distance. My hair on the back of my neck went up. I tried it again. Nothing. Played with it some more, but I guess I wasn't singing the right song... or I was doing it too much, or not enough, or something like that. Like I said - I don't know much about Turkey. I've never shot one.



I'm not going to give up entirely. I'm switching focus to fishing right now, and after this tournament, I'll change tactics to Turkey and Hogs. If a fat doe shows up, then I'll be ready for her too.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Bob G.]

Glenn,



I know a little bit about turkey hunting, at least in the north-east. Not sure about your southern birds. The gobblers could care less about coming to a call in the fall. They generally hang out in gobbler groups in the fall and winter, but will tag along with hens and their young of the year. The best way to get a fall turkey is to bust up a flock, then set up and call. The mother hen will call the rest of the flock back together, try to intercept them. Just about all of the fall turkeys I've shot were young of the year. They still taste like turkey!! If you bust up a flock of gobblers, they don't care about getting back together. They'll meet back up in a day or so.



Now Spring turkey hunting is whole another ball game. It's all about gobblers and their desire to breed has landed them in the crock pot many of times. I got a 20lb gobbler and a jake this past Spring. I use a slate call and do minimal calling. I just had the last breast of the jake the other day at camp. It was the last weekend of fall turkey hunting here. I hunted a big flock for the last 2 weekends, but could not get them in to a call and couldn't navigate the ridges to bust them up. I'm not in my 20's and 30's anymore!! I watched them come off of the roost twice and the mother hen kept the rest of the flock from wondering away. There is a gobbler in the bunch and he is the one I wanted, but didn't happen. Season ended today and I'm at work. Our buck season starts next weekend for 2 weeks.



If hens are legal, take one if you can. Gobbler hunting is a lot more fun in the spring. Good luck huntin' and fishin'!!

 

[TritonGlenn]

Bob,

That was probably more information than has ever been shared with me about turkey hunting, and I greatly appreciate you taking the time to do so. Very informative. Thank you.



The problem I think I'll have is that I can't wander this property. Still hunting only, and I have to stay close to the center of my area. For that reason, I don't think the scenario you described above is going to work for me this fall. I might have to wait until spring to shoot one.



"Bearded hens" are legal. Gobblers and Bearded Hens is what they describe in the book. I've seen large flocks of hens - 10 to 15 of them traveling in a group - but none of them had beards. How common is a bearded hen? I've never seen one.



All the best,

Glenn

 

[Bob G.]

I have read that 15% of hens have a beard, but I've never seen one. To bad you can't hunt the regular hens. Turkey flocks can be nomadic so it would be tough to get them to cooperate on a small parcel of land.

 

[Mike Newman]

I was at the national lawn and garden show a few weeks ago and was passing by a booth with a couple of guys in camo handing out free turkey calls. i dont hunt,but brother does so i thought that i would grab one. they handed me one of the last two. As i was walking away i noticed that the call (round with top surface and scraper tool) was autographed by the two guys in the booth. Knight & Hale. I googled it later and found out who they were and this is their signatre series call. needless to say my brother is quite excited to get his early christmas present and the autographs by the kings of that industry also. I have seen a few turkey wander by in the woods behind my house and i have scared up a couple once in awhile when hiking.

 

[Scott Allen]

The rut is on in Maryland! I saw several bucks on Saturday chasing does. One of my favorite times of the year. We can legally take 2 antlered and 10 does PER SEASON here! I spent yesterday skinning one and boning out, cutting up and double grinding two. I was worn out by the end of the day. I usually take 2-3 per year for my wife and I, but my kids are starting out on their own and don't make much money, so I am sending meat their way too. Bob is pretty much right on with the turkey behavior, but I have busted flocks of gobblers in the fall and have had them come into calls. Practice what they call a kee kee run. That is a lost turkey calling for it's flock mates. You can find examples on the internet. It's a killer! Good luck.



Scott

 

[Dan J.]

Reading about deer hunting and turkeys reminded me of an incident I had while hunting as a guest in So. GA several years back. It was an hour or so before daylight when I walked out to the stand I picked, about 25' up a solid ol' pine tree. I climb up into the stand, get settled, and am sitting there in the silence of 'O-dark thirty listening to the occasional dew drip off the leaves. Almost at the immediate instant sunlight peeked through the trees, it sounded like Apocolypse Now with a full sorte of UH-1's right over my head!!! :blink: I almost launched myself skyward out of that stand, my tether the only thing saving my bacon that time for sure. Unknown to me in the dark and climbing into the stand, a half dozen turkey had chosen that same pine first to roost in overnight! I couldn't believe they sat there that quiet for at least 45 min. before exploding out of that tree above me at daylight. I don't rightly know where they went or what happened after they flushed as I was desperately trying to get back in my stand after my aborted launch from my seat. :lol: (Quick note: WEAR A CLIMBING HARNESS! - It's like a life jacket in the woods. )



I've run into turkey often in the woods, but that was my first "close encounter" while they roosted. Anyone else find them roosting near, by or on top of you while out?

 

[TritonGlenn]

Dan,

My "turkey story":



Hunting on Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia quite a few years back with my friend Richard. Rich knows A.P. Hill like the back of his hand, as he has been hunting there for years and years.



Well, I'm sitting in a tree during blackpowder season, waiting on a deer to pass by, when I hear this huge ruckus coming my way. At first, I'm thinking it's a truck that is off roading through the leaves or something. Then I start seeing turkeys. Lots and lots of turkeys. I'm talking what looked like a hundred turkeys from my vantage point - all coming my way through the leaves, making a ton of noise as they are, which was surprising because I always envisioned them to be fairly quiet. Rich hits his button on his radio and asks me "What the heck is going on over there by you? What's making all that noise?" I reply on my radio that it's turkeys - lots of them. He immediately replies "Shoot one!" I thought about it for a second and replied that I didn't think it was turkey season (I should have known better than to doubt Rich's word). He insists it is, but I want to make sure, like the little responsible hunter that I am. So (yeah, I know - this is really stupid at this point), I pull out my hunting regs pamphlet from my pack, open it up, flip through a few pages and find the season dates (yeah, all this time, the turkeys are headed right for me, and they are definitely in range). I put it back into my pack, took the dang time to respond "Yeah, I guess you were right" on the radio, and then touched.... just TOUCHED my blackpowder rifle (I hadn't even picked it up yet - just laid my hands on the stock by the grip), and one turkey let out a little "pht!", and they all changed direction and DISAPPEARED. Gone. Like a fart in the wind. How did they do that??? :lol::lol::lol::lol:



Rich later told me "You probably won't ever get a chance like that again. You should have shot one when I told you to".



All the best,

Glenn