Kelly first was featured here with a stud of a moose from Canada, and later with her goofy pronghorn from Oregon. 

Well now she had added a nice gobbler to the wall, with her bow no less.  In true Western fashion she received permission to hunt on a neighbor’s ranch.  She did it solo, even though she had never been to the site before.

Here is the story in her words:

This ranch where I shot the tom is located about a mile down the road at a neighbors ranch. My boss maintains their road for free and in return they let him (and his friends) hunt turkeys if they are there. And they are there…for now. My boss informed me yesterday that I would be hunting (more…)

Finish Form 1040 or head out for the start of spring turkey hunting? Tough decision.
Those who have done the right thing and finished with taxes before the deadline can expect to find Idaho’s wild turkey populations in good shape. Idaho is home to more than 30,000 turkeys, mostly of the Merriam subspecies.

The general season youth turkey hunt runs Thursday April 8 through Wednesday April 14. Youths 15 years or younger on April 8, may participate in the youth hunt. All youth hunters must have a valid 2010 Idaho hunting license.

The general spring turkey hunts open April 15 and runs through May 25. Dates vary for controlled hunts, listed in the brochure.

Spring turkey hunting seasons and rules can be found in printed form at all Fish and Game offices and at license vendors statewide. The brochure is also on the Fish and Game web site at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/cms/hunt/rules/ug/.

Hunters also can use the convenient Idaho Hunt Planner, found in the hunting section of the Website, where detailed maps are available.

Hunters must have a valid hunting license and a turkey tag. They may buy an extra tag for the spring hunts, but the limit for the year is three turkeys with no more than two taken in either the spring or fall seasons. The extra tag is now valid throughout the spring season and may also be used in the fall turkey season.

The waiting period for using the second tag has been eliminated.

Two turkey tags – one general tag and one extra tag – may be purchased for the spring turkey season before May 26.

Resident adults pay $19.75 for the first tag and $12.25 for an extra tag. Discounted tags for youth, seniors and disabled veterans are $10.75. Nonresident turkey tags cost $80, except for junior mentored tags priced $19.75.

So Turkey Season has been open for 3 weeks this Saturday and I haven’t been out chasing gobbles once. Weather has been perfect, sunny and warm.

I called up my hunting buddy Cal and said” We gotta set a date to hunt together.” After playing phone tag for 2 weeks we finally picked April 11th. Sure enough the weather man is calling for 2 inches of rain. But we are determined to hunt Sunday morning come Hell or High Water (which was a real possibility.)

I had secured permission to hunt on a ranch a couple miles down the road. This gentleman, first generation immigrant from the Azores Islands off of the coast of Portugal, was more than happy to grant me permission.

I really treasured spending time talking with him a couple nights before as we sampled his homemade wine and “white lightning” as the sun went down and we watched a large flock of turkeys strutting on the distant hills fly up into a eucalyptus grove to roost. Yeah, that’s where we wanted to be come morning. (more…)

Hunters who applied for spring turkey and black bear controlled hunts can find results on the Idaho Fish and Game Website at http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/ch/turkbear.cfm.

Successful applicants also have been notified by mail. It is the responsibility of hunters to find out whether their names were drawn in these hunts.

Details for obtaining or exchanging tags are explained on the site. Hunters who need to exchange a general season tag for a controlled hunt tag can do that at any Fish and Game Office.

Hunters who have a general turkey tag will need to buy the controlled hunt permit that costs $7.75. Hunters who don’t have a general turkey tag must buy one as well as the controlled hunt permit.

Those drawing a spring bear controlled hunt and who have a general season tag may exchange the general season tag for the controlled hunt tag or may keep the general season tag and buy the controlled hunt bear tag. Any exchanges of tags must be completed at a Fish and Game office.

For drawing results go to: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/ch/turkbear.cfm; for drawing odds to go: http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/ch/odds.cfm.

With Katerina scoring so early in the day, we dressed her bird and had time for a big breakfast.  Afterwards Doug pointed out a flat tire on one of the ranch trucks so we jacked it up to take the tire to be fixed in town.  At this point Doug was happy his daughter was successful.  He had resigned himself to going home empty handed, since his license expired at 4:00 pm that day. 

As we drove home from the tire shop, past the ranch where Erin had been successful the day earlier, we saw a couple of turkeys under the trees.  A quick glance at the watch showed we had a couple of hours left if Doug wanted to take some turkey meat home.   We quickly dropped off the tire back at home  and changed back into camo as the seconds ticked down.  We hit the ranch at 2:30 pm and began calling every 100 yds. along the tree line. 

We worked to the east with no responses.  We back tracked and worked to the West as the evening breeze kicked up.   Doug was in the lead with the box call when he dropped behind a tree and pointed down the hill.  I hunkered down, and Doug stroked the Wet Willy.  Immediately a gobble erupted from just over the crest of the hill, and I caught a glimpse of a couple toms peeking up over the crest of the hill less than 50 yards away. 

At the same time, a blacktail doe popped up between us and the turkeys, then a yearling fawn, and another, and another doe.  All in all SEVEN deer filed past us at less than 20 yards.  We were pinned down and couldn’t move until the deer moved out of the zone of fire. 

Finally the last doe stotted cautiously into the pepperwoods, and I heard Doug’s shotgun roar.  A gobbler thrashed on the ground and I made two “Hail Mary” shots with a bow and just managed to lose two arrows. 

A quick check of the watch revealed the time as 3:15 pm.  Truly a last hour success.  Doug’s bird was about the same age as his daughter’s.  Good eating size, and with a nice fan.  The Northern Exposure team was 2 for 2 on turkeys in a seven hour time period.

That afternoon, father and daughter signed the box call that they used for both of their turkeys.  Kelsey wouldn’t part with it though since she plans to use it to call in a gobbler for her dad (me ) later this month.  Doug exclaimed that he was hooked on turkey hunting and began planning next year’s adventure. 

We probably would have gone hunting the rest of the week if we didn’t have 4 days of archery competion ahead of us in Redding.  That in itself is a whole ‘nother story though…

I met my buddy Doug Moore from Talkeetna, Alaska as he arrived in the Santa Rosa, California airport with his 13 year old daughter Katerina.  On the drive to my home we caught up on what had happened over the last year. We made plans to get their hunting licenses the next day.

Sunday, we spent the morning scouting locations for the next morning’s hunt. I had reserved one ranch strictly for this occasion and we spotted toms feeding in the open. And we made plans for Monday morning’s hunt.

Little did we know that it would be tough to find a California non resident license. Since California has its hunting year starting July1, many places didn’t have any current hunting licenses. Finally after our 3rd stop we managed to get Doug a two-day license, and his daughter a junior license. The folks at Western Sport Shop were extremely helpful and typified the reason I like to support independent retailers in the outdoor industry. If you get a chance you should check out either their Santa Rosa or San Rafael locations.

Monday, we hunted hard and Erin got a turkey after a long wait, and unconventional end to the pursuit. The details are in the post “This probably isn’t gonna work”

While Erin and I were busy with our turkeys, Doug and Katerina were playing hide and seek with a gobbler who would gobble when a distant tractor back up beeper would sound off. They got him within 50 yards, and then he spotted them and headed for cover. When they heard our shot, they called it a day, and we headed for home.

Tuesday morning we moved to a different ranch I had hunted earlier in the season. I knew there were turkeys there, but the hunting gods had conspired against us. This time I was determined to set up where I had seen 3 gobblers strutting weeks earlier.

We arrived as day was breaking and I heard turkeys gobbling from the roost directly next to our ambush spot. We retreated down the creek about 500 yards from the roost tree and I had serious doubt we would be able to coax the birds out of their usual feeding and strutting zone. Kat and Doug got set up in the pop up blind as the suns rays began to peek over the Eastern ridge. I wished them good luck and retreated to a high point about a quarter mile away to watch the action from afar.

Well, the birds pitched down out of their roost tree on the other side of the willow choked creek directly behind Doug and Kat’s hiding hole. A group of toms to the north gobbled and the three toms we had targeted began moving in that direction, away from our hunters. An inquisitive black cow pushed them even harder in the wrong direction. My heart sank as they got farther away. I thought for sure that we were done when they turned to the east and began feeding up the hill over 500 yards from Doug and Katerina. I could hear Doug on the box call pleading for their attention. I stood up from my perch and began my walk down to pick up my hunters and regroup.

As I rounded the corner of the hill I saw the three toms on a string headed for the blind. I pulled up my binos and saw the birds pull up and start strutting for the Montana Decoy hen. Seconds later I heard the “POP” of the 20 gauge and two toms were streaking for the ridge as one lay still on the ground.

It took me a few minutes to cover the ground but I arrived to a beaming girl and a proud dad. They recounted the story from their perspective, and how Doug’s aggressive calling had captured the attention of the toms at a distance we thought was impossible.   The Montana Decoy had pulled them in close enough for Katerina to draw a bead on a young tom who was in full strut and she gave him a full dose of #6’s that left a ragged hole in the fan but anchored the bird on the spot.

We got back to the ranch before my girls had even left for school. They all admired Kat’s prize and we shot some pictures for posterity.  Our middle daughter revelled in the fact that the call Doug had used to lure the bird in was HERS.  A  Knight and Hale “Wet Willy” box call that she picked out on a shopping trip last month. 

Next time, Part 2, the Northern Exposure team scores again..

On Monday, along with Alaskan friends, Doug and his daughter Katerina, we got up at 5:30 to set up along a tree line where we had seen turkeys feeding on a regular basis. The morning started off frosty and foggy and the birds started gobbling early. We could here gobbles on three sides of us as the eastern horizon slowly grayed up. When the fog lifted at about 8:00 we could see a flock of turkeys across the road with 3 toms strutting. We called and called and coaxed one tom over a ditch, two fences and the highway to come check out our setup. He didn’t like what he saw at about 50 yards and “put-putted” off into the brush.

Shortly after, two toms came in from behind us out of range and fed back into the trees. Doug and Katerina left us to pursue those toms. By this time it was 9 am, and we were getting ready to regroup and move to a new location when Erin spotted some movement below us on the hill. It was the other two toms from across the road. I recognized one as a one legged tom with a nice beard I had seen the day before. He had been feeding 90 yards below our position that day, and the pair worked their way to that patch of clover again this morning.

That was at 9 o’clock in the morning. For two hours we called to these toms. They would look our direction and occasionally gobble, but they held their ground in the wide open. Later two hens came and joined them on that patch of clover. It was getting late. I could tell that 5 hours of sitting was getting old for Erin, despite the number of turkeys we had seen.

So I asked Erin if she wanted to see if we could get closer. My whispered words were:” this probably isn’t going to work, but let’s slide on our butts when they put their heads down to feed. When they raise their heads, we freeze. Got it?”

Erin nodded slightly and we began our stalk across the open hillside. Each time the turkeys raised their head we froze and I whispered “this probably isn’t going to work…” then the four would continue feeding and we would continue our butt-scoot inches at a time. We covered 50 yards in about an hour, through thistles and across rocks. Erin gritted it out until we were within 30 yards then as cool as a professional slowly rested the 20 gauge across her knee, and anchored the nearest tom with a perfect head shot.

I have never seen my little girl so excited. After ejecting the hull from the breech, she was admiring her prize, and grinning from ear to ear. Doug and Katerina had witnessed it all from behind us and were there to congratulate Erin as she swung that turkey on to her back and packed it back to the car.

The beard measured 9 inches and each of the spurs was a perfect 1 inch. Upon opening up the breast, we discovered #8 bird shot and evidence of a previous wound in the left breast. Apparently this tom had escaped a previous encounter and was wary, but not wary enough for this unconventional tactic that “probably isn’t gonna work”.

Well it is shaping up to be a busy few days around here.
First, my buddy Doug from Alaska will be arriving with his daughter to pursue the turkeys that have skunked me so far.

Then we head to Redding the Mecca of target archers for the Western Classic Trail Shoot.  Thursday is the Blind Draw event, and then the Trail shoot Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Doug was my wingman last year and this year he will have backup. So as things develop, I will report ‘em. but ’til then I’ll be pretty low profile.   this year at Redding the focus is on fun shooting.  I haven’t been to an archery shoot in 2009, so I’m just trying to enjoy the company of friends and archery.

I’ll be in the Freestyle division this year since I now have a 7 pin sight.  My bow is my hunting rig and I will enjoy being able to devote 3 full days to shooting it.

Now I’m not much of a “modern Country” fan, but I do appreciate it when artists sing songs about the Outdoors. in this Video Rhett akins sings about a “hung up” gobbler on the Tommy Wilcox outdoors show.

i gotta give him credit, he really captured the essence of the frustration when a big ol’ tom won’t come in. I’ve been feeling plenty of that lately.

Cal hit a new ranch in the afternoon after a morning hunt didn’t produce. He had a coyote come in and spook off two toms he called in, but still managed to keep his composure and still hunted his way into bow range on this nice tom.

His gobbler’s beard measured 10 1/4 inches.   The spurs were 1 1/4 inch each.  Truly a remarkable bird. 
It just goes to show that afternoon hunts can produce. Sometimes you just have to adjust your tactics.  Cal did and it paid off.