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 Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Big Harvest Numbers From Two Titans
Posted by Brian Lovett
Two big turkey hunting states posted excellent harvest numbers this past spring.
As first reported May 13 by turkeyandturkeyhunting.com forum member "Ozarks Hillbilly," Missouri hunters shot 41,830 birds during the three-week regular season and 2,883 during the youth season, for a total of 44,713 birds.
The regular-season harvest was down about 3.7 percent from 2008 but higher than predicted by the Missouri Department of Conservation. Click here, and then scroll down for a full report.
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources recently announced that hunters shot 52,581 birds during the Spring 2009 season. That was down slightly from the record Spring 2008 harvest of 52,814 turkeys. The Spring 2009 success rate was about 24 percent, down from about 25 percent in 2008. Click here for a full report.
One comment: The difference between the Wisconsin and Missouri spring harvests might seem significant, but remember that Missouri has a three-week season, two-bird season limit and 1 p.m. daily closure. Wisconsin has six five-day periods and all-day hunting. Further, after tags are issued through the initial draw, hunters can purchase leftover permits — often available for the fourth through sixth weeks — until they're gone, letting them hunt three or four time periods with multiple tags during later seasons.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 7:32:39 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00) 
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Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Turkey Causes Manure Truck Crash
Posted by Brian Lovett
You really can't make this stuff up.
From the Associated Press:
OSWEGATCHIE, N.Y. — A wild turkey landed inside the cab of a manure-hauling tractor trailer, startling the driver and sending the truck rolling into a ditch off a northern New York road.
State police said Scott Fisher, 38, was traveling in St. Lawrence County near the Canadian border when the turkey flew in through an open window.
Click here to read the entire story.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009 10:01:53 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Analysis: Simple Truths Remain
Posted by Brian Lovett
If you're like me, the first few weeks after turkey season serve as time to reflect on spring and analyze wins and losses.
As I do this every year, I tend to stumble back to a few simple truths. None are revolutionary; some are downright basic. Yet every turkey hunter can relate to them.
Here are some examples:
It's easy to identify poison ivy. But if you don't see it, you're in for a long month, brother.
To paraphrase Jim Spencer, if you sit down wrong, you're beat. And you will do this more often than not.
If a hunt is going too well to be true, just wait.
Sleep deprivation can really affect your mental capacity. Also, sleep deprivation can really affect your mental capacity.
Gobblers really don't read the playbook presented in hallowed journals such as Turkey & Turkey Hunting.
If you move, he will see you — guaranteed. In fact, he might even see you if you think about moving.
Your screw-ups stay with you longer than your successes. A lot longer.
Sleep deprivation can really ... uh, wait a minute.
No matter how tough your spring was, you can't wait till fall or the next spring.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009 7:54:32 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, June 05, 2009
First-Timer Breaks Ohio Record
Posted by TTH Staff
by Brian Lovett, editor
Ohio hunter Trace Claypool scored a record bird May 3 on his first-ever
turkey hunt.
Claypool shot a hen with a 9-inch beard. After consulting with the National
Wild Turkey Federation, he learned the previous record for a hen beard in
Ohio was 8.5 inches.
About 15 percent of hens grow beards. However, they are typically thin and
rarely grow longer than 7 inches. The national record for a hen beard is 11
inches.
Claypool is getting the record-setting hen mounted.
Friday, June 05, 2009 8:08:06 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, May 27, 2009
At the End? Long Live Turkey Season
Posted by TTH Staff
by Brian Lovett, editor
I should feel good.
I'm caught up on sleep, and my tick bites are healing. My truck isn't jammed with junk, and my workroom is somewhat orderly.
But I feel like garbage, and you know why.
The Spring 2009 turkey season is finished, at least for me. Sure, some folks in Kansas, Nebraska and the Northeast have a few more days left, but the end is coming.
No more crisp gobbling mornings. No fly-down jitters. No floating your best
yelps and clucks into the timber. And no more face-to-beak interaction with
America's greatest game animal. When the season winds down, it seems like reality slaps you right in the face.
But wait. Those fans, beards and feet are still drying in your basement, right? Also, you still have to send photos and stories to your turkey hunting buddies across the country.
Of course, we all need to thank the landowners who let us tromp around their dirt this spring. And fall seasons are only a few brief months away.
No, maybe I'm wrong.
Perhaps turkey hunting endures. The pursuit part of the cycle has concluded, but the spirit and obsession of the year-round turkey
nut lives on.
Turkey season is done. Long live turkey season.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 7:53:54 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Another One in the Books
Posted by Brian Lovett
I had no intention of hunting this past Saturday morning, but something rousted me out of bed.
"I need to know what they do," I thought. So off I went.
"They" were two gobblers I'd twice had at 60 steps that week. And after looking over the area Friday evening, I saw exactly what they'd done. The birds had flown into a hayfield, walked south along the edge, and then entered the woods via an old logging road near a wood pile. I'd struck them from farther south and then watched them skirt past me in the timber.
"All I need to do is get by the old road, and they'll walk right down my gun barrel," I thought.
After flydown, things were looking good. The birds got into the field and headed toward me. Within minutes, a hen and jake were 20-some steps away. The longbeards would be there any minute.
Or not. I glanced to my left and saw the gobblers chasing a hen 100 steps out in the field. Then, the birds started to drift left. They were going around me.
Actually, they walked right past my setup from the previous day. I fell in behind them, but as you know, that's never a good play. It didn't work that day, either. They'd dodged me again.
"Well, that's it," I thought as I walked back to my truck. "Another spring in the books."
I silently wished those turkeys hadn't been so difficult and unpredictable. But then I quickly reminded myself about the nature of the bird. There could be no other way.
With luck, I'd be treated to more of that maddening, unpredictable behavior in fall and next spring.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009 4:27:37 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Friday, May 22, 2009
Editor Finds Rest, Peace
Posted by TTH Staff
by Brian Lovett, editor
After whiffing on the hottest turkey I'd seen in years (see the previous
blog entry), the pressure was on.
Trying to seem unfazed by the miss, I headed to a good roost spot the next
morning. However, after hearing only one gobble and suffering numerous
mosquito bites, a change of scenery was in order.
I drove to a spot I hadn't hunted all season and prepared to walk and strike
a long hardwood ridge. After my first series of yelps, two birds fired back
on the neighbor's ridge. There was a large hayfield between us, so I had no
choice but to sit five yards into the woods and try to call them across.
And it worked ... Almost. The birds gobbled themselves into a frenzy, came
off the ridge and entered the field. There was a small rise between me and
them, so I figured they'd at least top that to seek the hen.
Instead, they stayed just below the rise, gobbling their fool heads off.
Occasionally, I could see one of the birds about 80 yards away. Once, I
glimpsed the closer bird's head at about 60 steps.
Eventually, the gobblers drifted off and lost interest, and I lost hope. I
went to work and tried to form a game plan for the morning.
And then I got lucky. On the way home from work, I drove past a large farm I have permission to hunt. There, like a gift from heaven, was a black
puffball in a stubble field. Somehow, things fell together, and 20 minutes
later, I was toting a dandy 3-year-old to my truck.
Now, I can look back on the spring in peace. Unless, of course, I go back
after the two field birds.
Friday, May 22, 2009 3:32:21 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Surprise! Awful Hunt Turns Out on Top
Posted by Brian Lovett
by Brian Lovett
Only turkey hunting could turn something so wonderful into something so
awful.
There I was, hunkered against a tree, listening to a gobbler hammer nonstop
from the limb 100 yards away. He'd climbed all over my first tree-yelp, so I
was eagerly awaiting flydown.
And fly down he did — across an open hayfield to his landing pad, 20 yards
to my left. Seconds later, his white head bobbed through the woods, right
down my gun barrel.
It was still a little dark, I guess, because I really couldn't see my
fiber-optic sights that well. No matter. I'd checked them seconds earlier
and was sure they were lined up correctly.
So when the eager bird cleared a small group of birches, I sent 2 ounces of Winchester's finest his way. Instead of the expected smash and flop, however, I saw a lurch and run.
What? No way.
Yep. A clean miss at 14 steps. It was not even 5:30 a.m., and my day was
done.
I hope that wasn't my final chance this spring. But if it was, the encounter
was certainly memorable. Excruciating, but memorable.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009 9:23:52 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Wednesday, May 13, 2009
New Digs in New Mexico
Posted by TTH Staff
by Brian Lovett, editor
I've stayed in some pretty offbeat places during turkey season.
But teepees in the mountains of New Mexico?
That's what I experienced this past week, when I joined some folks from
Mossy Oak, UnderArmour and Browning/Winchester Repeating Arms to hunt Merriam's with Steve Jones and the crew from Backcountry Hunts in northern New Mexico.
Our retro camp was ready when we arrived May 4. However, with three hours of daylight remaining, no one stuck around to inspect the digs. We switched from travel clothing to camo and hit the parks and canyons of the
surrounding mountains.
I joined veteran guide Charlie Cockerell at a small pasture across from
camp. Within minutes, we had spotted two longbeards along the tree line.
Several gobbles, some tense silence and a 15-yard shot later, the hunting
portion of my trip was finished. We soon learned that writer Joe Byers had
also shot a gobbler minutes after we dropped him off.
The next three days, I got to play caller/observer while tagging along with
other hunters. Did we get more turkeys? Sure, but the real highlights
included numerous elk, pronghorns, mule deer and even a cinnamon-phase black bear.
Oh, and there were also snow-capped peaks and stunning mountain parks along the way.
Many folks say turkey hunting isn't always about killing a bird, and that
was especially true in the mountains of New Mexico.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:14:57 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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Kicking Around Canyon Country, Part II
Posted by TTH Staff
by Brian Lovett, editor
After dropping first Nebraska gobbler back at the Cabela’s camp, I set out with Alex Rutledge of Hunter’s Specialties for another try at canyon country longbeards.
It didn’t take long. Within an hour, we spotted a breeding flock of birds high atop a ridge and slipped around in front of them. Then, the Alex Show began.
Yelping ultra-softly in an H.S. Premium Flex diaphragm, Alex went to work on the hens in the group. It must have worked, because the girls immediately responded to his clear, subtle yelps, and the group moved steadily toward us.
After about 20 minutes, the birds seemed to stall just over a rise, but one strutter broke from his flockmates and charged in to 20 steps.
“Try to wait as long as you can stand it,” Alex whispered to me. Then, he yelped and cutt hard at the bird, sending the turkey into a close-range gobbling and strutting frenzy.
Finally, I pulled the trigger and ended the hunt, capping a great day.
“Did you notice how I called to those turkeys?” Alex said later. “I didn’t use any rasp, because that would have indicated aggression. I just went at those hens with real soft, clear yelps, trying to gain their acceptance. If I had started loud and raspy, they might not have liked it and could have moved away.”
It was a great lesson on hunting henned-up turkeys, and I couldn’t wait to try it at home. Actually, I didn’t have to wait that long to see it again, as I joined Alex the next day and watched him kill a gobbler and call one in for another hunter.
The next day, I had to hit the road back home. As I left the ranch, I crossed paths with Alex and Doug Stults of Table Mountain Outfitters and First Western Adventures. I didn’t look, but something told me there was another Nebraska Merriam’s riding in the back of their truck.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 6:17:13 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)
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