2013 Spring Hunting Stories- as told by a friend

 

Somewhere in the midst of work, weather, and a little thing called “life”, I have been fortunate enough to hunt five times already this Season. Four of them are recounted below.

 

Opening day started off with incredible amounts of gobbling at daybreak while I was on my way up the Mountain. After my first set up spot didn’t produce any reaction, I slowly made my way up in elevation and thru a deep V-shaped ravine. I made an intermediate call while moving thru the holler searching, and one silently appeared at the top of the other side of the chasm. I dropped into position against a large oak tree, and he strutted for a few yards on top of the ridge. He then started straight down the right slope and crossed over the creek at the bottom. He emerged again headed uphill and onto my horizontal level at 50 yards away. I kept quiet and still, thinking he’d surely make the turn my way from where he’d heard my calls a minute or two earlier. This one had another path in mind, because he headed back up behind me on my side of the ravine. As quickly as he had come down the slope, he went back up into the dense decade old clear cut above me and refused to engage in any further discussion.

 

A very gracious pre-season invitation from a friend put me back into the action early on the day of the Blue Ridge Marathon.  I can assure you that we were out earlier and climbed up a rocky mountain slope steeper than many of the hardest core runners or hikers would ever consider tackling.

Early gobbling action brought in a Tom to 60 yards and he held up in a dense briar thicket. Unfortunately, he must have spotted us with his onboard thermal imaging system, much like the Police Helicopter had when circling back around and over us while covering a wide Marathon perimeter. This randy bird continued to gobble long into his retreat up the mountain side, even stopping once or twice to let loose a loud reaction to the noisy chopper overhead.

 

Since I mentioned both the bird on the ground and the one in the air, I’d like to say Thank You to all of the Public Safety Officials who tirelessly prepared for this Marathon. It is quickly becoming a major economic engine for our Region, and the runner’s safety is paramount to attracting athletes from around the world. Runners, Planners, and Spectators have all spoken highly about how safe they felt due to the police presence around the course. ESPN even did a 6 minute story on open air sporting events that included the Roanoke Police Department’s diligent and thorough preparations, just days after the Boston Marathon.

ESPN’s “Outside The Lines”: https://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9195909

 

 

I decided that something needed to change in my approach, so I went back into my scent free deer hunting mode. Even though Turkeys are said to have no scent capabilities, I’m willing to try anything to increase my odds.

Five minutes after setup this Monday morning, two does appeared from around a curved game trail, and headed in between me and my decoys. The lead one stopped to browse on some greenery around the base of a tree about five yards below me. She then decided to go off trail and come up my way.

 

It wasn’t until her left front leg was in the air and about to land on my boot that she saw me. Her body direction changed in an instant, and she left a large clearing of leaves in her wake right below my feet. She retreated to 10 yards away, looked back, and stomped a couple times to alert her companion to what she’d just seen.

I knew then that my camouflaging efforts were working, but I’d yet to realize just how well I could conceal myself and my scent. Two hours and three Ticks later (2 Deer Ticks and 1 Lone Star), the only turkey sighting was a hen on a mid-morning hardwood roost that dropped-in and elegantly glided across a 200 yard clearing deep into a pine thicket on the other side.

 

I felt that a second hunter’s opinions about my location could further enhance my strategy during an in-season hunt and scouting trip. After a little arm twisting that kept him from hunting his land, an experienced hunter and friend, who had just shared his unusually productive spot the previous Saturday, agreed to meet me at 5:00am the following morning. We hiked up the mountain before first shooting light and setup near where I had lost the bird on opening day. We hunkered down about 15 yards apart in a thicket where an old clearcut meets an Eastern Hardwood Forest. We laid out the shooting direction rules in relation to our close-by locations. I sat down on the edge of the overgrown area, while my videographer friend was slightly more into the Hardwoods.

 

Early calling caused 2-3 far off gobblers to respond, but then there was a long period of silence. Eventually, one of my clucks and purrs with a mouth call stirred something up behind me. The first rustle I heard made me think Turkey! Then the second was louder and closer, clearly something larger than a bird. I assumed it was another deer or one of the large mountain cattle that traverse these steep abandoned logging roads like Mountain Goats in the Rockies.

It was so thick behind me that I couldn’t see what was there, so I continued to make hen calls.

The third disruption behind me was very close, so I turned over my right shoulder to see what seemingly large critter was coming my way. To both our surprise, I found a full size red Coyote just 5 yards away, half-crouched and about to pounce on what he thought was a hen turkey. We did the obligatory eye gaze deep into each other souls, and before I could swing the gun 270 degrees, he retreated back into the groundcover from which he came. His demeanor indicated to me that he had found a more successful sound-driven turkey hunting technique than I had.

 

After alerting my companion and briefly contemplating the outcome if I hadn’t turned around exactly when I did, we resumed our stated purpose. One of those early gobblers soon responded, having closed much of the vast distance between us. He ventured to approximately 100 yards, continued to gobble, but wouldn’t come any further. We ceased calling, hoping the decoys and our previous hen sounds would bring him the rest of the way. I was once again taken to school by the Headmaster, because eventually he went silent and we had never even caught a glimpse of him.

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My experiences like these from 20 years afield all are starting to blend together into one incredible fabric revealing the interaction between wilderness, wildlife, and a wayfaring wanderer.

This last encounter with the Yote will rank up there with my many other close wildlife calls, including these next three that I have the pics to prove;

 

-  Hiking thru Jasper National Park, Alberta when a 5x5 Bull Elk with a large harem turned around, lowered his head and came at me, only to be saved by a large tree that I immediately put between us. It was that tree and the world’s fastest side-shuffle out of the woods that saved me. My bro was there the whole time laughing at me from afar.

 

- Hiking in Glacier National Park, Montana when a large adult Big Horn Sheep (think Dodge Ram mascot) came barreling down the trail toward me. I jumped up into an aspen thicket just off trail and took some up-close photographs, while my friend high-tailed it back to the rental and is likely still scared to hike alone to this day.

 

- Sitting down on a low dock in Hilton Head, SC, fishing a lagoon as a teenager, when I have an ominous feeling that something is in the water behind me. I turn around and find a 10 ft. gator silently closing at 10 yards with his mouth wide open clearly in attack mode. I can honestly say that I don’t know what his next move was, because I didn’t look back until I was safely inside our condo.

Every new encounter only adds fuel to the fire, and eventually your drive will lead to accomplishment.

In closing, enjoy the second half of Spring Turkey Season, spray your gear with Permethrin to repel ticks, keep an eye out for antler sheds and Morel shrooms, and cherish every opportunity to be afield.