Critter Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Well I drew 19a late turkey tag # 4 out of 4 and as luck would have it we had a baby girl on the way and the due date was Monday April 25th so I was pretty sure my scouting & hunting was going to be limited considering my hunt started Friday 4/29. Sure enough our healthy baby girl, Alivia came on 4/28 the day before my hunt was to start. Im hosed, I thought, regarding the hunt but who cares right? we just had our 2nd child and life is good.. its just a turkey tag. But of course in the back of my mind Im thinking well maybe I can squeeze in one or two quick trips up the mountain. So my mother in law is in town to help a bit and my wife gives me the go ahead to head up for a few hours with fellow cwt member jeffd on Sunday afternoon, few days after baby is born. Long story short Jeff and I end up not hearing any gobbles right off the bat but decide to set up in this little bowl off a meadow where we knew there were birds. Few hours before sundown we set up and start calling and get some Gobbles and all sorts of noise coming our way. They end up skirting just above us and we see them walking through the trees but they wont commit to coming in. Tom is fully henned up. After that we find a bonus fresh spike brown elk shed hiking back out of the meadow. Right at dark we drive back in a ways and locate two gobbles back deep in another meadow. Unfortunately Im unable to head out the next morning to hunt them due to needing to be home for a few days to help out. Well several days pass and I am able to get out again, this time a morning hunt and a heavy rain storm passes through overnight with high winds. Luckily the wind dies off but the morning brings sleet and snow high up but only a trace of snow layered the ground and it melted off quick. This time cwt member upland81 (Seth) is coming with to assist. We agree to meet up 4am and head up the mountain. We first check my two locations (where Jeff and I heard gobbles at sundown several days prior) but cant get a gobble early on out of either spot. So we drive in further to a different location and finally locate a far away gobble down this steep drop off, way down into a basin. We decide to do the hike in to see what comes of it. Two thirds of the way down the steep face we start hearing gobbles all over the place, and not too far away, so we decide to set up and call. Little did we know we had walked under two roost trees on the way in. As we got set up they started gobbling up the hill from exactly where we had hiked in, then two more toms start screaming their heads off within 100yards, then two more toms a little bit further off. It was turkey mayhem! Then a hen flies right over head out of the roost and lands in a tree just below us which we watch for 20min in the tree. Then a Tom flies out of another tree above us towards a different direction. Hens are going crazy and were hearing every turkey sound in the book which was awesome. Were calling but nothing will commit to coming in. The toms are extremely henned up and we can see them circling 70 or more yards out. We thought for sure this was a slam dunk but we were wrong. Its not always that easy to call them in just depends sometimes more on the birds mood and its hen situation. At one point, 6 different toms were sounding off, coyotes were howling I thought to myself this is by far the best, most exciting turkey hunting Ive ever been in. It was almost just too chaotic to call in a Tom as there were so many turkeys making noise. The birds shut up by 7am and the gobbles became distant so we decided to hike after and get ahead of one gobble which turned into a 3hr random hike looking for new gobbles. At one point I had taken out my foxpro to sound off an excited hen just to see if anything would respond. Well I ended up leaving my foxpro next to a random tree not far from where we first began but didnt notice until later on in the hike. By 9:30am or so we make it back to the truck and Im thinking Im screwed as far as losing the foxpro. I figured there was no way to find it but I trekked back down the Mt without seth and after 20 min of looking I actually found it and started back up the steep face to the truck. Considering how much we had zig zagged it was a total shot in the dark at finding the call but it worked out. At this point we both needed to get back to town for certain reasons and on the way out I told Seth lets try calling my first location one more time maybe well get a mid-morning gobble this time. So that we did, pulled the truck over along the road, got out and let out some yelps. Wouldnt you know it a tom responds to us so we gather our stuff and start off hiking back into the woods. We follow the ridgeline above the draw this gobble is coming from and after hiking maybe a half mile in we start down into the draw to get as close as possible. Finally we get to a distance where we know were close and can entice the bird to come our way. After about 20 min of calling finally two toms come walking in to my far right. I re-position, let the bigger lead tom get to about 30 yards and cooled him off. Bird Down! After a few high fives and some pics we pack back to the truck and celebrate and head home. I've got 3 fans on the wall so I figured I'd do a life size mount out of this bird. Overall despite not getting to go out as much as I wanted it still ended up being an awesome hunt. That early morning gobbling we got into was by far the most exciting turkey hunting Ive ever been in. Thanks to jeff and seth for helping out as well. Cant wait for next spring. - nate 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Critter Report post Posted May 9, 2016 and of course a pic of my new future turkey hunter and my 3yr old 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
AZkiller Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Congrats on the bird and the baby! One is tougher than the other.... I don't know which one yet.... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CouesPursuit Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Congratulations on all accounts! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cramerhunts Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Very cool! Congratulations all the way around! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Flatlander Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Awesome 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Very, very cool!!!!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Heat Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Nice job! Congratulations on your baby girl as well! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wish2hunt Report post Posted May 9, 2016 What a cutie!!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
218buck Report post Posted May 9, 2016 Congrats on your bird and the new addition to the family 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tjhunt2 Report post Posted May 10, 2016 All I can say is you are one blessed man. Congratulations on your bird and your beautiful addition to an awesome looking family. TJ 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Upland81 Report post Posted May 10, 2016 Just can't wait until next year to chase more birds. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PRDATR Report post Posted May 11, 2016 Very cool and congrats to you and your wife. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
trkyslr Report post Posted May 11, 2016 Excellent!! Great post 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IA Born Report post Posted May 11, 2016 Our daughter was born on April 25th, 12 years ago. It makes planning turkey hunts interesting, but she always comes first. Congrats on your new daughter and your bird! That picture of mom, daughter, and your son (big thumbs up) is AWESOME! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
