In the Blind w/ Joel Nelson

5:25 AM – Today it is my turn to be behind the camera as I film Joel Nelson’s season B turkey hunt in southern mn. We made a short hike in through a wooded hillside to a sm
all picked cornfield surrounded on two sides by mature woods. We roosted a nice tom and four jakes in the woods to our east at sundown last night so we hope to have birds in the decoys at sunup.

5:31 – first gobbles from birds in the trees to our east!!

5:35 – Joel couldn’t hear them over his own snoring.

Song birds are getting active and we’ve got first light. Turkeys are gobbling around us from two directions from the roost. We made it in pretty quiet so we should have a chance at a bow Tom today. More later. Hopefully with pics!

PS- Joel says we’re surrounded and going to have to shoot our way out. Sounds like we have birds on three sides of us.

Good luck guys love the update James

If you keep us updated I won’t have to text Joel every 30 minutes

Joel doesn’t snore (very loud )

Get’em boyz

Birds are on the ground and on the move
We positioned hoping they we set wings and glide into the decoys from the roost. That didn’t happen but Joel is working his magic on a hen coming in now….. hopefully trailing a boyfriend or two.

Four Jake’s and three hens at six yards mesmerized by the decoys. But no toms yet.

This is play by play action. I like it!

Field edge??? How come yesterday when I was with carrying the big blind we went all the way up to the top of the ridge?

Now that’s a question for Joel but I’m sure being down a Sherpa had something to do with it

Toms finally made an appearance. Four in total. Devils stayed just out of bow range inside the tree line. Held up for the calls and replied with gusto but would not close the distance. After a couple minutes we saw the hen further up in the woods that they were following and after a few more minutes of talking back and forth we lost all four to the hen. Still lots of birds to work.

Stay after em

cool play by play, but you are gonna need another avatar to post over here, james

Wake up guys we need an update

Hello?

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This is play by play action. I like it!

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Must be in stealth mode right now?

Just talked to Joel the boys are on the move had plenty of action just can’t seal the deal yet

Hopefully James will update soon. Rumor has it the boom stick comes out tomorrow

He’s giving up too soon! The boom stick can come out and play after a couple of days of stick and string!

Also sounds like they have had plenty of bad luck from wild dogs to cars

I’ll be sure to text him every couple minutes.

he should change his ringtone to a hen yelp, and text alert, to a hen purr. Then he wouldn’t have to do anything……

Well spot #1 didn’t put a bird on the bag but MAN did we have birds to work. The same four Jake’s that started our morning worked out a couple hundred yards and Joel pulled them right back into the decoys within ten yards. The four toms that kept just out of range inside the treeline chased the loan hen they were dogging about a hundred yards from our blind and proceeded to strut and call at us for a full 15 minutes before following the hen off to the small creek at the bottom of the hill. After the early morning action near the roost sites everything went quiet so we packed up and plan to relocate to a feeding area where we had a big Tom dead to rights yesterday working his way across a road directly toward us before nearly getting hit by a car which spooked him off his line and sent him in a different direction. That is the bird we hope to hunt this afternoon. More later….

Good stuff James! Gut, wasn’t that you that said you almost got a turkey with your vehicle yesterday?

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Good stuff James! Gut, wasn’t that you that said you almost got a turkey with your vehicle yesterday?

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Was it James or Joel????

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This is play by play action. I like it!

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Must be in stealth mode right now?

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Yup, when we go quiet for that long you can count on us having birds too close for anything except trying to make one famous on camera.

Spot #2….

The last two days once the birds left the roost they moved toward the small river at the bottom of the valley before crossing a paved county road on there way to a hillside of mature oaks. The plan today is to setup just off a logging road that runs through these oaks. Deer and turkey sign is everywhere.

That’s where the big boy was strutting yesterday!

The downhill side of this slope is largely scrub and young ash trees with the oaks further up the hill. The easiest way for the turkeys to get to the mature oaks is to walk the logging road until they come to a well worn deep trail the leads right into the oaks. We’re setup 15 feet to the north side of this path.

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That’s where the big boy was strutting yesterday!

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Exactly. We got set up. Joel called. Three minutes later we have FIVE very hot jakes within 10 feet of the blind gobbling so hard I had to take my headphones off. Should make for some good footage and killer audio.

Where are you TOM?

We’ve got the Five Jake’s That Won’t Shut Up! Near constant gobbling since we arrived and they’ll come to the blind as many times as we want. Joel figures that if there was a Tom in the area he would have come in for a look some time ago. The plan now is to try and sneak out without getting made and head to a different spot with adult birds. If a guy wanted to shoot a Jake or practice calling this would be the place to do it.

And just like that Joel is out like a light snoring again.

That was a quick move!

Nothin’ wrong with killing a Jake. Tomorrow’s trophy’s today.

Love the semi-live stuff! Keep it up and good luck!