WI 6th Season Turkey Report

The 6th season in WI was a very memorable one! Three toms were harvested (two with a shotgun and the other one with a bow) all out of my new Command Post Blind! Here’s a day by day recap of each hunt.

Wednesday morning I took my neighbor Dan out and we had a good hunt in the morning seeing 8 jakes, 7 hens and a tom. Dan could have shot 4 jakes, but held off the trigger. The tom was all over the field checking out hens but came no closer than 80 yards from us. We even saw him service a hen! Finally the tom left the filed and we decided to leave the field too. About 10am, we saw another tom, a jake and a hen in a field over a half mile away from the road. We decided to make the long stalk. We caught up to him about 200 yards away just as he walked into the woods following the hen. We quickly closed the distance across an open field and set up just down from where he entered the woods. There we called for over 45 minutes; many times he would gobble at my call, but would not come down the ridge to check us out. Finally, a hen made her way down to us and then we could hear him spitting and drumming. Finally, after two hours from when we started to stalk him, he showed himself about 40 yards away. However, he got hung up behind some brush and we played the waiting game for another 10 minutes. He was in range but behind thick cover and would not come out of his strut. The hen was now walking away from us and he most likely was going to follow her. He started walking broadside to us and there was a small opening. I gave Dan the green light and said “Shoot him!” Dan pulled the trigger and unfortunately, the tom did not go down and lived for another day. After two hours of stalking, belly crawling, and calling, we got within 35 yards and could not close the deal. This was Dan’s very first time hunting turkeys and he was bummed. At 4pm we set up on another tom that we saw earlier in the day. About an hour later he finally came out with 3 hens and another smaller tom only to walk right by us just out of range at 55 yards. We watched him for over an hour until he finally left the field.

Thursday morning found DeWayne (Tina’s Stepfather) and me in a blind in the same field I was with Dan the day before except this time I was in a different location. We had a very memorable hunt. A tom was gobbling on the roost not far from us. About 10 minutes later, we saw him fly down into the field about 150 yards away. There he gobbled over 100 times and strutted and fanned for 45 minutes while showing off for a bearded hen. I was throwing everything I had at him, but he just would not leave that hen. I shut down for about 15 minutes or so and then tried calling to him once again. He gobbled, strutted and took a couple of steps towards us. I hit the slate call again and he did the same exact thing. He was finally responding to my call! Long story short, I hit the call every 10 seconds, (yes – every 10 seconds), he kept coming leaving the hen behind. I brought him in over 120 yards, gobbling and strutting the entire way. This took over 15 minutes, step by step he kept coming towards us every time I let out a soft yelp. Finally, he was within 40 yards and DeWayne let him have it! What an awesome hunt! It just doesn’t get any better than that! DeWayne’s turkey weighed 20 lbs. 2oz., had 9.5 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs.

Friday morning it was my turn and DeWayne and I set up on a tom that we saw the morning before. After a few yelps with no answer, I decided to set up anyways. Just when we got done setting up the blind along with our decoys, a tom gobbled across the road from us. Most likely it was him and he was on another farm where we could not hunt. We hung around for an hour or so and only saw one hen. Later that morning, I saw a tom in a filed next to a small creek bottom. I decided to put the stalk on him and crawled around in the creek bottom until I could go no further. I decided to crawl out and when I did, I just got a glimpse of 3 turkeys walking back into the woods. I could not see the middle of the field where I last saw the tom, so I decided to sit down just in case he was still there. After 15 minutes calling and hearing nothing, and thinking the tom must have been one of the three turkeys I saw walking into the woods, I decided to stand up so I could see the open field. In doing so, I got busted. The tom was not one of the three I saw after all and had closed to within 50 yards of me following the creek bottom. He flew away laughing at me. Another lesson learned – give him more time!

Saturday morning I got up at 2:30am (went to bed at 11pm), drove 100 miles and got to the field by 5am only to find out there were two other hunters going into the big field right where I was going to set up and where I had seen toms on Wed. night and Thurs. night. I decided to go to the other end where I had shot a tom in the 5th season with my shotgun. However, this time I had my bow with me. All the gobbles were coming from the other end (500 yards away) right where the other two hunters were set up. I thought for sure I would hear a shotgun blast and my morning would be over. The gobbles finally stopped and the hunters left only one hour after sunrise. I decided to keep put and if I had to, was going to work this field the entire day. I packed 3 sandwiches, snacks and water to make it through the day. About 15 minutes after the other two hunters had left, a tom popped out of the woods from me a mere 60 yards away. He casually walked out and started feeding. I gave him a yelp and he looked up catching a glimpse of my jake and my bedded hen decoy. I softly yelped again, and he started walking right into my set up. I set down my slate call and striker, grabbed my bow and fastened my release. The tom quickly approached the jake decoy (16 yards away) from behind as I pulled back my bow. It was an awkward angle for me and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to fire my arrow through the mesh window of my blind without hitting the canvas. I was struggling and finally thought I could sneak the arrow through the small opening. I finally let it fly and I heard a “wap” as the arrow ticked the blind and then saw the arrow hit the tom exactly where I was aiming. The tom ran 15 yards, laid down and died. I was ecstatic and had my first tom down with my bow! The arrow ended up slicing the zipper part of the window, going right through the canvas blind and still had a clean pass through! My tom weighed 22 lbs.- 14 oz, had a 9 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

Sunday morning I left Maple Grove at 2:30am (after another 4 hours of sleep). Dan wanted to try again and he brought his father with him who was visiting from Florida. The morning started out great with a tom gobbling from the roost high on the ridge above us. We just got done sitting down inside the blind and the tom flew down about 100 yards away from us and gobbled. It was a little after 5am and he was already on the ground! I quickly got my call out and yelped ever so softly. He just stood there looking around for a couple of minutes. Then came the hens – 4 of them hit the field. Where the hens would go, he would follow. For about an hour and a half they walked all over that field except into our set up. It was still a great morning to see that big tom work those hens. Eventually they all made their way back into the woods. About 2 hours later, we spotted two toms and a hen near the creek bottom exactly where I had goofed up on Friday morning. Dan and I decided to make the stalk once again. This time I knew exactly where to go since I had been there only two days before. We quickly closed the distance and slowly popped our heads out of the creek bottom. The turkeys were gone! I whispered to Dan that we might as well set up anyways to see if I could call them out of the woods – 150 yards away. I crossed the little creek, climbed up the bank, looked back towards the woods above me and caught movement. I pulled up my binoculars and saw a tom standing just inside the woods. I quickly told Dan to get down. The tom then walked out into the field once again. We were now pinned down and I was about 20 yards ahead of Dan (closer to the turkey) and Dan was still on the other side of the small creek. The tom started to follow the edge of the woods walking away from us so I had to hit the call. I let out a soft yelp and he gobbled right away. He then turned and started to walk right towards us across the field. Between the field and me, there was 30 yards of high grass. Dan did the best he could, slid down into the creek bottom and readied his gun from a standing position. The tom closed the distance quickly and eventually disappeared into the high grass. Dan crawled up the bank and set up 10 yards behind me. The tom popped his head up further to the left than I thought he would come from. He was only 30 yards away, but I was in the middle between Dan and him. The tom was drumming and looking right at me. We waited him out and he eventually he walked by us. Dan belly crawled up next to me and I thought for sure that we were going to get busted but we didn’t. About this time, the other tom came out of the woods along with the hen. I yelped once again and both toms gobbled. The one by the woods started to make his way over and the other tom was somewhere in the high grass right next to us. The tom by the woods was coming in fast (now only 75 yards away) and I started to concentrate on him. About that time, the first tom came back around and popped his head up only 30 yards away. Dan said, “Can I take him?” I whispered back “Wait until he’s out of strut”. I let out one more soft yelp, and on cue the tom he dropped his tail feathers, took a couple of steps and popped up his head up. Dan fired and the shot found it’s mark and the tom went down. The other tom flew off only 60 yards away. Dan (along with his Dad) was really excited about harvesting his first tom. It weighed 22lbs.-8oz., had a 10 ¾ inch beard, and 1 inch spurs.

The season couldn’t have ended any better. What a year! I first harvested a tom in MN during the third season, shot another tom during the WI 5th season and another one with my bow the last season. However, I’m more proud of calling in a tom for Tina, DeWayne and Dan and being a part of their hunt. To see their excitement and watch them pull the trigger was simply awesome. We will talk about these hunts for years to come.