This past spring was, once again, tough weather for turkey hunting. I had to cancel on 2 of my 3 groups of hunters due to bad weather. One of the storms dumped about 4 feet of snow on the hunting properties!
The last group of hunters of the year arrived and the birds were henned up and not wanting to come to a call. The best thing I could compare it to would be a Jr. High dance. The guys were lined up along the wall of the gym looking at the girls, but not wanting to approach them. The turkeys would look at the decoy(s) and might go into a half hearted strut and gobble a couple of times. We had one bird the first morning come in to 100 yards, put on a show and then wander off. I had never seen anything like it, talk about frustrating!
I used my knowledge of the country to get in front of a couple of birds the first evening and we had them, inside of 100 yards, gobbling fast and furious. All of a sudden they spooked and took off. I was really confused as none of us had been moving. I turned around and there was a herd of elk that had come out and was feeding about 15 yards behind me.
We had a ton of birds out there and we ended up harvesting 3. The second hunter declined chasing a second bird. Instead, he decided to run a camera. They released the episode a couple of weeks ago. Check out the link at the end of the article. Anyway, we had an absolute blast with some fantastic weather. The birds were tough, but we were persistent. I was even able to take my 5 year old out and was able to get a bird for the 3rd year in a row! If you are in the market for a nice private land hunt, I still have antelope and elk available.
Enjoy the video!