Avid's Hunt Log

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

This year I am chasing less states and doing more local hunting. Something that always makes my home state a "challenge" is to go after a single season slam to kill an Eastern, Merriam, and Rio in the same season. Fortunate to me is that one of the better areas to hunt Eastern's (the hardest of the 3 in our state because of low population and choice of introduction habitat) is an hour to hour and a half from my house.

So starting in mid March I started taking the trips when the weather was best to go scout and have a listen. I've hunted these birds for many years and know of several pockets. Prior to season I had determined that there would be 3 areas I would focus effort into with a 4th tried and true spot held for reserve.

The other most interesting part to these pockets of birds is that some like to migrate around quite a bit sort of like a Merriam while other pockets well act like an eastern and general creek bottom over and over.

The first week of April is youth week now in my state. The Saturday of youth week happen to be one of the best breaks in the weather to date we had had. I was on the way back from a work trip when I stopped at a trusted Merriam property to watch 50 birds meandering in a field and fly right up to the roost as expected. As I continued my two hour drive home that Friday night I was troubled with whether I should take my girls out to shoot their first bird or selfishly scout easterns. They have sat in the blind with me and this year I had made the strategic purchases of a single shot .410 with a death grip bog tripod that I was sure we could work out getting them on a bird in the right scenario. Which this seam to be unfolding in front of my eyes. Little did I know that a little fate would play to the favor of my daughters.

4.5.25
When I got home I set an alarm for 2am to take the girls merriam hunting and a 3am alarm to go scout easterns. At 5:30am I woke up thinking I had blown the whole day. At 7:30am the girls came running in the bedroom relieved to find that I had not left without them and promptly asked when they were leaving. At this point I had taken them on enough scouting trips that I thought it would be best to take them out to see birds which would be for Merriams. We packed the car and were about set to leave a little before 9am when my lovely wife irritably mentioned that we should be spending time together as a family on such a nice day. To which I responded, pack the 2 yo and yourself and we will all go.

Now somewhere after 9am we hit the road and much to my wife and 2yo chagrin I took an additional back road on the way out causing my 2yo to get car sick and spit up her freshly eaten but now warm and slightly curdled yogurt breakfast a mere 30min from the house. As we sat there on the side of the road cleaning up the car seat and truck I somehow convinced my wife that all would be ok. I had friends we could stop at to clean up and we needed to proceed with the family adventure.

Around noon we pulled into town and grabbed some much needed lunch and then headed over to D & G's where we took the car seat apart, enjoyed lunch, and relaxed for a little. By now it was high noon, hot and I was sure hunting was only going to be practice. So we took the girls and my wife around the property to check it out and get my wife more comfortable for future adventures out there. The owner D explained that he had a clutch of turkey eggs that were left while he was haying a few years ago that one of his hens sat on and hatched a few turkeys. He never brought them in but they hung out around the chicken coup 50% of the day and now being 2 very nice Tom's maybe the girls should have a crack at them.

Now you all can cast as much judgement as you want but I thought about it. In fact I asked my wife what she thought and out of everyone on the farm she said no. I think this was a little fate. Because then we determined she should take the 2yo up stairs and they could both take a nap, while I run the girls down the road to the property with all the birds on it. Though again this was mostly going to be a practice run. It was nearing 4pm and we didnt see the birds on our way in. No sooner had we got to this property only 3mi down the road did my twins fall asleep in the back of my truck. The owner had also just pulled out when we were pulling in. I had cleared the hunt with him on the work trip the previous week for my girls or I this upcoming season. I let the girls sleep in the truck while I poked around a bit more to understand the birds travel roots and where would be the best spot to set up the blind to worst case ambush the flock. While doing so I made the occasional yelp, prr, cluck, what have you to see if a gobbler was around and interested.

I found a spot to park the truck proper and from one direction shield the blind from the main path I thought the birds would come but also set up a screen to the house etc. I went back to my truck and sat for another 15min. Worst case the blind and everything was ready for tomorrow morning. For reference I will call my twins A & E. Well A wakes up and I ask her if we should wake up E and go hunting to which she excitedly nods. With them both up I crack my door back open and hear a gobble as far as you can hear a gobble away. So far I thought I was making the noise up in my head. Though as I got out of the truck to let A & E out I hear it again. So I start to pick things up a little and get them ushered into the blind with their chairs. The bird is still gobbling and every time a little more clearer. I'm thinking that he could hear me earlier but I not him and with my long pause he has determined to investigate.

We get all set up in the blind, with decoys out 20 yds in front of us when I tell E to start practicing getting settled on a bird. Using my decoys as said bird. Go ahead and aim for that decoy right there. As we are just starting this process Mr. G the land owner pulls back up. I get out of the blind to politely check in with him to make sure he's happy with everything and let him know it sounds like a bird is coming. He ask why I havent shot my decoys yet not realizing they are fake. He has no sense of turkey hunting, no phone, just good old country folk and a good guy. Then like your worst nightmare possible A comes out of the blind to exclaim some squabble her and E are in does the Tom hop the creek and duck the fence to walk in the field some 120yds away. I quickly tell Mr. G we gotta go and A you need to get in the blind the bird is right there. Now I dont know if it was the landowners presence, us not being fully camo'd up but the bird didnt wig out. It definetly had that wth is going on kind of fading away but not wanting to leave about him. Landowner goes to the house, I get the girls settled back in the blind, and quickly pick up a slate to try to calm the bird down now still in the field but at 2pm and some 250-300yds away. It works. He stops gobbles and starts strutting. I keep talking to him and he kind of starts to break back towards us. Its at this moment I hear some tapping on the blind. Mr. G has brought my girls some M&Ms and Applejuice. Of course my girls have a new focus in there life, I'm dumb founded that he's waltz back out here while we are trying to turn the bird and as politely as I can, I tell him thank you, but to go away! I then have to refocus the girls and tell the girls to give it 10min and they can have all the Apple Juice and M&Ms they want. But it seams like this bird really wants to die despite all the possible ways you could mess this up. The landowner goes back to his house, I've convinced the girls to focus on the turkey and not treats when I start calling the bird again. He comes straight perpendicular across the field and starts marching along the road toward the decoys. I can't believe it. He gets shy of the decoys and starts to kind of fade out behind them. He then stops straight out in a posturing position frozen. This gives us enough time for me to confidently get E behind the gun. She confirms she has him, I check, she settles in and I tell her to squeeze the trigger..... In an abundance of safety I haven't pulled the hammer back. I tell her to take her hand off the trigger and she pulls the hammer back. She checks, I check, she checks the sight is still on the bird and I tell her to go ahead when she ready. The gun goes off and the bird falls like a sack of potatoes.

Now I don't know that you could do more things wrong on a hunt from getting up late to talking with a landowner twice in the wide open with the bird in your field, or not pulling the hammer back but it all worked out. We safed the gun and I let the girls run out to the field to see what they had done. A was jacked and wanted one for herself but we needed to get back to mom and I promised she would be on deck. It was unbelievable. Easily one of my favorite turkey hunts ever despite all the flaws in it.

Also, the wife at the end of the day when we pulled out of D & G's mentioned that some of the best days are the days with no plans. I honestly couldn't agree more. We went with the flow, made better friends, and were coming home with a bird that my daughter killed.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

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[avidnwoutdoorsman]

Back to the Easterns!

4.15.25
The weather took a big break for before the opener to the whole week being nice. Our opener is on the 15th (Tuesday) so I made a trip up Saturday to listen. Where there was birds there was not any more. Sunday went to another spot and did hear birds (5:50am first gobble). Monday brought a friend and we circled around on the drainage they were in to hear nothing except I did hear a bird a full drainage over (5:37am first gobble).... three drainages from Sunday Morning.

Tuesday morning my partner went into spot 4 the tried and true spot and I head to pray for a play on the bird I heard on Monday. I showed up and was out of my truck shortly after 4am. Planning to hunt the opposite side of the drainage as it seamed to favor the bird and where he would want to fly down to I started up the road towards the roost. I hadn't accounted for the road being against the trees. Usually the road is 100yds from the tree. Being all to careful but having a bit of a full moon I walked up the road to what I thought was near where he was probably roosting but maybe a little below him. I didnt want to walk under or adjacent to him. I found a very helpful tree that was left to tuck into as the area I was in was a fresh fresh cut, less than a year old and brown. I set my decoys up in the road and got settled in. As "gobble" time rolled around and I hear nothing I begin to panic a smidge. This bugger moved off again! Just as I'm contemplating what to do or if I should back out and go to work as it neared almost 6am a gobbled rang out 100 yds below me. Uh-oh. I have my back to him, I am way above him where he cant see me. (I say all this because our easterns love decoys. That is the one positive to them). And then I hear a hen. I'm thinking this is going to be way hard now. I catch my composure and begin to talk to the hen... well I decide I should call over her. This gets the bird fired up. I hear them both fly down below me out of site when I turn around 180 so that I am still inside the fallen tree but it is now in front of me and I am facing down the road he should come up... if he comes up. I make a few more prrs and yelps that he answers to but I cant tell if he is going away or coming to. Then I get the gobble we hope for that he is definetly moving closer. Then comes the ever so pleasing spit drum and I know he is just over the crest about to pop his head up. Which he does and when he does he starts kind of waking with his head up trying to figure out where that hen was that was talking sweet delights. I squeeze the trigger and down he falls at 20 steps. The biggest leg of the single slam is out of the way.

Besides the countless hours of time to get up at 4am to drive an hour+ north to listen for 30min to then drive back to work, soccer, church or whatever the hunt went fairly well. All the scouting and effort I put in before the season paid off. The weather came good again and I think God had it in that I took my daughters out that he would give me this bird. It was a short scripted hunt.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

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[avidnwoutdoorsman]

4.16.25
Well fortunate for me as I was prepared to keep making the journey to help my buddy find an eastern but after taking Wednesday off before work to catch some sleep he tagged an eastern of his own. Now he has the two weeks off so he can keep hunting while I work. He was planning to go hunt Merriams in a more popular part of the state but knowing he where he was heading I told him that I had an area that was very new to me but was holding birds from what I have seen and the reports I had from coworkers working on a project in the area (I'm blessed they dont turkey hunt). I sent him three pins, Spot A, Spot B, and Spot C. I told him go to spot A and since they were merriams he could probably get a gobble off the roost. I didnt know where they slept I just new they were in that area. So that evening he headed up to Spot A and had just got turned around when he decided to get out of his rig and have a look around. There right below him was a small flock of turkeys one with a full fan. He put them to bed so the hunt was on in the morning.

4.17.25
I made plans to meet him at a predetermined location about 200yds from the roost behind a hill at 4:30am. We walked the road below where the birds were roosted. The road above was the sort of main road and he had seen them on this road the night before. We found a good spot to tuck in and set up for the morning. What wasnt known was if there were two toms of just the one tom and some jakes.

As world started to lighten up a bit a gobble from the roost sounds out. Now I am in the most peculiar configuration to hide that I am about to loose it. Half focused on not cramping, breaking my back, or moving to much I feel I can hear another bird gobble. But I cant tell if it is a jake gobble or not. Eventually they fly down and are well out of site that I can adjust and get in a better position. Now since my friend had come a long ways for this hunt I told him if there was only one full fan he should take the bird. I'm probably all wrong in this but its been working that I start by over calling. There are two boys and 2 girls here and they are as content as heck to stay on this nob some 120yds up the hill looking down on us. I cant get my slate to run so buddy does some nice yelps that get a gobble but really fire up the hen. He's probably thinking I'm nuts but I get my call running and start making those long deep prrs with my striker on my slate. Call it a fighting prr. This kind of gets everyone in a hissy. We do every variation where him and I call together for a bit. We do nothing for a long bit. We call some more and everything and nothing seams to working on these birds. Though sure enough after almost 80min of coaxing the Tom steps in range. I admit before the shot was taken I asked if I should shoot the jake to seal a double. I havent shot a jake in 6 years and that was for a fan to put on a decoy.
Buddy shoots and drops the Tom. But no one else spooks. The hen keeps walking to us. I cant see the other male bird everyone just kind of almost froze. I want to see the other bird attack his now dead compodre to get a better look at him but after 2 or 3 min still nothing. So I slowly start to stand up gun raised and as I get around a wood pile there he is just standing there. He has way more red on his head and waddle than a jake so I squeeze off accepting the results however they are.
He was the Toms little brother. Everything about the two matched with size and spurs but the one I killed had beard rot where his was only 4" with the double band of blonde tips where it broke. I'm surprised he didnt punk his brother being down but excited nonetheless we had doubled on two very pretty Merriams in a spot I had never tried to hunt and only knew about in the last year.

So now the rest of the season will be a mixed bag of taking the daughters our and me trying to kill my Rio. Plotting what to do next weekend with a soccer game for the girls Saturday Morning at 10am and after if we go hunt Merriams again or Sunday we go to a friends in OR or we all go hunt Rios together.

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

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[GobbleNut]

Congratulations on all the success, Christopher! Great stories and pics.   

[JeffC]

Congrats to your daughter, that had me laughing while reading all that circus you had going on!! Congrats to you and your buddy on the double.

[crow]

Nice work Chris, good job getting your daughter out

[YoungGobbler]

I just read your hunt with your girls. What a nice story, I call these days « when you were made to kill ». Whatever you do you end up killing... I will read your others stories soon. Thanks!

[avidnwoutdoorsman]

4/26/25
Work got a little squirrelly so my trip to UT got bumped up a week. Aka I was going to be hunting the opener on Monday. I had the green light to leave some time in the afternoon and take the "long" way meaning through OR/CA/NV instead of OR/ID.

Leaving a little before 4pm I was poised to hit a friends in southern Oregon before they hit the roost. There isn't much to this hunt as I pulled in at about 7pm and as I get out of my truck I see some birds below working their way up to the roost. I grab my stuff and simply loop above them. By the time I sit down they are on top of me and with a yelp they lift their heads and I take the biggest one out of the group. Nothing special but this is kind of a depredation hunt or what prevents the land owner from getting dep tags and wiping out the flock.

Take a couple photos and I hit the road headed to a familiar spot in NorCal. Pulling off I-5 at midnight will continue the log tomorrow.


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[avidnwoutdoorsman]

4/27/25 (aka my Birthday)

Driving up the mountains the rain turns to snow and it's coming down pretty good. I hit the small town and there is a good 3" on the ground. Optimistic because the weather is suppose to break at 3am and my spot has no snow as it's an odd semi protected valley I get some gas and settle in for some shut eye around 2/2:30am.

Just before gobble time I wake up and get ready and much to my distaste there is a little fresh snow on the ground (weather didn't break obviously) and I start to doubt if the birds have pushed up this high yet. No matter I'm here I might as well give it a go.

I step out of the truck and don't hear a gobble. I wait a bit more and then set off on an old skid tract. I come to my third clearing where I let out a series of yelps and get a response 400yds across the wide open field in the timber a little. Well I'll be darn. I yelp again to get a better location on this bird thinking I'll sneak around when he answers and so does another at my 5 o clock but even further. But that bird I can close the distance through the woods and hopefully he's on the near side of the field. I slowly ease my way through the woods when I spot 3 birds about where that gobble should have been from but again across the field. However at this spot the field is only 150 yards across. As I get to the edge the caught my movement and started to move away. I just stopped and sat down and began calling. They calmed down and stopped about 250 yds away. After some convincing they turned my way and began to come to me to investigate what was up. Having to take cover in a prone position I watched them march right to me but then whoops! They slam the breaks and kind of stand up walking back and forth. Looking like they were going to bounce, having the best possible rest, and poorly judging then under 40yds I squeezed off. They scatter and one is hobbling away. I get up in a full sprint to finish the bird when I see why they stopped. There was a runoff in the middle of the field probably 10' wide and knee deep. In a split second decision I judged one well time step into the creek and bound onto the other side where I was now close enough for the follow up shot and finished the bird.
In extreme disbelieve I picked him up and started the wet slogging trip back to the truck.
Short on time and wanting to take this specific photo I loaded up and ran up to the park entrance for the photo. Unfortunately it was all socked in but oh well. I loaded up again now really pressed for time and headed for UT.
(Skipping the 12 hr drive across NV and well into Utah) I did get changed at the first gas stop, stopped again for gas, and dressed the birds.
I met up with my good friend who I was suppose to hunt with back in '20 right at roosting time. Hopped in his truck and out we went watching the birds fly up from about 200 yds away. He had then well patterned.

 

[JeffC]

Congrats and Happy Birthday. Safe travels.

[Happy]

Well done, Chris. You'r making the most of your time.

[Happy]

Well done, Chris. You'r making the most of your time.