Turkey Hunt Video With Camera and GoPro

[Hunter1979]

Hello,
I posted a video of my Michigan bird last week.  Since my season ended in under an hour, I've been hoping to make it back out, and I was finally able to take someone else out (as he's never hunted a field) and call and run video for them.  We started before daylight and got everything setup.  Our birds were extremely talkative on the roost.  Birds sounded like they were roosting in every tree in the woods to the south.  Every touch of the call brought on a new set of gobbles, and we buckled down for a productive hunt.  The first thing we saw was a hen making her way into the field, eating along the edge.  After some more calling we now had hens chirping back amongst the gobbles.  Two more hens came right in, and all three of them started feeding our way.  Another hen started cackling from the woods, so we got aggressive toward her, and she came to investigate...with a locked up boss tom behind her.  Immediately, he corralled all 4 hens into his harem and proceeded to shuffle them across the field, then over a hill, and out of sight.  During this time he fended off a goose, sand hill crane, and whitetail deer that were all in the field and close to his ladies.  Make no mistake about it, these were his hens, and his field.  Two jakes had the misfortune of coming close...he sent them packing.  After calling and waiting, the tom and his hens were gone, but the jakes came to investigate my decoys.  This is where my video starts.  While calling to, and riling up the jakes (who then started to attack my decoy), I caught the attention of another hen.  This time, she had two toms with her.  They came out of the trees and glided full strut into the field.  To make a long story short, after another batch of calling and waiting, these two toms disappeared back into the woods, following their hens.  It's so hard to compete with live birds.

After a break, we decided to hit the same spot again in the afternoon.  Within fifteen minutes of setup we had a hen who came into the field, bedded down within 15 yards, and started dusting.  We got a little more excited this time at the notion of a hen within distance, but soon two more hens came into view, and once again started feeding away from us.  We started calling and got the attention of two toms who started repeatedly gobbling and working our way.  A sense of deja-vu soon fell upon us though, as the toms looked at our decoys, looked at the hens, and then once again started following the live birds.  They stayed within our sights for well over a half an hour, and after some sweet talking on the calls, caught the attention of one of the hens, and both toms.  They all headed for the decoys.  At this point, it was all over but the shooting.  Luckily, this time, I did not set the GoPro on a tripod, and it did not scare off any birds...they never even knew it was there.  I'm going to try mounting it to a piece of wood, just to get it off the ground a little higher next time.  So, in the video below, I have the regular camera footage, and footage with my GoPro at the feet of the birds.  It's been a great early season, and hopefully, I get to go out and call and video one more time during regular season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX_u56aiqWo

[slwayne]

Nice vid.  Love to see Michigan represented.

[RutnNStrutn]

Awesome video!!!

[RIO GRANDE MAN]

Cool video!  I recently bought a GoPro with plans to shoot a dual camera hunt.  Now, I've definitely have to do it.  Congrats!

[kyturkeyhunter4]

  Awesome video!

[Uncle Bucky]

great awesome footage

[Hunter1979]

Thanks!  Adding the gopro is definitely exciting!  Just make sure it's not too high off the ground. The first hunt I filmed this year, it was up about a foot off the ground between the decoys and about three yards back. Caused two Toms to freeze up because that's where they wanted to strut. I think I'm just going to mount it to a piece of wood so it's just a little off the ground.