First turkey hunt....

supersider34 · Post by **supersider34** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:35 pm

I arrived in Spokane to meet Lou my friends wife. Who made the ride to meet John very pleasant. She showed me around Post falls and Lake CDA. We had time to kill till I met up with John. Lou showed me some very beautiful sights and a great time while we waited. 2 PM rolled around and we went to meet John. I also met the guy Rocky whos place we where going to hunt. We followed Rocky upto his place is a hour from job site. We arrived and Rocky showed us where the turkeys where feeding and hanging out below his house. I found tracks in the mud from them. Was pretty excited then. He took us around to see his place which was beautiful. Rocky then told us he was hearing them back up the draw of his house. We drove up there and he stopped and there was a jake running up the road. We jumped out and I threw my call in my mouth and did whatever you guys call it hen call I think. I heard gobbling as soon as I stopped up above us. I told John to grab the bow. I called again and the gobble again.I heard 2 this time. I told John just load the shotgun. he loaded it and still tried to get the bow ready just incase. By then I saw them coming threw the tree's. I moved up the hill about 10 yds off road and this Tom kept gobbling as I called. John had his bow ready but I was already up the hill. The Tom was now 25 yds from me. I called he picked up his head gobbled and I fired and he fell over flopping. That was it. I shot my first turkey. As I was standing there in my white tank top and camo pants I reflected on this hunt. Why did I bring more camo calls and face mask than I needed. I took my rangefinder bino's and cam corder which I never got the hunt because it happened so fast. I watched and read all about turkey hunting from others and it happened all in about 2 minutes or less. I didnt even get time to get excited. I thought it would be strutting turkeys misses and chasing them around. But it was great to be out there. Just kidding to you guys that put all that time in on the hunt. I know it is fun. this was friday night. We even made time to get to church that night also. What a first hunt.
Sat. we hung out at John's house and did go out to check out his bear bait site and see some more country. North Idaho is very beautiful and I do not envy them guys up there hunting elk or anything else up there. That is some rough country. That is some great country though. John took care of my bird for me and showed me how to take care of a turkey. He saved my wings so I can make a great fan and wing and beard mount. Lou and John made my stay there very comfortable and very at home.
We did get to chase them around on Sun. We left out early in the morning looking for bears with another guy I met named Randy. John and Randy took me all over and we even got to see some turkeys in the morning but I think with the rain they where not answering us. It cleared up around noon and we started seeing mule deer, WT's, and even elk. So we headed back up to Rockies place to check out the turkey situation. Rocky was home and told us again where he was seeing the turkeys. We stopped and called and they answered. We put the stalk on again. We chased them around all over the mountain for a couple hours and seen and heard probably 4 or 5 different Tom's. It was exciting today as John could of shot any of them if he had his shotgun. but John is a bow hunter. he wanted a good Tom with his bow. That was awesome seeing them strutting and us trying to work them. This was great. John was great to hunt with. Me and Randy tried working them. We where do the calling. It was awesome. Now I was getting excited and you talk about frustrating at the same time. they did not cooperate with us to well. This day I know what you guys go threw hunting them. LOL
To no avail did we get one this day.
Like I said my turkey weighed in at 25 lbs and has a 9" beard. spurs under a inch though. they where rounded off like this bird was fighting. I have no idea why they are small. Randy and his wife shot a couple turkeys Fri. night also. My turkey weighes more and beard was longer but Randy's Tom had long spurs. The turkeys in Rocky's area do not get hunted so i can see why it weighs so much.
I woulld like to Thank John and Lou for making my stay with them a very eventful and pleasant stay. They both made me feel really at home and opened there home up to me. Also to Randy for going with us on Sun. had a great time. cant wait till Antelope because John will come down here to hunt them.
But here are the pics. I am going to post some pics later of the legs on this Turkey.

Post by **MuleyMadness** » Mon May 01, 2006 3:47 pm

SWEET!

Looks like a good/big bird to me. thanks for the pics and story.

Post by **BOHNTR** » Mon May 01, 2006 9:47 pm

Way to go SS34!

AGCHAWK · Post by **AGCHAWK** » Tue May 02, 2006 7:45 am

Supersider34, Great bird my friend! Sounds like you had a great time too!(Much more important as far as I am concerned)

Post by **a_bow_nut** » Tue May 02, 2006 10:42 pm

Very nice turkey you have there. Thats the one thing that kills me about hunting. Why is it so easy one time and so hard the next?

Stickkicker · Post by **Stickkicker** » Thu May 04, 2006 9:47 am

Great bird, sounds like things got a little western. Thanks for the story and pics.