Wild Turkey Hunting 2010
Here are some great birds we found while scouting in February 2010
Sonoma County Spring Wild Turkey Season 2010!
Featured Hunt
Chris and His Daughter Alexandra in the blind.
Chris and Alexandra and her 19 lb. 10" Bearded Tom with 3/4 inch spurs! What a dandy! Good job Alexandra!
A late season junior hunt that was just like a storybook hunt.
On her first turkey hunt we had to move to a second set-up as the birds were wary and on the move. They had moved down the canyon following the creek and a hen or two. We decided to get ahead of them and call them up a hill. We were in place for five minutes and heard a gobbler at the bottom on the hill.
Chris, Alexandra and Guide TJ
I called and heard another gobble and a hen challenging the call. After a bit of careful calling we heard a thunderous gobble from 100 yards to our right. An old logging road wrapped around the hill and we knew he was on it coming our way so I stopped calling and waited... Suddenly a hen came marching through clucking and purring like she was looking for a fight while we stayed motionless and quiet. Then we heard another huge gobble, but this time it was really close!
Alexandra started trembling with adrenaline and excitement! Chris says "The first one is a hen... don't shoot her". I say to Alexandra, "Breath and relax it is just a bird." Trying to calm her down. Then I said, "A bigger bird is going to appear, that will be the one we want" She replies with eyes wide open "I see him!" I move my eyes to the right and sure enough here he comes. He was a monster of feathers! He was at full strut! Scrapping his wings on the ground and cranking his tail from side to side. It was an awesome sight to see! I just hoped that the hen would not spot us as she was right in front of us looking everywhere for the hen that she heard. The tom stopped about 44 yards away and was waiting for the hen to make a move. When she finally put her head down and started feeding from right to left just past us, the tom started to move towards us. It seemed like hours. But in several long minutes the tom made his way behind the bush that we had said would be the mark of him being in range. The tension was unbelievable. As soon as he strutted behind that bush, Chris said to Alexandra "Put you head down on the gun and get ready". She did just that and started aiming at where he should pop out. Then he did just that. He pops his head out to the left of the bush as if he knew something was up. "Aim at his head and squeeze the trigger" I said. She takes her time to get everything lined up and then.... BOOM!
She makes a perfect shot from 23 yards away and drops him in his tracks and put no BBs in the meat. PERFECT!
Alexandra shoots the best beard of the year! 10 inches!
Congratulations Alexandra, you are the RWGS TURKEY HUNTER OF THE YEAR!
She's not the only one who harvested great birds this year...
This is a big bird Paul's bird weighs in at 23+ pounds and was quite the challenge! It was an all day hunt when the weather was not on our side. The barometer was on the move and the birds were not playing. Yet after a hard day of trying to get a tom to present himself, we had to make some kind of move. We started to leave the field at 2:45PM hoping to get lucky somewhere when we saw the bird I had been calling. He was coming, just really slowly. We scrambled back into the area where we were and made some adjustments. Paul went low to where a clearing along the creek would put the bird there if it should pass Matt and I. I called to the bird and still no gobbles. He was coming, just not gobbling. As he was approaching, Matt and I were trying to get the bird to come up into the grassy filed just below out clump of trees that we were using for cover. Again I called and when the tom was inside 60 yards, he let out a gobble. The big bird turned down onto the clearing that leads to Paul. I called again and he turned right for us. If he makes another 15 yards up to us, Matt was ready to take him. But he turned again and started feeding on flowers. We couldn't get a clear view of him through the brush. As he fed down and back toward where Paul was I shouted "he's coming your way!" hoping to give Paul a chance to adjust as the bird was coming in a bit behind him... there was several minutes of silence and then.... BANG! Paul nails a nice bird with a 9" beard and big spurs! It was a group effort to get this bird at 3:25PM. What a long hunt!
Bud does it again!
I must say hunting with Bud is always a treat. He has the experience and the patients. He enjoys every day afield and really only cares about being outdoors sharing the camorodery. This hunt was great because we knew where this big tom lived and had been schooled by him before. Amber had gone after him once and another bow hunter had him at 19 yards and the big old bird would just walk away. Well I brought another big old bird named Bud who had high hopes for a good year turkey hunting. Once again, after a long nap, Bud gets his bird. I called this bird from way over the mountain a couple of canyons away. He took a couple of hours to show up. I called about once every 30 minutes. No gobbles again until he was coming over the top of our hill. Through the green ferns and little blue and yellow flowers, he came in walking and gobbling all puffed up and looked handsome! As soon as he got in range Bud squeezes one off and dropps that bird right where he was struttng. 21lbs. 9" beard and 1 1/4 "spurs!
Lees' annual hunt 2010
The drive was worth it I must say. This was one of the most amazing hunts! Lee and I hunker in for a few days of chasing birds. We did some scouting, located some gobblers and had some challenges with toms still on hens and the hens taking them away. On this day it was different, we had gobblers on four sides of us and it sounded like they were all ready to play. We try first at the top of a hill where we could call out to several parts of the canyon. But the birds were staying low. It sounded as if they wanted to stay in the tree-line and they must have had hens in the oak forest. We decide to move down into the trees and set up. We found an old tree that had fallen and it offered great cover. We tucked our selves in and started calling. Right away we had several replies. It sounded like two were coming from our upper right, one was straight across the valley and one was to our left under a large Douglas Fir tree. The two that were on the move were coming fast, we agreed to go for these birds if they got within 25 yards. Well they got closer than that. They came in quiet and when they did gobble, they were right behind us! I mean 6 or 8 feet behind us! I whispered "Don't move!" They knew right where the calling came from and were there to check it out. They checked it out alright, they walked so close to our downed tree that I could see there feet as they came around our right side. I could even look under enough to see a small beard on one of the birds. The two birds walked right around to the front of our set-up and leaned in and looked right at us! We were frozen motion-less praying that our camo would fool them into thinking we were just a couple of trees. What seemed like minutes was probably many seconds but when you are trying to remain still, time is not on your side.
Lee drove 3700 miles to hunt spring turkeys in northern california!
A gobble came from the tom under the fir tree, he had not moved from his strutt zone at all. But his gobble got the two young gobblers to turn away from us and they treated us to a doulbe-gobble at 5 feet! They were just a foot or so from our feet so it was loud and exciting! The trouble was that the tree laying down in front of us blocked our veiw of their chests. We could not see which one was legal. I had only seen one birds beard and we couldn't tell which one it was. So we let them walk away. They went around to our left and went right back up behind us. We could finally adjust ourselves and get the blood back in our butts and legs. I called again and get the same responses. The two behind us and the other two whom have not moved from their original locations. They probably had hens. The two near us decided to make another pass around where we were calling from. As they got louder I saw their feet again. I looked under the tree again and again I saw only of the birds chests and it had a beard, not a big beard but a good bird either way. This time he was way behind the first turkey who was coming around the tree already. I whisper to Lee "The second bird is legal for sure!" As the first bird glances our way he turns down the hill and started feeding. As the second bird rounded the turn, Lee was locked in and ready. The bird passed about 8 yards in front and I heard the saftey come off. The bird got to about ten yards and BANG! Lee shoots him clean! Down he goes! We were fired up! What an amazing thing to happen! I called and got gobbles from all the birds. The second of the two was walking away toward the first bird which dropped on the trail below. I said to Lee,"can you see if there is a beard on the second bird?" He could see from where he was that there was in fact a beard on the other bird. "It's small" Lee said "but it's there." I whispered "hand me the gun." I knew it was a long shot but I climbed out of the blind and started over the edge where both birds had gone. As I crest I see Lees' bird flat. The other bird was right near there and when he saw me he started with two big steps and he started flying toward the valley in front of us. I pulled up to see the climbing birds head right behind my bead, WHAM! and down he goes! We did it! We got both birds on the annual family turkey hunt!
The famous double-bearded bird that everyone tried for...
The double bearded Tom, on the right, had eluded many hunters...
A Navy Corpsman, an amazing turkey, and an amazing shot!
The day was simply awesome! We set up at first light. The birds I had scouted were gobbling from their roosts. The tree cluster we chose for a blind was going to be great! A large portion of the tree had fallen and was lying down-hill from where we were set up at the base of the part of the tree that was still standing. It looked like great cover for us and the grassy hill that rolled down and away from us was to the left of the down tree. Perfect, this should work. I put the decoy a little off to the right so an approaching tom would have to step way into the clear to strutt for the decoy. Well the big bird came in to the calls. That was exciting! But then he chose the only spot we couldn't see, right behind that downed tree to our left. The tom was 30 yards or less straight downhill, but we had this big tree right in the way. After being still for way too long, Steves' arm was falling off from holding the gun for too long and not moving a bit. I was able to reach the shooting stick and prop it up under his gun so he could remain ready. An eternity passed as we waited for this bird to make a move.
His gobbles started sounding farther away to me. I said to Steve" Is he moving?" Steve could see him and could tell that he was getting further away. He had gobbled at the fake hen long enough without her moving, so he was going to leave. And that is what he started doing. I peeked through the branches only to see the bird walking over the edge, he was already pretty far away. I clucked and purred which made him stop, but he wouldn't come back up the hill. His head was straight up in the air and Steve had a bead on him. I knew he had a turkey choke in his gun so it should reach the bird, but it was pretty far. I said "I would try it if I were you, he isn't coming back." Only a second or two went by and KABOOM! He shoots and knocks the bird down hard! AN AMAZING SHOT! We were thrilled! We hurried down to where the bird was only then to realize that it was the double bearded bird that we had ecountered in the recent past. Awesome! We took out the range finder and ranged the blind from where the bird was hit and a whopping 66 yards between the blind and this awesome Tom Turkey! Great shooting Steve!
The long shot of the year was this 66 yarddropping of the double bearded Tom!
It's not over for 2010 yet...
Juniors & Bow hunters may hunt turkeys until May 16th 2010!
and
*Fall Season: Nov. 13 - 28 1 bird per season, either sex.*
Upland Game Bird Stamp Required.
Department Of Fish & Game Information
Spring 2009 Wild Turkey season in Northern California was a blast!
Lee, Lana, Amber & Guide TJ with a great bird for 2009!
Running Wild Guide Service
In the BlindSprrkeys On the Strut
In the Bag
Making dreams come true.
