BOWHUNT FOR THE RIO GRANDE
by Robert Hoague

Day 3 - Turkey Hunting With Billy Don
| Hunt 1 | Hunt 2 | Fred Gets His Rio |

Morning:
Fred Lutger's Hunt: One bird gobbled after daylight. Fred called and waited. Seven hens in a group came to Fred's decoys. He heard other gobbles but none responded. The Duck was with him on the video camera.

I did web site work instead of hunting.

Afternoon:
Fred Lutger's Hunt: At 4:45 Fred heard distant gobbles. Fred called. He was set up in a low area and the gobbler walked the ridge above in a quarter circle around Fred. He walked into an opening in the cactus and Fred saw him, a big longbeard. Every time Fred called he answered and he went into a strut. Fred got more aggressive and changed to different Woodhaven diaphragm calls. The longbeard spit and drummed, dragging his wings and vibrating. Then he left.

Another gobbler answered from the opposite side. A hen walked into view and came to Fred's decoy and stood 5 yards from the blind. Fred made light hen calls on the slate. A gobble sounded in the woods, 50 yards away. The hen made a bee line right to it.

Once it was almost dark Fred and the Duck packed up the blind and gear and as they stood waiting to be picked up they listened to gobbles from 5 different directions.

Meanwhile, Billy Don and I drove around and stopped to call from high spots. We picked up distant gobbles from 3 locations but they didn't come closer. Two hours before dark we stopped to call half a mile from the Super Secret stand site. A Tom gobbled right away. Billy Don carried the blind and I took my bow and calls and two fold up chairs and we moved down the road quickly and set up where there was a 15 yard open space to the right. I cut and yelped and the gobbler answered and came closer, gobbling all the way.

He hammered us from just inside the edge of the thick brush alongside the rocky, farm road. But he didn't come into the open. He stopped gobbling too. We waited 15 minutes and I yelped again. Two gobbles rang out in the direction the road led. I wanted to get closer to them and told Billy Don to hold up his half of the blind, I grabbed my side by the hub, we picked up our chairs and my bow and, staying inside the blind, we walked 100 plus yards down the road to be closer to the gobbles. We found a 20 yard opening and set the blind down and waited 5 minutes. When I called we got repetitive gobbles close by and to our right. We saw the Tom in the cactus looking our area over.

The one thing we did not bring with us was decoys and as we watched the gobbler walk away I was wishing that we had. Billy Don told me the Super Secret area was downhill about 80 yards and  where the road came out there was and oblong opening that went uphill. The opposite side of the woods was only 25 yards from our side and there were big trees scattered around. There was also a narrow spring fed stream. 

We definitely would be able to see better there so we grabbed the blind and again, staying inside it, moved it down the road to the edge of the oblong opening. After a 15 minute wait I yelped a big hello. Three gobbles answered, two in front of us and one to the right. Two hens entered the opening up hill and the gobblers all headed for them. Five minutes later I yelped again and two longeards came into view inside the woodline across from us. They kept quiet and looked around briefly, but were a few steps out of bow range. Then they went back into the trees. 

More hens came out of the woods and the shadows filled up with shade as the sun slid below the tip top of the trees. Seven longbeards crossed the clearing 50 yards to our right and hurried through the trees across from us on their way to their roost trees.

Two booming gobbles answered me from the top of the hill on the furthest edge of the opening. I talked to them and they walked into view on the hill, two tall Toms. The daylight clock was ticking so I gave them a volley of yelps. They ran down the hill in our direction and stopped 40 yards from us. They gobbled and I called, back and forth. And a little daylight faded away every second. 

Soon the two toms walked back to the top of the hill and I took their pic.

Once on the hill they looked back in our direction and gobbled. We exchanged calls and gobbles briefly and they walked into the woods to roost.

Back at the lodge I told Fred about this place and he and Billy Don made their plans to go there in the morning.

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Billy Don Van Cleave

Billy Don Van Cleave's Wild Horse Prairie Ranch We are bowhunting Rio Grande Wild Turkey with Billy Don. His ranch is the home of the Bowhunting.net Annual Bowhunt in October. He has bowhunts for trophy bucks, does and wild hogs. Plus Exotics: black buck, red stag, rams, aoudad and more. Billy Don, P.O. Box 199, Satin, TX 76685 Call: 254-749-6119 Fax: 254-546-2709 Email: bdvanc@aol.com Web: Wild Horse Prairie Ranch

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