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Triple Double Grand Slam Bowhunt
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BOWHUNT
FOR THE RIO GRANDE
Missouri Turkey Hunt:
Day
1 | Day 2 | Day
3 | Hunt Review |
Bowhunt With Rick Philippi:
Day
1 | Rick's Hunt | Fred's
Grand Slam }
The
Last 2 Weeks
May 8 Hunts
Morning: Lately I've
been using Pro Ears to make sure I can hear every possible gobble. With
gobbler sightings going down hill I need all the help I can get for locating
them. The Pro Ears are excellent for hearing enhancement and I know several
shotgun hunters who use them because they reduce the noise of the shot
and protect people's hearing.
Two different gobblers sounded
off by the river before daylight. And I picked up two distant gobbles I
would not have normally heard. After they flew down the gobblers got the
hush mouth. A deer browsed on the bank across the pond.
Then I saw a periscope head
on the slope of the dam.
A hen. It walked up on the
dam, eye balling my Hazel Creek taxidermy jake.
It puffed up its feathers
to get the decoy jakes attention.
Then it headed for the jake
decoy.
The hen came right to the
decoy. Unlike the gobblers the hen did not peck or shove the decoy. It
paused behind it and then passed on by.
The hen clucked and made
soft yelps the entire time.
I mimicked its vocalizations
and it stayed on the dam 10 minutes.
AFTERNOON HUNT: I
went to a high spot on the property and waited, thinking I would at least
hear a gobble and get a direction for it. But even the Pro Ears couldn't
catch a gobble. There just were not any. No turkeys, male or female, either.
May 4 - 7: Updates
No gobbles or gobbler sightings
Friday thru Monday. I changed areas every time out. This afternoon at the
River I heard two different gobbles at roost time. They came from the area
where the Dam is. Then I heard a turkey fly up. It sounded like it was
on my side of the river. Tomorrow morning I will go to the Dam and see
if I can convince those two gobblers to join me on the dam.
Afternoon Hunt at Rick's
 
When Rick and I set up we
didn't know it yet, but it was gonna be a big gobbler happening longbeard
afternoon with an unexpected twist. And a little on the spot video for
ya, too. GO...
Back To Rick's - Day 2
Rick left to get the truck
and 10 minutes later a big longbeard was coming to me. GO...
TREE APRON - Field Test
Can it replace your turkey
vest? I think so. GO...
Back To Rick's - Day 1
Afternoon Report: It
was looking good, until... GO...
Morning Report: Jason
Balazs met Rick and I and we took to the turkey woods. GO...
To
The Point
Day 3 - At 5:36am
I was awake, showered, coffeed up, had my hunting clothes on and had opened
the front door and was outside. One step off the front porch and big rain
drops came spattering down out of nowhere. A quick step backward got me
back under the porch's roof.
Boooom!
A blast of thunder lit up
the coal black sky and shook the real rain lose. I went inside and drank
a cup of coffee and checked Weather.com and we were in for heavy thunder
showers all morning long. At five to six it was raining as hard as rain
can fall. I slipped back under the covers.
At 3:00 the rain had settled
into slow drizzle. Good enough, I drove to the Point and took up my vigil
there. Here is a picture of my taxidermy decoy and my shooting area to
the right. If you followed the 2006
deer hunt this probably looks familiar.
This is the left shooting
window. Actually there is a little more shooting area than it looks like
in the picture, but a bunch of new growth limbs and leaves have plugged
up the places where I can shoot.
Between 5:00 and 6:15 I
heard
half a dozen gobbles from the direction of and area we call the Canyon
as well as the River. They were not real close but they were not distant
either. After that it was eventless. I suppose it is kinda silly to be
excited about hearing a few gobbles but I definitely was. Tomorrow morning
I was lugging my blind to the Dam above the river. From what I heard it
should be in the middle of the gobbling action. Ahhh, live is god in the
turkey woods.
To The
River
Day 2 - Once it was
daylight I took a picture of my Hazel Creek jake decoy, standing at the
ready to lure in any unsuspecting gobblers that either wandered by or that
I called in. So far it hadn't been very promising, the pre daylight and
early daylight were gobbleless and gobblerless.
The jake decoy above is
in my left shooting window. The picture below is the shooting window on
the right. It gives me coverage on a high spot that turkeys congregate
on in the afternoon before roost time. They like to fly across the river
from this high spot. Also, they pass through here in the morning.
The picture below was taken
as I left the area at 11:15am. Not a single gobble. No gobblers either.
I returned in the afternoon and had the same result.
Starting
Point - The Gate
Day 1 - Half an hour
before sunrise I was at the Gate and ready to hear and see some gobblers.
The sunrise was breathtaking, reds, pinks and yellows sandwiched between
the black tree line and the rich blue sky. I leaned back and my small fold
out chair and took it in. Heck, if I didn't' see a gobbler it was worth
it for such a sunrise.
Daylight crept into the
field in front of me but the sky held its fire in the sky color for quite
a while. Again, beautiful.
For last two year's the
Gate was rockin' with gobble action. I waited there until 11:00am. No gobblers.
No hens. Not even any gobbles ... faint or loud. So I returned for the
afternoon hunt. Several times I saw a hen walk around at the far edge of
the field. It probably has eggs somewhere there in the grass.
But no gobbles and no gobbler
sightings. Tomorrow I will go to the river. Surely I will hear some gobbles
there.
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