Doug Crabtree's Quest for the Grand Slam with the bow - 2000

To Texas in search of the Rio Grande

(April 2, 2000) Doug Crabtree arrived at my place at 4:30pm. A buddy of his from Ohio, Greg Metz, came along. Donald Duck and I took them to see our hunting area. When we were in the Pocket area Doug called to see if we got a response, He did and we located a Gobbler a little before roost time, in the direction of the river, which is the roost area. We saw a couple dozen deer as we looked around. We made plans for the morning. Doug and will go to the area we call Little River. I saw a gobbler roosted there a few days ago -- and it is historically a regular roosting place. Greg and Don will hunt near the Pocket.

(April 3, 2000 - morning report) Before daybreak Doug and I were at the Little River area. We hadn't been there two minutes before we heard the first gobble come from a roosted Tom. By the time daylight came we had heard 4 different gobblers and a few hens in the big trees on the banks of the Leon river. Doug set out his hen and jake decoys and popped up his blind. He has a blind called a Double Bull. it pops up in less than 10 seconds and has enough headroom to shoot a bow. It's sturdy and big, too, it held both of us, no problem. It has a carrying sack and is lightweight. (I was real impressed with it.) After daylight Doug called and all the gobblers answered. The birds flew down but they didn't come our way. We followed along as best we could and got a glimpse of some hens. Later I came back to my house to work on Net stuff and Doug saw some turkeys 400 yards off in a big coastal field. He slipped into the woods and called. They came within 15 yards of him but they turned out to be all hens. Meanwhile, Greg and the Duck got a gobbler talking at the Pocket and it came through following 2 hens. Seventy yards was the closest they could get. The gobbler would talk but wouldn't leave the hens.
(afternoon report) Doug went to the river and waited. He saw 4 gobblers and 1 hen roost. One of the gobblers came in but instead of investigating the decoys he roosted 40 yards away. Doug waited until it was dark and slipped out. He will be there in the morning. Greg talked to a few turkeys during the afternoon and saw the gobbler and 2 hens return and head toward the river to roost. The Duck got no turkey action but saw a wild hog move through the canyon area. I didn't hunt turkeys, I slipped back to the Hammer Hole and hunted wild hogs...

(April 4, 2000 - afternoon hunt)
Doug and Greg set up along the river at 4:30pm. At 6:00 a hen fed through, picking tops and chasing grasshoppers. At 6:30 they heard a gobble in the distance and Doug gave an assembly yelp. The gobbler soon came into view in the woods 60 yards away. Doug hen yelped and cut. He gobbled and strutted, but moved away, trying to make the hen decoy follow him to the roost. He roosted 200 yards away and gobbled occasionally. Two other gobblers sounded off. Doug clucked and yelped and when Doug saw them they were 150 yards off and closing. He stopped calling so they wouldn't hang up. They strutted when they were 60 yards away. The sun was getting low so Doug called excitedly to move them in. They broke into a run and closed the distance, but as they slowed down Doug realized they were preparing to fly across the river. Doug drew and when a gobbler was in his shooting lane he aimed and shot. But, he missed. The gobbler flew across the river and landed in a field. The second gobbler flew up nearby. The other gobbler returned to the river bank and the second gobbler flew across the river and both gobblers walked off, gobbling. Donald Duck set up Doug's Double bull blind and a hen came in and hang out with his decoys.
(morning hunt) Greg Metz heard the gobblers on the roost and walked to the river, popped up his blind, put out his hen decoy, and got in the blind. The blind has a waterfowl zipper opening in the top and Greg quietly opened it to call. He did a few hen yelps and clucks. They answered and Greg shut up. Several minutes later he did a fly down cackle and zipped the roof shut and waited. He heard the sound of birds flying down and looked. He saw two gobblers hit the ground 150 yards up the river's edge. They both started running for the hen decoy. On the way they stopped and full strutted 4 times. The last time they were 40 yards away.
Doug was set up 40 yards in the opposite direction watching it all. He made a few soft clucks and soft yelps (contentment calls) to move the gobblers closer to Greg.
The gobblers strutted up to the decoy 15 yards in front of the shooting window of the blind. Greg was at the window at full draw, aiming at the first gobbler in the window. He released. The bird ran 40 yards and expired. The other gobbler continued to strut. Suddenly a 3rd gobbler came running in to the hen decoy. The larger strutting gobbler cut him off and chased him completely out of the area. Then he returned and watched the hen decoy for 45 more minutes.
(April 5, 2000 - a wild turkey hunt in progress)
(Afternoon) Yesterday I heard a gobbler and some hens so today I took a mouth call with me, just in case. (It turned out to be a good move.) I also brought along a pole type tree trimmer and clipped a few branches out of two of the shooting lanes. (Another good move.) After a short wait I heard hens talking. I took out a new diaphragm call and cut four times. The cuts were clear and almost sweet sounding and I was surprised at how good they sounded. I turned the call over and yelped. The sound was loud and shrill, but a good pitch. I flipped it back over (the right way) and tried to duplicate the sweeter sound. But now it sounded too shrill -- so since I was not controlling my sound properly I put the call away and gave up on the turkey hunt idea. In minutes I heard something coming in the brush to my front and left. Wild hogs, I thought, and took the lens cap off my digital camera and focused through a shooting lane to get their picture.
Out past the immediate brush around me, I saw movement. The sun was still high and it lit up the approaching animal -- a round shape with bright, iridescent feathers -- I let the camera hang on it's lanyard and swiveled my seat so I could shoot through the lane. Another flash of sunlight caught the bird and I saw bright red on the front of it's neck.
I wanted to be at full draw when the gobbler was in the clear but I didn't have time. I froze when the gobbler stepped half way into the lane. It's head looked the area over in jerky movements.
The Tom moved forward into the clear and looked in the opposite direction. I slowly brought my bowstring back to the stops. The gobbler blew up -- in a strut. He was so puffed up I really had to study him to pick a vital spot to shoot. When I figured I had it right I held steady on-target and touched my release trigger. It was a solid hit. Very loudly he thrashed a short ways back the way he came and stopped. I got down and slipped over to where he should be. But he wasn't.
I took a few steps and spotted my pink fletching and went to the gobbler.
We have several old, very long-bearded gobblers and Doug Crabtree has been on one. This afternoon he returned and approached Doug's decoys, but stayed behind some limbs. Then the gobbler flew up 50 yards from Doug. After dark Doug slipped out. He'll return tomorrow. Greg and Don both saw several turkeys but no gobblers came close.
(Morning) Doug returned to the river and set up for the same longbeard he saw yesterday. Hens began talking and flew down. The longbeard flew down and moved toward the hens. Greg's birds flew across the river when they flew down. The Duck called in a hen and it camped out with the decoys.
(April 6, 2000) We talked turkey calling and told hunting stories on our buddies until midnight. It was fun but it made everyone overslept. Doug and Greg got to the river in time to see the boss gobbler kick a smaller gobblers butt and chase him into the next county. Interesting, but it meant the hunting was probably over for that area. They stayed anyway but nothing happened. The Duck called in some more hens. I heard a gobbler got in behind my house sounding off at 10:00. The Duck went home after lunch at the Red Barn.
(Afternoon) Doug and Greg went out at 3:30 and put a long afternoon in. Doug spotted the boss gobbler again and roosted him for the morning hunt. Greg saw some birds walking in the grain field -- on their way to roost. I returned to the Hammer Hole. At 5:48 I heard some hens yelping in the distance. I did a few clucks and yelps and shut up. I won't go into all the calling that was done, I'll cut right to the chase and say I called up my neighbor. But he was a proper sportsman and stopped at his boundary fence. (He never saw me either.)
(April 7, 2000)  Before daylight Doug and Greg heard 4 different gobblers sounding off on their roosts. The wind started blowing hard and continued all morning. They walked and called but nothing happened. The birds couldn't hear them and visa versa because of the wind. On the afternoon hunt Greg went to the fields and set up to call the gobbler he saw the night before. The wind blew his blind so hard he couldn't keep it stationary so he set up with his decoys and hunted inside the woods edge. One gobbler gobbled at dark. Doug returned for the boss gobbler. He had stakes to hold his blind down but the ground (that's how it is here) was so hard a stake broke. He held the blind down on the upwind side. Before sunset he saw the "boss" coming along the fields edge. The wind was too loud for calling to do any good so he "let nature take it's course" since he knew he was in between the gobbler and where he has been roosting. He lost sight of the gobbler in a dip. Bingo, the Tom showed up 25 yards away in his shooting window but before Doug could get his bow in action the gobbler moved on and flew up in the same roost tree he used the last 3 nights. Windy days are a problem when the wind blows as hard as it does in Texas. The hunters and the wild turkeys can't hear each other.
(April 8, 2000) (morning)  Doug and Greg got up at daylight and the wind was screaming. They hunted for 45 minutes and went back to the house. The wind was absolutely brutal.
(afternoon) The wind died down around 1:00. It's gusty but definitely huntable. Both Doug and Greg covered each end of the field that the "Boss" gobbler is crossing to roost. He came through with a hen and did not respond to calling or to the decoys. The Boss and the hen roosted in a tree on the rivers edge.
(The end of this hunt) When they returned to my house they loaded up their gear and pointed their big red pickup towards Ohio and home. There are more hunts to come...

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