Talking
Turkey in 2006
By Tony Kuehn © 2006
This
year was the fourth time in my life I have hunted turkeys.
I am old enough to recall when they were first re-introduced
about 30 years ago. I didn’t get around to hunting
them for the first time until 1993. At that time the big
concentration of birds was in the Southeastern part of the
state and when I told friends and family I was hunting 
them
with a bow after the second year they thought I was nuts.
Those first two seasons proved to be relatively unsuccessful.
While I did see some birds I recall being very frustrated
by; the amount of work it took to get to the ridges that
held some birds, the limited hunting period (toms always
showed up 5-10 minutes after 12:00), and the overall stealth
of the birds in avoiding my attempts to locate them. The
third time I hunted them I had birds in front of me but
not close enough 
to
shoot. However, I did watch a friend sitting next to me
take bird with his gun last year and that was pretty exciting.
Dad’s Little
Helper
Minnesota has
a healthy turkey population stretching as far North as Thief
River Falls. I attended a seminar given by a Madelia researcher
a few years ago and it seems there isn’t that big
of a geographical barrier to the turkey’s range. If
they can find 
adequate
food they can survive temps in the range of -50 degrees
F or worse. Recently, the Twin Cities news channels where
covering a story about the wild turkey hanging out at Galtier
Plaza in downtown St. Paul. There also have been recent
stories of a business man being chased down a sidewalk on
his way to work and schoolchildren being harassed by toms
at their bus stop. Plenty of birds in local parks and hobby
farms surrounding the metro too. The expanding population
also means more birds in the more remote areas where I like
to hunt and it opens up more possibilities for landowner
access as they are starting to get concerned that there
are too many turkeys. Remember when Canadian honkers first
started coming back? Now look at them! Hunting is a good
way to keep the populations in check and landowners quickly
get the picture. I think the predators catch on too as there
seem to be plenty of hawks, owls and coyotes in the area
as well.
My
2nd Home for 5 Days
One
of my neighbors living on a farm had plenty of birds and
was willing to let me hunt this year. There is a lot of
public land in the area too so I would be able to move around
and follow the birds if I had to. I had scouted the area
and been taking pictures of the birds for a few months ahead
of th
e
season. If I drew a permit, I would get to hunt when I wanted
to instead of
Yelp! Yelp, They
Coming Yet?
Buying an over
the counter license for the last two weeks of the season
(archery permit) like I did last year. As luck would have
it, I drew a tag for the third season April 22-26. After
confirming the date with the landowner we took a tour of
the property and I set my blind up a couple of days ahead
of season. My
daughter and I spooked a few birds while we completed the
set-up. They were topping the hill to come over to their
evening feeding area. I drove by the blind a few times that
week and occasionally saw turkeys in front of the blind
so we didn’t seem to spook them too bad. I would have
to wait until the first day of the hunt to see if they would
stay in the area.
On the first
day of my season the weather was recovering from a recent
rainstorm. The blind was wet and it was rather windy. I
walked to my blind and set out 2 hen decoys about 12 yards
away. I ducked into the blind and soon found out I hadn’t
dressed warm enough for the morning chill or the moisture
being driven out of the blind into my black cotton clothing.
Not wanting to change into camo, I just toughed it out.
The gobbling in the area started about ½ hour before
sunrise. Birds were calling from 3-4 directions and didn’t
seem too far away. I started off with a quiet “tree
call” on the slate and then followed that up with
periodic yelping on a double striker box call and a diaphragm.
I received many return gobbles but it wasn’t until
about 8:00 until I saw my first bird. A single hen came
in to the decoys poked around for a while and then left.
Live or Memorex?
Big Tom at Dawn===>
The rest of the
morning was uneventful. I left for a while to go home and
warm up and returned with my four year old daughter. When
we were walking out to the blind we spooked a decent bird
who was feeding close by. About 2 hours later we saw another
one in the area about 150 yards away. She actually got pretty
good with the double striker box call but the bird wouldn’t
move in any closer.
On the second
day of my season the weather was much nicer. The wind had
calmed down and temps were going to be above normal. Similar
to the first outing the gobbling started rather early. I
saw plenty of birds and missed a 25 yard shot at a younger
tom. He was in a group of 8 birds who blind-sided me while
I was coaxing the older tom down off of the hill to the
decoys. The tom had hung-up at about 80 yards and wouldn’t
come any closer.
The Field Staff
Shows Up to Assist
Safety in Numbers
and Distance
After my botched shots (yes, plural) he still hung around
strutting and gobbling til’ he dropped over the hill
with the rest of the birds. About ½ hour later the
whole flock paraded in front of the blind being smart enough
to keep their distance at over 50 yards. I didn’t
hunt that evening and decided to change the set-up slightly
for the next morning.
The third day
of the hunt I arrived about 1/2 hour earlier and set the
decoys around the corner of the blind. If that big tom came
over the hill again he would have to do a “J hook”
around some cover and get closer to the blind if he wanted
the girls (decoys I have named Marylin and Henrietta ) to
see him strut. As in the last two days, the gobbling started
early but quit just as soon as the construction team started
up their equipment about ¾ mile away. They were working
on grubbing and clearing a site and brought in all the heavy
equipment. It had been on display for about a month and
I was hoping they wouldn’t get Who Is on Deck?
started until after my hunt. With all the noise I am sure
they startled the birds. I really didn’t want to listen
to
that
all morning and was losing my confidence in hanging around.
Perhaps I would go over to the public land and try there
for a while. I decided to stick around since it was too
late to move someplace else and get in on the morning movement.
The three hens I had seen yesterday came by and didn’t
seem too distressed by all the noise. It was really quiet
for a number of hours and I limited my calling to periods
when the engines of the machines winded down. Never did
get a response call.
<====== Who
is On Deck?
About 9:00 AM,
just like on any other construction site, the crew took
a coffee break and shut the machines down for a while. Just
then the big tom showed up on the hillside and gobbled for
all he was worth. Probably didn’t like the construction
crew messing up his morning either. I did some return yelps
and a few light mews, keekees and purring. That really flipped
his switch. He started walking down the hill for a better
look. I started to pray that the coffee break would be longer
than 10 minutes and that I would shoot well. After watching
my arrows drop farther than expected on my first two attempts
I decided I was not going to shoot through the screen but
use the openings in my Double Bull blind instead. That would
mean that the tom would have to even be closer so I could
cut off the angle of the shot. I continued purring and copying
the noises I heard the hens making earlier. It really worked
well.
When the tom got within the twenty yard circle I stopped
calling and began my draw. I waited until his head was behind
one of the panel
s
just to be sure he wouldn’t spot the movement. When
he re-emerged in the blind opening I was looking through
I was already at full draw and able to focus on the vitals
(base of the wings) quite well. He fanned out once more
and started in with his pfffffft, sizzzzzz, and I let him
have it at 18 yards, broadside. The arrow quickly zipped
through his vitals breaking both wing bones (humurus on
one side, ulna on the other) and he fell over hardly making
a flop. I nocked another arrow just in case but it was quickly
apparent that I wasn’t going to need it. He was done
for. After a quick thank you to God and St. Hubertus, I
walked out to the bird with my heart still racing.
The tom was 22#
4 oz. and sported an 8 ½” beard. The spurs
had good size and were very sharp. His face and wings were
a little torn up (even before I shot him) and he is a nice
trophy any way you look at it. I was lucky enough that he
had all of the 18 fan feathers intact. If I get the chance
next year (or perhaps even this fall) I will hunt turkeys
again. It took four attempts to get bird but now I am hooked
on it. I might even consider going hunting with friends
in South Dakota, Nebraska and even one from Alaska who travels
South to hunts the birds in Minnesota and Missouri. They
can still call me nuts but now I have the pictures to prove
it can be done with a bow. Next time I might even try my
recurve or longbow.
More Than Enough Birds to Two
More for Next
Spark My Interest Year
Perhaps?
Tony’s Set-Up:
Bow: Bear Code, quad limb, single cam, mobile sight, set
at 66#
Arrows: Beman ICS 400 Hunter, feathers, full length inserts
(Carbon Express 2 grains per inch)
Broad heads: Muzzy 115 grain 4 blade, with 10 grain washer
(125 grain total)
Blind: Double Bull T5 Prostaff, black screen cover
Calls: Quaker Easy Yelper, HS Strut Slate & Striker,
Lohman’s Triple reed mouth call, and whatever
the three hens were using
Decoys: Delta and Flambeau collapsible
Clothing: Black jeans and T-Shirt mask over a sweater (Walmart
specials) in the morning, Mossy
Oak camo in the afternoons
Electronics: Fujifilm FinePix S 5000 Camera 3.1 MB, Bushnell
Rangefinder
NOTE: All
birds were hunted and photographed in the wild with the
presence of the normal predators such as hawks, owls, coyotes
and foxes. Other hunters also utilize the area.
