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- Written by: The DIY Hunter
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Although I lived in Oklahoma for seven years where there are many turkeys, I just never got excited to go turkey hunting. I think the idea of sitting on the ground in the spring in a climate that has ticks and chiggars didn't help. Although very fun to hunt with I have just not been as motivated of a shotgun guy.
In 2006 I had the opportunity to hunt turkeys in Utah with drawing a employee tag that Browning offered as a draw to the employees. The turkeys were transplanted here a number of years ago and are getting established pretty well. To hunt them requires a draw and with a few years of points you can draw a tag.
I hunted a couple of times in the limited areas I had to hunt with no real success in finding any turkeys. I tried the Browning property a couple of times and found that a few turkeys were periodically using the property.
On the 16th of May I was up on the dry farm hills before light hoping to hear a gobbler. As it got light I found a single hen with a gobbler in tow. I sneaked around the hill and set out a hen decoy and backed 10 yards further up the trail and into the edge of the brush. I worked the box call and boy did the tom start a gobbling and the hen got really mad. She cam running in ready to kick some butt. Unfortunately, the tom couldn't just run with her. He had to stop and strut every 10 feet and was a good 100 yards back when the hen got to my decoy and didn't like it. She bolted around the hill, lover boy back in tow.
I backed out and swung out and around the hill as quickly as I could. I figured on their current path that they would pass through a particular area and I setup in this spot with the decoy again. It took a good half hour and the two popped up on the ridge about 50 yards from me. This time I only made soft purring calls every so often, with a slate call. It looked as though the pair was going to come right past the spot I was setup in, but the hen apparently wanted all of the toms attention to herself and turned and went another direction. Can I shoot hens?!
Now I figured they were headed towards a natural funnel and I backed my way out and headed that direction. I had to hike a good mile out and around to stay out of sight from the turkeys. This time I was just going to try and ambush them. My calling stunk and the hen wanted the tom all to herself. Ambush time.
After a half hour or so I could see them working their way across the ridge line in my general direction. As they got nearer, they feed directly away from me and over the hill. If I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me, so I belly crawled straight in the direction I last saw them. As I neared the hill top I would peak up and look to see if the coast was clear then slide another foot or so. It didn't take long and I was within 30 yards of the pair. I slid the safety off the Superposed and raised up and let him have it .
The April 2007 wallpaper on browning.com is a photo of the tom I took just minutes before I belly crawled up and shot him. This also happens to be the first turkey ever killed on the Browning property in Morgan, Utah.
The turkey had a 10" beard, 1" spurs and weighed 20.0 lbs. All nice even measurements.
I hunted with a very sentimental shotgun of my dad's. It is a Browning Superposed in 20 Gauge that my mother ordered while she was working at Browning just before she quit to have me. The serial number of the Superposed dates to the year of my birth. With such a serial number the shotgun practically has my name on it. Wouldn't you think? Well my brothers don't think so.
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- Written by: The DIY Hunter
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In 1994 I wrecked while jumping a motorcycle. The wreck damaged my knee and tore my ACL. At the time I was a poor college student with no health insurance. I went almost a year after the injury trying to have an active lifestyle to no avail. I was unable to run, jog and even standing and walking would often result in my knee slipping out and cause me to catch my balance. To make a long story short I had my ACL replaced in 1995 and was told by the doctor that if I had not had the surgery I would have needed knee replacement as the bones were hitting each other when the knee was slipping out. This ACL surgery got me back walking and hiking pretty good but my knee never was solid enough for me to jog, run play basketball etc.
In 2004 I took my second mule deer buck in my second year of the dedicated hunter program so I was ineligible to hunt mule deer in 2005. I decided it was the year to try and get my knee fixed better. In June of 2005 I had a surgery to remove the screws and ACL and have cadaver bone inserted into the hollow areas of my leg bones. Then on the opening day of the archery elk season I had another surgery to take a tendon off the back of my leg and thread it through my knee at a more solid angle than the first ACL replacement.
The surgeries went well and I started rehab. With the back to back surgeries on my knee my right leg was in terrible shape not to mention my body. During this process the doctor told me that hunting was out of the question this fall. But sometimes I have a hard time listening. I was itching to hunt and I decided to try a muzzleloader elk in early November.
I was not happy with accuracy of my muzzleloader at the time so I borrowed my good friend Ryan's muzzleloader. It is nice looking White muzzleloader that he had the stock dipped in Mossy Oak Break-Up camo.
Opening day I hobbled around for a couple of hours trying to locate some elk. I started a little to high on the mountain and spotted a nice bull way below me. I worked my way down the maintain cow calling every once in a while. When I got the the general area where I saw the bull he was nowhere to be found. I started working my way around the mountain at this lower elevation and cow called at one point. Immediately something came crashing through the oak brush straight toward me. It was a spike elk, excellent tasting meat for the frying pan. He popped out of the brush at 20 yards and I gave him a face full of smoke and a hefty super slug to the chest.
I propped my camera on my pack and took a couple of photos. You can see in my photo that I'm heavily favoring my right leg. It was probably not the smartest thing to do on my leg and completely exhausted me doing so, but the experience and meat for the family was well worth it. Spike's make for tender and great tasting meat.
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In 2004 my brother Weston, and good friend Clint backpacked into one of our favorite locations to mule deer hunt. I was excited at the opportunity to hopefully help Clint get his first mule deer.
We hiked in one evening and spent the night. The next day we watched a group of several does, a couple of two points and a small 3x4 buck for a couple of hours and we decided to look for something larger. We found another small two-point in another canyon but no shooters.
That afternoon we went back to our base camp and moved camp further around the mountain. That evening we glassed off a point and could see some does bedded down in the oak brush below us. While we were sitting there my brother looks over my shoulder to see a nice buck coming around the ridge straight at me, only 10 yards away. The deer bolts and Weston drills the buck on the run at 75 yards. Just an awesome shot!
We boned out Weston's buck that evening and hauled it back to our base camp. The next morning Clint and I went different directions looking for shooter bucks. An hour or so after shooting light a buck came trotting around the canyon. I could tell he had four points at least on the side that was facing me but the buck never stopped to give me a good look at his antlers. I waited until he was just about to disappear into the oak brush at about 170 yards and decided to drop the hammer.
He wasn't quite the size of buck I was looking for, especially because I would have to sit out hunting mule deer the next year. It was my second year in the dedicated hunter program and I had killed a buck last year and now this one my second year of the program. You only get two bucks in three years so I'll be sitting out the Mule Deer hunt in 2005.
Weston's Buck
My Buck
Clint's first Buck
After I had my buck down Clint and Weston came back around and met up with me. We glassed around watching different deer moving up finger draws. Then across the canyon we spotted a small four-point. At the long range I handed Clint my rifle and told him where to hold to make the shot and the 270 WSM did the job. Clint had is first mule deer buck.
The rest of the day we boned out the deer and we all packed a buck out on our backs through a snowstorm. A hunt we will always remember.
- Weston shot this buck with my 25-06 Rem. Remington BDL.
- Clint's buck and mine were shot with 130g Triple Shocks from a Winchester Model 70 Ultimate Shadow in 270 WSM.