Familiar Faces

The hot summer months of June and July are the peak for antler development.  I've been keeping an eye on several bucks this year that have been regulars in front of the camera.  These two guys below are familiar faces from last season.  The wide 8 was a regular in front of the camera last season all year, but he broke off his left side early and was nocturnal the majority of the time.

The first buck below never showed himself on stand or on camera last year until the season was already over.  I never knew he existed until I got pictures of him in a standing bean field in February.  There's something about him that I've always liked since I first laid eyes on him...hopefully I can wrap my hands around those antlers this fall!

Spring Update

Spring has come and gone as the hot summer weather is beginning to settle in.  Hasn't been much to write about since turkey season.  We are still due for a couple of work parties, as we like to call them, to start getting the table set for duck season.  We will hopefully get the ball rolling on that sooner than later, and there should be some exciting things going on when we do.

My dad, Jason, and I have only made it down to our favorite honey hole once so far to catch some spring bass.  The bite was fairly good and we caught some good sized fish (mine was by far the biggest...see far right picture below and you be the judge) in the short couple of hours we were on the water.

I have had most of my trail cameras pulled due to the threat of flooding during this time of the year, but always left at least one out on each mineral lick to keep tabs on velvet bucks.  I've been happy with what has been showing up so far, and they are just now getting to the point when you can really start seeing antler characteristics and tell what type of potential they may have for this coming season.  Just recently, as the threat of  heavy spring rains and flooding is diminishing, I put out some more cameras on trails...hopefully I will get some more velvet bucks and more exciting pictures.  I've always enjoyed true "trail" pictures more than "bait" pictures.

The local hog(s) has showed itself several more times although I have yet to get a good picture of it.  We haven't been able to get down to the farm to replenish the bait for more than a month so it's tough to tell how much time it is spending on our area.  I dumped some more soured corn out last week so we should have a better idea of what's going on after I swap memory cards next time.

Hog Sighting!

Yep, they finally made their way into our area apparently.  I first remember reading about feral hogs in Missouri 3-4 years ago when the Missouri Department of Conservation starting publishing notices about their spread in Missouri and encouraged everyone to shoot them on sight.  I never thought much of it at the time, thinking they would never spread to our part of the state.  Well they've proven me wrong.

After swapping out the memory card on one of my trail cameras last Wednesday, I flipped through the pictures on a point and shoot camera in the field.  Mind you, the screen on the camera is fairly small, but when I came across one particular picture there was only one thing that came to my mind...hog!

I wasn't certain at that point, but after going home and uploading the pictures onto the computer, I had no doubt in my mind.  I sent the picture to one of our MDC contacts to keep them informed they were in our area.  One of the local wildlife biologists was nice enough to meet us at the property over the weekend and provide guidance for identifying sign and tips for eradicating them.  We will start baiting with "soured" corn in front of a trail camera to see if this fella was just passing through or if it's here to stay with some more friends.

CLICK HERE for more information on feral hogs and why the MDC is going through such strong efforts to eliminate them.

Let the battle begin!

Double Down

The first turkey hunt of 2011 turned out to be a successful one after a disappointing season last year...first year in a long time that nobody took a turkey at our farm (might I also add that it was the first year in a long time that I didn't hunt at all...coincidence?).

My dad and I decided to set up together in the double bull blind in hopes of connecting on a couple of longbeards.  We have had multiple birds come in on this same set in years past so we figured we had a decent shot at a double.  I was toting my bow in hopes of arrowing a turkey with the stick and string, and the plan was for me to get an arrow off just before he squeezed the trigger on a second bird.  Well, as always seems to be the case, our feathered friends had a different plan.  As the woods started to wake up, we heard the first unmistakable sound of a gobbler ringing off in the distance.  Minutes later, we found ourselves encompassed by resounding gobbles in all directions.  Only problem was, none of them were where we expected them to be.

We let them do their thing for awhile before I let off a series of soft tree yelps to let them know we were there.  Several different birds responded...two were quite a ways behind us and another other two were much closer on the field edge but at the opposite end, although quite a bit further away than we'd like.  We let the woods continue to wake up and enjoyed the sounds of gobbles for what seemed like an hour but probably only lasted 15-20 minutes.  The woods gradually became quieter as we assumed most of the birds flew down from their roost and were likely with hens.  We still had that one closest tom sounding off to our calls for awhile longer but he eventually became silent as well.  

I decided to go runnin' n gunnin' around 9 to see if I could get a lonesome tom to sound off with no luck.  When I walked back out towards the field, my dad peeked out the back of the blind and saw that a couple birds had snuck up on him and were walking along the field edge towards one of the decoys.  They must have seen/heard me because they headed back into the cover of the woods before he could get a good look at them, but he thought they may have been jakes.  We devised a plan to try and cut them off and made a quick sneak up ahead.  Just before we got to a point in the field, my dad let out a series of yelps and a gobble sounded off in the other direction, probably not more than 100 yds away.  I peaked around the point and sure enough we had cut those other turkeys off as well. 

Things got interesting from here...those two turkeys turned out to be three, and the one gobbling turned out to have a buddy with him too.  So now we have two toms sounding off to our right at every sound we make and getting closer each time, and three "jakes" to our left that are staying quiet.  We didn't have the best cover to hide in but tucked ourselves back into the timber while trying to stay quiet because we knew it was only a matter of time before we were being bombarded from both sides.  I'm thinking that the two that we hadn't seen are going to come in first so I set up in their direction.  Before we knew it, the three to our left came trotting in...no gobbling, no strutting, just walked right at us.  It wasn't until then that we realized these were mature birds and not the jakes we thought they were.  My dad, off to my left, let them get as far as he could hoping to get us both an easy shot.  The closest bird was only 10 ft from the end of his barrel and they were starting to act a little spooky. 

He pulled the trigger on the back bird thinking I had a clear shot at the lead one.  I did, but I also probably would have blown his ear drums out if I took the shot so I waited.  He rolled his bird and the other two fled the scene, with one heading right into my shooting window.  I dropped it thinking we had our double but it popped right up and took off running across the field.  I was standing at this point, and for a brief instant, stood there relaxed and said to myself, "welp, here we go", knowing what was about to ensue.  I took off in a dead sprint after the wounded bird trying to catch up to it before it made it into the timber.  It may come as a surprise, but a turkey can run much faster than I can apparently!  I took a hail mary shot just before it got into the timber and rolled it again but it just kept on going.  I entered shortly behind him and stopped as I tried to figure out which way he went and taking note that I only have one shot left so I better make it count.  The silence must have been too much for him to handle, because he popped up from the tall grass he had hid in just feet away from me and took off running and putting.  I'm not sure what took me so long, maybe he startled me that much, or maybe he was just that fast, but he was already long gone by the time I got my gun shouldered.  And the chase continued...

The next couple of minutes consisted of an all out sprint through the thick timber, over fallen trees, under fallen trees, and through thorny vines.  The turkey was much more agile than I throughout the chase, but I somehow managed to keep up.  He finally made it to some thick brush on the edge of the field where he thought he was safe.  I stopped 10 yds to his side, took a few seconds to catch my breath, and slowly raised my gun to seal the deal.  Definitely not the "easy double" we had thought it was going to be just minutes prior, but eventful nonetheless.  

I dragged the little rascal out into the field, collapsed on the ground, and lay there by the side of my trophy as my dad and his new bionic knee gimped his way down the field where fist bumps and laughs were exchanged.