Tagged out in Kansas

Rob and Lisa headed into Nick's place Wednesday night 4/11/12 after Greg and I headed back to Missouri from our successful first day. They were seeing a ton of birds still and Lisa and Nick had both tagged out before I got back to Topeka on Friday evening. 

Saturday 4/14/12 found Nick and I set up on several birds they'd scouted the day before. The birds were there, but didn't cooperate and quickly went the wrong direction with their hens. We worked several birds throughout the afternoon and got real close to two toms, but we couldn't close the deal. So over lunch we decided to setup in the same field we started the day in a try and catch up with the toms coming back to roost. We had a major front scheduled to arrive in the early evening, so Nick and I hauled in the blind and were in place at 3:30pm. The weather change was quick and before long we were sitting in a constant drizzle and very windy conditions. With zero sign of the turkeys returning to roost we climbed out of the blind around 7:15pm to check the field behind our setup. Sure enough there was a hen with a strutter in tow working the field edge. I went into sneak mode and started trying to close in on them. The hen picked me off early and bugged out, but the tom kept strutting and working towards where the hen entered the treeline at the opposite end of the field. I covered as much real estate as I could before running out of cover, but the tom was still a good ways out. I shouldered the 20 gauge and got the tom in the scope and cracked off my shot. The bird rolled and then regained his footing and flew away over the trees never to be seen again. 

We had some wicked storms roll through over night and the turkeys weren't cooperating Sunday morning. Nick and I had several hens and geese work through our spread in the morning, but no toms showed themselves. After a couple hours we decided to take the fight to them. Around 9:30am we got a text that Rob had just tagged out on two jakes with one shot, so we met up with them to celebrate and say our good-byes. 

After Rob and Lisa took off Nick and I decided to make one more pass through the Corp ground. We eased up on the field I hunted Wednesday morning and there were nine birds strutting with several hens about 3/4 of a mile off the road. We devised a game plan and headed down the west treeline. After about 20 minutes we'd got within 100 yards of the group, but the two biggest toms had worked the other way with some hens, so we were left with 7 jakes and a couple hens to work with. I told Nick that we'd come this far, so if I could sneak up the rest of the way I was going to kill one of them. Nick stayed put and I bailed off into the creek so I could cover more ground quicker than in the timber. I quickly made it to the spot I thought the birds would be and eased up out of the creek. The birds were about 40 yards away directly in front of me and right on the edge of the timber and field. I could have easily killed one then, but with the high winds I decided to push my luck and continued to close in on them. I got to 20yrds and the birds were still on the edge so I pushed my luck a little more and continued to inch forward. At about 7 yards I called it good and eased up to the back of a tree. Nick was calling to the birds and the biggest jake was in full strut right in front of me. After a couple seconds of watching the close range show I flipped the safety off and dished the strutter up a face full of lead! It was probably one of my best sneaks ever and having Nick watch the show just made it sweeter! In 5 days of hunting Kansas we had filled 9 out of 10 tags...all on public ground! I can't wait for the 2013 season!

Unfortunately I had a serious error in judgement when I returned home that afternoon and ended up cutting myself pretty badly while cleaning my bird. I was sitting on a cooler in the garage with the bird between my feet while wearing flip-flops. One slip of the knife, a trip to the ER, and 12 stitches in my left big toe later...I was going to be missing my first Missouri Turkey opener in 13years!

   

Minny Pre-Season 2010 Begins

I made it out to the Annandale Property on Saturday, April 3. I walked the entire property looking for sign and just checking things out. I also set out four 50# trace mineral blocks and set up both of my Cuddyback camera’s. I added a new flash Cuddyback to my arsenal this spring. Next, I staked off the area I will be planting my two food plots this coming spring. I am planning a mix of clover and brassica this year. I finished the day by loosening all of the straps on my portables. Below are a couple photos of my mineral block locations. You can see the deer have been keeping them clean.


Below is a photo of my food plot location . I made it a little bigger this year. The grass on the right side will be tilled under in the coming weeks.

Overall the property looked great. The location I had my Rock mineral block last year is getting completely torn up. The spot I had the rock sitting now has a 6 inch deep hole from the deer working over the area. I found plenty of deer sign. I also have a spot picked out for a new stand location on the Northeast side of the property. I plan to monitor the area throughout the spring and summer with one of the Cuddybacks and see if it will be worth hunting. The new Cuddyback is keeping an eye on it right now.

Jake and I returned to the Annandale property on Tuesday, 4/6/10. The goal for the day was to recover my harness (which I left on Saturday) setup two Trophy Rock mineral locations and mark the trail to my new ground blind location. Mission complete!

I also stopped by and talked to the farmer about prepping my food plot areas. Farmer Jack said he would have the plot locations tilled and ready to plant for me by May 1. Nothing beats just showing up with fertilizer and seed and putting them right in the ground!

Below are pictures of my Trophy Rock locations. The first picture is my Cuddyback setup from last year. The Cuddyback is already monitoring the same area in hopes of spotting una-buck again.

Here is a photo of my new ground blind setup. The area is drop dead sexy. The blind its self is made from a fallen tree. The root area is standing up and makes a perfect wall to my right (west)when sitting. The tree fell on top of some willows, which have grown around the tree ends and make perfect cover. The creek runs directly in front of the blind with a long strip of CRP in front of the that. A large cornfield sits on the back side of the CRP. The CRP field and directly behind the blind location are tore up with deer trails. This will be a deadly area for management tags in the fall!

Jake and I spent the rest of the afternoon walking the woods and checking things out. We walked by the money stand just before leaving and I came across a huge rub. Below are a couple pictures of the rub. I am hoping this guy made it through the winter and comes back to the area this summer!

I will be back out around May 1 to pull my first camera cards of the year and plant my food plots.

2009 MN Duck Opener

Logan and I arrived at the cabin Friday evening and had the place to ourselves. We woke up Saturday morning to cloudy skies, spitting rain and winds from the northwest at 10-20 mph. We got down to the Mecca Slough shortly before 8 AM and where shocked to see only a handful of ducks on the pond.

We setup on the north end of the slough, placed 18 duck decoy and a couple geese decoy and waited for 9 AM to start our season. 9 AM came but the ducks didn’t. We ended up not firing a shot until 10 AM. Much different than the 20 minute hunt we had in 2008. Before calling it a day we had killed 3 ducks (Wood Duck, Blue Wing and the Trophy of all trophies a spoon bill) and only shot at those 3 ducks! Logan also got to smack the blue wing on the water while it was gimping around in the decoys. Logan put a nice clean head shot on the teal. It was kind of a disappointing start to the duck season. Below is a picture of Logan with the opening day kill.

Logan and I spent the rest of the day messing around the cabin. Most of that was spent shooting his rifle as he tunes up for his upcoming Missouri Youth Deer Hunt. Logan worked on shooting through a scope and was shooting 10 rings by the end of the afternoon. When the smoke cleared Logan had shot over a box and a half of .22 rounds. Below is a picture of the killer and his first deer!

Sunday morning was cloudy, cool (41 degrees) with a 10 mph wind out of the north. Logan and I set up in the northwest corner of the slough after watching the majority of the ducks fly that area on Saturday. That decision paid off as we had ducks bombing into the decoys first thing in the AM. The only problem was the ducks kept coming in low and it was hard to see them against the reeds and field. Shooting time was 6:54 AM and once the smoke had cleared Logan and where picking up decoys by 7:25. We ended up shooting 5 greenwing and a nice drake widgeon. It was nice to see the Mecca Slough still had some magic in it! Below is a picture of Logan and I with Sundays shoot.

Because of the quick hunt Logan and I where on the road by 9:00 AM. We will be back for another duck shoot on Sunday. Hopefully some new birds move in soon or the season could be a slow one. Reports have been poor for much of the state so I think Logan and I did well bagging 9 birds on the weekend. Below is a picture of Logan with the weekends total harvest.

Below is a picture of Jake and I cleaning ducks Sunday night. Next year Jake gets his first taste of the hunt!

Annandale Trail Camera 8/30/09

I made it out to the Annandale property on Sunday afternoon with Jake and Chrissy. I wanted to check my trail camera one more time before the season and make sure any excess corn from my camera site was removed. Both missions where a success!

I had 321 pictures on my camera over the past 8 days. The majority of the pictures are doe and fawns but the una buck made an appearance several times over the past couple of days. I have three large doe that continue to show up every day. One of the doe has two fawns, another has one fawn and the last one shows up by herself. All three would make nice freezer fillers. I also got my first picture of a red fox.

The low Sunday (9/30/09) morning was 40 degrees in MN and the deer where really on their feet during day light hours. Una Buck also shed his velvet and it also looks like the young 7 also shed his. The young 7 looks like he could turn into a nice deer if the locals let him walk this gun season. Only 20 days until the MN opener!

The MN early goose season opens this coming saturday. I can't make opening morning but Logan and I will be in our blinds Sunday and Monday to see if we can get our 2009 hunting season started with a bang! Hopefully we will have some photos of dead animals to show shortly!

Below is a photo of the young 7. Looks to have a nice body and good shape to his rack.