10 replies to this topic

[mac]

What a great opening day of Turkey season - almost - I took my two nephews and my daughter out (1st time hunting for her) up to Lake County for opening Turkey Day hunt. We were advised by our friend that owns a small piece of land (10-12acres) that they had a bunch of turkeys. My daughter and I arrived late afternoon on Friday to secure and set-up our blind. I purchased a double-bull 360 blind just for this day. As we pulledinto our family friend's property out in the horse pasture we see 3 large Toms, 12 hens and a couple of Jakes -- we snuck around the back-side of the property and strategically set-up our blind where we thought the roosters would come off their roost thee next morning and over to the pasture.1st day we make it to our blind set-up by 6:15am - later than what I hoped for - as we get out of the truck we hear the canyon light up with Tom's calling and hens sounding off! We rushed to the blind - hit the box, slate and mouth calls and the toms were going nuts - two were closing in - however, they came in down the canyon and behind us, behind the brush that we had our blind backed into so we couldn't get a shot. We waited until the birds left the pasture to head down the creekside and left by 8:30am to go back and ave breakfast...made it back to the property by 9:20am and out in the pasture were two toms and the hens. I loaded my daughter's 20 gauge and we stalked right up to the property fence, she laid her shotgun through the wires and rang out a shot...we saw the bird pop/jump in the air and it headed quickly towards the top of the pasture. I rushed he to the new blind set-up as I traced the birds to the top in hopes of driving them back down where she was...couldn't get them to go down, but had my daughter sneak to my side and the tom was within 20yds but without a decent shot. e let it go back down the pasture where one of my nephews was set-up and he finished the bird off. A nice tom with a 9" beard. The bigger tom that scattered had at least a 12" beard. One picture attached, but will add one with the all the kids...it was a great day...oh, when we went back to the family house a hen with a 5-6" beard - yes, hen - was hanging out in the front yard!! I've only seen one othr hen with a beard before and it was only about 3" long.More pictures later...btw, my daughter did a body shot on the tom and my nephew did the head shot -- my nephew is pictured.  1.jpg   37.34K   13 downloads

[Jason]

What a great story! Something the kids will never forget.Jason

[Arise]

Sounds like a great Hunt. Sure is nice to have you're daughter out for the first time, aint it?Congrats!

[mac]

Thanks.

[airman]

congrats on the young mans turkey. It's great when your kids like to go with you. I just signed a young man up for hunters saftey that i'm going to take out and teach. What a great reward to take young people hunting!

[DEERSLAM]

Way to go mac. Sounds like a great time out with the youngsters

[mac]

Thanks. We were out past Calistoga way. I'm thinking about gpoing back this Sunday in hopes that the hens may be nesting and Toms might be out looking for a few remaining hens - will try to call. I'll tell you, with the early warmth this spring the Toms were sure henned up and it made it difficult to call them in - plus, I forgot my decoys -- those Toms were following those hens like crazy, they didn't want to lose sight of them. I think if I would have had my decoys, I could have had the tToms come around the front side of the blind.

[airman]

Right on Mac, YA those gobblers ARE really hened up. The two we took came in quiet with hens. I'm hunting kind of close to you, i'm in the hills in Napa. I have private property i hunt. Tried to get those toms away from them girls with no luck, just 7 jakes came in. Looking for that big one. Well good hunting to you all, and good luck!

[Cranky Farmer]

Are bearded hens legal here in CA?

[mac]

Are bearded hens legal here in CA?

I am re-checking the regs again - my nephew said "yes"...last year the regs stated any bearded bird including hens were legal to take...

[PredatorMaster]

Yes both are legal.