Saturday, March 7, 2009
Scouting for Turkeys
Saturday I went out scouting for my May turkey hunt. It might be a little early, but why not use the snow to my advantage. Daffy and I jumped in the car and headed to the Sand Dunes State Forest to see if we could find any sign of turkeys.
Stop one looked really promising. First of all it had a great parking spot, so we didn’t have to park on the side of the road. All pumped up I got every thing ready to go and got Daffy out of her kennel and we were off to find turkeys. We were only about 300 yards away from the parking lot when I discovered this place was no good. It was a very small portion of the forest and a river was blocking us from going any where else. I decided it was time to go back to the car and find a new spot.
We drove around and found another great spot, a dead end, with a cul de-sac for a parking lot. I was pretty disappointed when I saw a couple of horse trailers, horses and some dogs running around. I decide to move on and find a new spot.
Spot three looked really great. A nice long road to walk on, off road parking, a large field filled with saplings, and a giant forest. Daffy and I were off and determined to find some sign of turkeys. We walked not even 100 yards and I slipped on some Ice and fell. Now I’m thinking great what a crappy day no luck in our first two spots, and I just fell and got all wet. Lucky for me Daffy was eager to continue our search and the look on her face inspired me to keep going. With nothing more then a bit of lost pride, a wet glove and pant leg we went on. After walking down the road for another quarter mile or so we went into the woods. We walked the woods for an hour or so we and didn’t find a thing other then knee deep snow and one fresh deer bed.
Where I fell on the Ice
Daffy is a great helper 
Deer Bed
On the way back to the car we ran into a very nice man named Tom H. (I can’t remember his last name). He lived across the county road from the state forest and walked the forest road we were on just about every day. After chatting for about 20 minutes, Tom gave me some good info. Tom said “He very rarely sees turkeys along the forest road”. Now more bummed then ever, Daffy and I headed for the car, hopped in, and were off to find our next spot.
The forest road where we met Tom
After driving for about a half an hour I finally found the last spot we were going to be able to check out for the day. We walked for no more then 10 minutes and saw a set of turkey tracks (woo hoo!). I thought to my self, “after all of the crap we went through today we did it”. Daffy and I fallowed the tracks for almost an hour. Along the way we found a bunch more tracks, and I had a turkey answer my calls a couple of times. Then we found what looked to be a roosting spot, and couple of promising fields to set up and to shoot a turkey in May. After Daffy and I found the fields we went back to the car and called it a day.
Fist Turkey Track
Turkey tracks every where
Roost?
Droppings under Roost
The most promising of the two fields
Daffy on the way back to the car at the end of the day
Lessons learned Saturday, persistence pays off, get a map, talk to who ever you can they always have some advice, scouting for turkeys is fun, Daffy blends in with the snow really well, snow shoes would have helped out a lot, ice is slippery, I will have to do some more scouting, sometimes dumb luck is the best luck.
Ben G.
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3 comments:
Good post Ben, like you my season starts in May and I already have a spot picked out which I think is good. This time of year with a bit of snow around is great for tracking.
Keep at it!
I hate slipping on the ice. It is never fun.
Glad you saw some turkey tracks though. That's good news.
And you're right, Daffy does blend in with the snow quite well
Its great getting out in the spring. I slipped the last two weekends, got a skinned knee and knuckles on my left hand.
We have two spring bear tags (april 1) and if we fill them early enough I think I will get a turkey tag for may too. Something to look forwart too.
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