2014 Spring Turkey Season in Wisconsin

I had a very rewarding spring turkey season this last year.  I was fortunate enough to take out a youth hunter, harvest a bird with a hero of mine, and even call in and bag a gobbler all by myself.  I spent many hours in the woods, became sleep deprived, risked my relationships and work performance, and spent whole paychecks on gas to run from spot to spot, but it was all worth it.  It would take me days to write up all the anecdotes from this season's adventures, so instead, here's my 2014 season in pictures:

My first turkey encounter of the season when I was out calling coyotes.

A week before the regular season, I had the thrilling chance to take out my first youth hunter for the Learn-To-Hunt program.  He witnessed a nice gobbler come thundering from that far ridge on the right, all the way into the decoys, spitting, strutting, and gobbling the whole way.  A live hen came in and intersected the gobbler at 40 yards, so I had to give my hunter the green light.  He took a long shot and missed, but was very excited to witness a bird in the rut and have a shot opportunity.  I think he's hooked.

One of my blind setups for the youth hunt.

I had my chance the next week, season 1, but ate tag sandwich.  

My cousin Adam called in this nice 3 year old on public land, season 3.

He ended up being 19#, but I found out that someone had been baiting on public land.

Not 2 hours later, Adam called in a beautiful gobbler for Ricky.  I was able to sit and film on this hunt.

One of the best days of my life.

Back at it for season 4, in the cow pasture.

The cow pasture was one of my favorite spots all year, but the birds are finicky.

On weeks that I didn't have a tag, I still ventured out to see what I would encounter.

Hunting the ridge underneath a roost site.  Had 3 hens fly up shortly after this picture was taken.

One of the last weeks of the season.  Vegetation helps with concealment, but decoys are hard to see, birds are hard to spot, call sounds don't travel as far, and the bugs are awful!

I tried filming all my hunts, but self-filming is hard! Here's a stillshot from a fun hunt where I encountered a fisher, a skunk, and had a hen within feet of me.

The next afternoon, I filled my last tag.  Here's the exact setup and the scene showing how the gobbler got between the jake fan and the feeding hen decoy.  He was at half strut when I shot him.

He had a shorter beard than my first bird, only 8 inches and was 2 pounds lighter, but was older and had really burned off the weight chasing hens.  His crop was completely empty and dry when I cut it open.

One of my proudest hunts to date.
 I scouted, picked the spot, and called in this bird all by myself after sitting for almost 13 hours that day.

Someone's got to bring home the groceries!

That "tough old Tom" myth is quickly debunked when you marinade overnight and make turkey jerky!

Spring Coyote

Last Spring, I was fortunate enough to take a good friend out in the blind after spring turkey.  It was her first year hunting, so under the mentoring program, it was required so go with someone her first year.  Her boyfriend had to work, so I jumped at the chance to go out and call for her.  We went out on a cool spring morning in the 5^th week of the Wisconsin season.  The birds had been active all week, but an early May blizzard through the activity off.  We sat out in the blind that was on a cut cornfield edge, and had the decoys at a comfortable shooting range, as my friend was trying to get her first turkey with a bow.  We had unfortunately high winds that morning, topping 20+ mph, and the birds were presumed upwind from us, so it was safe to say the calls were not heard.  After a few hours of calling and no responses, it was decided that we’d try out another spot across the property.  On the walk out, I heard a Jake by himself not too far away.  My friend and I set up on the edge of the wood line and threw a decoy on the trail.  After a few yelp sequences, the jake had not yet responded, so I decided to leave my friend by the decoy and climb up the ridgeline to look down on the adjacent field that I thought the jake had traveled to.  I caught a glimpse of his head bobbing over the ridge, so I quickly retreated back down to the spot and tried calling again.  Nothing.

Picture taken during the calling
sequence that brought in the coyote.

After being frustrated with the high winds and inability to even call in an ignorant jake, we decided to call her quits.  As we were walking out along the edge of the cornfield, our faces into the wind, we noticed movement 60 yards in front of us in the field.  It was a pretty yellow coyote that seemed to be trotting right along the path the jake would have taken, coming towards our calls.  We stopped in our tracks and I told my friend to drop to the ground.  Suddenly, the coyote took a hard right and was practically running right towards us, still upwind so it had no idea we were there, and we were perfectly still.  I pumped two turkey loads into the coyote and it let out one long howl before dying. 

Upon inspection, it was a milking female that only had 3 legs.  Its milk was near dried up and the leg wound looked to be a gunshot wound or car hit from when the yote was a pup.  Being that it was May, and that I peppered the coyote with 2 turkey loads at 15 yards, the pelt was of no use, but the landowner was very happy to know that some fawns and turkeys were spared as a result of our quick thinking!  In Wisconsin, it is legal to shoot coyote year round, and often times spring turkey hunters encounter coyotes coming into their calls or decoys.  If a hunter is concerned about predator control in their area, it’s a good idea to learn to do prey or pup distress on your turkey mouth diaphragm, or simply carry a separate call when you hunt in the spring.