Turkey Season

Although there is quite a bit of turkey left to be had this season, my season has come to an end. Here is a quick summery of my 2024 turkey season.

I started off in early March hunting one morning with my son in Northern Florida during the youth season, with a buddy of mine Donnie a FL fishing and bowfishing guide. I met Donnie through Travis Thompson a FL pillar in the conservation space and by every account a legend in the hunting community down there and my friend of several years ( I have has Travis on the show before if you want to give our chat a listen). My original plan was to hunt public land which another friend of mine from the show Walt from the Southern collective was gracious enough to hook me up with. Well because we were hunting for Luca and I botched the dates a bit and we only had one morning I decided to take Donnie up on the offer to hunt some private ground in hopes to stack the odds in our favor.

The morning started off great we snuck into a blind 80 yards from the roost tree and like clock work 1 hour before sun up the gobbler started firing off. Well at first light I did some light tree yelps with the hopes he would pitch off in my direction and give us an opportunity. Well I didn’t know that these birds in this area don’t come off the roost until like 1hr sometimes more after first light. Apparently the bobcats sit and wait under roost trees for them so they want to see really well before the hit the ground. Needless to say my calling strategy was not catered to this and when he finally dropped off he went away from us. I spent the next 1.5hours trying to coax him our way but he was not impressed with my calling apparently and we end up the morning turkey listening instead of turkey hunting. To make matters worst Luca did not want to hunt the rest of the day between waking up at 2am and being jet lagged little guy was tired. When we got back to the place we were staying I found 6 ticks on me which if you know me you might as well have dropped me into a pit of lions.

So FL was a bust for Luca but we had another trip planned for late March on the San Carlos reservation for an early turkey hunt and I was up to bat. Right from the get go we were on birds we cut a track on a big flock in the mud and end up catching up with them only to figure out there were like 40-50 birds without a single gobbler. We moved on got into a creek bottom and struck a gobbler I was able to call him up to 40 yards but never presented a shot. That afternoon we heard some birds making their way to the roost, we snuck in to pin point the tree they were in. Armed with the key to success we planned to sneak in close in the dark.

The next morning we slipped in much like you would if you were stalking a bedded buck one vey slow step at a time. The cold crisp air on a virtually silent morning every sound carried and the moon lit sky although gave us enough light to move about without head lamps also gave the birds a chance to see us moving. Finally making it to our spot we set up for the show. And as if on que they started gobbling in the tree about 45mins before light. We were set up about 40 yards form the roost under a large oak with a little meadow between us and them. The tree they were in was at the edge of a creek and on the other side of the creek was the beginning of a slope that climbed up drastically to a ridge. The logical thing was for them to pitch off into the meadow below, at least that is why I chose my set up spot. Well like most of life they did the exact opposite and dropped off on to the bank of the creek opposite of the tree. I began to call at them, with every sound a thunderous reply from 4 gobblers and 2 jakes. This went on for about 20 mins and it seemed they would not leave that creek bottom and me being the impatient as I am. I decided to use the fact they were below sight line to move up to the roost tree to see if I could get eyes on them. I slowly peeked over the edge and I could see them fanning and posturing to each other behind a bush. I got my gun set and let out another soft call they immediately gobbled and stared to walk out from behind the bush. The second the first gobblers head cleared I the Benelli ring out. I rushed up to the flopping bird only to find out it was one of the jakes and had I waited the biggest gobbler was in 2nd position.

My next hunt was a AZ state tag the end of April just a couple days ago. I had hunted this area during archery season and have had lots of action and knew several spots to hunt. I was solo on this hunt, felt a little weird without my little buddy but in the end It worked out for the best. I don’t think if I had him with me we would have got this bird. I started out the morning hitting my best locating sites and by the second I could hear gobbles answering back way off in the distance. I quickly checked my OnX and dropped a pin into the ridge complex I believed they were in. Knowing I couldn’t drop in after them from where I was I located roads and a point of entry I thought would put me on the right path. Well turns out I was wrong about the road and I couldn’t get my truck down it so had a 2mile hike in or I would have to drive back up to top and drop in from above. I opted to hike and hour later I found my self second guessing where I had heard them because I hadn’t heard a peep and despite my attempts to call nothing would respond. After consulting OnX again I decided to make my way into the drainage complex and let out a few calls. I immediately got a response, like a bull charging in on a hot cow I pressed in straight at them. As I got closer and could pin point their location I could hear and then see another hunter moving in from their flank. Not wanting to mess him up i backed out and circled his location and dropped into a canyon two over from them. Feeling a little discouraged my clock reminded me I still had plenty of time to make something happen so I got my head back into the search. 3.5 miles in at this point I found myself on a ridge top, the wind had picked up considerably steady at 10-12 MPH with 15-20 MPH gusts. I knew my yelps would not carry as far so began walking the ridge top and gobbling down into all the cuts out of the wind. It was nearly 9am when I made my third attempted to locate when I got a response. The response was weak and almost sounded like the primos shaker gobbler. I thought to myself this is another hunter. I looked at the map there were no roads within a mile maybe it was a gobbler. I gobbled again and now the sounds were closer and were followed with clucks. I readied myself put a diaphragm in my mouth and let out a some soft yelps. I was met with 4 or five gobbles in response, I pulled up my binos and peered down into the trees below and out stepped a flock of 10+ turkey they all appeared to be jakes and toms. I continued the course letting out soft yelps and the a fight broke out amongst the turkey I knew if I gobbled them would come running. I quickly hit them with a gobble and three of them broke off and head straight at me . Once they crossed the 30yard mark I let the Benelli do its thing and had another jelly head on the ground. I quickly dressed him out and made the hike back to the truck I had done 7 miles and 67 floors before 10am this felt more like an elk hunt then a turkey hunt.

Turkey is always a good eat and they cook very similar to the domesticated version without too much variation. The first bird we cooked in a very simple way and probably one of my favorites. I take the breasts and marinate them for 24hours in mayo and guldens mustard with salt and black pepper. Then i cook them at 250-275 degrees on the smoker high smoke until internal temp is 165 degrees. Slice them on the bias in thin pieces and serve with home made sweet potato fries. The second bird I prepared Turkey Sliders which is always a fam favorite.