Getting ready for WK turkeys

[shelg]

I am heading to the West Kootneys in a couple week for a turkey hunt. Making some turkey pots. Just putting the last coats of varnish on this one. Tomorrow I will be adding the slate over glass.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/k9XkdExmFjXBNWGW2

[Krico]

Wow very nice work. Do you make strikers too?
Good luck out there!

[hoochie]

what am i looking at?

[Krico]

what am i looking at?

Home made call.
Google “turkey pot call”
also known as a slate call

[shelg]

Yes strike will be made also. Should have it done tomorrow. I will post some pics of the finished call.

Wow very nice work. Do you make strikers too?
Good luck out there!

[shelg]

Well just spent 3 days in West Kootenay for some fishing and turkey hunting, what a great time.

Got out up at 4am to drive to trail. Rolled into Trail at around 9am. Figured we go scout out some ares. We find a spot and started our hike with very little expectation of finding anything because of the late morning and not to mention 26c. We found a nice field and figured we would try out the turkey call pots I made.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/sguertin72/turkey%20pot.jpeg (http://s1191.photobucket.com/user/sguertin72/media/turkey%20pot.jpeg.html)
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/sguertin72/turkey%20pot2.jpeg (http://)

One of the guys I goose hunt with always said "Don't call until we are ready to shoot". I forgot that tip, as we began to scratch the pot, all of a sudden we heard the gobble...gobble..gobble. Now we are scrambling for cover. Here comes the second round of call back, echoing from across the field and out comes this impressively size black Tom, with a briliantly coloured red head. Now we hear not 1, not 2, but 3 Toms gobbling back and forth. Long story short, we were surrounded. One of the approaching Toms caught us in a bad spot, busted us and my buddy missed a 10 yard shot. So everything went quiet turkeys 1 hunters 0. We decided to go fishing at the river. Hooked into some nice bows, had some beers and subway.

We we are now in the evening of day one and we see a turkey on the bank of the river. We come up with a plan, land the boat and the hunt is on. We start calling and once again, we found 2 more Toms. Unfortunately, they did not want to come down from the evening roost. Not a bad thing though, it set us up for days 2.

Next morning we start to head down to our spot on the river from the night before. Sure enough, we see a gaggle of turkeys, with a nice Tom strutting his stuff. We hop off the boat and the hunt is on. We figured this is a slam dunk. We have a trail that would lead us up to the Tom. Little did we know, there was 2 groups of turkeys there. Once again, busted. After and hour of calling and a couple hours of sitting in a blind and a nap in the warm sun, we admitted defeat once again.

Well after an evenig bite and happy hour, we decided to go back to our spot from day one. As we enter the field we could see a loan turkey in the distance, unable to identify the gender, we headed over in for a closer look. It scoots away on us, over the bank. Well, out comes the call and like the times before......gobble....gobble...gobble....We counted at least 3-4 Toms. Once again, they were well established in the roost and did not want to come out.

Day 3, last chance before heading home. We came up with a solid plan the night before, establishing hidding spots, and placing decoys. We get to our spot at 4:30 am and wait for Leagal shooting light. We start clucking and the entertainment begins. Toms calling in front of me, behind me, to the left and to the right. They are all around us. Within 15 minutes of calling, the first turkey pops up from over the bank to the east of me, about a 100 yard away. He is coming right at my buddy. Unfortunately, he got caught with his pants down (literally) and this respectable sized Tom made a b-line to my decoy. He makes a couple circles around my decoy and I soon realize that my decoy is out of range. So I now get on my gobbler call and lay the challenge to him. The whole time he is puffed up making his way to me. 60, 50, 40 meters and he stops. He is about to turn, nows the time, I drill him. He jumps up about 6' in the air and it looks like he is about to fly. I let my second barrel go, down he goes. Meanwhile the other Tom's are still calling. So my buddy and I continue to call with the Toms still calling back. This goes on for another 45-60 minutes. We regroup and decided to head up the hill to the second plateau where we figured they went. All of the sudden, BOOM. Someone slipped in above us without us knowing. That pretty much ended my buddy's chance. Never the less, it was a great trip and standby. The picture of the turkey dinner will come.
http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/sguertin72/turkey.jpeg (http://s1191.photobucket.com/user/sguertin72/media/turkey.jpeg.html)

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/sguertin72/20180506_061716.jpeg (http://s1191.photobucket.com/user/sguertin72/media/20180506_061716.jpeg.html)

http://i1191.photobucket.com/albums/z465/sguertin72/20180506_083616_1.jpeg (http://s1191.photobucket.com/user/sguertin72/media/20180506_083616_1.jpeg.html)

[Bunner]

Nice looking bird you got there. Congrats on the hunt and thanks for sharing

[bluesman]

nice . Congratulations. glad you have a good spot to go to .

[bluesman]

what shotgun shell were you using ? I bowhunt them and use blackpowder . On wet days I use modern shotgun or bow . I have taken three with traditional bows and tiried this year with bow and black powder. No luck yet . My spot seems to have dried up so I will try a new area .

[Krico]

Awesome! You guys had lots of action...nice Tom!

[ncurrie]

Job well done! Thanks for sharing!

[shelg]

I used Kent turkey load 3" but I think in the future, I am going to us 00 or number 2 3".


what shotgun shell were you using ? I bowhunt them and use blackpowder . On wet days I use modern shotgun or bow . I have taken three with traditional bows and tiried this year with bow and black powder. No luck yet . My spot seems to have dried up so I will try a new area .

[Brez]

Congrats on the nice bird and a fun hunt. very cool call too. Were you using flies for the trout?

[shelg]

Too much junk in the water....we were using panther martins and blue foxes.

Congrats on the nice bird and a fun hunt. very cool call too. Were you using flies for the trout?

[Brez]

Ah, the Blue Foxes work well. It's almost like you are from here, or spend a lot of time in the area. The river has come up 8 - 10 feet since a week or so ago! You want to see junk in the water! Brown as heck too. Turkeys don't care though