Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods

Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/23/18 08:21 PM

I met up with one of the nicest guy in the hunting industry and long time hunting buddy, Travis Hall, CEO of Browning North America yesterday afternoon for our annual turkey hunt. We worked a three year old for over an hour and a half before Travis rolled him at about 50 steps.
This morning broke clear and cold, low of 38 and no wind. Travis asked if it was too cold for the birds to really fire and I told him that they would be gobbling "like there was no tomorrow".
We drove a long way from camp where we had killed birds in the past. We parked the pickup as it was breaking day and the birds were gobbling up and down a big drainage for about a half mile stretch. We walked in the general direction of the song birds as they were beginning to pitch down. We set down along a road where I felt the birds would be walking and strutting. Long story short, there were at least 50 gobbling birds with 600 yards in either direction. At one time we had 8 long beards gobbling and drumming behind us just over a netwire fence (crossfence in the ranch) and three directly in front of us at the same time. I have heard lots of birds on a roost but I don't know that I ever had that many gobbling that close to me and I know that I have never had 11 birds spitting and drumming within shotgun range before. By the way, there are four that will not be gobbling tomorrow.
Adios,
Gary

Posted By: chrswr

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/23/18 08:47 PM

Posted By: JMalin

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/23/18 09:05 PM

It was a perfect morning! I doubled up in schliecher county at 7:45. Lots of birds gobbling.

Posted By: Smiling Mallard

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/23/18 09:29 PM

Congrats Gary. Sounds like the perfect day in a target rich environment. That is absolutely crazy. I've never seen that many wanting to play the game much less at the same time. I wish we all could have seen that!

Congrats to you as well JMalin. A long time ago I went on a hunt in Schleicher County. This was so long ago I found the place and guy running the hunts in the Dallas Morning news classified adds. It was ridiculously low priced at like $200 for 3 days and 3 birds (I said it was a long time ago

)so I called the guy up to ask some questions. Of course the first stupid thing that came out of my mouth was "Well do you have a lot of birds?". There was a slight pause and the guy said "Let me put it to you this way, you can skull a 3 iron shot out here and have a pretty good chance at killing a turkey". I told him I would mail the check. He was absolutely correct BTW!

Posted By: gary roberson

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/24/18 01:37 PM

Congratulations to JMalin as getting two birds in a morning is a feat. Smiling Mallard, you are right about areas of Schleicher County. If you can find those ranches where there is a historic roost, there can be "TOO many" turkeys. "Too many" was the term used by a Mexican ranch hand when asked if there were any turkeys on the ranch that he worked.
The largest turkey roost that I ever heard of was near Cleo on Bear Creek until the flood of 1980 took many of the huge pecan roost trees and deposited them along the way heading to the North Llano. I have heard reports of up to 3,500 birds on that roost in the winter months. Today, I think that there are more birds on the stretch of the San Saba just east of Menard for about a half mile. 1,500 birds are estimated on that roost, the last I heard. There is another big roost on Celery Creek north of Menard and I have seen over 800 on that roost. This roost is at the house of one of my best friends.
Possibly the most birds I have ever heard gobbling was over about a mile stretch of the South Llano on the 700 Springs Ranch where I hunted for years. One morning I was hunting with Cuz Strickland and Toxey Haas of Mossy Oak when we drove to the top of the bluff over this stretch of river. After listening for a minute in disbelief, Cuz said that we could be hearing over 100 birds gobbling.
Adios and Good Luck to all the Turkey Hunters out there,
Gary

Posted By: Smiling Mallard

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/24/18 02:09 PM

Great stuff Gary! Those have to be amazing locations and hard for most to imagine. As much as I love chasing the yard bird I might have sensory overload if I ever experienced that

As it is and the ranch I hunt, give me 10-15 gobbling birds and ONE that wants to play the game to the finale and I'm a happy, happy man!

Posted By: thedoveshooter

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/25/18 05:10 AM

Originally Posted By: gary roberson

Congratulations to JMalin as getting two birds in a morning is a feat. Smiling Mallard, you are right about areas of Schleicher County. If you can find those ranches where there is a historic roost, there can be "TOO many" turkeys. "Too many" was the term used by a Mexican ranch hand when asked if there were any turkeys on the ranch that he worked.
The largest turkey roost that I ever heard of was near Cleo on Bear Creek until the flood of 1980 took many of the huge pecan roost trees and deposited them along the way heading to the North Llano. I have heard reports of up to 3,500 birds on that roost in the winter months. Today, I think that there are more birds on the stretch of the San Saba just east of Menard for about a half mile. 1,500 birds are estimated on that roost, the last I heard. There is another big roost on Celery Creek north of Menard and I have seen over 800 on that roost. This roost is at the house of one of my best friends.
Possibly the most birds I have ever heard gobbling was over about a mile stretch of the South Llano on the 700 Springs Ranch where I hunted for years. One morning I was hunting with Cuz Strickland and Toxey Haas of Mossy Oak when we drove to the top of the bluff over this stretch of river. After listening for a minute in disbelief, Cuz said that we could be hearing over 100 birds gobbling.
Adios and Good Luck to all the Turkey Hunters out there,
Gary

I used to hunt on a place at the end of FM 3463, a little past where the pavement ends. Great turkey hunting. Good times!

Posted By: gary roberson

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/25/18 01:32 PM

thedoveshooter, I will be out that way this morning. I listed 7,567 acres and 1,343 acres for sale on the north side of the FM before the pavement ends. Were you hunting on the south side on the Menzies Ranch that Carl Kothmann leases or further down the road????
Adios,
Gary

Posted By: nocknload

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/29/18 07:35 PM

nice write up, congrats

Posted By: Drahthaar

Re: Perhaps the Best Morning that I Ever Spent in the Turkey Woods - 04/29/18 11:20 PM

Awesome,have never had a hunt where there was that many gobblers ,let alone that many gobbling. lucky you to have a place like that to hunt. thanks for sharing. Forrest