Welcome back! We finally got all our stuff, so a few things are back in stock in the shop! Hit it up to get some killer signed copies of first edition Frozen Reaction and Retrograde Absolution, patches, and the northern lights stickers. More new stuff coming (soon?)!
Of all the things that took the sting out of moving away from a tropical paradise, the increased accessibility to hunting was the most soothing. I suppose being closer to family, getting cheaper flights, and experiencing all four seasons is great. Even so, I was most excited to get back to kicking around the swamps, fields, and mountains on the mainland. My first opportunity to get back into the field came immediately after returning to the continental USA.
After spending about a week with Jenny’s family, we went to visit my parents for a day. The next day, we packed our (non-hunting) dogs up and headed to our hunting cabin in Northern Minnesota in pursuit of Turkeys.
Our first order of business when we got to camp was to drive the trails and pick up memory cards from our cameras scattered throughout the woods. While modern trail cameras can broadcast pictures straight to your phone, some of us are quite frugal and refuse to upgrade from the old cameras or, when we do upgrade, refuse to pay for the cellular delivery service. As such, Jenny, the Dogs, and I pulled the SD cards from the cameras, copied the photos onto my computer, then returned the cards.
It was still mid-day and quite hot when we unloaded the truck at the cabin, so we got ourselves situated and took the time to review all the photos on the trail cameras. The photos revealed a vibrant, diverse sampling of the forest wildlife. Deer, bears, squirrels, and importantly, tons of turkeys. I was ready to get out into the woods and after the turkeys.
I am not particularly “good” at turkey hunting. In fact, my first time turkey hunting was the previous fall when I bushwhacked a flock on my way out of camp. I thumbed a trio of shells into my shotgun, and walked the trails in search of a Tom Turkey.
This spring turkey hunt had a second motive, scouting for the upcoming fall black bear season. As I wandered slowly and quietly through the woods, I was paying close attention to places I thought a big boar black bear might like to spend his time.
Hen clucks and thundering Tom gobbles echoed back and forth through the woods while I wandered. If I walked toward where I thought one turkey might be, another turkey would shout into the woods from a completely different direction. The only thing I could figure to keep hiking the trails and see what I could come up with.
As I crested a short hill leading to a meadow hosting a small apple orchard, I caught sight of a white tail doe grazing her way through the woods. Her fur was reddish-brown that time of year, and I crouched low in the grass to watch her eat. I pulled out my phone to take a picture, cursing my lack of foresight in leaving my camera in the cabin. Snapping a few photos, I tried to stealthily return my phone to my pocket.
That slight movement caught the doe’s eye. She stopped eating and stared right at me while I held my breath in the hopes my presence wouldn’t spook her. The wind shifted ever so slightly, and the doe took off, snorting and hollering through the woods.
I watched her fade into the woods, staying still for a few minutes after she disappeared. The woods were silent, save for mosquitos buzzing near my ear, held just barely at bay by a combination of Permethrin, Deet, and Citronella. I stood back up to continue my walking hunt when the songbirds and crows resumed their conflicting concerts.
It was nearly completely dark when I returned to the cabin empty handed. After the doe, I stopped hearing turkey calls through the woods, but I wasn’t discouraged. I simply prepared for a morning hunt more traditional to turkey hunting, with decoys, a slate call, and some camo netting.
Hunting in the Spring was a novel concept for me, I typically associate hunting with Autumn and Winter. One thing I didn’t consider when I was preparing for my first Spring turkey hunt was the wakeup times. Shooting hours start a half-hour before sunrise, meaning I had to get to my hunting spot about an hour before sunrise in order to set up my decoys and blind. In the Fall, a half hour before sunrise would be around 7:00AM.
In May, it was about 5:00AM.
I slipped quietly out of the cabin and drove out to my hunting spot, using just my fog lights for illumination. Pulling into the meadow, I hustled to set up my decoys before the Sun rose. After setting up the fake turkeys, I hid my truck back down the trail and walked back to set up my blind. I set up facing into the meadow, with a trail leading to the meadow to my left, and my truck down the trail at the other end of the meadow to the right.
The first tendrils of grey daylight peaked through the trees as the first turkey gobbles echoed through the forest. I picked up my slate call and started clucking in response.
Back and forth we went, the turkeys and I. The toms would gobble, and I would cluck and purr and yelp with my slate. It felt like the toms were circling around me, staying the same distance away and moving around the woods. Eventually, I heard the unmistakable sound of large birds pecking and scratching their way down the trail at the end of the meadow to my left.
I sat quietly, maneuvering my shotgun to better cover the end of the meadow where the trail entered. A couple clucks on my slate, then a yelp. A gobble thundered in response, but it sounded further away than the rustling leaves coming up the trail. I kept waiting and listening to the turkeys meander closer.
Finally, they made their way into the meadow. A flock of a half dozen turkeys pecked their way into view, and I strained to get a good look at them.
During the Spring turkey season, hunters are limited to harvesting “bearded” turkeys only. Ostensibly, only the male turkeys have beards, long strands of fine feathers sticking out of their chests. Occasionally, female turkeys grow beards, much like female deer sometimes grow weird little antlers, but it is rare. During the Fall turkey season, there is no such restriction, any turkey is valid to take.
None of the six turkeys sported beards that I could see. Their lead hen marched them right past me, then to the other side of the meadow and back into the woods. I sat there for a few more hours, until it got hot enough and the mosquitos bothered me enough to decide to pack it in.
Returning to the cabin, Jenny and I ate a nice lunch, then worked on a few things around the cabin. We had plenty of time before I wanted to get back out into the field, so we busted out my lever-action .22 to partake in the time-honored hunting cabin tradition of plinking.
I hung a metal target in the shape of a gopher from a tree, then scattered some tin cans, plastic water bottles, and a paper plate in the woods to use as targets. Jenny and I blasted away for a little while, until the dogs couldn’t stand it anymore.
After plinking, we still had a few hours before the evening hunt, and Jenny decided she would rather just come with instead of sitting in the cabin. So, she picked up the slate call and started practicing with it. After just a little while, she had turkeys responding to her calls while she was standing out on the deck, so it was time to put our gear together and head into the field.
We set up the decoys and our blind, then settled in to try to coax a tom in front of my shotgun. Jenny’s calls kept getting strong responses from a tom off in the distance. She would call, and the tom would answer, but he kept his distance. Sitting there until it got dark, we packed up and headed into the cabin empty handed.
Unfortunately, that was the end of our Spring turkey hunting season. The next morning, we cleaned and packed up the cabin, then locked everything up. As a bookend to our trip, Jenny and I drove the trails one last time to check everything over before we locked the gate and headed home.
It turned out to be a great choice. Just a few minutes down the trail, we encountered a white tail doe standing in the middle of the trail. I stopped the truck, and we snapped a few pictures. Suddenly, what looked like a chihuahua ran across the road to the doe, and they ran off into the woods together. I inched the truck forward, scanning the woods where the deer disappeared.
Just a few yards off the trail, we found a fawn standing stock still and watching us with wide eyes. I snapped a couple photos, then we went on our way around the trail.
Even though we were going home without a turkey in hand, it was a successful trip. It was fun to have my wife accompany me in the field for the first time. We locked the gate behind us, and headed home. The next time I go back to the cabin, I will be trying to coax a specific black bear into becoming a rug.
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