Wife's first turkey and my bow coyote

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Slicktricktj

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My wife and I were able to take a quick trip to Northwest Oklahoma last weekend and turkey hunt a few days. We saw lots of birds, but they were henned up all day long. The only gobbling was right after coming off the roost and late in the evening when some were looking for hens before going to the roost. Kinda weird for that area and not be able to get bird gobbling in the afternoon. Anyway, the first morning, we located where the birds were roosting before it got light and set up. We had 3 jakes come strutting in front of us for about 30 minutes. A pretty good bird came in behind them and came into our decoys. My wife took a shot at it but I guess her gun slipped off her arm as she missed and had a good bruise on her bicep. The turkeys didn't spook much at the shot so we kept working the jakes in front of us. Much to my surprise, we heard a gobble right behind us. We were able to get turned around before it came in and I called it in to about 12 yards. My wife didn't miss this time and took her first longbeard. She was sooooo excited, as was I. I bow hunted the afternoon and next morning. I did catch a coyote out prowling around at noon the first day and shot it with my bow at 50 yards. It ran about 10 yards. I had the chance to shoot a jake at 10 yards, but saw a big tom behind them so I waited. He ended up skirting around the far edge of the right of way I was hunting and never came in close enough for a shot. It was a great hunt and one I will never forget. Here are a couple of pics from our trip.

Oh, and her bird had an 8 1/2 inch beard with 3/4 inch spurs.

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imhntn

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Sounds like a great hunt. Cool pics for sure. That is an awesome shot on the coyote. I couldn't hit one with my bow at 50 yrds on my best day. That is a great shot.
 

Buzzgun

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I was freaking out when I saw that first photo, I KNOW that windmill!

Then I scrolled down and saw the other photos and understood why I know that windmill!

Susan took her first turkey right there last year, we were sitting under the cedars directly behind the windmill in your first photo. I killed one there the next week. The birds were henned up all day last year too, I managed to get the hens to respond and the gobblers followed, bad deal for them!

I didn't see a single bird on that quarter during deer season last fall??

Until last Friday, I thought the lease had expired, I talked to Tom at the funeral last Friday and he told me he still had the lease until August. Wish I had known that, I would have been over there hunting turkeys last month! Any word on whether he is going to lease it for next fall?

Good job on the coyote and tell "A" congrats on the longbeard!!
 

ElkStalkR

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I didn't see a single bird on that quarter during deer season last fall??

Turkeys gather up in large winter groups and are not dispersed during the winter. So certain properties will be loaded with birds in the fall because they are wintering there where properties that have birds during the spring may have nothing. Come breeding season they spread out again and cover a larger territory. Pretty common actually.
 

Buzzgun

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Sounds good, but that's not why the turkeys weren't there last fall. I have been hunting that piece of property for 6-8 years and that particular quarter section is historically the best area to hunt turkeys on the lease, it is a primary roost area. However, last year, a new pipeline was installed through the area and the vegetation went crazy. The pipeline right of way went from ankle high grass in the spring, to 6 foot weeds by October! Turkeys simply won't stay in an area with tall, dense vegetation because they can't see. This property is loaded with bobcats and quite a few coyotes, a turkey wouldn't last long in that kind of vegetation. The area where the decoys are set up in the first photo was over head high in weeds last October. The rancher turned the cows into that quarter just before rifle season and that helped, but the turkeys moved approximately 3/4 mile to the west during the fall and stayed there at least through December, this is the first time in all the years I've been hunting the lease that they moved to that side during the fall. It's interesting to see that they have moved back, I'm guessing the rancher kept cows in that quarter all winter.
 

Buzzgun

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Killed this buck last November, during archery season, about 125 yards from where slick's first photo was taken. It is truly a phenomenal place to hunt!!

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Slicktricktj

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Hey Buzz!! We weren't sure we had the lease until we were on our way up to hunt. I had dad call Tom to check and if we didn't have it we were gonna go to public land out west. Dad didn't get a chance to talk to him about this fall. I sure wish we could get it again. We got all our stands out just in case. That back quarter was the only place I could find any gobblers. Lots of single hens all over the lease but toms seemed to stay on the east part and south of the lease. Saw a buck one evening come into the windmill, had antlers almost to the tips of his ears.
 

Buzzgun

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The majority of the turkeys were over by the cabin last fall, we saw a group of about 35 on the rye field, but there were about 75 staying over towards the cabin during deer season. I pulled all my stands in December, took an entire day to get them all out. Tom told me Mike and Jess bought the ranch at the sale, but didn't say if he was going to lease it again this year.
 

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