This year I headed back over to the Spokane area for turkey hunting. I had originally planned a trip to Winthrop a few weeks ago but the weather (don’t get me started) was horrible so that got canceled and I was placing all my bets on Spokane/Cheney area which also happened to have an extended three bird limit this year. I towed the trailer over on Tuesday and set up camp at Riverside State Park, wandered around finding a few false morels and then tried to get some sleep.
Wednesday morning looked like perfect conditions, cool but not cold with clear skies. I met up with Joe in Cheney at 4 am and we took off for a spot where he knew some birds had roosted the night before. We hiked into the area and set up uphill from a big meadow where he expected the birds to fly down. As daybreak began the woods came to life with songbirds, geese and finally gobbles. A little after 5 am birds began to fly down into the meadow as planned and soon there were 7-8 big gobblers strutting and wandering back and forth with a few hens mixed in. The birds showed no interest in us at all though would occasionally stop and stare at our immobile hen decoy. The birds began to head up the meadow and disperse a bit.
After maybe an hour a lone hen decided to come up the hill and was followed by a gobbler. The hen came up to the decoy and wandered around to the side of us while the gobbler got to about 60 yards and froze behind some trees. He just was not going to come in any further and was just out of range. Soon the hen wandered off into the woods and the gobbler followed. We were left with a few birds still at the edge of where we could see in the meadow but they were not moving.
Another hour went by and a new hen walked up towards the decoy this time followed by a second hen and a Jake. The Jake headed to the decoy and began lifting his neck, flapping his wings and putting on a Jake show. I was so ready to shoot the guy, he almost acted like he wanted it but Joe said to hold off a bit. The Jake decided to try and breed the hen decoy and that did it, a Tom came running out of the woods to the Jake to chase him off the hen. The Tom gave me a shot at the decoy and down he went, the Jake didn’t run like the hens so he got it too. Two hours since fly down and two birds were on the ground.
Now any other year we would have packed up and I’d have been hitching up the trailer to head back home but with the new three bird limit we could still hunt so we gathered our gear and the birds and headed back to the truck to hit another spot almost running over a gobbler on the road.
At the next spot we did a long hike in stopping to call occasionally and bumping one lone hen. Finally we heard a faint gobble and did a big loop down and around to get into position. Once we were set up, of course, nothing at all from the bird. We sat and sat calling occasionally figuring we’d give it another half hour before moving on. About the time we were going to give up a hen moved into the area. She checked out the decoy but mostly wandered around pecking then parked herself by a small stand of trees and was grooming about 25 yards away. Within about 15 minutes we caught the first sight of a fan moving in the woods towards the hen. We watched as the big gobbler got closer and finally he was in back of the trees and wasn’t coming forward any longer but just moving side to side in back of the trees about 30 yards away. I got ready and luckily he stuck his head up in a small gap and I fired. I hit the bird but only wounded him so he started to head out. I got off a follow up shot at about 50 yards and the bird rolled to the ground, we got up and gave chase and caught him as he would get up and fall down again. This was a big bird, about 23-24# with 1 1/8″ spurs and a 9.5″ beard. Definitely the biggest turkey I’ve taken and Joe said it was one of the heavier birds he’d seen in years. I got lucky on the second shot and having the tungsten portion of the load in the Federal 3rd Degree definitely made the shot possible.
We packed up and cleaned birds and I headed back to camp to finish up processing and bagging things up. The next morning I woke up after 11 hours of sleep to rain and just packed up and did the long drive home in wind and rain the whole way. Three turkeys is a LOT of meat and when we got home I took the breasts from the first bird and made a batch of bratwurst out of it since it was a tough old bird and we love turkey brats. We’ll be making quite a bit of turkey carnitas with the hindquarters, stuffing and roasting the Jake breasts and using the other birds breasts for tacos and mole. Very grateful for a productive day.
Planning on an Oregon Turkey camp in two weeks, a few more birds will keep us in turkey for most of the year.