Without Kid in tow, i was able to get an over the counter, left over tag and hit the coulee country in Western WI. Friday night me and my buddy Tim and from a surprise visit his Daughter Christin hit an old little state land honey hole I found years back and had not hunter for 10 years. With 2 hours left of light I get out there and hike to a spot were the state forest meets some AG Field on the top of the coulee. After an hour I hear a bird gobble and I drop down low further into the state land (steep hillside)to get out of sight and take off parallel the fence line to intercept him as he heads to the Field corner to come into the State land to roost. I get about 200 yards away and set up and call. He keeps responding but is not coming closer. Now all the sudden I hear a gobble come from where I just came from behind me! Now this is the 5th week of the hunt and it is green and thick in the woods and the under brush and briars are probably 2 feet tall. I can hear him trotting in the old Oak leaves so I take a chance and roll to the other side of the tree I am leaning against and 15 seconds later all I see is a Bright blue head and neck bobbing through the thick green underbrush coming up the hill. Thats all I needed to see and I took him at 25 yards. I shot and he rolled and was gone. When i got up and ran over there he dead in a deep little canyon that was formed by the steep hillside. I was relieved as I though maybe he took off running. He is a nice bird with 1 25" spurs and 10.25" bears. One of the better birds I have killed.
The funny thing is guys I work with always say that the late tags on public land are just too tough to hunt. I don't know, we had 5 birds sounding off for 3 hours the next morning, but they never got into shooting distance. Tim went home without a bird but we had fun trying.
The funny thing is guys I work with always say that the late tags on public land are just too tough to hunt. I don't know, we had 5 birds sounding off for 3 hours the next morning, but they never got into shooting distance. Tim went home without a bird but we had fun trying.
