Hunters gearing up for spring turkey season By Larry Myhre
Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal
It was almost daylight and the tukeys were still in the trees. Every few seconds one would gobble and this would set off the others.
Occasionally, I’d do a soft yelp and get the booming answers from the big toms.
I was so close I could hear them flying down from the tree limbs and they continued the gobbling and yelping.
But the sounds were fading as the whole bunch walked away.
More often than not, that’s how it is in today’s turkey woods. There are so many turkeys that it is a rare occasion when toms go to roost without hens.
And, come dawn, the toms go where the hens go and if you are not on that track, you will not bag a tom.
That’s why preseason scouting is so important.
We used to scout just to determine where the toms were roosting and then depend upon our calling to bring them in.
Now, however, you have to determine where those turkeys will go when they fly down and you must be set up on that track to even have a chance.
It is a fact that many of today’s turkey hunters no longer get up early to be in the woods at dawn.… Continue reading
The Right Stuff For Bigger Healthier Deer By Gary Howey
It’s every deer hunters dream to have the opportunity to harvest a beautiful trophy buck.
With the decrease in habitat, the number of people trying to find land to hunt on along the declining number of acres available for the average person to hunt, it’s a pretty good bet that very few of these dreams will become reality.
The main thing we need to do to insure that we have good bucks is to not shoot every buck that walks by. We need to let those smaller bucks walk by, letting them grow and start reducing the doe population.
If you do this, you’re heading in the right direction but there are several things that can be done to help an average buck to become a true trophy.
Number one is the genetics. Genetics set the limits for antler size and growth. If you have only small spike bucks in the area you’re hunting, then the chances are that spike bucks will be the only deer available.… Continue reading