This next to the final day gobbler weighed 18 pounds, had a 9 inch beard and 7/8 spurs when he made the two mile trip out of the game lands on my bike this morning.





Nope never give up. I'll be out for the second one on Monday.

Dick Bodenhorn

Nice bird Dick,  every time you talk  about your bike I get a chuckle...

everyone in the area knows if they see a PGC vechile with a bike on the back it's you...

Congrats and good luck on #2 on Monday..

Congrats Dick. Nice Gobbler. Hope it was all downhill on the way out!

Quote :

Dr Trout wrote : Nice bird Dick,  every time you talk  about your bike I get a chuckle... everyone in the area knows if they see a PGC vechile with a bike on the back it's you... Congrats and good luck on #2 on Monday..

Thanks Doc!

I’ve surprised a lot of illegal hunters and ATV riders on that bike too. Besides being a great hunting aid it is also a great law enforcement tool, I can steak up on people where they simply aren’t expecting a Game Warden to be.

Dick B.

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Buff wrote : Congrats Dick. Nice Gobbler. Hope it was all downhill on the way out!

Thanks Buff!

Congratulations on your bow kill this year, too!

Actually a lot of it was down hill on the way out. It was all an easy ride on the way out anyway.

Dick B.

Congrats Dick!!

Nice to see success towards the end of the any season.  Especially going the extra mile to get back in a ways.  The birds are going good right now for sure.  

I should have been successful on my second bird of the season this morning. I had one in the kill zone but he ended up getting to make the decision concerning walking away. Usually when they get into the kill zone I am the one making the decision if they walk away or not, but not so this morning.

There was a bird gobbling out the pipeline, about where the first one was on Saturday, so I headed out there. As I got closer to him though I discovered there was one gobbling even better another quarter mile further and closer to the pipeline. The second bird seemed like a really hot gobbler so that is the one I went for.

I got out to a good set up before he flew down and got set up. He answered my soft calls and the game was on. Come fly down he went further away but straight out the pipeline. I decided to move closer to him while the opportunity was good to do so. I closed a hundred yards or so, put a decoy on the pipeline and set up on the opposite line of the line from him though he was still a bit further out the line too. My set up seemed good with a good bit of low under story right behind me to help conceal me. I figured he would come up the opposite side of the pipeline and then sneak out to the edge to talk a look. That was in an easy range and all looked good. I called and he boomed right back and was soon gobbling his way closer at a pretty quick rate of approach.

After just a short time though he crossed the pipeline and was now on my side of the line and too close to make any major set up adjustments. I repositioned on the tree a bit though so I could shoot more to the upper side of the line then originally planned for.

Soon he was right on the opposite side of the low under story, way to much to my right side, and it was obvious he was going to go right above me at about twenty yards or maybe even less. Boy if I had only set up for left handed shooting I would have been perfect, but I wasn’t set up to shoot to the right side. I couldn’t chance moving now and could only hope he went the whole way past me and out of sight until I could regroup and get a better shooting angle on him.

Soon I could see him standing off my right shoulder looking right where he knew that hen had been calling from, he was looking right at me. I have never been able to figure out how when I call so little they can pin point so exactly where the calling is from. It is almost like they have a build in compass and azimuth recorder built into their heads or something. In any event he picked me out, started putting and took off before I could even figure out if I even wanted to shoot him. I’m pretty sure he was a good long beard though from the quick look I did get.

He lives on to become a year older for some lucky hunter this fall or perhaps once again for this hunter again next spring.

Later I did have another gobbler answer a couple times, but only at a long distance and only twice. I also had a hen answer from one of my stop and call spots. She was close and I thought by chance she might have a gobbler with her so I ditched the bike, set up and started calling to her. We cut back and forth pretty hard to one another for a few minutes and here she comes into a perfect shooting zone, right off my left side at about fifteen yards. Why didn’t that gobbler approach like she did? She keep clucking, yelping, cutting and purring as she moves past me. But, there is no gobbler with her.

It was still a good morning. I covered just slightly under twelve miles on the bike and probably another mile of a bit more on foot. It was a fun season and life is good. It will be nice to sleep past 0330 hours once again though, that is the only bad thing about spring gobbler hunting, it makes for some very long days and short nights.

Dick Bodenhorn  

--Last edited by RSB on 2009-05-25 21:50:53 --

Nice bird RSB.  

A few years ago while hunting  the vineyard run area, an orange object came "floating" down the bike trail  in the early morning darkness.  It took a little while to realize that is was somebody riding a bike.  Now I know it was probably you on the way turkey hunting.  dd

It probably was.

I have hunted that entire loop from Vineyard up to the top of the hill, back around Coward Run, the Pocket Rocks and back to vineyard. I have also hunted up Laurel Run and to the top of the hill, through between the food plots, pushed the bike over to the food plots at the top of Dry Hollow then out that road to the Pocket Rocks and down to vineyard where I hooked onto the Rails-to-trails and back to the Laurel Run parking lot. That is kind of a tough hunting circuit though. I’ve also gone up the Rails-to-trails and come back over Vineyard to Laurel that way, which is a little easier but not much.

Dick Bodenhorn