After watching a couple of bears lazily feeding hundreds of yards away across the steep, deep canyons of Oregon’s coastal range - and with no easy access to close the distance and seal the deal - Wil Askew and I decided to switch gears and fill our turkey tags on the last day of turkey hunting season.

- We couldn’t get closer to this bear -

After parting ways with our good friend and guide John Dickenson, we grabbed our turkey hunting gear, raced from Elkton, Oregon to Roseburg, Oregon, and were turkey hunting by 12:30 PM. Within ten minutes of setting out we had two hens knocking on our door, coming within ten yards of our setup. Unfortunately there were no toms in sight so we continued moving.

We quickly worked our way along the ridge, stopping to call every now and then. Once at the top of the knob we finally got a lone tom to respond from the valley below. Due to the thick brush between us and the tom, the bird hung up and wouldn’t move any closer, so we pressed on. After a few minutes we got another tom to respond behind us, so we backtracked a little and located the bird by a tall Douglas Fir tree.

That’s when a hen tried to lure the tom away from us, which had Wil battling it out furiously to maintain the tom’s focus on us. As the tom headed up the mountain to our location, we quickly set up and waited.

Within five minutes not one, but two toms went by just slightly out of range, but the hen headed straight towards us and appeared from under a small tree, cutting excitedly the entire way to within 10 yards of us. All of this happened so quickly that we didn’t have a chance to put on our face masks and gloves, but in this case it didn’t matter, as the hen was obviously pretty excited.

- This hen moved within 10 yards of our position, staring right at us for what seemed like forever -

While we were watching the hen in front of us, the two toms had moved to the top of the knob, completely out of sight. As the hen moved away from us we slowly switched positions, as the toms were now directly above us. We still couldn’t see them due to a slight rise, so we sat tight to see if we could call them back within range. After a few minutes Wil was able to call them to within 20 yards, and at this point the toms were making a ton of noise.

After ten more anxious minutes of waiting and calling, the toms refused to come any closer. Sensing that the birds might head uphill again, Wil stood up, located the birds, and took a shot. It was now or never, so I quickly stood to my feet as well, ran up the hill a couple of yards, and was surprised to see not two toms, but eight. No wonder those birds were so loud as they strutted above us. Between Wil and the hen, the two of them had called in every tom within a hundred yards or more.

Wil’s shot took out a few of the tom’s feather as it was in mid-strut, and I hammered a two year old tom with a seven inch beard. Oddly enough, Wil’s tom had a ten and a half inch beard, but no spurs. Neither of us had seen a mature tom with no spurs before, so that was a first.

- Wil Askew (left) and Jeremy Henricks (right) -

- Over ten inch beard with no spurs -

This hunt was a great way to end the season, and has me looking forward to fall turkey season. Look for this hunt and more on our upcoming turkey hunting DVD from Pursue The Outdoors.

We watched the weather on Friday to see if we were going to attempt a turkey hunt this weekend. Friday at 5, with my gear loaded I hit the road. I was hunting with my good friends John Dickenson from Elkton and Jeremy Henricks. Jeremy and I hunt quite a bit together lately since we film everything. I am in the process of creating a NEW turkey hunting video and here are some highlights from Saturday’s hunt.

Saturday morning we got Jeremy on a good tom. I told him to use my gun (Benelli Super Black Eagle) and had him sitting in a perfect position for a shot. Benelli’s have one flaw, and I thought about this as he sat down. Then figured it was ok.

This tom comes in perfect, I’m thinking shoot Jeremy, shoot, shoot SHOOT…… Click! I knew it. The action had not SLAMMED shut and the firing pin did not engage. Sorry!

We headed off to another spot and did the usual call from a ridge to get a response.

I got a response from a tom that was turning himself inside out with every call.

I worked this tom for an hour and a half. Got in close but I had three things going against me. 1) he was in an open area and knew he should have seen the hen making all the noise so he hung up. 2) He was across a creek and there was too much brush on my side where I was at 3) there was a fence. I finally made it down to 50 yards be fore he started PUTTING. When his head rose I knew I had a 50% chance of killing him. He won.

I worked down to another ridge and instantly got another response from a tom.

He gobbled non-stop but would not come in. He was actually laying down sunning himself. We finally got some interest from him but a deer spooked him and we watched him sail across to the other side of the canyon.

Kept moving as we were about to lose our weather. It had been beautiful all morning and now it’s spitting snow and hail. We would hide under trees for shelter and wait it out.

Finally the sun broke back out and we were on the move. Heading down a steep hill I stopped to call and got an instant response right in front of me. I moved to the right and rounded a tree only to find three red heads staring at me no further than 10 yards.

Shotgun up, bird down. The hill was so steep, he tumbled head over feet for a 100 yards before coming to rest.

I went down and was surprised to find he was a Jake. I was a bit bummed at first but then I realized that WE had worked our tails off to bag this bird. As soon as we picked him up, it began to snow. When we finally reached the truck, it felt good to be punching a tag.

As we left the snow really began to fall so we decided to head home for the rest of the weekend as the weather was only to get worse.

As I thought about the day events on the drive home, I couldn’t help but smile. We hunted hard. Covered a lot of ground and saw some great country too. He may not be the biggest bird, but it was a fun hunt and it was great to be outdoors with good people and maybe we’ll bag a big one next time.

I still need to call Jeremy and see how he faired after walking through all of this poison oak, which just covered the hillside.

I have all my clothes in a heavy garbage bag so my wife and daughter wont catch it. I’m lucky. I can walk through it and have never gotten it.

It was calling for downpours all day Saturday. I was surprised when I woke up that the rain had come and gone so, it was time to head to the turkey woods. Everything was going according to plan until I realized that I had forgotten my mouth calls in the garage. Might as well hunt… We walked up a ridge where I could glass the openings in search of a flock of turkeys. I figured I would check a local hang out and sure enough they were there. We snuck in close and set up. I had Bryce rest against a small fir tree with her gun resting securely on a limb as we stood there waiting for them to feed into shooting range. It took about 10 minutes and then 4 small toms appeared 10 yards in front of us. Bryce waited for them to separate and nailed the tallest one with a load of #4’s from my 12 gauge.

I told her to stay still, and the birds settled down after a few minutes and we snuck around the hill and cut off the feeding birds once again. I caught a glimpse of a red head off to my right and finished the day with another young tom. No rain, no pressure, nice birds.