ARO's 2006 journal

[ARO]

JANUARY RIFLE SEASON - hunted the bII climber, its was windy all evening, around 5:00 after not seeing a deer all evening, i started to wonder why i chose to hunt this stand, but it was a west wind, and thats what this stand call for. then at 5:18 i heard something walking behind me, i listened and yep it was a deer. at 5:19 he stepped out of the pines, and boom another january buck.


JANUARY BOWSEASON - crx big oak stand, had four deer in the hole, recover this doe the next morning, with help of my tracker "average eight" tim.

[eshoremd]

congrats on the kills aro.

youve been a great addition to our little forum and were glad to have ya. nice to put a face with the name.

[ARO]

APRIL RIO GRANDE TURKEY

i hunted with the adobe lodge, on the mustang ranch in san angelo texas. the overall hunt was great, and the host's and guide could not have been nicer.

we arrived at the lodge around 1:30 pm, and after some lunch and a quick briefing, we were in the field hunting. i started off by a little running and gunning, but after about 3 hours calling, and spotting several groups of turkeys, i quickly realized that they were not responding to any calling. so i tried a little spot and stalking, i then learned this is almost impossible in texas, you can sometimes see the turkeys a couple hundred yards away, but they can see you too!!! with about an hour left in the evening hunt, i spotted some hens about 100 yards away, so i crept up to about 50 yards unseen, and set up behind a mesquite tree. they were feeding toward me and i watched them for about 20 minutes, now they were about 35 yards away. while i was sitting there enjoying the moment, and thinking about were i was going to set up the next morning, i noticed another turkey walking in. my eyes lit up when i saw it had a beard, it was a tom, and it came in with out a sound. i slowly raised my gun, and put the bead on the head, BOOM, all the turkeys scattered and there was one laying on the ground. i went over and sat down, and tried to soak in the moment. my first rio grande turkey, what a feeling!!



the next day i heard plenty of gobbling in the morning on the roost's, but once they hit the ground they quickly shutup. i spotted a bunch of turkey on the next draw over throughout the morning and evening, but did not connect were i was. the next morning, i set up were i saw the turkeys the day before, it turn's out, there is a food plot over there and thats where i saw the turkey. after seeing about 25 hens, with no gobblers in tow, two jakes made there way in. since we were aloud three turkeys i decided to take one of the jakes, turns out it had a five inch beard. all the ohter jakes i had seen thus far, just had stubs. we figured it must have been a jake from an early hatch.



that evening decided to try another spot behind the lodge, i found an old blind that someone had made out of mesquite branches, and decided to give it try. of course i did a complete rattlesnake inspection first!! i set up there and let out a single yelp, every ten minutes or so. after about half an hour, i was just sitting there daydreaming, when i look up, and low and behold there's gobbler, about 30 yards from me, just standing there. he slowly walked in and at about 15 yards started strutting, thats when i relized he must have heard my calls, and pin pointed exactly where they came from, and was doing his liitle dance for miss hen. thats where he made his fatal mistake, for misses hen turned out to be a 3 1/2" load of #6's. so my hunt was complete with just one more morning of hunting left, in which i went along with my friend tony, and watched him shoot his second turkey ever.

[ARO]

APRIL-MAY MARYLAND TURKEY

shot this turkey on april 20th, i got up late and didnt get to where i was hunting until about 6:45 am. i decided just to do a little running and gunning, and 10 minutes later heard the first gobble. i quickly set up, 3 gobbles and 10 minutes later, and this one was on the ground.




i got my second gobbler the last week of the season, it was one of the best turkey hunts i ever had. set up in a area that they seem to congragate around mid morning, like clockwork they gobbled on the roost and when they hit the ground they shutup. around 7:40 i caught some movement about 80 yards away, it was two turkeys, they made there way past me at 20 yards, it was a jake and a gobbler with about a 7" beard. i let them get about 40 yards past me, and let out a soft yelp. they turned and came right in to the decoys. while all this was going on i heard another bird gobbling and making its way towards me. now the two birds were about 15 feet from my blind, they started purring and clucking around the decoys. i had already made up my mind that i was gonna pass on these two and wait for the one that was gobbling, all of the sudden they take off running. 2 or 3 minutes later i see the other long beard strutting 75 yards away. back and forth for about 15 minutes, he gobbled about 10 times while he was strutting, i guess he saw the decoys. finally after about 25 minutes he made his way closer to me, when he got about 25 yards away i could'nt take it anymore and let him have the ole 3 1/2" #6's. it was an awesome hunt, and the first turkey i ever killed out of my outhouse blind.
20# 4oz
9 1/2" beard
1 1/4" & 1 3/16" spurs

[ARO]

AUGUST CROWS

decided to go crow huntin today, got everything set up and went to turn my caller on, and nothing, dead batteries. so i made a quick run to the dollar general and got some batteries. didnt start huntin till about 10:30, by 1:30 i was out of shells! 4+ boxes. 29 crows down, what a blast! the best crow hunt i ever had for sure.

[ARO]

SEPT 15 - PRONGHORN
hunted in laramie, Wyoming. after a couple stalks and 275 yard shot things all came together, and i had my first pronghorn.