Trooper makes good on
another flock
Last
Friday,
I
took
Trooper out for an evening run for turkeys, and it ended
up a short evening. We headed up to our north end, and
Trooper started ranging nicely for me. Once we came up
around a corn field, Trooper caught scent, and started to
work it hard, moments later, he took off in a straight
shot. Just as he disappeared from view, turkeys start
putting, and clucking, then wing beats. Two birds flew
over head, no shot with the trees in the way. Best I could
figure, 10-12 birds in the flock. Trooper has amazing
speed when motivated.
Trooper came back a few minutes later, and we set up along
a side bank, against a big old
maple tree. For a rambunctious Wiem, I was surprised how
quickly he settled down behind the blind. Ten minutes
later, he perked his ears up, and I began calling. Shorty
after, I could start hearing turkeys kee-keeing, and
yelping. A single jenny came in on my hard right, and
slightly behind us. Trooper saw her before I did, but
never made a sound. He was starting to get excited, but
stayed put. As the bird crossed out in front, I switched
the shotgun, from my offside to my preferred right side,
and shot, when the bird stopped to take a better look. The
turkey started flopping, and I commanded Trooper to get
the bird. He come out of the blind like he was on fire,
and pinned the bird down to the ground in a manner of a
few seconds. By the time I got there, the bird had one
remaining tail feather left. Since this was the second
bird shot over him, I let him get all the scent he wanted.
Trooper definitely got the idea now. I was out less than
30 minutes, and I was walking back to the house.
I took him down to the ice cream stand (very nice warm day
in NY), as they have what they call a dog treat (small
dish of ice cream with two dog biscuits.) Young girl at
the stand saw the birds flush from across the road, and
she confirmed that it was 10 birds that she saw fly up
over the corn field.
Trooper has the instinct, I just have to take advantage of
it, and train him properly.
Very happy that I filled both tags over him this fall.
10/13/08 |
I took Trooper out yesterday for the women's
hunt, and he did well breaking a single bird, then caught
up to the flock going up hill. Amazing how such a big dog
can power his way up a hill. No kill on this break, as it
was a formidable hill for the hunt participants to climb.
Mike 11/2/08
|
Trooper has a lot of
natural talent, hopefully the owner can be trained well
enough to take advantage of it!
Mike
Joyner 5239 Town Line Road, McGraw, New York 13101
turkey-talk.com
607-753-8420
|
March 9, 2009 - bad
day today, Trooper ran up the hill chasing a squirrel or a
rabbit and was hit and killed this morning. We think it
was a black truck, but they never stopped. Nothing we
could do for him. He was 15 months old on March 6th. We
lost him a good 14-15 years too early. Mike
Read
Trooper's obituary |
 Iit’s been very quiet &
sad since we had lost Trooper on that fateful morning. We
learned soon after, that Trooper’s parents were expecting
another litter in late April/early May. A few weeks after
losing him, we found an adorable female Weim with huge
ears and feet (much like Trooper) up in Minnesota. We had
her flown in the next day, and welcomed her into our
family. We named her Abby (short for Abigail). Very sweet
girl, but also alert and  very
fast. Shows strong instincts to hunt, and is at full
attention at any type of a turkey call. We had three 2
year old gobblers within 12 yards of the deck before
season, and she got an eye/earful of gobblers. Being a
pack of two year olds, they gobbled 100+ times and Abby
knows for sure what a gobble is.
Early April we got terrible news that Trooper’s father was
hit and killed, and the  expecting litter would be
the last of the bloodline (mother would be fixed after
weaning the pups.) The father was a blue Weim, and
as it turned out, one of the pups was a blue male
(the owners would keep him.) We picked out the largest
male and named him Jake. Also sweet, and very alert. Too
soon to tell on how he’ll do on turkey’s but there are
some indications. Already chasing laser pointer dots. We
hope to get them on turkeys this fall, we’ll know more
then. For now, things are much more lively at our home,
and as it should be. For us, it is where it all started.
By the way, the pics with Abby and the deer decoy, was
when she actually first "discovered" the deer. We won the
decoy at a banquet, keep it by the house, and expect to
find a young deer bedded down by it someday. Abby was all
worked up when she finally saw it, with her hair raised on
the back of her neck. Mike
6/19/09
|
Jake & Abby, finally
made good on a flock last night! Both dogs are young pups
(6-1/2 months & 10 months) and have been showing
promise. This being their first season, the difficulty has
been getting them into fresh scent/scratchings and then
following thru to the actual flock. Been able to get into
fresh that day stuff, but the flocks would move off the
property, and I would have to pull them off. Most of the
season I would run one dog for 3-4 hours, and then switch
to the other. Last night I decided on taking both as I had
been out of town for the past five days deer hunting in
the Adirondacks. Both of them needed to get  out. Although
both my tags are filled this season, I was hoping to go
out with Paul (hunting buddie). Paul is still recovering
from an illness, so I went to one of my leases anyway as a
training walkabout. As it turned out, the entire top of
the lease (300 acres) was torn up by turkeys. It took a
long time to walk it as the dogs were working it over
hard. We worked it down the one side to the end, and went
around to work it back on the other, and that is when they
both took off in a dead run. Normally they range 40-60
yards. I heard putting and saw the first turkey take
flight about a 100 yards out, then I could spot both dogs
running circles and turkeys going up all around them. Jake
leaped at one bird taking flight, and missed by less than
a foot. I counted 12 birds take to the air, and was sure
none ran off as I could see down through the woods. Very
cool to watch them work together chasing the birds. They
both got lots of praise, and I wished I could have
followed thru with calling them back in, but it was too
close to dark. Things are looking up, both Jake and Abby
got one under their belt, and are excited to get out
there. Hopefully more to come. Mike 11/12/09
|
Hills
of
Truxton:
Stories
and Travels of a Turkey Hunter by nature
author and outdoorsman Mike Joyner.
Also: Tales
from
the
Turkey
Woods: Mornings of My Better Days , plus
two books coming soon:
Father and Son: A Life’s Journey Together in the Turkey
Woods, and Empire State Limb Hangers.
|
"The reason a
dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead
of his tongue." -- Don Hetland
Home | About Us
|
Books | Breeds |
Classifieds
| FAQ | History
Legislation
| Links
|
Scratchings
|Stories
| Tales |
Shop
in the Store Carson
Quarles | Earl
Sechrist | Frank
Cox 1 | Frank
Cox 2 | Frederick
Payne 1 | Frederick Payne 2
| Gary
Perlstein | Gratten Hepler
| Jon Freis
1 | Jon
Freis 2 | Larry
Case | Marlin
Watkins 1 | Marlin
Watkins 2 | Mike Joyner
| Mike
Morrell | Parker
Whedon | Randy Carter
| Ron
Meek 1 | Ron Meek 2
| Tom
McMurray | Tommy
Barham 1 | Tommy
Barham 2
Members Only: Hall
of Fame | Members
List |
Museum
| Studies
| and the
Primary Turkey Dog States:
KY
| NC |
NY
| OH
| ON | PA
|
TN |
VA
| WI
| WV
© 2008 - 2018 American Wild Turkey Hunting Dog
Association All Rights Reserved
Permission to copy without written authorization is
expressly denied.

 |