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
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