Gobblers, Poachers, Sheds and Deads
Posted by
Bo Parker
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Posted in
Scouting
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Still Imagery
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Posted on
Monday, March 29, 2010
I was off work on Friday, so I decided to go scout/shed hunt a new property that we had never stepped foot on. On the way to the property, I drove down the gravel road behind my house to see if any turkeys were out. Luckily for me, they were out in force and put on quite a show for me. I was able to get some pretty good video footage of them and I got several birds to gobble while talking to them with a Woodhaven mouth call. It definitely got me pumped up for the upcoming season.
This photo has 10 different gobblers in it and is just across the street from a property that we can hunt. Hopefully the birds will start to spread out in the coming weeks and some will move over onto our side of the road.
After playing with the turkeys for a while, I headed off to the new property. We got permission to hunt it late in the year but never had time to scout it or hang stands. I wish that we had, because the property looked really good. There were some awesome trails and some really good buck sign. I also saw about 5 different deer on the property.
Unfortunately, the shed hunting didn't really pan out. I'm reasonably certain that someone beat me to it. That's the tough part about some of the urban areas that we are able to hunt. You have to deal with a lot of poachers. I found a lot of poacher sign on the property including a tree stand and a mineral lick. 
Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed to find the poacher sign, but it got even worse. I found a total of five buck skulls with the skull caps removed like the one pictured below. It made me want to vomit. It gives us as hunters a terrible name and people like this don't deserve the right to hunt. I'll be in touch with our local conservation officer very soon and we'll be sure to have this property on his watch list next year. As ethical hunters, we all need to band together to prevent this kind of thing from happening. If you ever happen to witness or suspect that a wildlife violation is in progress, do not hesitate to contact Operation Game Thief. The number in Missouri is 1-800-392-1111.
After several hours of walking and 0 sheds to my credit, I decided to call it a day. 50 yards from the truck, I almost stepped on this little guy. It was an old shed off of a forkhorn, but at least I didn't get skunked!
On Sunday, Scott and I had a chance to run out to one of our favorite farms to scout for turkeys and do a little post season deer scouting/shed hunting. The deer and turkey sign looked great and we were fortunate enough to spot a group of toms in the distance, although we didn't get any pictures. The deer sign looked great and I think we will likely have a stand set close to this rub that has been hit for several years now. There are a few trunks in this cluster of trees that are torn up like this.
We also found a young dead buck... for the second time. I actually found him in December, but opted to leave him be until shed season. I believe that he may have been hit by a car since he was pretty close to the highway. It's unfortunate, but these things happen.
We used to have quite a bit of trouble with poachers on this property as well, but thanks to a good relationship with our local conservation officer and lots of effort to post the property, we have had very few incidents of trespassing/poaching in the last couple of years. It looks like we need to go down that road again on some other properties.
Poachers suck...