Finally managed to make it up north for a Spring turkey hunt with my friend Dylan Carr at his Diamond C Ranch. I set out super early Sunday morning to get there in time to hunt all day. I met Dylan and his friend Harley and we set out right away to go try and locate some turkeys. We found a couple coyotes first and I managed to miss a 300 yard shot shooting just under one. Hopefully that cleared them out of the country and the turkeys could start talking. We would go to different spots and blow a hawk or crow call to draw out a ‘shock gobble’. Soon we had a Tom answering and set up to call one in. We had a little hen decoy out front with Dylan and Harley hidden behind me calling them in. This went on for a while until we figured they were not going to cross the creek to us. After a couple more stands and a major relocation we managed to call one in. It was pretty exciting with him answering and getting closer. Unfortunately he slipped behind us. Harley finally called me back to his tree and I was able to step out and shoot a huge tom at about 50 yards. He was just over 20 pounds with a 9 3/4″ beard. I was thrilled to have taken him. You don’t realize just how beautiful their feathers are until you see one up close. Iridescent blues and greens with another row of copper metallic all changing in the sunlight. Calling in a turkey is really an exciting hunt. I’ll definitely try to make this hunt each Spring.

After lunch back at the cabin we all grabbed our bows for some practice at the range they had set up with targets out to 50 yards. I was doing pretty well with some tight groups out to 50. I had hoped to kill a big boar with my bow or at least get some fresh pork to bring back for sausages. Although we’d seen some fresh pig sign in the morning there weren’t any pigs around. We had planned to drive about 30 minutes to another spot for a better chance. While we were heading out we spotted a big boar out in the middle of the green hills far off in the distance. Great luck for us. We headed way up high above and quickly grabbed our gear to start a stalk. We tried to ease down the rippling fingers and valleys towards where we had last seen the big boar. A couple does monitored our progress in the distance and a couple deer had bolted out below us, we’re hoping pushed by the big boar. We kept moving slowly down the hill side each crest hoping we’ll see him. Finally we reach another hill top and Dylan eases up and says he’s right there, forty yards. I ease out and aim low on the pigs chest for a heart shot but miss low. I quickly move back and we just wait. He didn’t spook. I knock another arrow, draw, then ease out once more taking my time, my forty pin just above his heart. I release just as he winds us and spins to bolt away. My arrow catches him from behind. We hear a solid hit. After about fifteen minutes we move up to the shot. My arrow has blood and paunch on it. We can track him fairly easy in the soft ground along with fairly frequent blood. We finally catch up to him in a creek bed where I’m able to put an arrow through the heart/lungs and that’s it. He’s a big nasty looking boar, black with Russian confirmation but small tusks. With a good deal of effort we 1 2 3 pull him out of the creek to a spot we can take some pictures. I’m really pleased, finally took a big boar with my bow on the ranch.

Stage One is called ‘Len’s Donut’ for the circle you need to shoot through at the start. Five hits on a small area in between no shoots. I did ok to start off the match on this one.

Stage Two is called “Which Way”. For some reason I choke yet again on the small steel and it takes like 12 shots to down 8 steel targets. I make up the rest of the stage shooting paper fast but still the time kills me.

Stage Three is called “No Donut” for the modifications made to stage one now sans donut. A fun stage I did ok on.

Stage Four is the National USPSA classifier. I think it’s just called ‘Six’. I take it slow and manage it in 5.67 seconds.

Most of the footage is off the reef at our favorite hotel, the Fairmont Kea Lani, in Wailea, Maui. One day we took a kayak trip to snorkel off of Makena to a spot they call Turtle Town.

The first stage was called ‘Don’t Forget the Plates’ which I choked completely. Somehow had my front sight buried in the the middle of one little steel plate and inexplicably sent five shots over the top of it before realizing I needed to hold a little lower. After that I managed to get through with a single mike.

Stage Two was unnamed. Very fun stage with two close dynamic targets and then short sprints to three more close arrays of targets. I aced this stage winning it for Production Class.

Stage Three is “Occupy Chabot” which was pretty straight forward. It used the old classic targets with no steel or no shoots. I rushed one array for a single mike.

And the last stage was the USPSA classifier called “Easy Street” I did ok on this one, probably qualifying at my current C level.

Couldn’t be more pleased with this old ‘management’ buck. You don’t see too many big fork horns since they are usually shot as management bucks. I have always wanted to take a big fork horn. He’s a great trophy in my book. We set up to take some pictures and the sun even came out for us. All the pics here.

With my limit in the bag I decide to look for fish with my pole spear. Literally every rock hole I peer into; abs upside down on their shells! Starting to get a little concerning. I must have seen over 25 in that state. Was thinking maybe they were feeding on the bloom but probably the bloom is killing them. I hope that’s not the case, reports form Timber Cove north of Fort Ross also said many abs were seen upside down there too.

I searched for any sign of fish for an hour finally with one darting out of the hole. I looked up to see a nice blue leaving and just as I took aim he turned away and I just missed him. After that decided to pack it in. Would have loved to have a nice rock fish filet to go with the abs but had to stop at Robert’s on my way home for some Halibut instead.

Wednesday I had a couple close bow opportunities. First with a bedded 3×3 that by the time I decided to get serious wisely evacuated the area. Later that night we came on a band of pigs and got to 50 yards. There were two black sows with a bunch of little ones. I found a lane in between the low branches of the oak we were under and put my 50 pin on one of the sows. My arrow sailed just over her back and they milled for a few seconds and then scrambled off. The next morning I shot three arrows at 50 on Dylan’s range and they grouped six inches high! Adjusted the pin and was good to go.

Thursday morning it was foggy up top. We weren’t seeing many deer out below and headed up there just as it was breaking up. Dylan had been guiding a very accomplished bow hunter before I arrived that tried for a big buck up here they named ‘Hightower’. He was pretty smart and they could not get within 100 yards of him.

It turns out he was the same buck standing next to my 5×7 last year when I shot him. After the 5×7 dropped he just stood there for the longest time and without the 5×7 next to him Dylan and I realized what a great buck he was too. In fact I was just about to shoot him when he moved off. We agreed if we had a chance at him we’d just pull out the rifle.

Well Thursday morning when we were checking out the ranch up top we came on a buck and a doe in the middle of a big clearing with no cover at all. We got up to a big oak tree. When he picked his head up I could see he was the tallest buck I’d ever seen. Dylan confirmed it was Hightower. The wind was wrong and the doe next to him had already busted us so we didn’t have a lot of time. Dylan handed me my Sako 30.06 and I jacked a round. He was about 120 yards and fell dead at the shot.

Was using the new Hornady Superformance ammo with a 150gr SST. I recovered the bullet from just under the hide on the offside. These shoot great through the Sako and it’s great to see they perform so well in the field too. The expanded bullet is actually wider than the .410″ three shot group from my ‘zero check‘ preparing for the hunt.

Thursday night we headed back out to hunt the pigs. We found that same band not far from a pond in a grassy clearing. We were able to sneak through the woods and get to about 30 yards as they fed towards us. I was able to shoot two of the smaller ones pretty quickly. They didn’t really spook and one of the larger black sows came right back into the middle of the field by us at 40 yards and I made a good shot on her as well. Having Dylan next to me with his Leica range finding binoculars made it seem easy. I really like my Hoyt Carbon Element bow. I will try again for my second bow buck when I return in November.