Ontario Monster Whitetails - Beasley Brothers Hunts

	Beasley Brothers 2007 Hunts are brought to you by:


	A Mixed Double -- By Paul Beasley -- Hunting with good friends, Devon Homick and Mike Devos, Paul and Keith had two days of great turkey hunting. On the first morning, Paul and Devin had a great double on two nice toms.
	Deer hunting is mostly a solitary activity for us. We scout together, we travel to the hunting properties together, we celebrate our successes together, we talk about how our hunts went together, but once it's time to put our game face on and get out there, we're largely flying solo. Nothing compares to the anticipation and excitement of the deer hunt but something I truly enjoy is the socializing nature of the turkey hunt. Kevin and I filled our first tags on two beauty toms in a great double header and the hunt for those two birds was one that he and I put a lot of time into together. I truly enjoyed that hunt for all the effort we put into those birds and the sweet success we enjoyed as we cheered and hugged after our birds hit the ground. It was our second double on two toms in two years and the success was sweet! I had another of those experiences down in Norfolk County that was also all about the friendships, the time in the woods together, and of course, some great turkey hunting too! When Devin Homick invited us down to hunt with him, we knew we couldn't pass up the offer. I'd hunted with Devin in the past and knew the quality of hunt we would experience. Kevin was unable to go and being Keith's first time in that area, I don't think he was able to anticipate what we were about to experience. We left on Thursday evening and pulled into Devin's place rather late after the 2.5 hour drive. Devin's friend Mike Devos came over and though it was late and we had an early morning ahead of us, we still stayed up a lot later than we should have. The alarm woke us nice and early and Devin and I headed off to a farm that we'd hunted together in the past. Keith and Mike were off to another property to hunt a bird that Mike had several run-ins with already this year but just couldn't get him to work in range. Devin and I were heading into a corn field from last fall that Devin had seen birds in quite a bit in his earlier scouting trips. We set up our pop-up blind and got ourselves all settled with only about 15 minutes of darkness left. I don't think it was even legal light yet and the first gobble of the morning rang out about 250-300 yards away. Slowly, more birds joined in and before long we could hear a chorus of gobblers sounding off almost in competition with each other. The only trouble was, they were all in the same group and we weren't exactly in their fly-down area. I was confident in the spot we were in because I knew Devin to be on top of his game but still, I figured we'd be sitting awhile before the birds came our way. We listened to the calls for awhile and as it got closer to fly-down time, Devin started with a few soft yelps on his slate call. While it can be a lot of fun to get the birds all hot and heavy on the roost, gobbling at every call you make, we've found it to be more productive to hold back on the calling until they've either hit the ground, or to give just one or two calls right before they come down. Calling to them while on the roost seems to keep them on the roost longer as they like to wait, perched high on their throne as the hen walks into them. Devin's first calls were answered and that was enough for us to know that the birds knew we were there, now we just had to sit and wait them out. They continued their competition of who could out-gobble the other one for a few minutes longer and then like a switch, everything went quiet. This is the part of the hunt that I find the hardest. When they go quiet like that, it usually means that they've hit the ground, which is a good thing but it can really make things more difficult. Some birds are just the perfect player that will respond to every call you throw at them their entire way right into your decoy. But other birds that were notorious for gobbling their fool heads off up in the tree, seem to shut right up as soon as they hit the ground. To play it safe, I try to call and get a gobble out of them once they hit the ground but from then on in, I call only as I see the need.
	Paul chose G5 Tekan II's with the extended cut blades for this hunt and was very impressed with their performance. Not only do they fly true as a field point, but the devastation was phenomenal. The pictures of the hole inside the bird was a little too graphic to post but certainly proves these heads are well suited to gobblers.
	Well, only about 5 minutes had passed from the time they went silent when we noticed a black blob come out across the far side of the field. My binoculars revealed a nice tom. "This is great," I thought. "A lone tom is sure to come into our decoys and present a shot." He had only made it a few yards into the field but he still hadn't really shown any interest in us so Devin made a call to get his attention. Just as Devin's calls rang out across the field, the bird started running along the edge of the field, AWAY from us! We both looked at each other in disbelief as if to ask, "That bird didn't really just run from Devin's calls did he?" And then, we turned our attention back to the field and out popped two more toms on a full out run at the first one. Once they broke cover and ran into the field, the first bird kicked it into high gear and put some distance between them and disappeared into a pine stand on the opposite side of the field from us. I think we were still a little too surprised at what had just happened because we just sat and watched the two remaining toms as they now walked in the direction of the first bird. Finally we snapped out of it and decided that we'd better start calling or we were going to lose them too. Devin's slate call came to life and despite some great sounding yelps and clucking, the birds showed no interest whatsoever and continued their march in the same direction the first bird had gone. Again, Devin tried to get their attention but it seemed like they just weren't hearing us. I always keep a diaphragm call in my mouth just in case a bird hangs up and my hands are tied up so I hung my head outside the window of the blind and began a series of sharp cutting and clucking. The extra volume of the mouth call was just enough to carry across the field and just a couple yards from the edge of the woods, they abruptly lifted their heads, looked in our direction, and began trotting towards us! Again, almost in disbelief, Devin and I looked at each other and grinned. "Get ready," he said. "Here they come." They had to make up about 300 yards so we had a bit of time to watch them and get ourselves into position but just as they reached the 100 yard mark they slowed up and starting slowly walking in; but instead of walking straight in, they started a big long circle around us. They managed to come all the way into 30 yards but they were right over our left shoulders and it would have meant that only one of us would have a shooting opportunity. I told Devin to go ahead and take the shot as he was shooting a shotgun that morning and it would have been a harder shot to make with my bow but he declined and said that he was sure they'd come in and give us both a shot. How's that for a hunting buddy? To our dismay, they worked further around and ended up walking a mere 10-15 yards behind our blind through the trees and out into another field. They were gone for several minutes and we were getting concerned that we would lose them for good. We made several calls and though they gobbled back, they sounded like they were getting farther away. Finally, in desperation, I stuck my head outside the tent again and just like before, I let out a series of sharp cutting and clucks. Sure enough they fired a gobble right back at us and we waited. We waited some more and this time they gobbled on their own! I love it when that happens because you can almost be assured that they are on their way in. Peeking through the slightly cracked windows in the side of our tent blind, I gave Devin the play-by-play as they closed the distance. It was a beautiful sight to watch these two gorgeous birds work their way through the hardwood stand out into our field. They entered the field a mere 12-15 yards from our blind but we'd chosen to only use our front window to help conceal our movement inside. Since I was shooting a compound, Devin graciously gave me the first shot. I came to full draw as I lost sight of the first bird in the crack of the side window and as he walked into view in the front window, my pin found the spot right on the base of his wing. Though a mere 15 yards away, he was walking and I was waiting for him to stop. He slowed up a bit allowing the second tom to catch up and as my bird got to about 3 yards from the jake decoy, we think he realized something was up because he turned and started walking straight away. That was all I needed so I quickly settled the pin on his spine right between the two wing bases and squeezed the trigger on my release. My arrow buried deep into his back and he flopped over as if dead. At the same time, Devin has his shotgun bead on the second tom and as the bird flinched from my shot, Devin pounded him with a load of 6's and sent his head right into the dirt. The sound of the gunshot actually spooked my bird, which I thought was dead, and he managed to get himself upright and with my arrow still hanging out his back, he managed to take flight! I watched in horror as he flew down the fenceline for a little ways and then took a sharp turn into the treeline where I lost sight of him. Afraid, that we might spook him if he wasn't hit well, we grabbed Devin's bird and decided to give mine some time to expire.
	Devin's bird had a 9 1/2"; beard and 1"; spurs and weighed 22 lbs 11 ounces. Paul's bird weighed 17 1/2", had 3/4" spurs and an 8 inch beard.
	We were so pumped at the hunt we had just experienced together that we were like little school girls as we drove over to the property that Keith and Mike were hunting. They were still hunting so we decided to head out for some breakfast. As we drove past a deep ravine on the edge of the property that Keith and Mike were hunting, Devin hit the brakes and said, "I'm sure I just saw a goat at the top of the ravine!" I was a little skeptical but as he reversed to the spot, I too saw this four legged creature and as I peered closer, I realized it wasn't 4 legged at all. At the same time we both realized it was a huge tom and his beard was so thick and long that in the shadows and through the trees it looked like another leg. Not wanting the bird to cross the road, we sat there just long enough for the bird to get nervous and walk over the hill out of sight. We headed to town and got some breakfast and still had time to drive around and check out some properties before meeting up with Keith and Mike at 10. Unfortunately, they had heard some birds on the roost but couldn't get any of them to work into their calls. We told them about the "goat" and they laughed at how we could mistake a turkey for a goat but it was true, in the shadows and through the trees, it looked like a goat! Mike had to go home and watch his daughter so Keith, Devin and I headed back in search of my bird. To my delight, I walked up on him right at the edge of the field where I thought he'd entered the woods. The sharp turn I saw him take wasn't a dive into the cover of the woods, it was him dying in mid-flight and falling to the ground. He busted my arrow when he hit the ground but I was pleasantly surprised at the damage my G5 Tekan II had done to him. The arrow stayed in him which I was very happy about and created a great blood trail to follow as he ran but once he took to the air it became harder to see. We took our birds to the local weigh-in station and Devin's bird went 22lbs 11 ounces with 1" spurs and a 9 ½" beard and my bird went 17-1/2 lbs with 3/4" spurs and an 8 inch beard. What a great way to start off our two day hunt! We were back in the woods by 2pm and set up in a nice hardwood bush off the edge of a cut cornfield. Keith was the only one allowed to kill a bird on this hunt so we planned on setting him up as soon as we got a response and then Devin and I would drop back and bring the bird by Keith for a shot. We were shocked when our very first call was answered with a thunderous gobble that sounded a mere 100 yards away. We all scrambled to get setup and with Keith sitting about 20 yards in front of us and off to the side by about 15 feet with a big pine in front of him, we called again. The bird cut us off with another thunderous gobble and this time he sounded closer! It was only a matter of a couple minutes before a strutting gobbler with a big beautiful fan and huge beard came strutting into view. This hunt was playing out way too perfectly. The bird got into about 25 yards of us (17 yards from Keith) and just as he rounded a big tree, he broke strut, took two steps and was up in the air and out of sight. He busted out of there even faster than he came in. We were blown away. This perfect hunt turned sour in a heart beat. We still have no idea what went wrong but we know he saw something he didn't like. Judging by his reaction, he seemed like a bird that had played this game before. As disappointed as we were, that was an awesome experience. We headed out and drove around over to another farm we hadn't been to yet and spent a couple hours on it but didn't get a single gobble or see a single bird. It was getting late in the afternoon and we knew we only had time for one more hunt. Devin had a new farm in mind and as we drove over, we could see a tom out in the field with a harem of hens. It's never exciting to see a tom henned up like that but at least we knew we had something to work. We came around on them on the backside of the woodlot they were up against and set Keith up on the trail that we hoped they'd use to come check out our calls. Devin and I sat about 50 yards away from Keith and started calling. We were calling blind as there was no way for us to see Keith without the risk of being seen by the birds so we decided to call blindly. The wind was pretty heavy and we were worried the birds wouldn't hear us so we were calling pretty aggressively as well. A small jake came over from the opposite direction and checked us out but Keith let him go. Finally, after a lot of aggressive and loud calling we heard the tom gobbling back and we could tell that he was close. He stayed around for quite awhile and finally, at 7pm we had to pack it in. We walked over to Keith and couldn't help but shake our heads as he told us how the hunt unfolded. Apparently, the tom was gobbling back at us the entire time but we couldn't hear him from where we were. Also, Keith had the tom walk in to 17 yards (he even had time to range the bird with his rangefinder) and though he strutted back and forth along the trail, he never presented a shot through the brush. Keith said he watched the bird for 10-15 minutes before it finally gave up and walked away. That was two huge birds in 5 hours that Keith could have killed had he been carrying the firestick but armed with a bow, the cards just didn't play out the way he needed them too. With two toms down and two others at 17 yards; we were pretty ecstatic about our hunt so far.and we still had a day to go!
	This is picture might best be called, "Sweet Vengeance", as Mike Devos stands, holding the 'Goat', in the very spot he missed him a couple weeks earlier.
	That night, about 10 pm, we all headed out under the cover of darkness and slipped into the area that we figured the 'Goat' was flying down to. We set up a pop-up blind for Devin and Keith as they were hunting with the bows the next morning and Mike and I built a ground blind right beside them. We decided that we all wanted to hunt together for the first setup. We were set up nice and early the next morning and patiently waited for the darkness to fade away. Finally, we heard gobbles and realized that the goat was roosted farther away than we expected. To make a long hunt sound short, we called two young toms in from behind us and though they were a mere 20 yards away, no one ever had a shot opportunity. We worked the Goat all morning until finally, at about 8:30am we called him within 40 yards. The only problem was, he was over a little knoll so it made the shot harder to ensure the pattern cleared the ground but didn't sail over his head. Keith and Devin couldn't make the shot with their bows so it was decided that Mike would shoot with his shotgun. Well, he shot and missed! The distance wasn't a problem but the knoll in front of the bird was, and caused him to sail his shot over the birds head. We searched and searched and were confident it was a miss so we packed up and headed over to another property. This new property was one that Devin and Mike guaranteed we'd find birds on. We all walked in through the woods and Keith and I stopped about 80 yards short of the field edge and setup while Devin and Mike headed out to the edge of the field. As soon as they got to the edge, they called and immediately, a tom came running full tilt over the hill and almost into their laps! Unfortunately, neither of them were setup yet and the bird turned and ran off just as fast as he came in. That was another disappointment. We then headed to the property that we ended on the day before and hoped that same tom with his hens would still be around. We hunted that farm all afternoon and saw nothing but a single hen. It came time for us to pack up and get back home to reality but what an incredible trip we had. Keith wasn't able to fill a tag there but it wasn't for lack of effort or lack of birds. Turkeys are just flat out a tough bird to hunt with a bow. We made some great memories and strengthened some great friendships and even came back with some nice pictures to boot. It doesn't get any better.
	Mike's tom, affectionately named, the 'Goat', just barely got away the first time, but Mike and Devin kept chasing him after we left and Mike redeemed himself in a big way. The Goat weighed 22 lbs 3oz and carried a 9 1/4" beard with 1 9/16" and 1 1/16" spurs. The smaller spur had been broken or else they likely would have matched.

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