Real Hunting, Not an Idealized Video Hunt
From the truck I saw two long beards crossing the road into a nearby cornfield. I quickly snuck back to my setup, staked up a decoy, and started some light calling. After a half-hour or so, a lone gobble sounded off at least 300 yards ahead of me. The next several hours produced nothing; however, so I decided to pack up for the afternoon and start fresh the next day. When I stood up, there he was...10 feet DIRECTLY BEHIND ME! To this day, I still don't know how he couldn't have seen me. I slowly leaned back into the shadow of the tree and placed my shotgun barrel through a fork in the branches. He slowly inched his way around the tree and towards the decoy. When he stepped out into a small opening, I pulled the trigger. I was afraid I'd miss, because he was only 15 feet away, and my choke tube is pretty tight. Fortunately I didn't miss, and he caught almost two full ounces of 7.5 shot with his neck. What a rush...
Bird #2 Halfway there, I was greeted by a tree gobble DIRECTLY over my setup. There was no way I could get any closer, and I was stuck out in the open. I quickly set up beside an old brush pile and had to work from there. The weather was perfect, and the turkeys sounded their approval all morning. Unfortunately, there were A LOT of hens around also. Two hens flew down directly under my "gobbler tree", and the long beard strutted on the branch for nearly a half-hour. When he finally decided to fly down, the hens dragged him away almost immediately. I was stuck out in the middle of a pasture and helpless. After that, I decided to set up a pop-up blind and make myself comfortable for the remainder of the morning. I walked back to the truck to grab my blind and bumped into the local game warden. He kindly checked my licenses, and we chatted about mushroom hunting. After that, I headed back to the field.
An hour, or so, went by with no sign of any turkey. I thought I heard drumming directly behind the blind, but I couldn't see anything. This was an INCREDIBLE amount of drumming. I assumed it was just the sound of vehicles driving over a highway bridge less than a quarter mile away, since I'd never heard drumming this intense before. I don't get a whole lotta sleep during turkey season, so I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me. My mind (and ears) were working just fine. Less than 30 yards from my blind, two long beards suddenly emerged from the brush and immediately began circling each other. The fighting purrs sounded like they were coming from inside my blind. Both birds looked to be roughly the same size, and neither was ready to actually START the fight; however, they absolutely refused to separate. Right when I'd think they'd given me enough room to take a shot, they'd lock right back up again. This went on for, at least, ten minutes.
I had a great spring this year...it'll be a difficult one to match. Oh yeah, the birds cooked up real nice too. Thanks for all your work, Jerad C Season before
6:15am - The sky was getting light, so I set up a horseshoe-shaped opening that looked like it had been used as a strut zone. I only heard two gobbles that morning, and they were across the road on the neighboring property. That didn't discourage me though, because I've turkey hunted in those weather conditions before and have taken birds that never made a sound. Since my locator calls weren't doing the job, I let out a few soft tree yelps and hoped a turkey was listening. 7:00am - Ready for the silent one to come in. The breeze was starting to pick up, and it wasn't getting warmer. I stepped up the volume and intensity of my calls, but still no gobbles or turkeys seen. The wait was just starting. 9:30am - Still nothing, not a turkey. The breeze was blowing harder, and air was getting more damp. I contracted a nasty case of "the shivers". Any turkey in the area probably would have heard my teeth rattling over my calls. I snuck out of the area and headed back to the truck for a bit. Once there, I thought it'd be a good idea to give the squirrels a break from listening to my calls, so I decided to drive by some other association properties in the area (primarily quail and pheasant properties) just to see if they had any hidden stashes of turkeys that I could go after on later hunts. 10:30am - Back at my turkey reservation. I crawled over a hill to take a look at my original setup. No turkeys in it; however, I could see a hen walking in the open on the next hill. I waited for her to walk back into the timber. She did, so I snuck down and crossed the ditch. I placed one hen decoy just along the side of ditch and started calling. It was starting to sprinkle. 11:00am - Raining harder, and I could see something black walking up the ditch. I propped my shotgun up and aimed between him and the decoy. Within a couple of minutes, he walked into my "aim zone", so I squeezed the trigger. 11:15am - The rain stopped just long enough for me to snap a couple of photos, load him up in the vest, and walk back to the truck. 11:45am - The rain was now pouring, but that's OK. I was driving home with my first turkey of the season. Here's some info for the stat hounds... Read about Jerad's next season? Or, |
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Bird #1
He was a nice 22-lbs, two-year-old, with a 9-inch beard and .75-inch spurs. Oddly, his spurs were shaped like fillet knives and SHARP! I'd never seen spurs like this. They looked normal at the bases but thinned out real quick afterwards. You can kinda see it in the pictures, but they look stranger in real life.
Once the blind was up, I set out a couple of decoys in front and started calling. A couple hours later, I heard a gobble sound off in a neighboring field. I watched the bird work his way across the field toward my setup, but he seemed to disappear while crossing a hedgerow about 100 yards away.
I raised and lowered my gun three times during this show. They postured and circled and circled and postured...neither would back down. Finally, about a foot-and-a-half of space opened up between the birds, and I fired at the left one. He immediately dropped to the ground. I was taking extra caution as to NOT hit both birds by aiming slightly to the outside of the one bird's head and neck. I didn't feel real comfortable that the shot hit him that hard, but it really didn't matter...the other tom quickly started pouncing on my bird and finished the job. My bird didn't flop for very long under this punishment. I had to run out of the blind and chase the second bird off, or I wouldn't have had anything left to take home.
All in all, it was a fantastic turkey hunt. This bird was also a two-year-old and weighed 19lbs. He had a 9.5-inch beard, one .75-inch spur, and a small nub where the other spur should be.
Here's an approximate timeline of the morning's turkey hunt...
