Now that I have two birds under my belt for my new state I want to do a little more scouting and find a couple more public spots For next season. Work was busy so I only had a couple of days to play with. I marked areas on the map that looked good and checked them out. The first morning I didn’t hear a thing on the roost but while walking around I did see Sign in and at least I knew there were birds around. While leaving the public peace I saw a real big Tom strutting right next door to the public peace and I marked that spot for another day. Drove to another area and I saw more birds and kept on marking every bird I saw on private pieces. Checked out another spot and didn’t see much so I kept on driving and I kept on marking birds in an area about the circumference of a mile. I ran out of time and had to go home.
The next morning that I was allowed to hunt was a Friday. Went to a spot in the area where I saw the birds and listened on at High Point again. Around 5 o’clock I heard a faint gobble and it was right on the edge of the public. He wasn’t gobbling much so I gave him a pass and decided to go do some more scouting. Marked him on my onX maps for another day. I ended up driving around every road near another public place and I was seeing birds.
Finally, I found a healthy pocket of birds and was comfortable on chasing a bird in this area. I saw a really big bird on a private piece that was about a quarter-mile from a public piece so my brain started turning. There had to be some insubordinate toms around the area knowing that this big guy wasn’t gonna allow them to hang out in his area. Went home did some work and then did some virtual scouting that evening. Found a perfect public piece that was close to where I saw that big bird. My goal was to go to the highest point on the property and listen.
It's Saturday and my guts saying that it's going to be a good am. Head to the public piece pretty early so I wouldn't have to compete with anyone. Start walking a trail on a high point and I catch two sets of eyeballs less the 10 feet from me. Turned out to be a porcupine mom with her kid. That was a first for me so I checked them out for a bit. Get to my spot and hang out for a bit waiting for 5 to hit. I faced the direction I anticipated hearing a bird and relaxed for a second.
5 o'clock hits and right on the dot I heard a faint gobble. I get up and move to an open spot in the woods hoping to get a clearer gobble and the right direction. He gobbles again and it sounds faint but I'm pretty sure the woods are muffling his gobble. I cut down to a trail and hall tail to the bottom about 500 feet. I stop and listen and he's in killable range and I know it's game on. Of course, he's on private and it's going to take some persuasion to convince him to check me out. I marked him at about 500 yards away. That's far but it doable. I give the bird a test with some light tree yelps and he cuts me off with a facing gobble. I do it again and he cuts me off again. I shut up for a while and realized I was in the wrong spot to convince him and haul his tail to a bench on the other side of the private property. Now I'm about 700 yards from him but he's going to have to look for me now being on an open bench.
It's starting to get to be that time for fly now. I get aggressive and he gobbles every time. He shuts up and I know he has to be hitting the ground soon. The next time he gobbles he's further away and I cut him off aggressively. The next time he's closer to where I started and I cut him off again. For the next 30 minutes, I played hard to get and he finally he's getting closer and closer To the point that I could feel his vibration in his gobble. At this point, he's 150 and starts to get stubborn so I give him the silent treatment he gobbles about 5 minutes later further away and I cut him off with a couple of yelps and then a Jake yelp. He shuts up and I knew it was going to tick him off. He gobbles closer and I Jake yelp again.
At this point, he's about 100 yards below me and he's cutting the distance. He's gobbling none stop and I'm just giving him the silent treatment. Then I see him move to my left so I give him some light calls directing my call towards the right and waited it out. He gobbles again and I throw him a Jake yelp and he cut me off. He's ticked and from where he is he cannot see me. For the next 5 minutes, I give home the silent treatment know he is going to have to check me out sooner than later.
Then I hear what I wanted to hear, loud footsteps in the dry leaves. They are getting closer and closer. I face my barrel where I thought he was going to pop up and made sure that I didn't have any stones in my way from the cobblestone fence that I'm using as a blind. The walking is getting to get louder and then out of know where a chipmunk runs right by me and of course, my eyes follow it. As I'm looking at the chipmunk I see a turkey head stretch out looking at me directionless than 15 yards from me. My barrel is at 12 and he's at my 11. He was close enough that I whip my barrel in his direction and put the red dot on his head. He takes off but he has to check me out one more time and I pull the trigger. Made a good shot and he ends up flopping down the hill and gets stuck in a snag and feather ends flying everywhere. It messy ending but, bird down!!
This one felt pretty good, this bird started over 700 yards away from me and I ended up shooting him at under 15 yards. Heck of an accomplishment.
Video come soon
