Not sure about y’all but I’m looking forward to breathing some of that spring air while chasing turkeys. not sure about you guys but I like me a good hunting story. The saying “a picture tells a thousand words” but a good story with that picture just stirs up the imagination. To get you guys into the turkey mood I’m going to post up once a week some old turkey stories from the past. I always feel like any taken animal needs a good story to go with it. when it comes to turkey, I like to take the camera with me and try to make a visual story, but I also like to right about it and tell you how I portrayed the events that happened.
To start things off I’m going to grab a story from the archives from 2017, this hunt was pretty awesome, and it could have ended a lot sooner than it did… enjoy
2017
Great day for redemption
This morning I had about an hour to play before I had to head to my first client. Wanted to go after the bird i missed and this morning my main goal was to pinpoint him.
Set up on a rock break next to where I choked and hoped for the best.
It's about 550 and the first bird sounds off behind me a good distance and the another in calling range. It ends up being two toms in front of me, but I was pretty sure it wasn't the bird I was after. A couple more birds give there selves away but not the bird I'm looking for. He usually roosts in a cow pasture, and he wasn't gobbling.
These hens are getting vocal and I'm telling them who's boss when my boy Gobbles. He's in the same rock break that 50% of the time he's in. Being there are Tom's closer to me I knew there was a slim chance that he was going to show himself by 7. It's 6:05 and I'm getting pretty aggressive with these hens when I see to hens pop up to my left. Staring at them for a bit I caught movement to my right and it's 2 Tom's b lining it to me. Got settled and watched the show. Hoping for a beat down I got ready. Birds came in and one approached the Jake decoy and gave it a kick with its foot and the Jake spun around into him and the tom didn't want anything to do with it. With the ground being dirt, I was able to see if he was carrying hooks or not. They both were packing a bunch of mud but not the spurs I was looking for. They walked off and I had to head work.
Driving out I catch a fan out on the property where lucky hangs out and I knew where I was going at 10. After lucky on an overgrown corn stumble field that was just planted last week.
Done with my client and head to the farm and of course it was raining... get dressed, out my lucky pants on with a hole in the crouch and went on a mission. The farm had rolling hills, so it helps sneak around the farm without being seen and that's what I did. I creeped over a hill, and I see three hens and I know I'm in business.
Get set up in a big rock break and I see him to my left about 300 yards.
I grab the decoys and sneaks around to set the decoys up and I hear a gun shot in the field over and all the birds in the field look up that away... set the decoys and get back to where I was going to sit look out into the field and the birds are gone......
Hoping they just got spooked by the shot I stay put and hope for the best. About 15 minutes later a jake pops out about 200 yards to my right and I know I still had a chance. From where they were at, I decided to loop around and set up on the hedge row with the decoys behind me about 30 yards and I was able to see more ground. 15 minutes past and I haven't called yet and I catch a Hen on my right heading to her nesting area and then another one to my left. But no tom.... then I see the jakes and then me longbeard!!!
They are about 200 yards away and the highest part in the field where I know they can see me. I put the camera on him and throw some purrs and clicks at his way to see his reaction and he liked it. He looked my way did the head bob and slowly headed to the decoys.
Every time he stopped I have him a couple light purrs, and he was liking it.
He's taking his good old time and from the looks of my camera I'm running out of space on my camera... hoping for the best I keep recording until it stopped of course he's at 70 yards and it's raining....
I told myself if it's meant to be it's meant to be. So, with him at 70 I decided to delete old footage and managed to get about 30 minutes of space open while he didn't even budge. Now I know it's on and I'm ready. He's started to look Harder and walk faster my way and now I'm getting the adrenaline pumping. For some reason the camera gets stuck on something and keeps moving to my right...
Now this camera is getting on my nerves... he's at 40 walking throw a clump of weeds and told myself I'm shooting when he gets out. Set the camera and of course it’s moving and he's walking out of the screen... This time he's cutting the distance quick and is at about 30 yards settle the camera on him and throw a couple clucks at him he straightens his neck I I pull the trigger. Big birdie down!!!!
Not sure if is the one I missed but I could not pass him up.
Other than the rain I enjoyed every bit of it.
