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Game:
Eastern Wild Turkey
When I stepped outside Saturday morning,
my optimism diminished as the hunting condition where less than
ideal. Temperatures had dropped into the 40’s which I knew
would quiet the local toms, but the gusting winds was mainly what
left me discouraged. I headed to my blind a little after 5:00
a.m. and settled in after placing my decoys within close proximity
of my blind in hopes of luring a tom within easy bow range. ? 9:30 soon approached with little to show for but gusting winds and cold temps. The night before, Mark and I had agreed to meet up a 9:30 if things were slow and we would head to another section of the property a mile or so down the road which was known to hold a few turkeys. Leaving my blind set-up, I was forced to put away my Hoyt bow and grabbed my Browning so I could be more versatile in our attempt to sneak in on some birds. Mark and I arrived at our new set-up around 10:45. We were positioned on the hill in a large pasture where a small island of trees and cover allowed us to cover positions on each side of the pasture. Within 15 minutes after a series of yelps, a tom answered back in the distance. It was tough to determine his range with the winds gusting. However, knowing it was late in the morning and the birds had been very quiet all day, I knew this was a good sign. A waited a few more minutes and called out and was quickly answered again. Now I knew we were in business. After I got him to gobble a third time, Mark and I repositioned for the approaching bird. We had about 30 yards of open field in front us before it dropped off into a shelf that eventually extended into a wood lot about 60 yards way. after several minutes, I called to try and get him to gobble and give away his position, but no luck. I was pretty confident he was searching the source of the calling out and would make is appearance. It was still hard to gauge his distance
with the wind, but I figures we had a little bit of time before
he may appear. Suddenly, I saw a white spot pop up above the shelf
in front of us and disappear. Turkey, I thought. He soon popped
his head up again and confirmed his presence. ? “I can’t see him,” he whispered back. I gave a series of soft yelps with my mouth call to keep him coming. Problem was, instead of continuing to move in, he went into full strut and stayed put. All I could see was his tail fanned out as he spun in circles strutting. Mark whispered back to take the shot if I had it. It didn’t take a lot of convincing. I placed my sights in the middle of his fan and waited for his head to come into view. Just like that, he was facing me head on in full strut as his head came up. I didn’t hesitate and squeezed the trigger. As my browning unleashed, I saw the tom kick back and at the same time, five other turkey flew up from the gully like an explosion. There were a couple Jakes and a few hens in the group. I stood up and hurried over to confirm the bird was down. Mark and I quickly celebrated as we turned a day of tough turkey conditions into a great success taking my biggest bird to date. I was more than happy as Mark and I had a great day of turkey hunting, but we still need to get him his first bird! Turkey Stats: Eastern
Wild Turkey Boone & Crockett Score: 68.5 |
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