Pate55
Senior Member
While Pics and Videos are great, nothing beats a good Turkey Story here is one that I am fond of.....This is from a Errol Morris Doc called Vernon Florida...
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A good Turkey Story
- Thread starter Pate55
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JimLandt
Senior Member
That's a good story. There's more humor in turkey hunting stories than probably any other kind of hunting I know of.
Here's one of my favorite turkey hunting stories (and I've got lots of 'em too):
My identical twin sons were drawn for the adult/child hunt @ Rum Creek WMA when they were 11 (11 years ago). My ex-wife and I took them hunting there one morning. We couldn't get on any nearby gobblers, but we could hear a couple of birds too far off to bother. Still, we decided to set up in the edge of the woods where there was lots of sign, just off a power line cut. I set up a hen decoy 25 yards from us on the recently mowed cut. I called off and on for about 45 min. but no gobbles were moving our way.
We'd kept hearing a bird gobbling way down at the end of a closed road, on the other side of the power line. I tried to talk everyone into moving, but it was getting hot with the sun now completely risen.
My ex and one son didn't want to go, but my other son wanted to try to move in on the bird down the road. He and I took off across the power line and moved about 1/4 mile down that road. He was gobbling his head off to every call I'd make, but not coming any closer. When we finally got down there, we figured out that turkey was across a finger of Lake Juliette, and his gobbles just sounded louder coming across the water. We were pretty disappointed because there was no way we could reasonably expect that bird to fly to us over so much water. We decided to ease back up to where we'd left my ex and other son. By this time, it had been well over 1/2 hour since we'd left them back at our original set-up spot.
As we eased the top of the hill overlooking the power line cut, a big longbeard was standing right next to our decoy, about 200 yards from us. Hens were everywhere and walking around back in the edge of the woods where my other son and ex-wife were set-up. We froze and waited, expecting to hear my other son's 20 gauge any second. We watched and waited...watched and waited... No shot. I thought maybe my son couldn't move to aim because of hens all around him. After a few minutes the Tom got wise to the decoy and started putting. Within a few seconds, the whole flock ran off.
The twin with me and I walked casually across the power line to find out why there wasn't a dead turkey flopping next to the decoy. When we got over there, my other son and his mother were lying there in the leaves...SOUND ASLEEP. They'd slept, not only through having the Tom come in to the decoy, but also through having the hens walking around within just a few feet of them.
That hunt was perhaps my greatest lesson on how important it is, sometimes, to just wait, stop calling...and to stay awake! Of course other times, I would have never killed the turkey if I hadn't moved on him and called like a crazy hen. And I know I've shot at least one Tom that came in because I'd fallen asleep, which was why I stopped calling.
I love turkey hunting because neither success nor failure can be guaranteed by following any particular set of rules, and sometimes breaking rules learned from the lessons of experience can, equally, lead to either success or failure. What can we do but just throw up our hands and laugh!
Here's one of my favorite turkey hunting stories (and I've got lots of 'em too):
My identical twin sons were drawn for the adult/child hunt @ Rum Creek WMA when they were 11 (11 years ago). My ex-wife and I took them hunting there one morning. We couldn't get on any nearby gobblers, but we could hear a couple of birds too far off to bother. Still, we decided to set up in the edge of the woods where there was lots of sign, just off a power line cut. I set up a hen decoy 25 yards from us on the recently mowed cut. I called off and on for about 45 min. but no gobbles were moving our way.
We'd kept hearing a bird gobbling way down at the end of a closed road, on the other side of the power line. I tried to talk everyone into moving, but it was getting hot with the sun now completely risen.
My ex and one son didn't want to go, but my other son wanted to try to move in on the bird down the road. He and I took off across the power line and moved about 1/4 mile down that road. He was gobbling his head off to every call I'd make, but not coming any closer. When we finally got down there, we figured out that turkey was across a finger of Lake Juliette, and his gobbles just sounded louder coming across the water. We were pretty disappointed because there was no way we could reasonably expect that bird to fly to us over so much water. We decided to ease back up to where we'd left my ex and other son. By this time, it had been well over 1/2 hour since we'd left them back at our original set-up spot.
As we eased the top of the hill overlooking the power line cut, a big longbeard was standing right next to our decoy, about 200 yards from us. Hens were everywhere and walking around back in the edge of the woods where my other son and ex-wife were set-up. We froze and waited, expecting to hear my other son's 20 gauge any second. We watched and waited...watched and waited... No shot. I thought maybe my son couldn't move to aim because of hens all around him. After a few minutes the Tom got wise to the decoy and started putting. Within a few seconds, the whole flock ran off.
The twin with me and I walked casually across the power line to find out why there wasn't a dead turkey flopping next to the decoy. When we got over there, my other son and his mother were lying there in the leaves...SOUND ASLEEP. They'd slept, not only through having the Tom come in to the decoy, but also through having the hens walking around within just a few feet of them.
That hunt was perhaps my greatest lesson on how important it is, sometimes, to just wait, stop calling...and to stay awake! Of course other times, I would have never killed the turkey if I hadn't moved on him and called like a crazy hen. And I know I've shot at least one Tom that came in because I'd fallen asleep, which was why I stopped calling.
I love turkey hunting because neither success nor failure can be guaranteed by following any particular set of rules, and sometimes breaking rules learned from the lessons of experience can, equally, lead to either success or failure. What can we do but just throw up our hands and laugh!
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