ChattNFHunter
Senior Member
Well, after calling in a bird for my friend earlier in April, I soon found another bird to focus on in the national forest.
Meeting 1 - I parked in a pull off that was the start of a long logging road that wraps around one of the bigger mountains in the area. I made my usual walk to the listening spot which is only about a quarter mile down the road to the first big lead that overlooks the basin. It was a spectacular morning! I firmly believe you can gauge the amount of gobbling you will hear based on the vocalness of the other bird species in the woods. This morning was a full moon and a dense fog but little wind. the Whippoorwills were giving it all they had, along with every other bird in the woods. It was so loud with the whippoorwills that I questioned whether or not I would even be able to hear a gobbler! As first light was trying to break through the fog, another truck was coming down the main road. From where I was, I could see his headlights and hear him coming through the trees on the opposite mountain. He was running late and tooling down the FS road. As he approached my truck the popping gravel got louder and all of a sudden I heard a bird sound off. It was so faint, all I heard was the "chuckle" and that is why I recognized the sound. I was unable to pinpoint the position of the bird, but he continued to gobble at the truck coming down the road. I moved down the lead and back up the lead trying to pinpoint the bird. Finally, I figured out he was back towards the main road. I eased back toward the truck and the closer I got the louder he sounded. I finally arrived at my truck only to realize that he was roosted in a patch of pines right across the main road from my truck, and not 80 yards off the road!!! I moved up as close as I dared to the bird, and set up and waited for him to fly down. I gave him a few clucks and a series of soft yelps but that was all. When the fog finally dissipated, he flew down off the mountain and across the road. I decided to stay high and even elicited a response form the bird, but he had other plans. After an hour of sitting and sparsely calling, I went back to the truck and decided to move down the road and try to strike this bird again. I struck the bird about three hollows over from where I last heard him. I made a move up a small stream to try and get on him, but he moved to the top of the next ridge. I knew he was going into the next basin, so I figured I should hurry to the top and skirt around the head of the basin and drop into the bottom a little ways to try and call him to me. My rush was my downfall, as I was sure from his last gobble that he was heading down into the basin, but when I crested the ridge into the little gap, he was not 40 yards off the top and busted off down the mountain. Strike one.
Meeting 2 - I am in college so I was unable to get home to hunt this bird for another two weeks or so. I brought along a buddy and I decided to start high that morning above the basin I had last seen that bird in. As we moved along the ridge in the early morning light, we heard him sound off on the same ridge I busted him from in our first meeting. We made the long trip around the peak of the mountain to the gap at the head of the basin. I called once and he was fired up on the ground in the bottom of the basin. He gobbled about 6 times one after the other to my first call. we made the move around the steep slope to get on the little lead that splits the center of the basin. The woods were very open due to a prescribed burn and we pushed the envelope too far and before we decided to set up, the bird stopped gobbling every couple minutes and I heard him start clucking and moving back towards his original ridge. I grabbed the crow call after about 45 minutes and sure enough he fired back but was on the ridge. We hurried down the basin to the main road and came around to the holler he was heading for. I switched over to my Bob Harwell box and he fired off at the very top of the holler. We got in a little spring and tried to slip up and get even with him in elevation, but the woods were too open and we didn't want to risk spooking him again. I worked him for about an hour and he would only walk the head of the holler gobbling as he walked back and forth. finally, he seemed to have gotten closer and I shut up. 45 minutes later he had not gobbled and we had not seen him yet. I called a few times with the box and got no response. We backed out down the creek and let him be for tomorrow. Strike two.
The next two days last week, Thursday and Friday, were terrible gobbling weather. I made the same move to get above him and listen both morning but the wind and cold were too much and he would not gobble.
Meeting 3 - Last Saturday morning, I made my same move again to the head of the basin. As I approached in the morning light and took a breather, I noted the song birds and whippoorwills creating quite the raucous again and I noted the still trees overhead. I thought to myself, "If there was ever a morning for him to gobble again, this is it." Not two minutes later, an owl hooted just once down in the basin and the gobbler immediately fired off. He was waaaaayyy down there though. I would guess he was actually roosted across the main road. I figured that he would end up in his normal spot in the bottom of the basin, so I made my move to get above that area. Sure enough, once I got there and called he gobbled and was on his same ridge once again but very close to the road. He didn't want to budge so I just sat there and waited to see where he would go before I made a move. After sitting and listening to him gobble at various woodpeckers, I started hearing a truck coming down the road. This was about 7:45 so you can figure he was running and gunning from the truck trying to strike a bird. I thought, "Please don't gobble, that would be a mess to have this guy coming after the same bird." Well, the pick-up came right under the bird and swung around the mouth of the basin and got up on the point not 250 yards from the location I believe the bird to have been in. I heard the truck stop and heard complete silence for about 3 or 4 minutes ( I was way off so I doubt I could have heard him call). The bird hadn't gobbled yet. Then, I heard the truck door shut and the engine crank.... the bird gobbled to the truck engine cranking! The poor fella drove off none the wiser that a gobbler was in the area. Shortly after that, the bird gobbled and I could tell he was off the other side of the ridge in the other holler. I made my move back up the mountain and around the steep face to my listening spot in the gap. I had spent the last couple days looking over the area where this bird currently was and I had a game plan. I eased down the ridge he had just been on and came to a logging road that ran across the head of the holler. I believe he may have been walking that road and gobbling the day of the 2nd meeting. I sat down and pulled out my box, I was still leery of using my mouth call that I had used when I last spooked him. He gobbled on the next ridge, but I knew he had just past through this area and figured he would be willing to return. another series of yelps and he gobbled in the same place again. a third series about 5 minutes later and he had cut the distance in half it seemed. I was set up behind a log and just to the right of the logging road. The gobbler was straight out in front of me gobbling just over another lead that was about 70 yards in front of me. He gobbled once more and I knew then he was on that lead, but he had two options. He could either come straight to me and parallel the logging road just down the slope and be right under me for a perfect left handed shot (I shoot left handed). Or, he could come up the lead and hit the logging road at the point where it crosses the lead and he would not present me with a shot until he was 10 yards away and it would be right handed. I suspected the later. I had a small tree directly in front of me that the log was hung on. I would watch the logging road and then shift my eyes and watch the slope of the lead. I had just shifted my gaze to the slope and then back to the logging road and it was like a magic trick. He simply appeared in the little flat spot where the road crossed the lead. He immediately gobbled and I gave hime about three clucks to which he gobbled and looked intently trying to find my location. He gobbled about 4 more times and I eased my hand over my mouth, which was already hidden by my gun which was facing the wrong direction, and gave three more very soft clucks. He gobbled again. after that I realized I was in a pickle. This bird was about to hang up on me and I was going to strike out with strike three. I decided then and there I wasn't going to call to that bird again whether he walks off or comes in. My plan was if he walked back away, I would wait a few minutes and then slip up to that spot where he had been standing and I would try to call him back to it. The bird stood in the same spot for about 20-30 minutes and he would strut, turn circles, gobble, look for me, strut, turn circles, gobble, look for me. He gobbled to every woodpecker, both calls and pecking on trees, and to every crow that passed over. finally, his entire demeanor changed in an instant. It really appeared as if he totally forgot what he was doing! He went to preening his breast feathers. Then, he started feeding. I thought ok here we go his is about to move one way or the other. lucky for me, he moved down the logging road. My heart was pumping now! He came down the road and as he passed behind a cluster of trees I quickly shifted to right handed and positioned my gun. He popped out and then met a bunch of downed saplings and limbs in the road so he hopped up on the bank above the logging road and came around. I picked my hole between two trees and let the shotgun bark as soon as I saw his white crown! He flopped! I jumped up to go and get him, but I forgot one little detail..... after sitting on my knees for the last 45 minutes to an hour, my legs were very much asleep! I almost fell down and had to stagger over to the bird! Good thing he was hit hard! He had 1" spurs, a 10" beard, and he only weighed 16.2 pounds!!! I think he was wore down from all the breeding he had been doing! I have to admit, the chess match that came with this bird was something that I can't put into words. It was a feeling better than any other turkey I have killed, any deer that I have taken, and in all truth, better than any other experience I have had in God's creation. I had a respect for that bird I am blessed that I was able to play the game and come out the victor. He will hold a special place in my memories of turkey hunting for many years to come! Thank y'all for reading, if you were able to stomach all of the text! If not, Enjoy the Pictures anyways!!!!
Meeting 1 - I parked in a pull off that was the start of a long logging road that wraps around one of the bigger mountains in the area. I made my usual walk to the listening spot which is only about a quarter mile down the road to the first big lead that overlooks the basin. It was a spectacular morning! I firmly believe you can gauge the amount of gobbling you will hear based on the vocalness of the other bird species in the woods. This morning was a full moon and a dense fog but little wind. the Whippoorwills were giving it all they had, along with every other bird in the woods. It was so loud with the whippoorwills that I questioned whether or not I would even be able to hear a gobbler! As first light was trying to break through the fog, another truck was coming down the main road. From where I was, I could see his headlights and hear him coming through the trees on the opposite mountain. He was running late and tooling down the FS road. As he approached my truck the popping gravel got louder and all of a sudden I heard a bird sound off. It was so faint, all I heard was the "chuckle" and that is why I recognized the sound. I was unable to pinpoint the position of the bird, but he continued to gobble at the truck coming down the road. I moved down the lead and back up the lead trying to pinpoint the bird. Finally, I figured out he was back towards the main road. I eased back toward the truck and the closer I got the louder he sounded. I finally arrived at my truck only to realize that he was roosted in a patch of pines right across the main road from my truck, and not 80 yards off the road!!! I moved up as close as I dared to the bird, and set up and waited for him to fly down. I gave him a few clucks and a series of soft yelps but that was all. When the fog finally dissipated, he flew down off the mountain and across the road. I decided to stay high and even elicited a response form the bird, but he had other plans. After an hour of sitting and sparsely calling, I went back to the truck and decided to move down the road and try to strike this bird again. I struck the bird about three hollows over from where I last heard him. I made a move up a small stream to try and get on him, but he moved to the top of the next ridge. I knew he was going into the next basin, so I figured I should hurry to the top and skirt around the head of the basin and drop into the bottom a little ways to try and call him to me. My rush was my downfall, as I was sure from his last gobble that he was heading down into the basin, but when I crested the ridge into the little gap, he was not 40 yards off the top and busted off down the mountain. Strike one.
Meeting 2 - I am in college so I was unable to get home to hunt this bird for another two weeks or so. I brought along a buddy and I decided to start high that morning above the basin I had last seen that bird in. As we moved along the ridge in the early morning light, we heard him sound off on the same ridge I busted him from in our first meeting. We made the long trip around the peak of the mountain to the gap at the head of the basin. I called once and he was fired up on the ground in the bottom of the basin. He gobbled about 6 times one after the other to my first call. we made the move around the steep slope to get on the little lead that splits the center of the basin. The woods were very open due to a prescribed burn and we pushed the envelope too far and before we decided to set up, the bird stopped gobbling every couple minutes and I heard him start clucking and moving back towards his original ridge. I grabbed the crow call after about 45 minutes and sure enough he fired back but was on the ridge. We hurried down the basin to the main road and came around to the holler he was heading for. I switched over to my Bob Harwell box and he fired off at the very top of the holler. We got in a little spring and tried to slip up and get even with him in elevation, but the woods were too open and we didn't want to risk spooking him again. I worked him for about an hour and he would only walk the head of the holler gobbling as he walked back and forth. finally, he seemed to have gotten closer and I shut up. 45 minutes later he had not gobbled and we had not seen him yet. I called a few times with the box and got no response. We backed out down the creek and let him be for tomorrow. Strike two.
The next two days last week, Thursday and Friday, were terrible gobbling weather. I made the same move to get above him and listen both morning but the wind and cold were too much and he would not gobble.
Meeting 3 - Last Saturday morning, I made my same move again to the head of the basin. As I approached in the morning light and took a breather, I noted the song birds and whippoorwills creating quite the raucous again and I noted the still trees overhead. I thought to myself, "If there was ever a morning for him to gobble again, this is it." Not two minutes later, an owl hooted just once down in the basin and the gobbler immediately fired off. He was waaaaayyy down there though. I would guess he was actually roosted across the main road. I figured that he would end up in his normal spot in the bottom of the basin, so I made my move to get above that area. Sure enough, once I got there and called he gobbled and was on his same ridge once again but very close to the road. He didn't want to budge so I just sat there and waited to see where he would go before I made a move. After sitting and listening to him gobble at various woodpeckers, I started hearing a truck coming down the road. This was about 7:45 so you can figure he was running and gunning from the truck trying to strike a bird. I thought, "Please don't gobble, that would be a mess to have this guy coming after the same bird." Well, the pick-up came right under the bird and swung around the mouth of the basin and got up on the point not 250 yards from the location I believe the bird to have been in. I heard the truck stop and heard complete silence for about 3 or 4 minutes ( I was way off so I doubt I could have heard him call). The bird hadn't gobbled yet. Then, I heard the truck door shut and the engine crank.... the bird gobbled to the truck engine cranking! The poor fella drove off none the wiser that a gobbler was in the area. Shortly after that, the bird gobbled and I could tell he was off the other side of the ridge in the other holler. I made my move back up the mountain and around the steep face to my listening spot in the gap. I had spent the last couple days looking over the area where this bird currently was and I had a game plan. I eased down the ridge he had just been on and came to a logging road that ran across the head of the holler. I believe he may have been walking that road and gobbling the day of the 2nd meeting. I sat down and pulled out my box, I was still leery of using my mouth call that I had used when I last spooked him. He gobbled on the next ridge, but I knew he had just past through this area and figured he would be willing to return. another series of yelps and he gobbled in the same place again. a third series about 5 minutes later and he had cut the distance in half it seemed. I was set up behind a log and just to the right of the logging road. The gobbler was straight out in front of me gobbling just over another lead that was about 70 yards in front of me. He gobbled once more and I knew then he was on that lead, but he had two options. He could either come straight to me and parallel the logging road just down the slope and be right under me for a perfect left handed shot (I shoot left handed). Or, he could come up the lead and hit the logging road at the point where it crosses the lead and he would not present me with a shot until he was 10 yards away and it would be right handed. I suspected the later. I had a small tree directly in front of me that the log was hung on. I would watch the logging road and then shift my eyes and watch the slope of the lead. I had just shifted my gaze to the slope and then back to the logging road and it was like a magic trick. He simply appeared in the little flat spot where the road crossed the lead. He immediately gobbled and I gave hime about three clucks to which he gobbled and looked intently trying to find my location. He gobbled about 4 more times and I eased my hand over my mouth, which was already hidden by my gun which was facing the wrong direction, and gave three more very soft clucks. He gobbled again. after that I realized I was in a pickle. This bird was about to hang up on me and I was going to strike out with strike three. I decided then and there I wasn't going to call to that bird again whether he walks off or comes in. My plan was if he walked back away, I would wait a few minutes and then slip up to that spot where he had been standing and I would try to call him back to it. The bird stood in the same spot for about 20-30 minutes and he would strut, turn circles, gobble, look for me, strut, turn circles, gobble, look for me. He gobbled to every woodpecker, both calls and pecking on trees, and to every crow that passed over. finally, his entire demeanor changed in an instant. It really appeared as if he totally forgot what he was doing! He went to preening his breast feathers. Then, he started feeding. I thought ok here we go his is about to move one way or the other. lucky for me, he moved down the logging road. My heart was pumping now! He came down the road and as he passed behind a cluster of trees I quickly shifted to right handed and positioned my gun. He popped out and then met a bunch of downed saplings and limbs in the road so he hopped up on the bank above the logging road and came around. I picked my hole between two trees and let the shotgun bark as soon as I saw his white crown! He flopped! I jumped up to go and get him, but I forgot one little detail..... after sitting on my knees for the last 45 minutes to an hour, my legs were very much asleep! I almost fell down and had to stagger over to the bird! Good thing he was hit hard! He had 1" spurs, a 10" beard, and he only weighed 16.2 pounds!!! I think he was wore down from all the breeding he had been doing! I have to admit, the chess match that came with this bird was something that I can't put into words. It was a feeling better than any other turkey I have killed, any deer that I have taken, and in all truth, better than any other experience I have had in God's creation. I had a respect for that bird I am blessed that I was able to play the game and come out the victor. He will hold a special place in my memories of turkey hunting for many years to come! Thank y'all for reading, if you were able to stomach all of the text! If not, Enjoy the Pictures anyways!!!!
Last edited:
