SouthernFowler
Member
I’ve been Turkey hunting about 6 years of my life, the first 4 years I always had someone take me to show me the ropes. Last year I decided I was gonna try to kill my first bird by myself after a few failures and lessons learned I finally connected on a nice long beard last March. This year I was super pumped for the season and hoping to use my new found knowledge and to put it to the test again to try and knockdown a mature bird. After a really slow start to the season and my club not showing many signs of birds I decided to go try out my girlfriends family land. The first time I went I roosted a bird the night before and knew generally where he was at around a creek. So the next morning I got up, got as close as I could without spooking him and he surprised me with by gobbling his head off about 75 yards away! I was ready I gave a few soft yelps just to let him know where I was at and then went silent, he gobbled his head off for the next 10 minutes then I finally heard him fly down but he followed some hens the other way across the creek. It was someone else’s property but I knew they would probably cross a power line opening to my left. So as I’m on my way to cut them off with the him still gobbling his head off I hear a KABOOM! It about gave me a heart attack but I knew what happened someone on the other property shot the bird I was after... Well after that I move back to where I was originally at and I hear a faint gobble in the distance so back at it I go. I set up on the property line but he is gobbling about 200-300 yards in the bottom of the next property. He gobbles at everything I do for over an hour just to harass me but never comes any closer and finally shuts up and never came in, I waited and figured he was with a hen. Fast-forward to this past Friday. I go out that morning in the drizzling rain not a single gobble. Go back for breakfast and lunch and decide to just go scout because my gf wants to tag along and ride the Polaris with me. Granted I almost didn’t take any calls or my gun (like a dummy).So I head back to the creek where I roosted the last bird to see if I see any signs of roosting nothing, I walk back to the property line where I heard that turkey two weeks prior, As we get closer I hear hen clucking and yelping. I say what the heck and call back to hear and immediately have a gobbler hammer right after. It’s in the exact spot I heard the gobbler 2 weeks prior. Hears the funny part my gf is in shorts and sandals so I tell her to go hide about 6 trees back away from the trail in the thickest stuff she can find so the gobbler doesn’t see her if he comes out on the road. I set up in some cover right by the trail facing the direction he gobbled. I’m calling at the hen not the gobbler to try and pull her in. As I’m doing this I hear another gobble directly behind me and very close! So I make the quick decision to move trees to see where both birds might come in. I do some kind of Bruce Lee ninja move to get to the other tree in a hurry and quietly! I set up and shut up because the hen quit calling at this point. I notice some movement where I heard the close gobble behind me and I slowly put my bead on him. He gets within 10 yards of me and I realize it’s a jake. So He is walking around looking for the lonely hen he just heard and then slowly starts making his way towards where the other hen was calling. I then realize I have the best live decoy right in front of me, so right when he gets on the road I let out an excited yelp and the jake does that awkward high pitched teenage gobble right back! Right after I heard the tom gobble behind him so I knew it was game time. The jake starts walking away and I realize I can’t see him if the tom comes in straight to him so when he goes into cover I have to move trees like a ninja one more time to be able to setup and have a shot. Somehow I manage to do this without spooking the jake. I call just enough to keep the jake at about 30 yards away looking for this hen. He keeps sticking his head out of some palmettos looking for this hen. Then all of a sudden he takes off and the place where his head was, was filled by a angry blown up gobbler! He chases the jake a few times while his hen is calling in the background. I notice the jake starts taking off down where the gobbler just came from and the gobbler turns his back to me so I let out a yelp and cluck and he gobbled and looks back one time and BOOM! I spring up running over there not sure if I nailed him or not but sure enough he’s flopping in the palmettos! I grab him let out a yell and look up to my girlfriend asking “did you get him?“ I almost forgot she was back there until I realized my phone had been buzzing this whole time from her texting me that she sees a turkey. All in all I was very lucky and blessed to take this bird. He had a double beard and some hooks! I doubt I will ever have a hunt like this again! I’ve been a guest on this forum for a few years so thank you for all the advice and wisdom given! I have learned so much from just reading posts!
