chrislibby88
Senior Member
My brother and I drew the Ocmulgee second hunt this year, and I’ve been super excited to try and get him his first bird.
So the hunt started Friday night. I hit a high spot owl calling to try and roost a bird and heard one at the first stop. Game on.
Saturday 6:30– We meet on an access road near the roosted bird and started creeping through some pines down to the hardwood drainage the bird was in. He started gobbling every 10 minutes at half light as we were creeping in, so we picked out way down to a fire break to move closer. We are about 150 yards from the gobbler at this point and some owls start laughing and another bird gobbles twice probably 80 yards to our left. Bird on our left, bird on our right, and probably some hens somewhere in the mix that haven’t spoke up yet. We ease off the fire break into the hardwoods and find some trees and get setup, hoping the bird I roosted will think I’m a hen going to the tight lipped, likely subordinate bird to our left. After a bit of light calling things get quiet and a group of 6 jakes show up to my 12 o’clock, and start working around me towards my brother, who is sitting 20-30 yards behind me facing the opposite direction. They make it to his hard left, see him, and start putting and clucking. I let out a few clucks and they turn back and walk by me, putting and clucking, eventually see me too, and slowly putt their way back where they came from. We pick up and try to move on the original roosted bird, but bump into some other hunters and back out.
10:00– We pull up on a finger ridge to try and locate some new birds. I owl hoot from the road, and a bird answers 300 yards away in a creek bottom. We sneak down through some thick pines, and when I hit the edge of the hardwoods I call. The bird cuts me off. We sit down for a minute, and all is quiet. I figure The bird is probably moving our way, but we sat down too quick in a pretty thick area, so we get up, and loop back some and walk deeper into the hardwoods. Setup again, and I let a few calls out. No reply, so I hush and we give him some time. About 20 minutes go by and I see a bird angling towards us about 80 yards out. Looks like a hen or jake, no beard. I cluck, and it gobbles, but keeps circling wide at 60 yards. He gobbles a few more times then works off. Another jake.
1:00-4:00 We keep wandering around tryin to strike another bird way into the afternoon. Our last stop lands us in a vast cleacut area, with a pinwheel of three creeks with hardwoods. We start working down one of the creeks and setup a few hundred yards in, calling occasionally just taking it easy. After an hour or so we pick up and keep moving towards the intersection. I’m calling occasionally, soft stuff, then every 50 yards I throw some loud yelps and cuts out to try and cut through the wind. After a few loud cuts I think I hear a gobble through the wind. We keep moving and my brother thinks he hears one too. We pick along another 100 yards, and I called again, and we both hear a clear gobble. We keep inching forward and the bird is now gobbling on his own. We find some good trees, sit down, I hit a few yelps followed by 4-5 cuts and he cuts me off. I tell him to get ready. The bird gobbles twice, then a minute of silence, then another gobble. I whisper to my brother “he’s about 80 yards” then I see him. I whisper his location and my brother is down and ready. The bird slowly picks his was in our direction and I whisper for him to wait and let him come closer. My brother didn’t spend much time patterning his gun, it shoots low, throws a good 30 yard pattern, but he only has a front bead. The bird starts angling but stays in the 40-50 yard range, and I guess ole bro gets impatient and shoots. I look at the bird and he is ducking his head and starting to trot off so I get down, put my dot on his head, and squeeze and he flops at 4:00pm.
We were both pretty bummed that I got the bird instead of my bro, and he was beating himself up for shooting too soon, but I couldn’t just let a good bird run off. I’m pretty sure he shot under him, or just wasn’t down on his gun good. My brother never saw a male turkey while hunting before Saturday morning. Now he has seen 8, and I believe this is my most action packed day of turkey hunting in my 3 seasons.
We tried again this morning, heard some gobbles on the roost in the same area but we couldn’t pinpoint them exactly. We went in the general direction and set up for an hour but heard nothing. Tried to move around and strike something up, but they just weren’t fired up with these clouds rolling in.
I think it’s safe to say I’ve got him addicted now, and he’s gonna get his gun right before we go again.
And don’t worry, he isn’t bitter. He didn’t want to see it get away either. I sent him home with a breast, and some deer meat from the mountain bucks he helped me pull out the woods in December.
And yes, a pellet clipped half his beard off, and some of his fan too.
So the hunt started Friday night. I hit a high spot owl calling to try and roost a bird and heard one at the first stop. Game on.
Saturday 6:30– We meet on an access road near the roosted bird and started creeping through some pines down to the hardwood drainage the bird was in. He started gobbling every 10 minutes at half light as we were creeping in, so we picked out way down to a fire break to move closer. We are about 150 yards from the gobbler at this point and some owls start laughing and another bird gobbles twice probably 80 yards to our left. Bird on our left, bird on our right, and probably some hens somewhere in the mix that haven’t spoke up yet. We ease off the fire break into the hardwoods and find some trees and get setup, hoping the bird I roosted will think I’m a hen going to the tight lipped, likely subordinate bird to our left. After a bit of light calling things get quiet and a group of 6 jakes show up to my 12 o’clock, and start working around me towards my brother, who is sitting 20-30 yards behind me facing the opposite direction. They make it to his hard left, see him, and start putting and clucking. I let out a few clucks and they turn back and walk by me, putting and clucking, eventually see me too, and slowly putt their way back where they came from. We pick up and try to move on the original roosted bird, but bump into some other hunters and back out.
10:00– We pull up on a finger ridge to try and locate some new birds. I owl hoot from the road, and a bird answers 300 yards away in a creek bottom. We sneak down through some thick pines, and when I hit the edge of the hardwoods I call. The bird cuts me off. We sit down for a minute, and all is quiet. I figure The bird is probably moving our way, but we sat down too quick in a pretty thick area, so we get up, and loop back some and walk deeper into the hardwoods. Setup again, and I let a few calls out. No reply, so I hush and we give him some time. About 20 minutes go by and I see a bird angling towards us about 80 yards out. Looks like a hen or jake, no beard. I cluck, and it gobbles, but keeps circling wide at 60 yards. He gobbles a few more times then works off. Another jake.
1:00-4:00 We keep wandering around tryin to strike another bird way into the afternoon. Our last stop lands us in a vast cleacut area, with a pinwheel of three creeks with hardwoods. We start working down one of the creeks and setup a few hundred yards in, calling occasionally just taking it easy. After an hour or so we pick up and keep moving towards the intersection. I’m calling occasionally, soft stuff, then every 50 yards I throw some loud yelps and cuts out to try and cut through the wind. After a few loud cuts I think I hear a gobble through the wind. We keep moving and my brother thinks he hears one too. We pick along another 100 yards, and I called again, and we both hear a clear gobble. We keep inching forward and the bird is now gobbling on his own. We find some good trees, sit down, I hit a few yelps followed by 4-5 cuts and he cuts me off. I tell him to get ready. The bird gobbles twice, then a minute of silence, then another gobble. I whisper to my brother “he’s about 80 yards” then I see him. I whisper his location and my brother is down and ready. The bird slowly picks his was in our direction and I whisper for him to wait and let him come closer. My brother didn’t spend much time patterning his gun, it shoots low, throws a good 30 yard pattern, but he only has a front bead. The bird starts angling but stays in the 40-50 yard range, and I guess ole bro gets impatient and shoots. I look at the bird and he is ducking his head and starting to trot off so I get down, put my dot on his head, and squeeze and he flops at 4:00pm.
We were both pretty bummed that I got the bird instead of my bro, and he was beating himself up for shooting too soon, but I couldn’t just let a good bird run off. I’m pretty sure he shot under him, or just wasn’t down on his gun good. My brother never saw a male turkey while hunting before Saturday morning. Now he has seen 8, and I believe this is my most action packed day of turkey hunting in my 3 seasons.
We tried again this morning, heard some gobbles on the roost in the same area but we couldn’t pinpoint them exactly. We went in the general direction and set up for an hour but heard nothing. Tried to move around and strike something up, but they just weren’t fired up with these clouds rolling in.
I think it’s safe to say I’ve got him addicted now, and he’s gonna get his gun right before we go again.
And don’t worry, he isn’t bitter. He didn’t want to see it get away either. I sent him home with a breast, and some deer meat from the mountain bucks he helped me pull out the woods in December.
And yes, a pellet clipped half his beard off, and some of his fan too.
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