April 6, 2014
Had another great hunt yesterday morning. Went to a place where I knew it would be a “hit or miss” situation. I’d be hunting in the woods and it would be fairly thick, especially with the ice damage. I had an idea where one might be roosting since I’d heard him gobble at about 10:30 the morning before the season opened, as I was scouting. I guessed right and as it was getting light he sounded off only about a 100 yds away. I knew the odds of me getting a shot at him were slim as he was roosting only about 40 yds off of a little field that was across the property line and this is where I figured he would naturally fly down. I had slipped in behind him on an old woods trail that I used for deer hunting. Man, when he started gobbling, he gobbled! He must have gobbled 20 times in the tree. I was probably no more than 80 yds from him. After it became light I knew I had to try something or he would fly down on the adjacent property and it would be all over. So, over about 10 minutes, I performed a series of light tree calls and ended with a fly-down cackle along with a rapid flapping of my turkey wing on my leg. I didn’t make a sound after that and neither did he for about 5 minutes ( seemed like 30 ). Next thing I see is him coming off the tree right to me. He pitched down about 25 yds away and immediately went into full strut and gobbled. That was it- boom, lights out!! 19.5 lbs, 9.75in beard and 1.25in spurs.
You know sometimes when you go out and everything just goes wrong and you wonder whether you’re a turkey hunter at all? Well, this was one of those times when you think just maybe I’m not so bad after all! Later…