Had the good fortune to bag a nice tom on the opening morning of the 2009 Illinois fall firearm turkey season today.
Headed for a ridge that usually holds birds, especially when there is a west wind. The breeze was out of the west at 10 mph and gusting to 15 to 20 when I slipped in and set up about 100 yards from the roost an hour before sunrise.
After watching the woods wake up, as luck would have it, the birds were on the next ridge to the south. Saw 2 birds drop down before sunrise and head away from me to the crest of the ridge. But soon more birds came over to my side of the ridge and began milling around and jostling about 150 yards away.
Hit a few soft gobbler yelps on a glass call with a hickory striker and it didn’t look like the flock was paying any attention to me. Could see about a dozen birds moseying toward a corn field that had the end rows picked a couple of days ago.
Decided to hold my position instead of circling and risking bumping them. Hit a couple more yelps and saw a tom start heading my way. When he dropped out of site at the bottom of the deep draw, I shifted my position at the base of the huge oak tree to the right to try and line up a shot.
Another cluck and I see a head pop up about 50 yards away, but there were a bunch of small sapplings in the way. He was coming up the hill on an angle, so when he went behind a big oak I shifted as much as I could to my right to hopefully get a shot when he stepped out.
But as I raised the ‘ol Mossberg 3-inch, 12-gauge, I heard a sharp putt behind me. More of the flock had circled and came in from my blind side. I was busted by his buddies.
But I held steady for what seemed like five minutes and the tom I had a bead on finally stepped out on the other side of the big oak and I folded him at 35 yards.
He had a 10-inch beard and nice 1 1/4 hooked spurs.
Pictures aint the greatest, but I was by myself.
Now it’s time to get serious about bow hunting.
