Last night, I took my 5 year old son out to roost birds. We stopped a few places where we normally roost them but it’s a decent distance from the road to the roosting area and the wind was really howling making it difficult to hear anything even if it did gobble. I decided to hit one more spot. I don’t usually see birds there, but last bow season I was constantly seeing birds filter through. I crow called a few times trying to time the wind gusts but nothing answered. My son was getting impatient and kept whispering, “What’s a turkey sound like!” I finally broke down and grabbed the gobbler which I rarely use and told him, “They sound like this.”…. No sooner did I stop the gobbler and a Tom answered about 100yds down the ridge. His eyes lit up and we snuck out of there and back to the truck. Talk about one jacked up kid! One gobble and he’s been talking about it ever since.
Tonight I head back out after work just to sneak in and listen. No calling, I just wanted to hear them fly up. I was planning on getting off of work a little earlier and at least making one set up before dark but it was already getting late and I didn’t think much would be moving anyway. So I drove right past my house and left the gun at home.
I arrived at my spot and slipped into the woods 90 yards from the truck and another 20 yards to the lip of the ridge. I get just about to the lip and I can hear something walking in the snow just over the edge…. You guessed it. Two Toms crest the ridge about 10 feet from me. There I knelt in my work clothes, rubber boots, and NO GUN! One peep from the lead bird and they both walked nervously back over the ridge. I don’t think they spooked too bad but I got out of there as soon as I couldn’t hear them. I have a game plan for an evening hunt there tomorrow night if I don’t have my tag filled by then.
Pictured is the set ups I have been looking for with snow still being pretty deep in the woods. This is a south east sloped field bordered by a 5 acre pine plantation. On top of the field, there is still standing corn. It’s difficult to see but there is over a dozen birds in the middle of that field. I watched them roost in those pines. I plan on being there an hour or so before sunlight tomorrow.
Shoot Straight and good luck!
