I’ve been hunting turkey on our property on the east side of Mille Lacs since they opened a season up there 3 or 4 years ago. Both my dad and I have had several close encounters, but just haven’t been able to connect. This year was different! After scouting for a couple days we hadn’t seen any birds, and only heard a few hens Friday evening. I was starting to get a little discouraged… But we ultimately decided to set-up near a small clearing where we’ve had the majority of the action in the past. We got into the blind just after 5:00 on Saturday morning and sat quietly. After not hearing any gobbles, I threw a few blind yelps out there about 7:30. With the amount of standing water around our property, both my dad and I only had on our uninsulated mud boots. Our feet were already cold and we were talking about trying to sit until 10:00 or so before heading in for breakfast. Around 8:30 I thought I heard a distant gobble, so I responded with some fairly aggressive yelps. In less than 5 minutes the two toms were within sight, held up about 15 yards back into the woods. With some soft purrs and a couple hushed yelps, they were out of the woods and headed straight for the decoys. I picked out the larger of the two, and dropped him at 25 yards.
After some rookie mistakes over the years, it was very cool to have everything work out the way it did. And even though he didn’t have a tag, even cooler to share some blind time with my old man…safe to say, we’re both hooked! I didn’t get a weight, but the bird had a 9 7/8″ beard and 7/8″ spurs.
