This morning in the woods was one of those you always fear you’ll run into during the heart of turkey season. Decent weather, hens nesting, and lonely gobblers around…..but little to no gobbling. Not a peep. We had one vocal bird off the roost this AM, and when I say vocal, I think he gobbled 3 times on roost, and 3 times after fly-down going away from us. We stuck it out in the blind, calling occasionally, and eventually saw a hen. Then another. The second one dipped into the woods from the green patch of clover we’d staked out the night previous when roosting birds. Not 30 seconds later, a tom. Then another….and another. Time to hit the call, with all three of them gobbling. Somehow, they’d lost track of the hen right in front of them, and mistook us for that hen.
I was hunting this morning with Sam Wollner, age 13, and father Gregg in the hopes of bagging their first turkey. Knowing that first-timers can be rattled by the sight and sound of such a magnificent animal (I know I am), I tried to rely on some dekes, including a full strut tom facing away and positioned behind the blind. Those 3 toms wanted nothing to do with that strutter, and dipped into the woods where the hen did about 100 yards from the blind, coming across our face and skirting our position. All three were part of a roving group of younger toms I’d been seeing on this property, and confirmed by their short spurs on several occasions. With the birds in the woods and heading generally in our direction along the field edge, my hope was that the blind would eventually cover their view of the dekes, and they’d come in. I got my wish as one of the birds seemed braver than the others, and stepped to the woods edge right around 40 yards. Sam did a wonderful job repositioning the gun as the toms were onto us, and ripped off a shot just as our bird was on his way out of town. The bird was down hard, and we were tagged out by 7:30. Proof that even when it’s a quiet morning, there’s still plenty of ways to kill birds, and that turkey hunting can be zero-to-hero in mere seconds!
Joel
to sam on his first tom