The anticipation of the MN Turkey season left me with a restless night. My thoughts raced everwhere from where to place the blind to where to set the decoys. Would I see any birds, would I have the opportunity to pull the trigger on my first gobbler? With coffee in hand I was out the door and into the truck, my mind still racing.
I was greeted with cool temps as I reached the woods at 5:45 am. With the blind up and my decoys set it was time to wait for the woods to awake. It didn’t take long and I heard my first gobble off in the distance at about 6:20 am. So I made a few light calls with my box call to try and get him to sound off again. Nothing. About 5 minutes later I heard a bird leave the trees and glid right past me and my set-up and out of sight. At this point, my heart started racing. With a long beard on the ground not far away I gave him about 5 minutes and hit the call again and was immediately greeted back with the bird sounding off. I gave him another 5 minutes and then called again. He sounds off again, only this time he was getting closer and coming in on the right side of my set-up. A few minutes later I called to him for the third time. He sounded off again to my right, but this time another gobbler was coming in on my left with me right in the middle waiting. Was this going to be my time?
With the bird on my right closing in fast at about 60 yards I concentrated on him, but could not see him. I turned my head to check on my decoys and saw the bird on my left coming in at full strut. As he made his way closer to my decoy I could see his demeanor changing and my decoy was about to get his butt kicked. I slowly brought my gun up and put the hammer on him. My decoy lives to hunt another day, LOL.
With him on the ground I looked at my watch and it was 6:45 am. What was anticipated for months was over within an hour. It all happened just like I dreamed it would though. My first gobbler weighed in at 27 lbs, had an 11 in beard and 1 1/4 in spurs.
I now know what having turkey fever is all about. This is something I hope to be able to do for many years to come. I am hooked. The sad thing is that my hunt ended so quickly, but I have a BBD (Big Bird Down!!).