Been watching this spot for a while now in one of my favorite orchards to hunt.
Birds usually work their way up a hill from the north. So I built a ground blind right under one of the pear trees a couple days ago with the idea of hunting with my ghillie to intercept the flock going to roost.
As I was pulling in the orchard I saw the turkeys just coming out into the orchard at the bottom of the hill...I'd have to hurry to beat them to my blind!
I double timed it to the blind and got geared up quicker than ever. I also had an idea to put a single hen decoy behind me to draw the birds past me close. I've never had birds come in from that direction, so I didn't worry about the fact that I wasn't set up to shoot toward that way.
The direction I expected the birds to come from...
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The decoy behind me...
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I'd been sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting for the birds to show as any second when I caught movement.
4 deer were headed for me. I thought..."boy this might get interesting"...
The lead doe was a big ol' gal, and she had the scrawniest looking spike I've ever seen(about 1 " on one side, and 2" on the other), and two big fawns trailing behind. They were all passing about 15yds to my left. She looked at me once and never even hesitated, she was fooled. But she locked right on to the decoy behind me!
As she moved closer behind me, the last deer in line caught me trying to get my camera going. When it saw me, he(button buck) started walking straight at me...and he just kept coming...closer...closer....closer...I couldn't get my camera going with the gloves I was wearing!
Just when I thoug he was coming into the blind with me, about 4 ft, he got a whiff of where I'd walked to get into the blind, wheeled and bolted away....Talk about an exciting encounter!!!
Not 5 minutes later, the turkeys showed about 60yds. away meandering around.
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For some reason, known only to them, they never came all the way up the hill to where I was waiting.
They walked back down the hill after a while. As they walked away, I started to call to try and turn them around. But they just kept going....
I called on and off for about 10 minutes, hoping their curiousity would get to them and they'd come check out the source of the calling, see the decoy behind me and be sucked right into my "trap".
Little did I know what was going on behind me. Ya know, the place where turkeys "never" come from
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I'd looked down at my phone and saw I had a text. I checked it, and as I put it back, glaced back behind me......there was probably 20 birds about 15yds. behind me standing looking at the decoy!!!
But the lead hen had caught my movement! There was no way I could shoot back that way anyway. As they started moving off slowly, not spooked a bit, I tied to call to them but they'd already checked out the decoy, and the hen had seen "something"...they continued off...
That was pretty much it except for one more deer that passed by about 50yds. away.
What a hunt! All the turkeys, and the closest on-the-ground deer encounter I'd ever had!
This ghillie is awesome!
I sure feel that this weekend the luck will run out for at least one bird in those flocks. Time will tell...
Topic: Close Encounters of the "Ghillie" Kind! (Read 833 times)
