My Turkey Experience

[Interseptor]

For me, this spring's turkey season has come and gone.  And even though I didn't shoot a turkey, I came pretty darn close and learned a little something along the way.  I decide to take the last two days of the season off to hunt a spot that has been good about producing turkeys for me.  I had always gun hunted this area but now the trad turkey bug has bitten me so bad that I have been preparing for this hunt since last year.  The original plan was to set up on a old longing road that I had been scouting all year.  The birds keep this road torn up and I have actually missed several opportunities to kill turkeys simply because I didn't set up on the road and went to my favorite spot in the hardwoods instead.  I thought this year would be different.  Well that thursday morning, I got in the woods at 7:30am and headed for the spot that I had picked out on the old logging road.  But when I got there, old hard headed me decides to go back to my favorite spot in the hard woods, just fourty yards off the road. I would come to regret this move    !
 

[Interseptor]

I set up the Double Bull and put the decoy out in the direction that I thought the turkeys would come from.  I was using a turky trax along with a Feather Light hen decoy.  Hopefully this would allow me to ad some movement when the turkey to withen view.  So for the next hour & half I called.  Not a lot.  Just a series every fifteen minutes.  At 9:30 I thought that I heard a gobble.  I gave it about twenty minutes and called again and sure enough he boomed back.  At this point he was still a good piece away so I was not sure if he would make it in or if a hen would cut him off.  Then fifteen minutes later, the gobbler ripped off another monsterous gobble without me even calling.  This bird was lonely and looking for love. My pulse jumped as I called to him one last time.  He was close and getting closer.  I put down the call and picked up the bow.  The string which was attached to the turkey trax was in my left hand and I was weighting for him to come into view and catch the movement of the decoy.  At this point, the gobbler is searching for the hen and moving closer to my position.  I keep straing through the trees to see him and finaly that big old red head pops up.  The bird crest the ridge in full strut heading my way.  Now is time for  the turky trax to do its thing.  As the bird struts I begin to pull on the string.  OH NO! The dog gone trax is stuck.  The bird begins to turn around to leave just as I get the decoy moving.  I call and the bird comes back looking for the hen.  But every time I need to move the decoy , it gets stuck.  Finaly, this big old gobbler just moves off.  
 

[Interseptor]

So after the big bird moves off, I decide to break the blind and decoy down and go back to my original spot on the dirt road.  At this point I really feel that if I had set up there to begin with, it would have made it easier for the turkey to see the decoy.  So I get everything set up on the dirt road.  I put the decoy out in the road, I set the blind up off to the side about ten yards, and I get settled in.  Then it acures to me that I have not used the bathroom and that I need to go.  No problem, just open the door and go out the back.  "Well just step out" I tell myself.  So I step out just In time to catch three jakes in a dead sprint coming down the road towards my decoy.  It took them a minute to figure out that I didn't fit in before they turned to run.  And still the last bird acted as if he did not want to leave.  Lets just say at this point I was sick.
 
The action came and went within a matter of an hour and I didn't hear or see another bird for the rest of the day.  I left at 2:00 pm  with the thought of coming back in the morning.
The next day started off great but I could not get the birds back up on the ridge.  They just hung down in the bottom just off the power line.  
 
Even though I didn't score, I feel confident that If I make a few adjustments then maybe I will get to gaff one of these birds next year.
 
Next year I will not be hard headed!

[Friend]

Great encounters and action always serves to make me even more determined. Hunt enough and you will have even more frustrating yet future cherished memories.

Rushed one afternoon to an old honey hole. Set the deke out and the wind blew it down w/i 15"s. Crawled out to reset the deke and there was a gob running to me and caught me in an akward position at less than 15 yards. Crawled back to the blind and it hadn't been 10"s and the wind blew the deke down again. I belly crawl slowly to pull the downed deke and 2 gobs step out of the woods not 20 yards away. I pulled the deke and thought for sure my opportunities had run their course. An hour later two gobs are walking directly to me. I commenced to draw from a 1st generation DB blind, which did not have the dark interior, and the gobs see my silhouette. I was busted 3 times in less than 2 hours but still hold tightly to this cherished memory.

[Whip]

Days like that are what keep us coming back for more!  Sounds like a great day in the turkey woods.

[straitera]

Very good pix, story & lesson. That's why they call it hunting. Thanks

[DannyBows]

Sounds like you had some excitement anyway Doug. Thanks for sharing the hunt with us.

[smilinicon]

Great post!

We'll get them in the fall...

[Bernie B.]

Very exciting!  You tell a good story, and I could feel your frustration!  I shot right over the back of a jake, but it made me even more excited about hitting it hard next season!

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin