My turkey season here in NH ended this month. Here's how it happened...
There had been a week long silence in the turkey woods after a boisterous start. The toms were in a phase with lockjaw so I was pleasantly surprised to get up in the pre-dawn again, but this morning hear a gobbler...gobbling from the roost. He was so fired up he double and tripled gobbled, nearly choking, at my owl hoots.
I was hunting an open oak flat near my home, and the bird may have been about 200 yards away. I set out my Avian X jake and hen decoys and slipped into my Double Bull blind to call. The bird continued to hammer at my calls even after fly-down. I bet he gobbled a hundred times but didn't close the distance. Then, inexplicably, he moved away and out of earshot. Perhaps he had hens with him that led him away from the "competition", but no matter. The day was young and beautiful, and I knew he knew where I was.
For the next 2 hours I called lightly every 30 minutes or so. The blind was warming in the morning sun and the toll of early rises was making me a little less attentive than normal. My thoughts were disturbed suddenly by a growling purr just outside the blind! Peeking out a side screened window revealed a tom 'chesting' up against my jake deke with bad intent. As he continued to push and purr, I got into position but by coming in from behind me, the bird wasn't going to offer the shot from the open window.
The tom suddenly started pounding the deke with wing and spur and broke the decoy stake laying the hapless deke over on the ground. It was time to act in defense of my expensive fake, so I shot through the screen of the side window driving the bully off. He went tail up and still about 30 yards away with a SB Centaur through the boiler room.
And so my season came to a close.
Stats include shooting my 60# Big Jim Thunderchild LB, Gold Tip shaft, and the aforementioned Centaur. The bird weighed in at 20#,10 1/2" beard, and 1 1/16" spurs.
Thanks for reading along and sharing. Good hunting! My bud, Bill Carlsen, will post a couple pics for me.
Topic: Rescue the deke! (Read 625 times)
