Living in Staten Island, the travel time to land where hunting is permitting is the single biggest debilitating factor on how often I get to hunt. I have been deer hunting for a few years, but last spring was the first time I ever hunted turkey.
My friends and I planned a camping trip on state land, I bought a couple of calls, and I practiced for a week or so. My brother, who also had never hunted turkey before, decided to come along too. For years I had been hearing that the spring turkey hunt is the most fun you can have in the woods. You go in early, but you are out by noon and you can spend the rest of the day hanging out at camp with the guys.
I paired up with my brother for the hunting portion of the trip and off we went into the woods. Long story short, two people who have never hunted turkey before, and have a combined experience of about a week and a half at calling, do not see turkeys.
This year I was determined to have a different outcome. I did a lot of reading about different calling strategies and set ups. I found a nice piece of DEC land only about an hour and a half from my house, so day trips became a possibility. I bought a number of different calls, but more importantly, I taught myself (thanks to many, many different YouTube videos) how to use a mouth call. I realized if I planned to solo hunt without a blind, it was the best option when birds got close.
On May 6th, I decided it was time to put into practice everything I thought I knew. It wasn’t bad. I got my first gobble response, and I even called in my first Tom, although he busted me due to mixture of poor decoy positioning and me being so excited that a bird was coming in that I moved my head and the exact moment I spotted his head pop over a log. At least I was now confident in my ability to call in birds and I spent the rest of the morning walking, scouting and learning the land.
I returned on 10th. I got out of the house a little earlier and was able to get into the woods around 5AM. I received my first gobble response around 5:35 and I was set up and calling by 5:40. The bad news was after about 15 minutes, the Tom still didn’t seem to be getting any closer, but I resisted the urge to move towards the sound. As long as he was still answering, I wasn’t moving. Then all of a sudden I heard a noise in the leaves behind me. My heart started to pound as out of the corner of my eye I spotted a turkey hop up on the rock wall 90 degrees to my right and only about 20 feet away. Without a sound, a second bird had crept in close to my setup. He stared right at me and I was sure I was busted again, but instead of retreating out the way he came, he moved out into the open field towards my jake decoy. Just as he puffed his feathers to scare off his “competition” I fired my gun, downing my first turkey ever.
16lbs, 7.5 inch beard and ¾ in spurs.
I can’t wait to get back out and try to fill my second tag with a more mature bird. ;D
