After a month and a half of scouting, and getting Haley on birds youth weekend, it was finally my turn to get behind the gun yesterday and see if I could get done what Id been trying to do for about the last 5 or 6 seasons, get my first bird on the ground. For one reason or another, I just hadnt been able to get things to line up when it was my turn to hunt. Ive gotten alot better at finding birds, scouting and patterning them, and proficient enough at calling to bring them in over the last couple of seasons. The last 2 years in a row, I had been able to get Haley in front of birds.
Monday night I headed down to the farm to setup my blind for the morning. The birds were in the field and I had to wait almost till dark to head back and get the blind up. After I was done, I headed home, set my alarm for 4am and fell asleep on the couch, as I didnt want to wake my girlfriend at 4 with my alarm. I woke up, looked at my phone, it was 3:45am, 15 mins before my alarm time. Why cant I wake up like that when I have to go to work? lol. So I get dressed, grab my gear, hop in the truck and off I go. I get to the farm and head for my blind, which is a pretty short 300ish yard walk. I get my gear in the blind, setup my decoys and then sit down and relax while I get situated. About 20 mins later, my phone is buzzing in my pocket. It was one of the guys I hunt with asking where I was sitting. I told him and asked where he was headed, he was going to sit on the opposite side of the large field that I was near, about 300 yards away. I sat back and enjoyed the sounds of the woods waking up, the birds tweeting, geese honking and then as the Eastern sky was lighting up I heard the first gobble. It was about 200 yards away, off to my left, back in the swamp. a couple of minutes later, another gobble, this one right ahead of me about 150 yards back in the woods, then another off to my right a couple hundred yards out. The 3 groups gobbled back and forth for a bit and I heard a 4th group light up quite a ways off, at the south end of the property. After 10 or 15 mins, things quieted down for a bit, I figured they were flying down at that point. The gobbling started back up and I could tell they were on the ground, moving through the woods, headed to the fields. A few mins later and a hen popped out, to my left, about half way between where I was sitting and where the other guy was. Just after that, a loud gobble from the area where she was, and another hen and a big tom walked out into the field. A trio of gobbles came from right in front of me, back in the woods. I picked up my call and let out a few calls to try and get the attention of the birds. My call was cut off by the trio, which had moved a bit more to my left, toward the birds in the field. I kept calling, and each time my calls were cut off by gobbling. By this time there were 7 or 8 hens in the field and the lone tom, who kept silent, but strutted around every so often, staying toward the middle of the field. A few minutes later the trio of toms popped into the field and continued gobblig and chasing each other around. I head my buddy start calling on the other side of the field and the 3 toms went back into the woods near a point of trees that sticks out into the open field. The lone tom continued strutting around the field, steadilly following his hens, which were slowly working in my direction. About 10 mins later, the 3 toms appeared on the field edge, about 150 yards from me. They started hammering at the gobbler out in the field, and he started gobbling back at them. All of this got the hens fired up and they started going nuts calling. I picked up my range finder and ranged the lone tom at 101 yards as he started heading in my direction, following behind 3 hens. The trio of toms at the back of the field started moving in the same direction, but I lost sight of them due to a hedgerow about 25 yards in front and to my left. I watched as the lone tom cut the distance, and I ranged him again. 52 yards, standing there with his head up watching the hens and checking out my decoys. I thought about shooting him, but decided I wanted a closer shot. Just then a very loud gobble cracked off and I looked over near the hedgerow, there was the trio of toms, all in full strut. I ranged them, 60 yards. I got a good look at all 3 and one was noticeably larger than the other 2, and had a very long beard, longer than the lone tom's was. I kept watching them and looking back to the lone tom, which was at 45 yards now. I hoped that the biggest tom would head over to check my decoys out, but the trio headed away from me and I lost sight of them. I watched to see if they would pop out from the hedgerow, but they never did. Instead, 2 hens came into view, right near my decoys. The larger of the hens had a thin, 5ish inch beard, and the two of them circled the decoys, calling at them, trying to figure out why these turkeys wouldnt move. I looked over at the lone tom, he was now following one hen and she was headed right toward me when she suddenly popped into the hedge row. The lone tom followed, and I watched where the hen came out of the hedgerow, at around 30 yards, and settled my gun in that area. I watched as the lone tom entered the hedgerow and made his way through it. Just as he started coming out of the brush, he stretched his head out to try and find where his hen had gone, so I lined up and let him have it. The load of Heavi-shot Triple Beard dropped him in his tracks! I went over and took a look. He was a great bird with a lon, thick beard and great hooks. It felt great to finally have my first tom on the ground. My buddy came over, we took pics and I headed home, then went to work.
Im looking forward to getting back out there this weekend. Im gonna be going after that really big bird for the rest of the season.
Congrats Dom and mowin! I asked Haley to send me her story for the contest, but she never got it to me. I ended up being super busy over the weekend, so I didnt get after her on it. Thanks for running the contest, I hope this isnt the last year for it though. Ill PM you soon, maybe we can come up with some ideas to generate more interest.
