Shooter's Jinx has finally been lifted
Posted: April 29th, 2016, 9:50 pm
What a morning I got to share with my good friend today. I've been hunting a number of times with Shooter over the last few years and have had encounters with birds but never have been able to close the deal. That was until today.
I arrived yesterday afternoon to go and help him roost another bird for his Saturday hunt (he already had my bird roosted). We traveled over an hour and a half to a section of property only to realize that the fast way out was blocked by a tree in the road. Of course we had no saw or chain to move it and didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive back so what do you do? You pull out the SW .44 mag and shoot the tree in half. Problem solved!
On to the turkey. Shooter said the bird was roosted somewhere in a recent burn. The plan was to enter the burn along a gas line way before daylight...like 4:30 am before daylight so we would have time to set up the decoys in the open burn and get hid before it got light. We did just that. Shooter figured they roosted about 100 yards from the gas line. As light began to break, the song birds started and at 5:15 he sounded off! However he is in the tree no more than 30 yards in front of us!!!!! Holy Crap!!! We start slowly grabbing masks. He is literally in shooting range in the tree. Around 5:25 another bird flies down and goes away from us. It was still pretty dark so we could not see what it was. Maybe another longbeard maybe a hen. Shooter gave out a Yelp and not long after that our gobbler flies down to our right on the gas line. He's in shooting range but I can't see him due to brush. Shooter hit him with a Yelp and gobble and that was all it took. He turned and headed our way on a dead sprint to the decoys. He cleared the tree to my right moving like a ghost in the night. I hit him with an aggressive cutt and he slammed on the brakes right in front of me at 15 yards. At 5:40 am he took a dirt nap. Fastest and earliest hunt I've ever had and one I will never forget.
Sent from my typewriter
I arrived yesterday afternoon to go and help him roost another bird for his Saturday hunt (he already had my bird roosted). We traveled over an hour and a half to a section of property only to realize that the fast way out was blocked by a tree in the road. Of course we had no saw or chain to move it and didn't want to make the 1.5 hour drive back so what do you do? You pull out the SW .44 mag and shoot the tree in half. Problem solved!
On to the turkey. Shooter said the bird was roosted somewhere in a recent burn. The plan was to enter the burn along a gas line way before daylight...like 4:30 am before daylight so we would have time to set up the decoys in the open burn and get hid before it got light. We did just that. Shooter figured they roosted about 100 yards from the gas line. As light began to break, the song birds started and at 5:15 he sounded off! However he is in the tree no more than 30 yards in front of us!!!!! Holy Crap!!! We start slowly grabbing masks. He is literally in shooting range in the tree. Around 5:25 another bird flies down and goes away from us. It was still pretty dark so we could not see what it was. Maybe another longbeard maybe a hen. Shooter gave out a Yelp and not long after that our gobbler flies down to our right on the gas line. He's in shooting range but I can't see him due to brush. Shooter hit him with a Yelp and gobble and that was all it took. He turned and headed our way on a dead sprint to the decoys. He cleared the tree to my right moving like a ghost in the night. I hit him with an aggressive cutt and he slammed on the brakes right in front of me at 15 yards. At 5:40 am he took a dirt nap. Fastest and earliest hunt I've ever had and one I will never forget.
Sent from my typewriter