Reasons I hunt

Stories of your favorite gobbler hunts.
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Gotonedown
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Joined: April 6th, 2015, 2:24 pm

Reasons I hunt

Post by Gotonedown »

There are many reasons I could list that make me want to hunt and fish. Being one with the great outdoors. Spending time with friends and family. The adventure and adrenaline rush of the hunt itself.

In the end though, to me it's all about first's and making memories...

As I get older I spend more time napping and spending time thinking of the good ole days. Nothings beats laying in the recliner remembering the first time my dad took me dove hunting, our first night fishing trip for bluecats on Lake Texoma, the first time getting up early to go net shad for striper fishing and having to swim to get our boat after the anchor came lose in my underwear. The first time I saw a group of mallards turn and come into our decoys, the first time I called out to a group of ducks and actually saw them turn back and come into the decoys, the first time my oldest son caught a fish on a lure, the first time I had a gobbler sneak up behind me and gobble within 10 feet of me causing a near heart attack, each and every one of my 3 sons first ducks, my first Wood Duck, my sons first turkey, my sons friend's first duck... the list goes on. Like I said, hunting and fishing to me is all about making memories and first times make the best memories.

Here is the story behind a first from last weekend I would like to share. It's kind of long, but I want to remember it all just like it happened so i can tell his sons the story later.

Zac and I have had several close but frustrating hunts the last few years trying to get his first turkey. Seems whenever it was his turn to hunt, the birds would go silent, the toms got henned up, or they move their roosts and we couldn't get on them...etc. Lots of birds located, some called in, and still no kill for various reasons. I was afraid i was going to lose him if he didn't get one soon. This year he had decided it was going to be different. We started preparing as soon as duck season was over. He watched tons of turkey videos so he would know when it was safe to lift your gun, when to shoot...etc. He watched more Eddie Salter Turkey Man shows than anything else on TV. He even learned Eddie's owl call. If it was hunting show about turkeys he DVR'd and watched it. He read what seems like every serious post on this forum and others. He was a sponge soaking up all the turkey knowledge he could get. Constantly asking questions trying to "get" turkeys.

For his 14th birthday, we went camping out on the farm, two weeks prior to the season opening. His goal was to locate some birds, put them to bed, and watch their daytime habits while fishing and having a good time. We found two nice sized groups and developed plans on how we wanted to hunt them. We knew there was a big group roosting close to one of our ponds and decided to concentrate on them. Mainly because the Big Ghost Tom wasn't with this group, and he didn't want to mistakenly kill that one, but that's another story all together. Saturday on the youth turkey opener we hit the farm a little late, maybe 40 minutes prior to sunrise, and packed it in. As we got close to where the big group was roosting, Zac hit the crow locator call and immediately heard a gobbler answer right from where we hoped he would be. So we set up about 100-150 yards away on the other side of the field from the roost. Just before sunrise we started an assembly call war with one of the hens. She would yelp away and one of us would answer, we kept switching on her and noticed that the gobblers had strangely gone silent. About 15 minutes after sunrise we had already heard 1 shot NE of us and 1 shot to the west and our birds were still in the trees except for the hen who was running all over yelping her arse off. We watched as the birds finally pitched down down from the roost and 1 hen headed our way and we watched shaking our heads as the rest went the other direction with the victorious hen. We tried another couple of setups in different spots from where we had seen them going previously but we weren't able to entice a gobbler to come within sight much less shooting distance. So we ate lunch and switched over to fishing for a couple hours on the pond by the roost.

We spent some time discussing how we could best hunt the roosting flock on our next hunt. What we could do differently, maybe to get closer or circle around and come from a different direction to put ourselves in their new path. We walked through their route looking for tracks and scratchings and developed a plan for next weekend to make sure we would be in their paths if he couldn't get them off the roost. We were heading back out when we saw another group of 4 to 5 turkeys about 400 yards away. I picked up the binoculars but they were still too far off for a good look but I saw a bunch of red on the heads. I grabbed a decoy out of my pack and my son grabbed his gun. We didn't have time to put on our leafy camo suits... gloves, long sleeved shirts, or even our masks since all of our gear was already packed up and they were heading away from us. I used the decoy's fan to hide behind as we "snuck" up on the group, or it was as close to sneaking as I can get. Luckily I had grabbed a tom decoy so I had a fan to hide all 6'3", 270lbs of me behind. I just kept moving closer, stopping to yelp/cluck, then peeking at them through the binoculars from behind the fan to see their reaction. After a few 100 yards of stealthy (???) sneaking, they finally turned around and were headed back towards to us at a trot from 100 yards. I froze, there I was standing out in the middle of a dirt cow path with only a decoy fan in front of my face. We were on the crest of a hill, so I slowly melted back 30 feet or so still holding the decoy in front of my face trying to convince myself they couldn't see me and could only see that decoy. When I could no longer see them, I stuck the decoy in the ground and told my son to set up at the tree line 20 yards to the east of us, and I faded back further back and into the trees.

I let out a yelp and no answer. Tried a few clucks, no answer. We waited for what seemed like an eternity (probably 30-45 seconds), already picturing the worse and thinking they had turned tail and ran from the monster Tom that kept hen yelping and clucking at them. I blinked once to clear my vision and to my surprise I see 5 fans running full speed, in full strut mode over the hill, and then like a trained military squad... they STOPPED. 20 feet from my son, looking not towards the decoy like we hoped but directly towards ZAC. He had pulled his shirt up over his head and was squatted down into the smallest camo ball he could be, peaking out the neck hole of the tshirt and trying to hide his bright copper red head and whipped cream pie shaped white face and arms.

They looked directly at my son and I just knew we were busted again. I saw that he was frozen, with his gun on his knees pointed towards the decoy where he thought they would be, and couldn't move to get a shot without being busted. Seeing that we were as good as busted and they were about to sprint back over the hill to add another page to our frustrating hunts book... I clucked twice and amazingly they turned a little and saw the tom decoy... all 5 turned towards the decoy and started moving that way. When one of the jakes stuck his head out to gobble a warning...BAMN! he got flipped with a perfect head/neck shot. I think it took about 5 seconds for it to sink in that he had finally got one. It was then that I saw the sight that makes me keep hunting... the fuel that keeps me going... that great big HUGE smile that slowly breaks out on all first's...His first turkey smile! A human head is just not big enough to keep that kind of smile on your face, it just keeps growing and growing... and I am not sure whose was bigger...his or mine!

I was finally able to move and I grabbed my phone and started to video (wish I could have gotten the hunt but this might be better). I asked him what he had just done and he looked at the camera with that big goofy smile and said " I just killed a turkey" and let out an great imitation of Eddie's owl hoot... "let's go look at him dad!!!"

Here's to everyone's first.
Hope they all had someone special to share it with.
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Gobbler
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by Gobbler »

Dangit man! Welcome to the site and that was a great hunt with your son. :thumbup:
Congrats to Zac.
Gotonedown
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Joined: April 6th, 2015, 2:24 pm

Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by Gotonedown »

thanks for the welcome, best turkey hunt yet!

Now to get the Ghost Tom for my 17 year old for a new story.
He is like that old buck everyone hunts. You get a couple of pictures of him on your game cameras every year right before the season opens but never see him when the season opens even though you hunt from sunup to sundown. Last year on his youth opening day my (then 16 year old) middle son and I got him to come out into a small clearing and we watched him put on a show kicking the crud out of a jake decoy, then mounting the hen decoy on the ground. Only thing my son forgot. is that you are supposed to pull the trigger when the show is over....he was mesmerized watching the show the big tom was putting on and never even shouldered his gun. That clearing is still echoing with my whispered words... KEEL HEEM! KEEEEL HEEEEEM NOW!! as we watched him trot away back into the woods. He circled us for 2 more hours laughing at us and then poof he was gone!!! I stalked him 10 different hunting dates and never got closer than long binocular range. Weekend after the season closes, he meets me at the pond while I am fishing with our kid's church group. He walked up on top of the dam, strutted back and forth for 15 seconds, gobbled directly at me, and walked away... true story.

We start stalking him again Saturday.
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Hognutz
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by Hognutz »

Great read!! Congrats to Zac and the proud dad.
Welcome to the G.N..Enjoy your stay!
May I assume you're not here to inquire about the alcohol or the tobacco?
I am the man from Nantucket.
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli” -Clemensa
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Bigspurs68
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by Bigspurs68 »

Welcome and tell that young man that I said "great job buddy"!!!
Momma said "kill that turkey"
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arjaycruz100
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by arjaycruz100 »

Great hunt. I like reading your story you had so much fun with your son.
Ask me about my zombie weapon
pullit
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by pullit »

Great, congrats on the hunt with your son
I may not be smart but I can lift heavy objects

I have no need for a 30-06, I have a shotgun
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appalachianassassin
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Re: Reasons I hunt

Post by appalachianassassin »

:thumbup:
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