Clayton's first turkey hunt

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hawglips
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Clayton's first turkey hunt

Post by hawglips »

On that Saturday morning several years ago, we arrived at the pre-designated listening post at about 5:20. I was taking a first-timer with me. He's a 19 year old young man from church who's a very experienced deer and waterfowl hunter, but he'd never been on a real turkey hunt. He's a pleasant young man, and I looked forward to introducing him to the wonders of spring gobbler hunting.

I parked the truck and he walked one way and I the other. I had instructed him to give a crow call in the event he heard a gobbler. I would do the same. It was very foggy and threatening rain, so my expectations were not high, but I was hoping we might get lucky.

I had walked a ways down the road and I heard the kid blow his crow call. I looked at my watch and figured it was still too early, but what the heck -- he blew the call, so I'm heading his way to see what's up.

Sure enough, he'd heard one gobble -- four times. He pointed in the direction, and I figured it had to be a long ways off, and so I said, 'let's go.'

The bird was gobbling his head off. Every thirty seconds, like clockwork. It turns out he was up a steep hill past a rhododendron thicket. I didn't see any easy way to get to him, but up we went. At 6:24, after working up a big sweat, giving my lungs an intense workout, cussing the rhododendron hell under my breath, and wishing I was in better condition, we had arrived up about to his level on the other side of a creek, and the woods opened up just nicely. It was a very nice setup location, other than being on the opposite side of the creek from the bird. But, I didn't know the area having never hunted there before (a common theme for me it seems) and there was no easy way to get over to his side without being seen and heard. In fact, the bird had shut up as we got close since we were making so much racket trying to crawl through the thicket. But we sat up anyway, and about 10 minutes later he sounded off again. We were no more than 120 yards away.

I did a soft tree yelp to let him know we were there, and he answered.

Then I waited.

At about fly down time, I cranked up on my first series. The turkey answered, and shortly thereafter, I heard wings. It was very foggy, but I could make out the other side of the creek now. It was actually a steep cliff over there. The birds had roosted up on the ridge over that cliff, and a small canyon separated us from the turkeys.

A few seconds after hearing the wings, all heck broke loose as a big fight erupted over there across the creek. The kid was all excited. He had never heard a turkey gobble in the wild, and was excited as all get out that this one was gobbling so much, and now he was getting to hear his first turkey fight! I was quite pleased at how the morning was going so far.

As the fight ensued, I let them know that the hen on this side of the canyon was very excited, and would love to get to acquainted with the winner of the fight.

As things quieted down, I heard drumming across the canyon. I yelped back at him, and then asked my buddy, "do you hear him drumming?" We had been listened to Lovett Willams' Real Turkey III CD on the way up, so he knew what I was talking about. The turkey drummed some more, and I called back to him again. Then my budddy said, "He just flew across to our side!" I never saw a thing, but trusted him. Then he said, "He's hopping over some rocks heading to us."

There was a bowl on our side and the turkey was soon out of sight in the bowl. About a minute later, he was drumming down below the rise. There was no need to ask my buddy whether he heard him or not this time. I looked over at him, and he had his gun up on his knee like he'd done this a hundred times.

I then reached over and did some scratching in the leaves. I was straining to see through the fog. Then I heard, "click" as my buddy's safety went off and his head slowly eased down on his gun. He was shooting an old Remington 870 that had killed a bunch of ducks, doves, and various other game animals. And I had witnessed him win a Boy Scout rifle shooting contest at summer camp several years ago, so he knew his way around behind the gun. He killed 4 deer this past season with his bow, so I also knew he knew how to get it done when crunch time came. And we had reviewed where to aim on the turkey etc. I was confident.

As I strained to see, there he was! That glowing white skull cap came bobbing up the bowl heading our way. He was about 50 yards out, and steadily making his way to us. I whispered, "It's a good bird, let him get a little closer..."

He strutted, then stretched up his head looking for the hen. Then started heading our way again. As he got to 30 yards, I said, "Shoot him any time you've got a good shot." Right after I said that, he went behind a fallen log that blocked my line of sight. But my buddy was down a little below me on the other side of the tree, so his perspective was a bit different.

The old heart was pounding, and I was anxiously waiting for the Remington's report, and the celebration of my buddy's first turkey kill. BAM!!! WHAT!!!?? Missed!!! The turkey was trotting back the way he came!!?? I couldn't believe it!! Then BAM!!! After his second shot the turkey hesitated with a confused look in his eye, and then, BAM!!! The third shot, and then the turkey flew back across the canyon, but not in the god-awful hurry you would expect.

I was dumbfounded. I couldn't believe he missed that shot. Not once, but THREE times!! But hey, that happens. My buddy was dejected. I didn't want to fuss at him. I told him everybody misses sometimes. And I was a tad confused. Why did the turkey so casually fly back across like that? I told him to sit back down for a minute. It actually appeared that the turkey was not totally spooked, believe it or not. It was very foggy, and the bird must not have seen what that dreadfully loud banging noise was all about.

Five minutes later we were still sitting there quietly discussing what just happened, and re-stressing the fundamentals of putting your cheek down on the gun, a crow flew over and let out a loud series of caws. I couldn't believe my ears as the turkey gobbled at the crow!!! And he was no more than 100 yards away. And to make matters more intriguing, a second turkey gobbled back on the other side of that ridge!!

Now, this was interesting. So, I yelped. And you won't believe this either, but the turkey my buddy had just shot three times at drummed back at us!!

So, here we go again. Now, I'm sitting there thinking that no way this is happening. And there's no way that turkey who just got shot at five minutes ago is going to fly back over here to this side of the canyon where he just got shot at. But I yelped some more at him anyway, and there we sat.

About 15 minutes later, he gobbled again but this time he was back further up the ridge in the direction we had heard that second turkey gobble. So, I made the strategic decision, to cross over to that side of the creek.

We discreetly moved down hill under the cover of rhododendrons, and quietly worked over across the creek below the steep cliffs, and up onto the ridge the two turkeys were on. We crossed the ridge below them and started working our way up higher, when my buddy said, "did you hear that? I think something gobbled back over there behind us somewhere." We paused and listened for a moment, then moved on and found a nice spot to set up on. As we were setting up, we heard it -- a gobble that sounded like it was right back where we had just come from!!

Now, I'm thinking there's just no way that turkey flew back across over there like that to the scene of the late shooting. But we also knew there was another turkey, and the possibility that a third bird came in from the other direction. Who knows??

Well, knowing that we just had two gobblers on the side we were now on no more than 20 minutes before, we stayed the course and set up right there. And started calling. Nothing answered me. The fog was getting thicker, and a slight drizzle was starting to fall.

I called some more. And then some more. Then the rain came. After about 45 minutes of dead silence except for the sound of the rain in the forest, I looked at my buddy and asked if he wanted to get in the truck. He did. So we did.

We sat in the truck and ate our pop tarts and granola bars. And drank our orange juice. We spent the rest of the morning driving around checking out a couple nice looking spots, and tried to strike a gobbler till about 1:00 pm.

But it was a fine hunt. One of those memorable misses.
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Hognutz
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Re: Clayton's first turkey hunt

Post by Hognutz »

Nice read. Just goes to prove that you never know what is going to happen when you are turkey hunting. They do things that make you question there ability to stay alive, one day, and the next day, they are the smartest creatures on the planet..Nicely written..
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vaturkey
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Re: Clayton's first turkey hunt

Post by vaturkey »

Great story Hawglips ! Even though you guys didn't get a gobbler , it was a great day in the turkey woods. :thumbup:



vaturkey :struttin:
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