Post by love2hunt on Apr 30, 2006 20:02:14 GMT
Talk about an amazing weekend! Friday afternoon I picked up my buddy Andrew who has never been turkey hunting before but shot a few deer, two with his bow. After I picked him up we went to the range for him to shoot my shotgun. He's pretty small and I wanted to make sure he could handle my 12 ga. 870. I started him out with a few light 2 3/4" target loads and he handled the gun well. I had him shoot a couple 3" size 4 turkey loads and he handled it like a champ. I had him shoot 25 yards and he had a dead gobbler every time. This made me really happy because I know my gun patterns really well so if he had to take a 50 yard shot it would knock one down. After we went shooting we went out to try and roost a bird and after a couple of my spots we hit a nice gobbler about 20 yards into the woods. That was the first gobble he had ever heard and he was pumped! It was awesome. After a night of absolutely no sleep I went into our spare room at 3:00 and he jumped right up out of bed. He had been up since 1 and couldn't sleep he was so excited.
We set up about 75 yards from the bird and were in the woods and set up by 4:00. After a while sitting in the dark the woods started erupting with gobbles. No need for a locator. Anyways, after a few calls we had 3 sets of big gobblers heading our way. The last one to fly down was the closest bird, the one roosted the night before. We had him, one set of two gobblers, and another set of two gobblers coming in, one set from the right, one set dead ahead, and the other one from the left. They were about 70 yards away and gobbling their heads off and the gun was getting to heavy for Andrew to keep at the ready. He started shaking and he made some movement and bye bye birdies. They all shut up and were gone. After that we headed to a few more local spots without any answers so we headed to a one of my better areas about 40 minutes away. On top of a ridge we had a tom answer the crow call so we set up quickly and had him walk by with a couple of hens, well out of range so we headed to a few more fields and struck a gobble over the hill. I had Andrew grab all his stuff and we ran out up the stone wall to set up. We got about 100 yards and I gave a quick yelp and looked out into the field and a tom came running on a full sprint to use, in full strut. I was like "Uh oh" so we just jumped down and set up behind the stone wall. It was actually two big toms, both had 10+ inch beards, one thick, one skinny. I had andrew set up facing the left down the stonewall because there was a low spot they were heading to. Well they just walked along the stonewall withing 5 feet of us. Boy was andrew shaking. We didn't get a shot because he was facing the wrong way. The toms kept going trying to find me and cut into the woods over the wall 10 yards from us and started walking up to our right. I had andrew turn quickly because they were coming in on us. He was kind of laying down and resting on a stump and had the gun rested on my shoulder. All of a sudden the footsteps stopped and all went quiet. I whispered to andrew telling him not to move then all of a sudden there were footsteps behind us that sounded like they were a foot from us. Now comes the amazing part. There was a gobbler standing almost on andrews foot, not even three feet from me. It was so hard not to shake and I couldn't call so after what seemed like an hour (probably 2 minutes) he walked off looking for the hen. 5 minutes later a dog scared the two toms away which got our hopes pretty hammered. We got out of the woods and to the edge of the field and I gave it one last loud string of yelps on the diaphram and we heard a gobble way down in front of us down the valley. We set up right on the edge of the field in a huge rock pile and i set a decoy up. This tom closed the distance pretty quickly then all of a sudden he appeared 70 yards from us from behind an island of trees. He was beautiful and saw the decoy and came in to 50 yards. He wouldn't come closer because he wanted us to come to him. He gobbled at every noise i made, gobbled when i shut up for a while, but would not come any closer than 50 yards. I thought about having andrew squeeze of a shot but I didn't want to wound a bird. He meandered off and we were out of time which prevented us from getting around him. Later last night we headed to where the tome was headed and roosted the same bird in a tree. This morning we set up on him at 3:45 in a field without a single decent spot to set up. We ended up both using a birch tree no more than 5 inches in diameter. I set my backpack up to block my hands while calling and once it got light we struck two gobblers. They gobbled like crazy and then my buddy moved because he was having a hard time holding up the gun and then all gobbles stopped. I thought " Oh boy, not again" but I kept calling lightly. All of a sudden i said "Andrew, there he is!" I saw a white head pop up on the edge of the field about 70 yards away and he and a hen walked out. He didn't get out of strut once. He acknowledged us but wanted us to come to him of course. I kept calling but he wouldn't budge. I waited a few minutes and then started purring like crazy and the second I did that, that tom started strutting right towards us. He was at about 40 yards but Andrew's gun was facing the corner to our right because we were expecting them there but the tom was going to our left. He finally turned around letting andrew move his gun quickly into perfect position. I gave a few more calls and the gobbler got to 30 yards and I told him to get ready, he's in range. I got the gobbler to raise his head a little bit with some clucks and told andrew to take his time and fire whenever he was ready. I've never seen anyone shake so much! All of a sudden, BANG! That gobbler looked like he got hit with a bat. He went down barely flopping. We ran to the bird and I have never seen anyone so excited. That was one of the most inredible moments in my life. It was incredible. This kid has been like my little brother since he was born and seeing him make that great shot and seeing his excitement made me so proud. He can't stop talking about it, talk about a great day! We now have another life-long turkey hunter in the population! He weighed 18 pounds, 8 1/2" Beard, 3/4" spurs.
Sorry about the long story but it was just so great I hope you all enjoy it! How did others do?
Here are the pictures:
We set up about 75 yards from the bird and were in the woods and set up by 4:00. After a while sitting in the dark the woods started erupting with gobbles. No need for a locator. Anyways, after a few calls we had 3 sets of big gobblers heading our way. The last one to fly down was the closest bird, the one roosted the night before. We had him, one set of two gobblers, and another set of two gobblers coming in, one set from the right, one set dead ahead, and the other one from the left. They were about 70 yards away and gobbling their heads off and the gun was getting to heavy for Andrew to keep at the ready. He started shaking and he made some movement and bye bye birdies. They all shut up and were gone. After that we headed to a few more local spots without any answers so we headed to a one of my better areas about 40 minutes away. On top of a ridge we had a tom answer the crow call so we set up quickly and had him walk by with a couple of hens, well out of range so we headed to a few more fields and struck a gobble over the hill. I had Andrew grab all his stuff and we ran out up the stone wall to set up. We got about 100 yards and I gave a quick yelp and looked out into the field and a tom came running on a full sprint to use, in full strut. I was like "Uh oh" so we just jumped down and set up behind the stone wall. It was actually two big toms, both had 10+ inch beards, one thick, one skinny. I had andrew set up facing the left down the stonewall because there was a low spot they were heading to. Well they just walked along the stonewall withing 5 feet of us. Boy was andrew shaking. We didn't get a shot because he was facing the wrong way. The toms kept going trying to find me and cut into the woods over the wall 10 yards from us and started walking up to our right. I had andrew turn quickly because they were coming in on us. He was kind of laying down and resting on a stump and had the gun rested on my shoulder. All of a sudden the footsteps stopped and all went quiet. I whispered to andrew telling him not to move then all of a sudden there were footsteps behind us that sounded like they were a foot from us. Now comes the amazing part. There was a gobbler standing almost on andrews foot, not even three feet from me. It was so hard not to shake and I couldn't call so after what seemed like an hour (probably 2 minutes) he walked off looking for the hen. 5 minutes later a dog scared the two toms away which got our hopes pretty hammered. We got out of the woods and to the edge of the field and I gave it one last loud string of yelps on the diaphram and we heard a gobble way down in front of us down the valley. We set up right on the edge of the field in a huge rock pile and i set a decoy up. This tom closed the distance pretty quickly then all of a sudden he appeared 70 yards from us from behind an island of trees. He was beautiful and saw the decoy and came in to 50 yards. He wouldn't come closer because he wanted us to come to him. He gobbled at every noise i made, gobbled when i shut up for a while, but would not come any closer than 50 yards. I thought about having andrew squeeze of a shot but I didn't want to wound a bird. He meandered off and we were out of time which prevented us from getting around him. Later last night we headed to where the tome was headed and roosted the same bird in a tree. This morning we set up on him at 3:45 in a field without a single decent spot to set up. We ended up both using a birch tree no more than 5 inches in diameter. I set my backpack up to block my hands while calling and once it got light we struck two gobblers. They gobbled like crazy and then my buddy moved because he was having a hard time holding up the gun and then all gobbles stopped. I thought " Oh boy, not again" but I kept calling lightly. All of a sudden i said "Andrew, there he is!" I saw a white head pop up on the edge of the field about 70 yards away and he and a hen walked out. He didn't get out of strut once. He acknowledged us but wanted us to come to him of course. I kept calling but he wouldn't budge. I waited a few minutes and then started purring like crazy and the second I did that, that tom started strutting right towards us. He was at about 40 yards but Andrew's gun was facing the corner to our right because we were expecting them there but the tom was going to our left. He finally turned around letting andrew move his gun quickly into perfect position. I gave a few more calls and the gobbler got to 30 yards and I told him to get ready, he's in range. I got the gobbler to raise his head a little bit with some clucks and told andrew to take his time and fire whenever he was ready. I've never seen anyone shake so much! All of a sudden, BANG! That gobbler looked like he got hit with a bat. He went down barely flopping. We ran to the bird and I have never seen anyone so excited. That was one of the most inredible moments in my life. It was incredible. This kid has been like my little brother since he was born and seeing him make that great shot and seeing his excitement made me so proud. He can't stop talking about it, talk about a great day! We now have another life-long turkey hunter in the population! He weighed 18 pounds, 8 1/2" Beard, 3/4" spurs.
Sorry about the long story but it was just so great I hope you all enjoy it! How did others do?
Here are the pictures:
