Paul (my father-in-law) a.k.a. PY picked me up at the house at 5:45 and we headed out to the Land o' Turkeys. Paul told me yesterday that we would go. He first told me that he had to work early in the morning (he has a sprinkler business), but then found this land that is really close to my house and figured that we could be in the field by 6, shooting by 7:30 - 7:45 and back at the house by 8:00. Well, he was pretty close on all of his guestimations.
We do get to the field by 6. We park the truck, hop the fence (hmmmmmmmmm...) and start scouting the land. Once again, I have a sweet headlamp and PY is still workin' his dinky lil' headlamp! I need to get THAT on video...
Paul told me yesterday that we would not be using the tent blind. We were going on a reconnaissance mission! No Tent Blind! We were going All Natural. We would be using the trees / bushes as cover. I was a little worried about that because I am pretty figgity when I sit down for a long time. Half way from the truck, Paul says, 'Ahhh, Shoot (or whatever word you desire to substitute in here), the decoys are in the back of the truck!' I volunteered to go back and get them and he said that we would go without them today. Reconnaissance Mission, remember? I think he didn't want me to go back to get the decoys because then he would be without my headlamp showing us the way.
So we are gonna back into some trees for cover. No decoys. We are gonna sit in different spots and we will go from there. PY said to shoot any bird. Got It? Good.
Turkeys are funny. There is a term used when Turkey Hunting called a Shock Call. When turkeys here a loud noise, it startles them (or 'shocks' them) and they gobble automatically. So before sun up, a plane flies over and is loud. Both of us are in position already. Right when the plane goes over, at least 4 turkeys gobbled. PY had never been hunting turkeys on this land before. He just had a hunch that they were there. I told you he was good! And we knew we had hit the mother load ... at least that's what we thought!
Morning is 'breaking' and we can hear turkeys. I hear Paul calling them in and the turkeys responding. We had no blind. We had no decoys. Reconnaisance ... riiiiiiiiiight? I had been sitting Indian style for at least 40 minutes now and my left leg had fallen asleep. Can I move? Are they close by? Will they see me? I am hid pretty good, but I'm not invisible. Anyhow, to make a long morning / story short, I did not see any birds. I heard them, but did not see them. I was getting restless and I could tell that Paul was losing momentum on his calls. The birds were going away from us now. That is NOT good if you want to kill one.
I was pretty disappointed, to say the least...
Paul comes over to me and tells me of all the action that he saw. It was behind me! UGH! 'If we would have just had decoys, they would have come off the roost right here' is what he said. We had no decoys. Well, we did, but they were in the back of the dang truck!
Anyhow, two Toms had run by him earlier and we could see them about 100 yards away running sporadically to and fro. I told PY that I wanted to sneak up on them. Nix that, turkeys have great vision he said. But I just wanted to see them. So I move 30 yards closer to the Turkeys and stand behind this 5 foot cedar. The 2 Toms were running wildly. From hen to hen. It was really strange. So I crouch down per Paul's suggestion by way of a whistle and hand motion and Paul gives it another whirl. He begins calling and I can see that it is getting the attention of one of the Toms. I signal to Paul that I can see the Tom and for him to keep 'calling' him in. I can't believe it! This turkey is walking right towards me! My heart is racing. Should I look at his beard or just shoot regardless? Paul said to just shoot, so I make up my mind ... if he does get within shooting range, then I would shoot ... regardless. This Tom was SO excited to see the 'hen' that was calling for him. He had no idea I was hiding behind that bush. Poor Tom!
He was practically running for the hen when he slowed down to gobble. I had taken up a better shooting position (rather than a sit or stand, I was crouching) at this point and had raised my gun. He got about 40 yards away. He walked right into it. I pulled the trigger and down he went! One shot. One kill. I call this a 'One Hitter Quitter!' YES... Paul comes darting out of the bushes / trees with his hands in the air! He seemed to be more exited than I was. We were both really into it! It was marvelous... We gave a High Five!
We walk over to the turkey and he is still flapping his large wings. He asked if I saw the beard and I said, 'no.' I just shot since he was the only one that I was gonna see that day. We lifted him up and there sat an 8 inch beard! Incredible! The bird was beautiful. I was very surprised. And so was Taylor! Paul is a great story teller. We talked about everything that happened that morning on the way to the truck. I was carrying the turkey over my shoulder. It was about 18 pounds, Paul said. He was heavy to me.
Taylor is at home waiting for us. She was so proud of me. I provided food for our table. Oh Yeah...
Paul came back over to the house 2 hours later and cleaned the turkey. He breasted it and cut off the tail, breast feathers and beard...
This morning was really great! And guess what we are doing tomorrow morning? Believe It! We are goin' Turkey Huntin', again...... and again...... and again!
Enjoy the pics... (this turkey was for you Winkie!)
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