| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place in north Texas, at the southeastern corner of the Texas Panhandle. I am hunting with outfitter and friend Creed Akers, owner of Panhandle Outfitters, on 10,000+ acres of private land. The country and habitat where I'm hunting varies a LOT. The particular property I'll be hunting is a mixture of sagebrush flats, small shinnery oak mottes, and treed shelterbelts. It's somewhat hilly, extremely sandy, and there are winter wheat fields around as well. Other properties that Panhandle Outfitters controls have much different habitat. Brush-choked draws, mesquite flats, cottonwood bottoms, sandhills. I've never seen turkey habitat quite like this before. I'm hunting Rio Grande Turkeys. When I arrived for the hunt there were about five turkeys hanging on the porch that were taken in the last 2 days, so I was excited about that. I'm looking forward to starting my hunt this afternoon. Creed will be giving me some tips on the property I'll be hunting, but I'll be hunting alone. Tuesday P.M.  saw some beautiful Bluebonnets and Paintbrush on my drive  the lodge at Panhandle Outfitters Upon arriving at the Panhandle Outfitters lodge, I was greeted by "Pauline", their camp mascot. "Pauline" is a wild turkey hen that has made the lodge area her home over the last few weeks, roosting on the roof of the lodge!  "Pauline", the camp mascot When I arrived at my hunting area this afternoon I was quite surprised to see what it looked like. Sandhills, sand dunes, cactus, sagebrush, and shelterbelts. I almost felt like I should be looking for pronghorn antelope instead of turkeys. There are areas out here that are very open. I parked where two shelterbelts came together and got out and got my gear together.  a jake ran across in front of my car and went out into this sage flat  tracks in the sand near where I parked I did a series of loud yelps on one of my diaphragm calls and listened. I thought I heard a gobble in response, but it was so faint I thought my ears might have been tricking me. I started walking in the direction I thought it came from, amazed at all the turkey tracks I was seeing in the sand. After I had gone about 100 yards I stopped and yelped again. Again I thought I might have heard a gobble, but it was still really faint. I continued to walk in that direction another few hundred yards, and I heard what was definitely a gobble, but still a long ways away. There was a hill probably 500 yards away and I was guessing that the tom might be on the other side of that hill, so I picked up my pace to close the distance.  I finally got a look at the tom I stayed along the shelterbelt as I went, and continued to hear gobbles as I got closer. Pretty soon I peeked around the corner of the hill and sure enough there was the tom on the other side of the hill, about 250 yards from me. There were a few hens out there too, which is likely why he never came any closer. The hens, however, seemed to be leaving him in the opposite direction when I showed up, so I figured it would be a good opportunity for me to call him in. I started cutting and yelping very excitedly, and he gobbled, then double-gobbled. He stopped walking the other direction and looked in my direction. I did one more series of yelps and he gobbled and then started trotting in my direction. I quickly snuggled up against the trunk of a big tree and found a shooting hole through some limbs. He slowed to a walk once he got to 50 yards, but kept on coming, gobbling and strutting as he came. When he got to 25 yards I let him have a load of Remington #6's from my 870, and he went right down, flopping just a few times before he lay still. This bird was a warrior. His tail/fan had several feathers that were completely broken in half. He had obviously been doing some serious fighting. He weighed 19 lbs., had 3/4" spurs and a nice, thick, 9 1/2" beard.  my beat-up longbeard As I walked back to my vehicle, I realized just how far away I had heard that first gobble from. It was over 1/2 mile. Sound really carries out in this open country. When I got back to the car I took some photos with my tripod and the timer on my camera. At that point, it was about an hour till dark still, so I went out and sat down not far from the big shelterbelt where I'd parked, and I planned to roost a bird or two to hunt tomorrow morning. I hadn't been there long when I heard a gobble a long ways off. I yelped several times and he gobbled again. Over the next half hour he gobbled voluntarily a number of times as he worked his way towards the roost. I saw him once for a few seconds several hundred yards off. As it got dark, I heard him fly up and mentally marked that location. When I got back to my vehicle after dark, I did a little series on my coyote howler to see if any other birds answered, and he answered, but no others. I'll be waiting for him tomorrow when the sun comes up. I couldn't believe the amount of turkey sign I saw this evening. I can't wait for tomorrow - Check back tomorrow for Day 2 of the hunt!  the shelterbelt where I roosted the tom this evening I'm coming back here in the morning
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. He also arranges exciting hunts through his business Longleaf Hunting Adventures. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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