| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place in 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. It is a mixture of sagebrush flats, shinnery oak mottes, mesquite flats, cottonwood bottoms, sandhills, winter wheat, peanut and haygrazer fields, and treed shelterbelts. I had never seen turkey habitat quite like this before until I hunted with Creed last April for the first time. The results of that hunt convinced me that I needed to come back and hunt again this spring. The habitat does not look like it would support a large turkey population, but believe me, it does! You can see last year's Live Hunt with Creed Akers at the following link. I'm hunting Rio Grande Turkeys here. Creed told me this season has been tough in that the turkeys haven't been gobbling or responding to calls very well (much less than last year), but they have still managed to get 2 gobblers for just about every hunter they've had, so I was optimistic about my chances. Thursday A.M. Creed had a spot all picked out for me to hunt this morning. He said he'd been seeing a group of turkeys feeding for the last several days in a cut haygrazer field, including several big strutting longbeards. The birds roost in a big cottonwood creek bottom about 1/2 mile away from the field, then work their way over after flydown. There was a berm (raised dirt bank) in the middle of the field with grass and weeds growing all around it, and Creed had dug a little pit blind in the end so that I could conceal myself amongst the weeds. It was really a neat little set-up. I was concealed very well, but could still see out to shoot. Creed hid in some tall grass about 50 yards away and we waited for the sun to come up. It was very windy this morning so we couldn't hear much in the way of gobbles - Creed said he heard a few, but I couldn't hear any.  this was the little cubbyhole Creed had set up for me Just as the sun was coming up a few turkeys started filtering into the field - right where Creed said he thought they would cross the county road and enter the field.  turkeys start entering the field Over the next hour every few minutes a few more turkeys would enter the field. Creed and I both were calling off and on during that time. There were now 17 turkeys in the field, a mixture of jakes and hens, but no longbeards - yet.  they get up close and personal with me - but only hens and jakes At 8:30 a.m. one more turkey entered the field alone, at the other end, about 400 yards away. I couldn't see a beard, but it was a very big bird, and I was guessing it was a longbeard. I started calling and he started heading my way, silently. When he got to within 150 yards or so I could finally see a big beard, so I got ready. He came on steadily, but still didn't gobble to my calls. When he got to about 30 yards, I dropped him with my favorite load - Remington 3-inch 2 oz. #6's. He kicked a few times and lay still. I just love it when a plan comes together! He was a nice tom, 18 lbs. with a 10.25" beard and 1" spurs. We took some pictures and then headed back to town to eat and take a little nap before going back out this afternoon.  my gobbler from this morning - 18 lbs., 10.25" beard, 1" spurs   this Bobwhite Quail rooster was playing in the sand when we drove by Thursday P.M.  the creekbottom I hunted this afternoon This afternoon Creed dropped me off to hunt a big creekbottom, near where two of his hunters had taken longbeards last week, and Creed said he had been seeing at least 6-8 longbeards in that area. He suggested I slowly work my way along the perimeter of the creekbottom - which was bordered on both sides by winter wheat fields - calling along the way. So, that is what I did. I was dropped off about 5 p.m., and I hadn't been out for 20 minutes when I noticed movement in the shade underneath some oak trees a few hundred yards away. I hunkered down beside some brush and got out my binoculars for a look. It was two strutting turkeys and some hens. Unfortunately, the strutters were jakes, not mature toms. Thinking that a mature tom might be in the area, though, I did some calling. I didn't succeed in calling in a big tom, but I did call 3 more jakes into the area. All 5 jakes then got into a serious fight for about 5 minutes solid. That was the first time I had seen that many fighting at once. They were purring and beating each other to beat the band. I wanted to get a picture but they were moving in and out of brush. They moved off eventually and I continued hunting.  these hens had only jakes in tow - no longbeards  The rest of the afternoon was pretty uneventful. I bumped one hen and didn't have any more activity or turkey encounters. Right at dark I heard one tom gobble twice down in the creek bottom on roost. We're going to hunt tomorrow morning a few miles away from where we hunted this morning so that I can try to get a 2nd gobbler. Check back tomorrow for Day 2 of the hunt!  a pretty end to Day 1 of my hunt
Joshua Flournoy owns and manages the Livehunts.com web site. Joshua resides in east Texas with his wife and four children. |
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