| Hunt Introduction This hunt takes place in southern Illinois, near Golconda. I'm hunting solo in an area of the Shawnee National Forest. I've deer hunted southern Illinois, but have never turkey hunted in Illinois before, and like I've said many times before, I'm always excited to hunt new areas. So, I'm really looking forward to hunting some new country. Saturday A.M. - Day 1 I went out last evening to try and roost a bird in the area I would be hunting this morning. I found lots of turkey scratching in some areas and some great looking open ridge tops, but was unsuccessful in getting a bird to gobble on roost at dark.  This morning I got to the area early so I could hike the 3/4 mile in to where I wanted to be, in plenty of time before daylight. It was a nice morning, calm and cool, and I fully expected the woods to be full of gobbles. Alas, I was very disappointed not to hear a single gobble all morning. I did hear a hen cackling as she flew down, but no gobble was heard, nearby or even in the far distance. I was a bit discouraged about that, but with all the sign I was seeing, I was confident of hearing a bird or two sometime in the several days I had to hunt here. One thing I did see lots of was deer! I was bumping deer frequently on my walk in and out, as they were hanging out in the creek bottoms. I'll hit it again tomorrow morning!  Sunday A.M. - Day 2 This morning the weather wasn't so nice. It rained all night long and was still drizzling and foggy a bit this morning. I almost considered not going out until after daylight to see if it would stop raining and turn nice. But, I decided to go ahead and get out there before light. The rain stopped for the most part and it was a still morning except for the rain drops falling off the trees and hitting the ground. About 5:30 a.m. I owl hooted a few times and got no response. I went further on down the trail and hooted again about 15 minutes later. I strained my ears to listen and heard a gobble very, very far away - I figured probably close to a half mile away. I waited a few minutes and hooted again and heard a gobble in that direction again. Unfortunately, it sounded like it was across the creek on the other side. Unfortunate, because this creek was about 50 feet wide and I wasn't aware of any crossing spots. I walked on down the creek on the side I was on, for several hundred yards, stopping periodically to owl hoot or crow call, and getting an answer just about every time. Eventually I was able to determine that this tom was definitely on the other side of the creek, so I started trying to find a crossing. With a bit of searching, I was able to find a spot that had shallow water over a rock bed for most of the width of the creek. I was able to cross, only getting a little bit of water over the top of one boot, not enough to worry about.  I was fortunate to find a spot to cross this creek  This was my first set-up of the morning while the toms were still on roost By now it was about 6 a.m. and I had cut the distance to the tom in more than half. There loomed a big ridge right in front of me, and it sounded like he was on the other side. The forest was very open on top of the ridge, so I knew I would have to tread carefully because by now it was pretty light. When I got on top of the ridge, I could see there was another drainage on the other side and it sounded like this bird was roosted just on the other side of that drainage. I decided it wouldn't be prudent to try and get any closer - I figured I was probably about 150 yards away at this point. So, I sat down against an oak tree, got comfortable, and got out my turkey calls. After my first turkey calls, I realized there were two toms roosted together, and they both answered now. One had a good gobble, but the other one had a deep, booming gobble. For the next half hour I called softly off an on. Those toms didn't gobble much on their own, but they did answer my calls very frequently. I didn't hear any hens calling so I didn't know if I would have any competition on that point. About 6:30 they flew down and the next several times they answered me they were farther away, so I figured it was a safe bet there was a real hen involved.  I saw both toms moving across this ridge earlier in the morning Later in the morning, they came back to this area looking for my calls To make a long story short, I played with those toms for the next three hours, following them for probably a half mile after flydown. I think the hen or hens they were with were of a jealous nature. The toms would gobble every once in a while on their own and I would move closer and they would gobble again basically from the same spot. When I would start calling, though, while they gobbled in answer at almost every series of calls, they would be moving away. About 8:30 I decided to just sit down on a big, open ridge they had been gobbling from, and wait them out, hoping they would return a little later in the morning. I continued to call off and on, and they continued to answer, moving ever further away, until at last I could no longer hear them. Before I knew it, gravity was pulling on my eyelids and I was taking a snooze. I snapped out of it about 9:15 when I thought I heard a gobble. I yelped a few times on my box call and sure enough, there was a gobble. It was within a few hundred yards, coming from my right. This time I decided to play it coy and only call sparingly, making him look for me. I yelped a few times 10 minutes later, and two toms gobbled about 100 yards away - they were in "go time" range. The gobbles sounded like the two birds I worked on roost earlier in the morning. Shortly, I saw them working single file through the woods, coming towards me. I yelped a few more times, eliciting more gobbles. I stopped calling and clicked off my safety, putting my finger by the trigger. As they got closer they veered to my left a bit, strutting and looking for the "hen". They came to about the 35 yard mark and it looked like they weren't going to come closer, so I pulled the trigger on the tom with the bigger beard and the bigger gobble. He dropped like a rock. He was a beautiful tom, one of the nicer Eastern's I've taken. He had a thick, 10.25" beard, 1" spurs and weighed 21 lbs. I took some pictures and packed him in my vest for the 1 mile hike out to the car.  My rainy morning tom was 21 lbs. with a 10.25" beard and 1" spurs  Getting ready for the 1 mile hike back to the truck What started out as a slow turkey hunt ended great, as you see. I love it when the hunt ends with a big, mature tom in the bag! If you're interested in hunting the Shawnee National Forest (for deer or turkey), there is plenty of it to hunt, something over 150,000 acres, I believe, covering some 10-11 counties in southern Illinois. Nonresident Spring Turkey licenses are by draw only, but I didn't have any problem drawing one. Check back in a few days for another Live Spring Turkey Hunt - this time from northern Missouri! Until then, good hunting!
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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