Live Hunts - northern Missouri Turkey hunt - May 3

Live Hunts - northern Missouri Turkey hunt - May 3 - Day 3

Wednesday - May 3, Day 3 - northern Missouri Turkey hunt

Success!

If only every day of turkey hunting could be like this. This morning dawned slightly overcast, and clear (no fog), which gave me hope that the birds would gobble this morning. I was walking along a ridge towards the spot in which I set up yesterday morning, and I heard a bird start gobbling, at about 5:45. He was up on a ridge, opposite the one I was on, so I crossed the little valley and creek and started making my way up to where he was. On making my way over to him, I heard probably 3 other Tom's gobbling, but they were all further away. My idea was to set up on the same level of the ridge where he was, but down a ways. He was gobbling about twice every minute. When I got to the bottom of the ridge, still a ways from the Tom, I heard a hen start clucking basically right above me. It was light enough for her to see my movement, to be certain. I wasn't sure about what to do, but since the Tom was still at least 200 yards away, I decided not to worry about what the hens did. The next step I took, she flew out and over. Then another hen started clucking in the same tree, but didn't fly. I kept on up the ridge, and she clucked for another 5 minutes or so and then stopped. I found a good spot, probably 150 yards from the Tom, a good tree in a fairly open area, hoping it would be an attractive area to fly down into. It still was too dark to shoot when I set up, so we just talked back and forth for about 20-30 minutes. Sometimes he seemed to be answering me and other times he seemed just to be answering nobody in particular. I apparently wasn't getting him all that extremely excited. Well, after 20-30 minutes I saw him fly out of his tree, and thought I saw (imagined, hoped, perhaps?) him fly down towards me. Well, after about a minute a Tom started gobbling pretty regular, but he was twice as far as the one I had been talking to. I wasn't sure if this was a different bird or the same one, however I imagine it was the same one. I probably just thought he flew down towards me, it was still dim light. I waited a few minutes to pinpoint his location and then got up and moved towards him. He was in a pasture across the boundary from the land I was hunting. I saw him from about 150 yards, and he would do a quick little fan, then stop, then do it again. He did this probably 25 times in the next ten minutes, and never moved one foot, only turned around a few times, all while gobbling very regular. I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or the real thing, but after a few minutes I saw a couple of hens waddling away, and he followed right after. That was an exciting episode.

After that I headed on up to the area I had originally planned to go, and set up about 100 yards off the little field on top of the ridge that I hunted yesterday and the day before. On the way I spooked one hen that was out in the field, and spooked one unidentified turkey that was between the field and where I planned to set up. I went ahead and got set up watching a draw in front of me and a ridge top to the left, both areas which I could see a bird coming for a little ways. I sat down in front of a big white oak and started calling. After a minute or so a bird answered over the ridge to my left and down into the valley, but I wasn't sure how far. I debated about whether or not to chase it. After it gobbled again I decided to. It sounded to me like it was 300-400 yards away, but I couldn't tell for sure. I walked about 100 yards in that direction, he gobbled one more time while I was en route, and then he didn't gobble again. Perhaps he was closer than I thought and he saw me. I sat there for a few minutes, but didn't see or hear anything else. So, I went back and sat at the white oak again for about 20 minutes, then decided to go sneak up near the ridgetop field and see if there were any birds there. I started walking down the road, and didn't see anything in the first part of the field. But as I came further around the bend I quickly saw a bright red head and what was very obviously a turkey body, although it was somewhat obstructed (thankfully) by some brush. At this point I was probably 100 yards from it, and it appeared to be looking at me, but I didn't have my face mask or gloves on, and it seemed to me had the bird seen me it would have split. When it stopped being stone still and started pecking around a little, I scrunched down to the ground and got on my gloves and mask. Then I crawled on hands and knees about 15 yards along the side of the road, and hid the best I could beside some brush. I couldn't hide off the road, as the brush was too thick. But I got behind a small bush that had a good shooting size hole in it that looked directly at the field. By this time, I saw that there was also a hen, and 2 more Tom's in the field. One of the Tom's was strutting (and the hen was absolutely ignoring him), and the other two were just kind of watching and pecking a little at the ground. Now that I was as set up as I was going to get, I softly yelped and clucked about 5 times, and the 2 non-strutting Tom's both gobbled instantly. My hope was that since they obviously weren't getting to court the real hen in the field, that they would wander over to see me, the impostor. I was right. All three Tom's started slowly pecking and walking towards the edge of the field I could cover with a shot. I figured the edge of the field was probably 25 yards. One of the non-strutting Tom's was just about to come into clear view and be close to in range for a shot when all of a sudden the hen in the field started cutting wildly. I don't know all the turkey sounds very well, but this sounded very much like an alarm sound. I don't know what caused it, I didn't move a muscle. Anyhow, after about 10 seconds of running around the 3 Tom's stopped to gather their senses about them, and one of them stopped right in clear view for a shot. It was towards the outer edge of my comfortable shooting range, but I felt confident about the shot, so I pulled the trigger - and very quickly realized that I had NOT taken the safety off. At least it didn't click. Very nervously, I quickly pressed the safety off, the Tom all the while still standing there looking basically in my direction. This time the trigger responded with a boom, and the bird fell like it was struck by lightning. I love it when that happens. I ran over, and the bird flopped a few times and then lay still. I stepped the shot off at 39 yards. The picture of the field is where the bird fell, and the plant in the foreground is what I sat behind while I waited and then took the shot. The gobbler had a 10-inch beard, 1-inch spurs, but weighed only 15 pounds. I guess he had been doing some serious excercise. I was using my Remington 870 Express Magnum, H.S. Undertaker Choke, and Remington 2 oz. #6 shells. The ending to this hunt was very relieving, as it was a good end to a pretty tough hunt. Not only were the first 2 days very uneventful, but the whole 3 days I was hunting with the flu and not feeling well, so this picked me up a bit. I hope you all enjoyed the hunt. Special thanks to Eric Van Eck for allowing me to hunt on his land in Macon County, Missouri.

e-mail Joshua Flournoy

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