Monday A.M.
 The view from our set-up at daylight this morning This morning we started the long, steep hike up to the top of a long ridge with a series of fields the birds like to hang out at. We started well before light, and got to the field he wanted to set up on at right about the time the birds should have started gobbling on roost. We set one jake decoy about 20 yards into the field, and we set up in a brush pile just inside the edge of the woods.  Steve heard more than 10 toms gobbling in and around this field on Friday morning For all we know, they may have gobbled their heads off on the roost, but with the 40-50 mph wind gusts it was hard to hear much. When the wind would temporarily lay down a bit we would call some, hoping that the birds roosting in the vicinity would hear us. We sat for about half an hour hearing nothing, then we heard one muffled noise, far off. I couldn't tell what it was for sure, but Steve thought it had been a gobble. It was impossible to tell from which direction it came, though, with the wind like it was. We called a little more, and about 10 minutes later heard what was definitely a gobble, behind us not much more than 100 yards. I turned around as discreetly as I could and immediately saw a turkey walking through the trees, headed straight for us. It wasn't even 100 yards. It was so overcast and therefore dim that I couldn't tell right off if it was a hen or a tom. Then it gobbled and left no doubt. I got my gun up on my knee and got ready, because this bird was definitely coming. I lost sight of him temporarily as he went into a little depression, and when he came back up he was only about 45 yards away and I could see his bright white/blue head, he was looking for that hen. He gobbled one last time. He didn't come really into the clear until about 25 yards, and then I had a perfect shot and dropped him with a load of #6's. It was only 6:45 a.m. We never would have guessed that we'd have that sort of good luck on a morning with crazy weather like this, but we were fortunate. My tom was 17 lbs., had about 3/4" spurs, and had an 8" beard that was completely flat on the end. Steve figures the bird rubbed the end of his beard off on all the snow and ice this winter.  Here I am facing away from the field after hearing the tom coming in behind us, waiting for him to close the distance to be in range  The tom came into view from the left side of this photo  My bad-weather tom, probably a 2-year old bird  Shortly after we took a few pictures it started to rain, so we hoofed it down the hill back to the truck. Steve hasn't quite decided where we're going to go tomorrow, but check back then for Day 3 of our hunt!
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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