Today was a Great day, even though I didn't score a gobbler! I hit the farm this morning about 4:45 am, after setting up my blind yesterday on an area were I heard at least 2 toms. I am sitting in a thin tree line that divides the two fields. I have two hen decoys on one side of the trees and one hen decoy on the other, so I am right between them.Sunrise came and went, yet I didn't hear a single gobble except for a few a couple that were coming from the back of the farm about 500 yards away. I know full well that those were not the birds I heard yesterday on this field, cause I heard those birds yesterday also! I did hear the faint sound of at least 1 bird on fly-down. Well, it is time to try a little calling, so I hit the box call with a couple of medium toned yelps and clucks. Aftertwoseries of calls, I take a break. Thirty more minutes go by before I grab the mouth call to throw out a couple soft purrs and clucks. Still there is no response from the audience. Notone gobble, not one cluck! There is hardly any wind so I know they can hear me and I know in my heart they are out there! It's about7 am when a lone hen finally decides to grace me with her presence in the field in front of me. I decide to see if I can get her fired up, so I throw out a few fighting purrs as she slowlyfeeds along the tree line. With all my best efforts, I guess she decides she isn't in the mood for a fight although I did finally get a couple clucks out of her as she was entering the trees. As I watch her slowly stroll away, I continue to give her a few purrs and clucks. Suddenly I catch some movement out the corner of my left eye, just over my shoulder. As I turn to look I can see a gobbler has moved out from the trees, to the field behind me, to see what all the ruckus is about. Still not a single note from his raspy voice! I slowly close the side of the blind that was open to the field with the hen, since the sun was coming in from that side andI don't want to take a chance at him seeing my movements. I settled down and notice he was about 80 yards away and looking around. He was going in and out ofhalf-strut yet not a single word.I decided to give him what I think drew him out of the woods. A couple soft clucks and purrs is all that it took!!! He let out a thunderous gobble that was magic to my ears!!! My heart starts to pound as I think to myself "He's all mine!" I decide to step it up a notch so I throw out a couple of yelps and a few cuts. Now he is definately in the mood! He starts to move towards me strutting in all his glory! He is about 60 yards away when suddenly he stops and turns his head to look behind him. Here comes a second tom at a full sprint towards him! As the second tom approaches, the first tomdrops into a full strut and faces directly at the second. I can see from here that both of them are birds I would love to take anyday yet the first tom has a slightly longer beard and is a little bigger. I decide to pick up the pace of my calling so I throw out a series of cuts that the first tom is all to happy to answer back. I can see that the first tom seems to be the dominant one, cause the second tom only gobbled once and seemed to keep quiet after the first tom started moving towards him. After a few tense moments, I finally get them moving in my direction and my heart starts to pound with anticipation! As they move towards the front of my blind, I lose sight of the for a moment cause I only have the small ports open on the blind. I bring my gun up to my shoulder in preparation for the shot. I think to myself that I could not have asked for a better day! Two majestic birds and one of them is going home with me!
Then it Happens!!!!!! As they clear the window, I notice that both of them are about 45 yards out. I also notice the tom I want to shoot is just slightly behind the second tom and about 5 yards closer to me. I try to get them seperated by throwing out a quick couple cuts. Yet they both seem to stop at the exact same time and in the same position! And they both look right at my decoy.The first tom answers right back and as the second tom moves, the first tom follows suit. This is not the shot I want to take! I then think maybe I should try for the second tom, yet the same problem is still there. I know in my heart that if I shoot I can probably drop either one. Yet I also know that it is not a given at this distance and the main problem is that I would probably wound the tom that I didn't intend to shoot. I decided not to take any unnecessary risks, so I slowly lowered my gun as they both were moving away and were blocked from my view by the other corner of my blind. I continued to try and call them back, but to no avail. The first tom continued to gobble back at me, but each time he would stop,look around, then continue moving with the second tom. Finally, both toms move out of my sight and into an adjoining field. It's now 7:40 am and the sounds of turkeys are gone. I catch my breath and reflect on what has just happened. You see, the problem arose when I was placing my decoys! As I knelt down to place thedecoy on thestake, I lost my balance for a moment and broke the stake. I always try to remember to bring an extra stake with me, but wouldn't you know I forgot this time! I still used the decoy, but withhalf a stake, it was really close to the ground. I think the toms saw that and figured either something is not right or that this is not the hen making all that noise. I really think it was the latter, because as they were going out of sight the first tom continued to answer back to me. I could tell he was steadily going away, yet he continued to respond to my cuts.
Well the rest of the day was still great, cause I did get a hen fired up at me yet she didn't bring any tom with her. I think none came because the wind picked up a good bit and she came from downwind. The earlier toms went to an area upwind. At about 10 am, Igot to watch 7 deer fed as the moved alond the fields.
Yes, I didn't take a gobbler home today but it was still a great day.
By the way, on my way out I decided to take a look at the area the toms went to this morning and I found both of them along the tree line, along with a couple of jakes and a couple of hens. The area they were in basically circles around back to were I was set up. Monday is the first day that we can hunt past noon, so lets just see what happens.
No Gobbler, No Problem!!!
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Mathews DXT 28"-65#
Mathews MQ-32 28"-54# (turkey)
Remington 870
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Easton Arrows
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Even though itcan be somewhatdisappointing to come home empty handed, as you have pointed out there are so many things that occur that just being there is worth the price of admission!
No Gobbler, No Problem
