WOW what an opening day this was. For starters this was to be my son in lawWaylon's first time going turkey hunting. He has been getting ready since last year. He and I set out for the hunting club Friday afternoon. Early the next am we struck out for a spot I had shot a 10.5 in tom last season. We got 30 steps from the truck and heard a gobble. We got down closer and set up the decoys. The birds would gobble occasionally. About the time it got good light it started raining. We heard a couple of gobblers that would respond to the call but never came in. It occurred to me that they were still on the roost. It was at least an hour after sunrise by now. I decided to close the gap. We were now set up about 150-yds from where I thought there were roosting. I called to them for a total of about 3 hrs.
Finally at that time they came down. When they came down they went to my left away from us (evidenced by the gobbles). I then used an excited hen call. They changed directions toward us and gobbled to let us know they were on the way. I told Waylon to get ready. The day before I had explained how well a turkey could see movement and make sure he knew to move very slowly. He got his gun up to his knee. I told him to be on the look out for the red & white head. That is what we would probably see first. Sure enough directly across the field about 100 yds we saw 4 toms emerge. They had beautiful red white and blue heads. They came out into the field about 20 yds and then started strutting. Here is when I saw all four had beards and the one with his tail stuck out had a full fan a sign of a mature gobbler. This is way too far for Waylon and I to shoot. After about 15-20 seconds of them dancing around out of range I gave a light cluck and they all began to run toward us. It was so funny. Then a fifth one came from the woods. He was running wide open across the field and caught up with his buddies. It was so cool.
Waylon and I had prearranged a 1-2-shoot sequence. I told him to pick one on the right. At this time they were less than 20 yds away. I started the count, 1"¦.2"¦.boooooooom. You could only hear one shot. Then our two toms fell about 5 paces from each other. Both were about 6" beards and 15#.
Can't wait for the second and final bird of the season.
Great story! Sounds like Waylon will have a good first turkey hunting story to tell for a long time! Got any pics??
__________________
Remington Model 11-87 Premier 12 Gauge
Remington Model 870 SPS-T Camo Thumbhole 12 Gauge
Ruger M77 Mark II .270 w/ Nikon 3-9x40 Buckmasters
Cool story. Make sure to welcome Waylon to the club (or is it a cult?)
I too had the experience of helping somene take their first bird this spring. I'm sure my friend's wife will thank me for itaround the holidays, when we get ready for the '08 season.
Thanks for sharing.
__________________
Days Full Of Clays...
NWTF, DU, SCI
First Bird
