My brother, dad, and I went out to a spot I scouted on friday and got the proper set-up for an ambush saturday morning. We got into our setup around 5:20 and sat until daybreak. We were sitting about 60 yards away from 2 gobblers roosted directly down the ridge from us. I set the decoy ahead of us and pointed it away from the gobbling birds. (This was all done in the dark)
I then had my brother sit just a bit behind the decoy and off to the side as the shooter, I sat behind him another 10 yards or so as the caller and my dad had the video camera behind me another 10 yards. When they started to gobble on roost I gave them some time to do their talking, and when the light came out more I decided to do some soft tree yelps on the diaphragm. They acknowledged me there and gobbled back. I stayed quiet until he hit the ground. I did a few more soft yelps when I knew they were on the ground, and heard nothing in return. I gave it 5 minutes or so and we could hear a gobbler about 150 yards out. We figured that the gobblers must have walked the other direction rather than coming up to us. Although I wasnt convinced so I gave it a few minutes and gave a few yelps. Again they didnt gobble back, so I went a bit more aggressive and did a short cut series. BAM. 4 or 5 gobbles in a row. They were hot and they were only around the point. 50 yards at most.
A hen came around the corner first and went off to the side. I couldnt tell at first, and thought it may have been a gobbler so when it started to circle on us I did a cut sequence on the mouth call and again the gobblers hammered, this time even closer. Both gobblers double and triple gobbled, so to match their aggression I gave another quick cut series and lead right into a few yelps. They gobbled right back and rounded the point. The first came around, and shortly behind the second popped around in full strut. He held the strut for a few steps and then came out of it, all the while looking for the hen. When they spotted it, they both went into full strut and started making their way in. By this time I was only doing some soft purrs. And then I even stopped those, and let them come in on their own, the whole time going in and out of strut. I could hear them spitting and drumming, and my brother could hear them purring as well. (I couldnt from where I was)
They got to within 12 yards of my brothers position and he finally gave the Mossberg 930 a squeeze and sent the Winchester #6 turkey load in flight. The bird dropped and we went and got on it. My dad behind us all got all of it on video, and it turned out pretty good other than the auto focus screwing up every once in a while.
The bird ended up 19.5 lbs. 3/4 inch spurrs and a frozen off beard but what was left of the beard was about 5 3/4 inches (most of it was frozen off, only a little bit of the front was intact)
As the birds came in, the plan the whole day was to just get my brother his first bird. He's 20 but he's had poor luck. When the turkeys came in, it would have been a great chance to get an early double and be done for the season. But that wasnt my goal. I wanted to get him his first bird, and I want to keep hunting the rest of the season LOL. Besides the other bird's beard again must have frozen off or was too thin to see because from my point of view I could not see one, nor could my brother.
I've got tons of season left and I can see it's gonna be good.
Here are the pictures. These are of my brother and his bird. I didnt get any pictures with both of us in them. I'll be sure to next time.
Tom down at 6:10 opening day (PA)
