The past few weeks have certainly been busy for me, at least on the weekends. Various conflicts have kept me out of the woods. I guess the fact that I had already shot a couple of birds might have been a factor, too. At the beginning of the season in March I had a fun morning and shot two super gobblers. There' s a picture of them below. I' ve called up several nice birds since then, but haven' t taken any. So since I haven' t hunted much lately, I decided I had better go this last morning, 5/15/03.
Went to a spot where I felt sure a gobbler would be roosting. Right along a creek on my farm is usually productive and he was exactly where I suspected he would be. He gobbled some, but didn' t seem overly interested in anything I did. I tried to play it cool with him since I knew he knew " I" was there, and thought that maybe he would come find me with me calling less, rather than more. Didn' t work. He still wouldn' t come. After about an hour of periodically hearing him and getting no consistent responses, I decided to change tactics and move towards him a bit as I felt I had room. Just as I set up in a new spot, a load of hens about 100 yards away began making all kinds of racket at their morning tea party. Man, they were sure enough cutting up, and the gobbler had moved down towards them and was responding to the fray. So I decided to copy everything those hens were doing and created my own turkey party. The woods were bustling with like a Junior League gossip session! Next thing you know that gobbler started getting excited and gave me one booming gobble that was clearly closer than he had been all morning. No doubt he was interested in the fracas I had created and was clearly easing in my direction. That being the case, aside from a few purrs, I decided to lay low and let him come on in. He was coming down a fire-break road and at only 10 yards away he turned a corner where I could see him for the first time. WHAM! I popped him good as my 2003 season came to delightful close. He had a 10 1/2 inch beard and 7/8 inch spurs.
Looks like I' ll be grilling turkey once again!
http://home.mchsi.com/~springhillpla...ID-293428.html
http://home.mchsi.com/~springhillpla...ID-293433.html
http://home.mchsi.com/~springhillpla...ID-293430.html
Last day fun! *pictures**
