Hey everyone. I' ve been hunting turkeys for 5 years now and I finally got my first bird on opening day this year. I have hunted mostly public lands in NY State up until now, but my brother (bless his heart!) just bought a house in upstate NY with 5 acres attached. He had been telling me about how turkeys walked across his lawn, etc. and extended an invite to hunt as soon as the season opened. This was no easy task as his wife is a VEGETARIAN[
] animal lover etc. etc. Anyway...I got there at 4:30 am May 1st. There was this bird free gobbling out at a distance of approximately 200 yards, maybe a bit more. He was gobbling and gobbling all on his own without any encouragement from me, a " hot" bird if I ever heard one. At this point, with past (negative) experiences in mind, I didn' t think I had a chance based on his distance away from my setup. Keep in mind I can' t go too far because he only owns 5 acres or so. Anyway, I let out a few yelps and he screamed back at me right off the bat, distance or no distance. I heard many double gobbles as he was really excited. I called conservatively and tried to keep him closing the distance. (Retrospectively, I feel that I have called too much in the past and this may have caused some missed opportunities. Not calling too much on this opening day really paid off.) He seemed to gobble from different sides of the field I was set up in at different times as he maneuvered around. Finally, after maybe 3 or 4 minutes of silence, he walked up the path from behind me passing RIGHT NEXT TO ME[
] as he approached my decoys. My camo must have been good, thankfully! I thought he would surely see me breathing so heavily, I was almost hyperventilating at that point. Well he walked right past me towards my decoys, his beard dangling. I let him get about 20 yards in front of me, thumbed off my safety, put the crosshairs on his neck and yelped loudly with my diaphragm to pop his head up. BAM!. I didn' t even feel the recoil and don' t remember it now. The shot was perfect - he went right down on his back and kicked his legs for maybe 5 seconds, and that was it. I just couldn' t believe it. I ran over to him and let out a war cry my vegetarian sister in law will not soon forget. He weighed in at 20 pounds, had a ten inch beard and one inch spurs - I' m guessing a two year old bird. What a great day. I think it' s about time!
First Turkey (It' s about time!!!)
That is a wonderful feeling, isn' t it?
