Went on a short two day hunt with two of my friends. I told them that I felt confident that if we could secure permission to hunt on private property that I could put us into some birds. I had scouted this particular area on several occassions and it always produced lots of turkeys. It is a fertile agricultural area with creeks and lots of food.
Anyways, we went out on Friday, Sept 26th and drove quite a bit. Found some turkeys but the landowner declined, but she said " keep asking, someone will say yes." So we found more birds and asked. We ended up with permission on not one piece of land, but two!
So we get up at 5 am and head out to the first place and get set up. Little did we know what we were in store for....a flock of about 150 turkeys. As daylight approached we heard the beginnings of yelping action. It continued to grow in volume and numbers. It eventually sounded like a turkey orgy in the hillside where they were roosting. There was also a lot of clucks and kee-kees coming from there too. Several birds flew down from the roost right into our field. Then, one-by-one like footsoldiers filing out of the field they started marching in...tens of them finally til there was about 75 birds in the field. I whispered to my friend, that I' m taking whatever comes in front of my sights. He agreed and we waited until two birds presented a shot. I carefully aimed on what I thought was a hen, but turned out to be a jake and gently pulled the trigger. I expertly (if I must say so) put 2 ounces of Remington #6 right smack on his head. My friend ended up " peppering" his but oh well.....It wasn' t the largest bird in the world, but it was my first and I feel glad to have shaken the " stumped itis" off my back. Now I can concentrate on next spring and harvesting a nice tom.
Hey Kitsap, Congrats! I didnt think that those birds over there would be running in such big flocks yet. I have tried to message you on the roost but didnt hear from you. Maybe we can hit the east side this spring together?
Got my first! Fall permit hunt
