RE: 2004 gobbler
another great year for me and this is my 31 turkey taken.
my biggest bird taken in 2002 . 21 3/4 lbs, 10 1/2 in. beard , and 1 1/16 in. spurs.well the first day was a lock jaw day.i heard about 7 gobblers on saturday morning. it was like singing in harmony. one would gobble then it went around hillside to hillside with gobbling.
i had two gobblers answer my calls, they would gobble at everything i threw at them while on roost. as soon they hit the ground, they got lock jaw very quickly.not one peep out of them and i called and called, but no answer.i was hunting on state game land,this was the most crowed gameland i ever saw in many years.i heard so much calling,and so many hunters bumping into setups.i counted seven vehicles when i came back to the parking lot. i talked to hunter , he pulled in around six and he counted 11 vehicles.well back to the story.i took two weeks off for turkey season. each day was the same , gobble in the morning and then complete quiet.well on the second week of turkey season, i set my alarm for 4:00 am and the alarm went off. i got up and called my hunting partner and had him meet me at the game land at 4:30.i arrived as scheduled. we had a 40 min . hike to our hunting spot.we waited for any gobbling activity before we started to call.its now 6:07 am and we heard two gobblers sounding off. one was about 150 yards or so. we had to get closer, so we moved in about 60 yards or so and setup right there.we took turns calling, he would gobble ,then the other would gobble off the distance.so we waite for few minutes and called again. now he sounded like he was on the ground.now we sounded like two hens, he gobbled once.so we waited at least 10 minutes , just in case he was coming in.it is about 6:45 am.so we started to call again, and i called again nothing.
i blew on a crow call to get him to gobble,still nothng.its the same thing every morning, gobble few times and then lock jaw.now we didn't know where he was . called few times and waited another 15 miutes, still nothing.so i told my hunting partner, lets go and find another one.
we went ridge top to ridge top and still no gobbler.its now 8:13 am.
i told jason lets try this other area, which was few miles down the road.so we headed back to the car and headed to a farm which my partner knows.no problem to get permission to hunt. we hiked up the hill and arrived at a stone fence and my partner took his gobble tube and shook it few times.bingo!. a gobbler sounded off down over the hill. there was a watering hole which the cattle gets there drink and we think he is close to it.so we setup at the stone fence, i sat along the fence and jason sat about five yards facing away from me.the pond was about 100 yards down over where we sat. jason called again using his box call and it gobbled again.a cow or bull called out and the gobbler gobbled again.
its now 9:35 am. jason called again it gobbled again and it sounded like it was on its way.now we had another gobbler answering us way out in the open field.it was about 75 yards or so from us. now we have two gobblers to watch for.now i am watching the fence row on my left, expecting where he will come.i have tree in front of me about five yards and i can only see plainly on the left of it.the cow or bull mooed again and it gobbled. it was so funny i was laughing to myself.the gobbler out in the field , didn't gobble again and don't know where he was.
jason called again, boy!, almost jumped out of my skin.he was very close, but didn't see him along the stone fence.i didn't dare to move.
jason called again, he must be very close, so ever so slowly i peeked around the tree to my right.wow!, i saw this red head which was behind the tree. this gobbler was standing on part of the stone fence.if i had a long enough stick i could of wacked him on the head with it. this was happening so fast, jason couldn'tsee what was goig on. since his back was towards me.jason called again,he jumped offthestone fence and headed toward jason.i was in a bad position to shoot, the gun on my knee and i couldn't turn to get the gun in a better position. i just peeked thru the scope and saw his head and neck and pulled the trigger. the winchester and no#4 shot dropped him like a rock. jason turned around to seethe gobbler flopping around.i stepped it off and i counted ten yards.wow! , ten yards this was to close.i could of left him get further out and took him, but what if he went over little further toward jason and then i couldn't pull the trigger.or maybe he would of spooked from movement. so i guess i did the right thing.i looked at my watch after i went over toward the bird and it was 10:02 am. i did my gobbler dance around the turkey as i do every year.jason said, you are crazy.you lucky nobody saw you doing that. we laughed all the way back towards the car.
i won't forget this hunt for along time.
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