I got up early Saturday morning since I had a long way to walk back to where I wanted to be come first light. It was cold (38 degrees according to my thermometer) and windy, and I was not very optimistic about hearing any gobbling early. In fact, I wasn't very optimistic about my prospects at all. The promising areas I'd turned up during the past month of scouting had dried up for the most part, and this area was not one where I knew a gobbler was hanging. But I wasn't about to miss a chance since I'd scouted hard and figured I deserved a day in the woods anyway.
I got to the area I wanted to be in plenty of time, and settled in to listen. Come gobbling time, nothing was happening other than some squirrels wondering what I was, and once I was fairly certain flydown time had come and gone, I proceeded to pick out a good tree down in the bottom, and settled in.
The wind was up pretty good, and I hadn't been sitting there more than 10 minutes before I heard a gobble. The problem was, it sounded like it was behind me, but I couldn't be sure, due to the wind.
The second gobble I heard about 15 minutes later allowed me to decide in the general direction it was in. But this gobble was fainter, and I could not be sure it was the same bird. Nothing was answering my calls, and it sounded quite a ways off.
So, I decided to move about 75 yards in that general direction, which I did. After about 20 minutes and a couple series of calling there, I heard the bird gobble again and figured I hadn't moved near close enough. The woods were fairly open, as the leaves were not leafed out all the way yet, but I didn't want to bump him.
So, I moved again, this time about 125 yards. I sat down and did my first series of calls, and waited about 10 minutes. I began to wonder if I hadn't moved too far and bumped him. I've been known to misjudge the distance to a gobble a time or two.
I looked at the time, and, it was almost 8:00, and I figured I better get some work done. You see, I had set a refrigerated truck on a load of chicken Friday night, that was giving me all kinds of problems, and I needed to check up on it to make sure the load had been picked up and was on its way to Cincinnati. So, after about 15 minutes worth of phone calls, I was satisfied things were proceeding smoothly, so I put my cell phone and paperwork back in my vest, and got back to the more pleasant pursuits at hand.
About 10 minutes after a couple series of yelps, I heard what sounded like a hunter stumbling and falling down in the woods. Since this was public land, and since the week before my son's public land hunt had been messed up by another hunter, I was figuring the worst. Then out of the corner of my eye, closer towards me than the sound, I saw a turkey quartering in my direction from left to right. I got my gun up ahead of it just in case, and soon saw two more turkeys having a sparring match back where I heard the noise. In just a few seconds, the two fighters rushed to catch up with the first one, and were now at about 35 yards or so. As soon as they got out in the clear where I could see them, I could see they were all jakes. Well, it only took me about 3 seconds to decide to shoot one if the chance presented itself. After 7 days hunting public land in FL, and one more in NC trying to get my boys a bird with nothing to show for it, and with only a couple more days of hunting left for me this year, I wasn't exactly in the mood for letting a jake walk.
The first two were coming right at me, and now were between 15 - 20 yards out. I had my bead on the first one who was in semi-strut and appeared to be the dominant one, and waited till they separated enough to take the shot safely. At that point, I clucked once, they stopped, their heads went up, and I took him.
As soon as he went down, the other two got aggressive and started working their flopping comrade over a little bit. I watched that for about 30 seconds, until they got uneasy with the situtation, and walked off, peering back at their funny acting amigo.
Once they were gone, I grinned to myself, realized how much fun that was, and went over and thankfully picked up the bird.
You know, sometimes, a jake is good.
Hal
NC public land bird
