The alarm sounded off at 330am. I was already waiting for it to go off. Up I get, put on the long johns, my lucky sweatshirt and head downstairs. Grab some waffles and a pop tart for later. Call my buddy at 4am, he's on his way down. As soon as i head out the door, i am hit with a wall of mist. Great. Can't forget the rain gear.
On the road at 4:15, it's 45min +/- to our spot, of which we have deer hunted on many many occasions, we know thier are turkey's, i am optimistic, especially since this will be my fourth year, 3rd of hardcore turkey hunting, and i have yet to even shoot at a bird.
4:45, the wall hits us, you cannot see 20 feet in the road, we are going at a snails pace.
5:10, we arrive to showers and pitch black. step outside the truck, hit the owl hooter, try and listen over the 20mph gusts, not to mention the 37ºF Temperature...nothing.
5:20, light begins to show over the hill, we decide its time to make a move, gather our gear and start the 10 minute uphill walk to the hardwoods.
5:30, we arrive where the hardwoods and the scrub apples meet, previous expierience has shown me that the birds like to roost here, top of the hill in hardwoods or in the pines on the opposite side of the woods...
Hit the owl hooter again...nothing The wind is brisk, when all of a sudden, bam, someone just shot to our East...good for them.
My partner in crime decides that since im the one who wanted to go, i had to decide where to setup, I figure we walk up the hill a little ways and see whats going on, 1/2 way up we stop. its here i make a pivitol move, I decide to head to the field on the other side of the hardwoods, i figure that since this is the only green field around, they gotta come here sometime.
as we start our trek, quiety making our way through the rain-soaken woodlands, occasionally stopping, listening, looking, we hear/see nothing. 1/2 to our destination i happened to look to my right (just on the line between the hardwoods and the scrubs) to see a turkey. Oh my.
It see's us too, we stop right there and drop, too late, she's gone, flying to the lower section of the field but in the scubs. I drop, setup quickly as i see another turkey to my front left. where we stop is almost perfect. to my left is a little creek and in front of us there is a tall cherry tree that has recently been uprooted, so there is like a blind. this is pivitol.
5:55 comes I do a light tree yelp to what i think is a turkey, i have not seen a head against the backround of the sky, so i am not sure, no sooner than i decide it isnt a turkey, i hear that hen yelping, and then bam, he sounds off. 3 or 4 more turkeys also sound off (2-3 hens, 1 tom in addition to the tom i see in the tree). we see 3 hit the ground and i start my assault. they didnt like the custom glass i was using, so i switched to a sweet sounding slate over glass, and let me tell you, that hen that we kicked off was madder than a woman going through massive PMS...(no offense). finally that ole gobbler left his post and fly to her, luckily enough, she was coming our way, one problem though, as they come from the creek bed towards us, I am facing forward and am forced to shoot lefty.
Remember that uprooted tree? Yea, as soon as they were behind that it was moving time. Here it goes. I get situated and wait...and wait...
I hear them but am waiting for them to come out...I see a head..and a read one at that, good deal. then another red head, this time, its attached to a bigger body. I am usung a mossberg 835 ultimag with a 2 3/4" Remington Magnum 6 shot as my first shell and a 3 1/2" Winchester XX as my second [:@] Can't hit him the first time, i got longer range.
Anyway, they are slowly working thier way straight across of me like a T I see them moving across my site...two hens run past the gobblers and i hear a Putt from that darned hen, it's go time, he steps out of his first and only strut of the morning and bam. I jump up, see where he went, He's Flopping!! as soon as im up the rest of the birds took off, including that second gobbler who went airborne towards my buddy, i yelled "Beard! take it!" and he leveled it. dropped it on the spot...with some flailing after, i go over and get my tom.
Whew.
First tom ever and a double at that. upon further review i see one huge spur. 1.25" to be exact. look at the time, 6:15, called home, let the rents know whats goin down (mom was thrilled let me tell you.)
Turns out, my gobbler had 1 1.25" spur, the other was broke off
but still a decent .75" the beard was 9.5" and when i saw him in the tree he was facing the other way and sleeping. Lucky us.
My buddie's had an 8" beard, and .75" spurs.
after exchanging hi-fives and hugs, (my buddie has witnessed both my first buck and now my first gobbler, and he actually got my into the sport 4 years ago.) we pack em out and head for home, and let me tell you, that turkey was no lightwieght!!!
Get home at 8:30. Wiegh the birds, Mine wieghed in at a whopping 24lbs and 10oz and scored 63.625, which is huge for CNY..Im one proud kid. Buddie's was 19.5lbs and scored 50.375 which wasnt bad at all, he was excited.
so had three firsts today, first day of season, first turkey, and first double. Outstanding.
Thanks for reading my story on my first turkey in 4 years
Here are some pics:
(click each picture to get fullsize)
Stellar NYS Opener...
