Short season in IL
My buddy and I just acquired a small 130 acre lease late last sumnmer and although we primarily bow hunt deer we were excited to see how many turkeys were on the property.
We missed the 1st draw and put in for the second and both drew 4th season permits. Although we were happy to get tags, I was somewhat dissapointed because I could only hunt the 1st 2 days of the season due to having a wedding to go to which was out of state.
Well, my plan was to call for my buddy so that he could at least get his bird and then worry about mine if time allowed. We also decided not to be very picky on this hunt because it was only my second time hunting spring turkeys and his first.
We tried a couple different spots the first morning before locating a couple birds in a field. We set up on them so that my buddy would get the shot but as luck would have it, the hen and jake circled around and came in silently from behind. I saw some movement to my left and turned my head ever so slightly and saw the birds sneaking in. Unfortunately they saw me too. Realizing that my buddy could not see the birds from where he was and that they were about to go, I too the shot and took a good sized jake. This really got my buddy excited since he was very optomistic about our success with only a short amount of time to hunt.
After taking care of my bird we went after his. We located a mature long beard not too far from where I had shot my bird but it was getting late so we decided not to work the bird until the next morning (we can only hunt until 1:00 p.m. in IL).
The next morning we set up well before sunrise and once we heard the birds talking we started our calling. It was just like the t.v. shows when the big tom answered our calls with a loud gobble and came right in. My buddy took him down with a great shot from his Remington 870 at 40 yards. His bird weighed 23 lbs., and had a 9 1/2" beard and 1 1/8" spurs. Not bad for his first turkey!