RE: Memorable Hunts Thread
Great stories so far.
My most memorable hunt was probobly my first season. I was hunting with my dad. We only have a five day season here in Wisconsin, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday. It was Saturday morning, and we hadn't been seeing much all season. Finally, we had some turkeys come out into the field near us. However, they were on the opposite end of the field, which was about 300 yards away. There was no way we could sneak any closer because we were sitting inside a narrow fenceline. It was a group of about five turkeys--one tom, two jakes, and the rest hens. We tried to call them into range, but they remained on the far end of the field strutting and feeding. We would call them in to about 150 yards, but then they would head back to the far end of the field. After repeating this for about two hours, we realized that we needed to change our approach. We started trying different kinds of calling, including gobbling. No response. We hadn't had much luck with decoys so far that season, but I suggested that we try putting them out since nothing else was working. My dad agreed, but there was just one problem. We had left them in the truck. My dad said he'd stay and try to keep the turkeys from leaving the field, while I got the decoys. I belly crawled for about 70 yards until I was out of the turkey's sight. Then I sprinted to the truck, got the decoys, ran back, and repeated the belly crawl until I rejoined my dad. We waited until the turkeys were at the furthest end of the field, and then my dad crawled on his stomach about five yards out in field to set the decoys out. After he made it back without being seen, we tried some calls. At first they didn't notice the decoys. All of a sudden however, they noticed them. Just like that, we had a whole group of turkeys sprinting accross the field at us. The tom was the last one who was trying to run while strutting. They came right into the decoys. With it being my first season, I didn't think of waiting to get a shot at the tom, and as soon as the first bearded turkey came into my opening, I pulled the trigger. The next thing I saw after my seven yard shot wasmy turkey flopping around on the ground. I was about to go out and grab it, when I noticed that the other turkeys hadn't left yet. They started walking around the turkey, and suddenly the tom started fighting with the dead turkey. It was an extremely memorable hunt, and it got me hooked for life.