Man, what an exciting weekend! I didn't score, but I came close a couple of times and I had one of the most enjoyable hunting experiences in my life. First off, I'm new to spring turkey hunting. Sure, I've been a few times in the fall while bowhunting deer but I've never seriously gone spring turkey hunting but I've always wanted to and this year I decided it would be the year.

Saturday morning, I set up on the edge ofa woodline and starting softly clucking and purring. At about 7:30, I hear a gobbler in the next field over start going to town so I let out a few yelps on my Primos heartbreaker box call. I then hear him get closer and closer gobbling all the time and my heart is racing! Well he hangs up in the woods I'm set up against and wouldn't cross a creek to come find his sweetheart [&:] I wait for about an hour and decide to try and sneak up on him in the woods, bad idea. I find out that me sneaking up on a Tom in the woods is like a 5 year old taking on Mike Tyson in a prize fight. He sees me as I'm trying to (as gracefully and sneakily as I can) climb up the side of the creekbedand he flushes[&:]. I decide to sit down and wait to see if there were anymore birds in the woods and I wait under a big tree intermittenly making soft cuts and purrs along with the occasional yelp. About an hour later, I see a head pop around a tree I happened to be looking at and wouldn't you know, a little jake came looking for the hen sounds I was making. Well I could have easily killed him several times over but I decide to let him live as I'm looking for a Tom! I get back up after the jake is long gone and try to walk up that Tom I spooked earlier. I sneak around to the woods where I saw him flush to and spend a half an hour still hunting through the timber. I finally flush him but I was unable to get a shot as he flushed on the wrong side of two cedar trees. After 1:00, my uncle and I scout a great location onour family's property and decide to set up there in the morning. We even spooked a Tom strutting to hen as we pulled around a finger of woods. A great sign!

Sunday morning, we get out to the new spot early and I set up in the field were we saw the Tom strutting to that hen. I set up B-mobile and she-mobile and sit back in the woodline, behind a little bush. At about 6:30 hear several gobblers about 1/4 to 1/2 mile behind me in some woods on an adjactent property. I let out a few loud yelps on my heartbreaker and they both start getting closer. After some back and forth with the gobblers, one of them gets really close and I know he is in the woods that I'm set up against. At that time, I'm shaking and my heart is beating at 180 BPM! He then pops out of the woodline about 65 to 70 yards from me. He then takes a look at my decoys and decides he doesn't want anything to do with my B-mobile (I guess) and heads out to the middle of the field. I throw every call I know at him but he won't get any closer. I hear him gobble out in the field but he doesn't want anything to do with B-mobile. As I'm messing around with this guy, I can see on the other side of the field, 5 other Toms come scurrying out of the woods. They never get any closer than 250 yards and head in the woods on the other side of the field. The close-but-no-cigar Tom I called up earlier see's them and decides to follow [&:][&:]. I then move to another field on our property and I was able to call in another Tom but he hung up at about 200 yards and wouldn't get any closer. He sure was making a racket in the field and it was great fun watch him call back to me and gobble his head off! My uncle (who hasn't scored yet either) and I decide to make a turkey drive in the woods that I see those Toms go into to see if we can't flush a couple out. Now, before everyone starts posting how dangerous Turkey drives are, I want to tell you that we are on posted, private property and my uncle and I are very careful hunters who ALWAYS identify our targets before pulling the trigger. Anyway, the drive is fruitless and we circle back around and I show him where the turkey was when I called him up. We then look back to where I was set up when my uncle came over to me to talk and wouldn't you know it, one of those dang Tom's had circled around during our turkey drive and ended up about 20 yards from there [:@]. Well he immediately spooked and flew up away leaving us feeling utterly defeated We try a few more turkey drives on some of our other property and we manage to kick up a hen that was well within my shooting distance but no Toms.

Well I learned alot from this weekend and I felt like I've been through a Turkey hunting graduate course. I can see why everyone that goes Turkey hunting goes crazy for it and gets hopelessly addicted [&:]. I feel like I'm getting that way myself and can't wait for next weekend!!!!!!