5-8-10
Well, the weather was awful this am.....it poured on and off all night and around daybreak. We got a good soaking and didn't hear or see a thing. I was "guiding" for my good buddy Jake and hoping he would bag his very first gobbler today. We started at the log landing where I bagged my tom last Saturday. We saw plenty of deer in the rain, but the turkeys weren't talking. It was after 7 am when the rain finally quit and we decided to move down 80 yards to the edge of the field below us. When we stood up to move a gobbler started hammering across the fields on the far end of the farm. I hit him with my mouth calls and he answered, but I figured if we wanted a fighting chance we'd have to move and get above those other fields. We got our stuff and took off in a hurry to get around him. Luckily he was gobbling good on his won so we could keep tabs on him as we moved. We got to about 60 yards or so from the field edge and the woods started to open up and I knew we couldn't get any closer ad the bird was maybe 100 yards below us in the field. We set up about 20 yards apart and I hit him with some yelps and he fired back. Game on. A few moments later I hit him again, and he answered but sounded like he was moving away and toward the far field where AL was hunting with his boy. I decided to get aggressive and I hit hi with some excited cutting and yelping and he fired back and it sounded like I had turned him. A couple minutes later I hit him again and he ripped one back just below us about 75 yards. He was coming! Then I turned it down to some soft clucks and he got real quiet. A few more minutes passed and he didn't gobble anymore so I gave two soft clucks when all of a sudden Jake's Benelli roars. I was stunned. I had just seen a squirrel down there a moment before and I didn't know what in the heck Jake had shot at as I couldn't see anything. I look at Jake and throw my arms in the air like "What was that all about?"......He starts pumping his fists in the air and saying "I got him!" When I stood up I could finally see his bird flopping lightly in a depression in the may apples only 25 yards from me. Unbelievable! He had seen it coming just moments before and when I clucked it was perfect timing it stretched up his neck and gave him a visual on the beard and a perfect shot opportunity. The Benellli did the job and the bird dropped like a bag of rocks. What an awesome hunt! Jakes first gobbler was a nice 18# two year old with 3/4' spurs and a beautiful, thick 10" beard. We are on our way to the taxidermist this afternoon! Right after he shot it the sun finally broke through the clouds and bathed the woods in golden light. I said "Jake, it's a sign from God!" The only negative today is that after we tagged his bird and took some pics, we headed down to the logging road between the two fields and locked up when we suddenly spied a nice gobbler in Al's decoys across the field! We froze immediately and tried to hunker down but he saw us and boogered into the woods. Too late. Unfortunately we found out that his nine year old son had just ****ed back the hammer on his gun and he was seconds from pulling the trigger when we spooked his bird. I feel awful about it and I told the boy I owe him a big gobbler. Hopefully I can make good on that ......Of course, I'm on a little bit of a roll right now, so who knows! ;D
