Opening day--story w/pic
04-10-2006, 12:17 PM
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Join Date: Feb 2003
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Opening day--story w/pic
On Saturday, April 8th, the long-awaited opener finally arrived!!! I had roosted birds the night before, so I was pretty confident. Whenmy wife and I got to the woods, we set up on a finger of the woods to theNorth side ofthe main body of the woods where I'd roosted the turkeys. I put three decoys out in the old pasture,a new "Pretty Boy" (strutting tom) and "Pretty Girl" (receptive/squatting hen) and a Bobbin' Head hen.
As it grew lighter, a bunch of gobblers fired up from across the pasture, gobbling multiple times from the roost. I had built a blind on that side of the pasture the night before, and I was having some misgivings about my choice of setup sites for the morning. I knew the turkeys had been roosting on the North side of the pasture quite often, as, on my scouting mission the day before, I'd found their roost site just loaded with sign. Between the droppings and the feathers, it looked like aturkey barn!! But I had been sitting in the woods where they flew up, and I didn't think they had spooked from the roost. (One hen had even flown into a tree ten yards from whereI sat!!)
My misgivings were allayed about ten minutes later, however, as multiple gobblers thundered from the woods behind us. Before the birds finally flew down, my wife and I were treated to a good fifteen minutes of gobbling, first from the birds on the North side of the pasture, then from the birds behind us, forth and backthey'd hammer. I could roughly identify about 15-20 seperate gobblers on our side of the woods, strung out across the woods edge for 100-200 yards each way from where we were set up.
I gave some tree yelps and a flydown cackle with flapping wing sound courtesy of my hat when I felt the birds were getting interested in leaving the roost. Then I shut up.
Soon we could hear birds flying down behind us. My wife was first toactually see abird on the ground.She was sittingby a tree slightly ahead of me and to my right. She pointed to her right and I slowly lookedwhere she was pointing.There was a slight downslope/gully/"hollow" to our right, and I saw a hen eying our decoy setup down in the hollow. Then another, and another and another hen appeared, followed by TWO toms, strutting!!
The hens were about 25-30 yards away, and the toms were 45+ yards away. We were set up to shoot towards our decoy setup, and the toms were a little behind us and to our right, so we couldn't get a bead on them.
Iyelped softly, purred abit, clucked some, trying to get them to stroll our way, but they wouldn't. This misery/excitement went on for ten minutes or more, as the hens picked around and the toms strutted.
I saw my wife swing her gun to her left, towards the decoys, and when I looked there, I saw five jakes eyeballing Pretty Boy. My wife shot and turkeys started running and flying everywhere. I joined in and missed everything. She didn't getone, either. The bunch to our rightsquirted away into the woods at the noise.
There was still plenty ofturkey vocalization going on, however, so we stayed put and waited. After a while, the two toms and hens reappeared to ourright. Oneof the toms was really spitting and drumming, just a continuous roar, but he wouldn't come closer to my Pretty Boy than about fifty yards. The hens he was with wanted to come to my decoy setup, but he kept pulling them away, and after about 20 minutes of listening to the roar, they faded away into the woods.
Not long after that, four toms came into view to our right, all strutting and eyeballing the decoys. They moved to within about35 yards, and I was thinking we'd get our birds and be done. My wife shoots a 20 gauge, so I figured we could let them come all the way to the decoys, which I had put at 22 yards from her location. At about 35 yards, the four toms slicked back and turned, starting to walk away, looking as though something in the decoys had spooked them. I looked in the decoy setup, and there was a tom in full strut standing next to my Bobbin' Head hen decoy. Iquickly swung on him and shot him. He fellinstantly, "no flop". My wife shot at the four who were leaving the other way, and nailed one at 47yards!! (I paced it off.)
Mine was a 3 year old, 1 1/4" spurs, 9 1/2" beard and weighed 20 lbs, 4 oz. Hers was a two year old, 8" beard, 3/4" spurs, but was heavier, at 22 lbs 6 oz.
After an hour's wait, a jake came to us from our left. She shot that one at 22 yards, so she filled both her tags.We had no more "action" that day, so I still have one tag to fill. We did see 13 toms that morning, however!!
I went again yesterday (Sunday), but accidentally broke my leg early in the morning.I guess I'm done for the season. Last year it was my thumb, now this! I slipped on a rock while crossing a stream. My foot/leg got wedged between two rocks as I fell, and I broke the tibia. Thank God I was not alone!! Thanks to my friend, Rod, who was along and "rescued" me.
I put a picture of my wife and her two birds with this post. I've posted some more pictures about this hunt in follow-up posts, as well.
Good luck to all this spring!! Be careful and be safe!!
As it grew lighter, a bunch of gobblers fired up from across the pasture, gobbling multiple times from the roost. I had built a blind on that side of the pasture the night before, and I was having some misgivings about my choice of setup sites for the morning. I knew the turkeys had been roosting on the North side of the pasture quite often, as, on my scouting mission the day before, I'd found their roost site just loaded with sign. Between the droppings and the feathers, it looked like aturkey barn!! But I had been sitting in the woods where they flew up, and I didn't think they had spooked from the roost. (One hen had even flown into a tree ten yards from whereI sat!!)
My misgivings were allayed about ten minutes later, however, as multiple gobblers thundered from the woods behind us. Before the birds finally flew down, my wife and I were treated to a good fifteen minutes of gobbling, first from the birds on the North side of the pasture, then from the birds behind us, forth and backthey'd hammer. I could roughly identify about 15-20 seperate gobblers on our side of the woods, strung out across the woods edge for 100-200 yards each way from where we were set up.
I gave some tree yelps and a flydown cackle with flapping wing sound courtesy of my hat when I felt the birds were getting interested in leaving the roost. Then I shut up.
Soon we could hear birds flying down behind us. My wife was first toactually see abird on the ground.She was sittingby a tree slightly ahead of me and to my right. She pointed to her right and I slowly lookedwhere she was pointing.There was a slight downslope/gully/"hollow" to our right, and I saw a hen eying our decoy setup down in the hollow. Then another, and another and another hen appeared, followed by TWO toms, strutting!!
The hens were about 25-30 yards away, and the toms were 45+ yards away. We were set up to shoot towards our decoy setup, and the toms were a little behind us and to our right, so we couldn't get a bead on them.
Iyelped softly, purred abit, clucked some, trying to get them to stroll our way, but they wouldn't. This misery/excitement went on for ten minutes or more, as the hens picked around and the toms strutted.
I saw my wife swing her gun to her left, towards the decoys, and when I looked there, I saw five jakes eyeballing Pretty Boy. My wife shot and turkeys started running and flying everywhere. I joined in and missed everything. She didn't getone, either. The bunch to our rightsquirted away into the woods at the noise.
There was still plenty ofturkey vocalization going on, however, so we stayed put and waited. After a while, the two toms and hens reappeared to ourright. Oneof the toms was really spitting and drumming, just a continuous roar, but he wouldn't come closer to my Pretty Boy than about fifty yards. The hens he was with wanted to come to my decoy setup, but he kept pulling them away, and after about 20 minutes of listening to the roar, they faded away into the woods.
Not long after that, four toms came into view to our right, all strutting and eyeballing the decoys. They moved to within about35 yards, and I was thinking we'd get our birds and be done. My wife shoots a 20 gauge, so I figured we could let them come all the way to the decoys, which I had put at 22 yards from her location. At about 35 yards, the four toms slicked back and turned, starting to walk away, looking as though something in the decoys had spooked them. I looked in the decoy setup, and there was a tom in full strut standing next to my Bobbin' Head hen decoy. Iquickly swung on him and shot him. He fellinstantly, "no flop". My wife shot at the four who were leaving the other way, and nailed one at 47yards!! (I paced it off.)
Mine was a 3 year old, 1 1/4" spurs, 9 1/2" beard and weighed 20 lbs, 4 oz. Hers was a two year old, 8" beard, 3/4" spurs, but was heavier, at 22 lbs 6 oz.
After an hour's wait, a jake came to us from our left. She shot that one at 22 yards, so she filled both her tags.We had no more "action" that day, so I still have one tag to fill. We did see 13 toms that morning, however!!
I went again yesterday (Sunday), but accidentally broke my leg early in the morning.I guess I'm done for the season. Last year it was my thumb, now this! I slipped on a rock while crossing a stream. My foot/leg got wedged between two rocks as I fell, and I broke the tibia. Thank God I was not alone!! Thanks to my friend, Rod, who was along and "rescued" me.
I put a picture of my wife and her two birds with this post. I've posted some more pictures about this hunt in follow-up posts, as well.
Good luck to all this spring!! Be careful and be safe!!
