Hooker

Saturday I decided that I would go out to my lease and listen at daybreak, then do some scouting. Well, after not hearing anything at the first place I stopped, I went further into the woods. I stopped on a high ridge and hit the crow call (I rarely call before season), and got an immediate response. After hitting the crow call a few more times, not only did I get the gobbler going, but I called in some crows, who continued to go crazy. The gobbler was lighting it up. He was gobbling at crows, cows, woodpeckers...everything. I just sat down and listened to him for about an hour. I could have listened all day.

Well, after he calmed down a little, I thought I would venture out into the neighboring field about 300 yards to my right. The president of our lease owns this field and I have asked him if I could hunt the field before and he said, sure, as long as I call before to see if he is not planning on being back there. So, I walked up to the fields edge, and I see a small flock of turkeys in the far corner with a strutting tom. I slip out into the field and find a nice comfortable postion on a hill. At this time I notice lots of movement. (Now, I feel that I need to mention that I hunted all fall and only seen 5 deer the entire season on this lease. I hunted hard and only about 300 yards from where I was sitting.[&:]) The movement that I was observing, was roughly 30 deer, running in circles and herding the turkeys. Some of the deer would run up to the turkeys, stop, then run away, while others would run circles around the group. I've heard of one or two deer playing with turkeys before, but not an entire group. I've also never seen 30 deer before. I haven't seen 30 deer the past 4 deer season combined!

The entire morning was incredible. I sat and watched the deer "herd" the turkeys for about 15 minutes, till the turkeys got tired of the deer and left the field.

I went back that afternoon, and just sat down, in blue jeans and an orange shirt, and had a gobbler and 4 hens walk within 30 yards of me and they never got spooked. I gurantee if I was in full camo and had my gun, they would have never gotten that close to me.

I can't wait for March 21!

superstrutter

Oh yeah, well I caught 158 catfish this weekend[:-]. Seriously, sounds like you had a great day in the woods. I'll be going next weekend to listen. Bet it got you a little fired up, didn't it?

Hooker

Oh man, did it ever get me fired up. I thought I was anxious for March 21st last week, but now....my stomach gets queasy just thinking about it.[&:]