Kentucky 22 hours-2 down: The Story

This year’s spring tour was up in the air which is unusual as we plan sometimes a year in advanced. I was planning to hunt Kentucky with my outlaw crew of biologists & teachers like we have in past years, but their schedule was a week too early for me (work conflict), and I couldn't make the trip. This March I hooked up with Veterinarian Jon Burke who rented out a cabin in Garfield, Kentucky, and had access to 170 acres around the camp, and thousands of acres of farmland tp try if the birds didn't cooperate. I would head out the second week of their season for a long weekend.

With a battle plan in hand I drove out myself, splitting the drive into 400 miles or so that afternoon/evening, staying overnight near Akron, Ohio, and finishing the drive the next morning. The drive was more than pleasant as the weather actually was more summer like, and a welcomed change to our long winter in New York. Made a stop at Gander Mountain on the way to Ohio, and Basspro the next morning along the way for essentials, and "just because". Arrived at camp 12:30 pm on Friday. Saw plenty of birds during the drive, and with the nice weather, I was excited about spending a few days chasing gobblers.

As I pulled into the entrance road to camp. I met two hunters driving out that were hunting adjacent properties, and were having trouble with henned up gobblers, and advising that calling much at all was not productive. Very friendly encounter and I would later meet up with their father on my way out on Sunday. Nice folks, and very friendly. As I headed toward camp, I spotted a nice long beard up on a power line opening and all by himself. Although the opening was a few hundred yards from the fence line, he was slowly working his way in that direction. I pulled into camp, and switched out clothing, loaded up the vest, loaded the gun, and set out to intercept the long beard.

I only needed to go 150 yards or so from camp to get on a side bank that sloped down to a drainage bottom, then up to another ridge which the gobbler would be coming from. I sat up at a spot to where I could broadcast at least to the top of the ridge. The property boundary was just on the other side of the drainage, and I was hoping the gobbler would cross thru the fence or short hop over it. No real set up spots near the border, and I had no intentions of crossing the fence. I hadn't heard a gobble since leaving the truck, but with high wind conditions, and a ridge between us, no surprises there. In my haste to set up, I neglected to put out decoys, and as I issued the first series of calls, I noticed the lack of foliage. There were plenty of trees and some brush, but still open enough for a goobler to hang up on. Not knowing were the gobbler was, I stayed put, and hoped that an afternoon without a girlfriend would properly motivate the gobbler to come look close enough.

Not wanting to spook a prospective customer from paying a visit. I called every 10-15 minutes in between wind gusts, and only then a few cuts followed by 4-5 note yelps. Two sequences at the most. 45 minutes had passed, and on my fourth round of calls, I thought I made out a gobble. Waited 5 minutes, 3 short cutts, and the long beard jumped on it. Ten minutes later The bird had gobbled twice and I held off, in the desire to making him move rather than gobble. I issued 4 soft yelps, and he jump on the call, and I knew he was committing. To my surprise I spotted him high on the ridge moments later but he had circled to my right, and cutting back across down to my center view. I had set up, along side a deer path that led down to the drainage and with any luck if the gobbler crossed the fence, it would be path of least resistance. The long beard had gobbled several more times as he made his way towards my position, but only stopped to look, and never strutted. His beard was easy to spot as it swung back and forth as he walked. The gobbler walked up to the fence and lowered himself below the bottom strand crossing with little effort. The gobbler quickly crossed the drainage, and closed the gap. No need to cluck as he stopped within range and persicoped to located his midday girlfriend. The gobbler issued a loud cluck, I responded with a loud BANG!! It was 2:20pm and long beard down! Less than 90 minutes from leaving the truck, and a impromptu plan came together. Back at the truck, the gobbler weighted in at 21lbs-2oz, sported a 8-3/4" beard, and 7/8" spurs.

I met up with Jon (camp owner) and got more info on what was going on, and would hook up next afternoon to hunt. I would try a big green field below camp the next morning. I went about that evening getting food supplies for camp, and shopped at the smallest Wal-Mart store on the planet. At least 1/4 the size of the typical store. That evening the rain started, and trying to roost birds resulted in no response. The owls seem to like it some however.

The next morning I set up as planned with decoys out, and plenty of birds gobbling all around my position. Funny thing, although no luck roosting the night before, I had 4 or 5 gobblers hammering on the roost that were within 100-200 yards of camp. You never know. After fly down the gobbling became less frequent, and I figured they had got onto a logging road, as the gobbling was back and forth across a hundred yards and out in front of my position. I was stuck as the birds were up on the hills, and the cover was not enough to slip around undetected. Eventually the birds moved off and I surmised they went to visit another green field above them, and parallel with the camp. I remained for another half hour just in case, and then went out and around toward the upper green field. I stayed below the field edge, and on the down side to keep from spooking anything that might be in the field. Sure enough, I crested the corner I spotted two full fans a hundred plus yards out. I crawled up a bit and staked decoys so they might see them if they came to my end of the food plot. The few calls I made resulted in no effect at all. For the next hour I watch and waited to see what would develop, and then decided I needed to do something different. I worked my way around the back side of the brush, and discovered that the two stutters had 6 hens and a few jakes within eye sight, and had no reason to go anywhere. I decided to see if I could pull the hens in, and they got noisy, but not nosey. 15 minutes later the flock began to feed towards a logging road that enters the far side of the field toward camp. I put trees between us, and slowly got below the field, and came back up along heavy brush along the field but ahead of the flock. I turned to look and spotted a neon red, white, and blue head in a 8"-10" opening thru the brush, and not more than 30 yards away. I could see his full fan, and a top of a very thick heavy beard jutting out from his chest. I centered the holosight just below his head and down he went. Gobbler down, flock up! As I came around the brush, turkeys were running, and flying every which way. As I approached the downed bird I got a surprise.................. it was a Jake! The young gobbler sported a full round fan, a very thick 5" beard, and 3/8' spurs. Now I knew why I could only see the top of his beard. This was the bigger of the two stutters, and I surmised that the other might have been a Jake as well. I was fooled to be sure, but he walked the walk, and talked the talk, and that will earn a ride home in the truck to be sure.

I had been in Kentucky less than 24 hours and two birds down, doesn't normally work out this way, but I 'll take dumb luck anytime! The rest of the weekend I spent with Jon taking a tour of the many farm properties they owned or leased, and we chased more gobblers in the quest ot have Jon and his son make good on a tag. A cold front had moved in and slowed things down. Saturday evening I was invited to a Cajun Crawfish fest along the river, and that was a special treat. The following morning we were greeted with heavy fog, but the birds did gobble on the roost, and we had one coming until he got intercepted by hens or a group of jakes so we thought. All in all this was one of my better trips! Spending time in Kentucky I highly recommend! Next stops on the spring tour: Pennsylvania, New York, and Vermont. More stories to follow!