HuntingNet.com Forums - First Turkey

I am 17 years old and have been hunting for 8 years. I started hunting turkey two years ago and I love it. A friend of my fathers named Joel came down from the city to our land and hunted deer for a few years and then noticed we had decent turkey population. He asked if he could hunt turkey on our place, we agreed and I decided to hunt with him. We had been learning the patterns and behavior of the resident flocks and zeroed in on a particular flock near the front of our farm. The flock managed to allude and frustrate us time and time again. Finally Joel and I formulated the “perfect plan”. After setting up on a horse pasture near to the turkeys roost and having no luck we decided to take the fight to the turkey’s doorstep.

On opening day of spring turkey season we were in the woods by 5:30 and setup about 100 yards from the location we were sure the turkeys roosted at often. As the sun began to light up the sky we heard the sound every turkey hunter loves, gobbling. The down side was that the turkeys had roosted in a slightly different spot than we had expected and our current setup was most likely not going to work. After sitting for about and hour and a half we decided to check the horse pasture we knew the turkeys frequented. Fortune smiled on us and about 20 plus birds were in the pasture strutting and foraging.

We quickly and quietly setup on an area the turkeys often used to exit the pasture. The flock of turkeys consisted of about 8-12 hens, 3-4 jakes, and 7-8 toms. The most amazing part is that of those 7-8 toms, 5 were struters! Joel and I watched the turkeys from about 80-90 yards off for a solid hour and a half. I can honestly say I have never been in pain while hunting, maybe uncomfortable but not in pain, I was this time. Due to the fact that we had to setup with the turkeys so near I didn’t have time to put a pad down to sit on and I couldn’t shift around the entire time since I didn’t want to spook the turkeys.

After watching the turkeys go back and forth in the pasture for so long I was beginning to think that none were going to come into range. Finally three hens came to within about 30-35 yards and a few moments later one of the struters followed. Unfortunately the hens were watching me so closely that I could not take a shot. Joel knew this and so he drew a bead on the gobbler and fired, but he missed. What little of Joel’s shot that actually connected merely bounced off the turkeys guard feathers doing little if any damage. Luckily for me the bird quickly turned and ran back towards the pasture about 20 yards and then checked to see what had just happened. I then lowered my bead on his head and fired, BANG, he dropped in his tracks.

I stepped off the distance of the shot at 52 yards. When we got the bird back to the house we discovered that he had a double beard. His primary beard measured 9 and 1/2 inches long and his second beard measured 8 inches long. His spurs both measured 1 and 2/16 inches long. When we took him to the check station he weighed in at a very respectable 23 pounds. I am very excited and proud to have taken such a terrific animal for my first turkey ever. It just goes to show you that with an animal as tough to hunt as turkeys you can’t just give up if your initial plan fails. Sometimes you have to improvise multiple times to come away successful.