Gobble Gobble
12-10-2008, 06:10 PM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: North Carolina
Posts: 47
Gobble Gobble
pics and stories of a couple of eastern turkeys from the past two years.
i shot this hen my senior year of high school (2007). i woke up that morning and went to school but on the way there it started to sleet and snow. so i got to school and they wound up sending us home around 11 or 12 o'clock due to "bad" weather. the one week winter season was in here in North Carolina and hens are fair game. after i got home i went up to the second story window to look out over one of our fields; and to no surprise there stood 32 eastern hens in our back field. i put on some boots, threw on a camo fleece over my clothes and grabbed my 12 gauge Stoeger and started the hunt, literally. the turkeys were off the back of our house (about 200 yards), so i went out the front door and eased up the side of the house into the edge of the woods. we have a shop out back about midway between my house and where the turkeys were located. i slid down the back of the shop trying to keep hidden from the birds. when i got up to the edge of the field the turkeys were in i got down on my hands and knees and began to crawl up the edge of a wood pile where my blind was set up. we have a big wood pile back there and for our blind we just simply removed half a section of logs to make a shooting hole and then i put a blind at the end of the wood pile to keep me hidden and just sat on a 5 gallon bucket. a very simple blind, but did the trick! once i got to my bucket i sat there and waited for the birds to get in range. i had 32 hens in the field and not one of them were close enough to get a shot. i waited for probably 45 minutes and right as the birds were starting to get in range my mom drove up and started to spook the birds. as the last few birds were about to run off i jumped up and put the bead on whatever head i could find and pulled the trigger. somehow i stretched out a shot about 45 yards and got my first hen. it was only like the second or third year that we had our winter season in and although not much of a trophy, it put some meat in the freezer and we also wanted to try to make a homemade turkey decoy out of the wings and fan of a hen (not very successful btw, haha.)
this next bird i shot this year during regular season in April. i shot this gobbler on the same field i killed my hen the year before. except this time i was hunting out of a tent blind and the field was sown with chufa. i got out to the field early that morning and just waited for some birds to come in. i didn't need to do much calling because the birds had been using that field every morning. i sat for maybe 30 minutes when i had a sickly looking hen come through. she walked through by herself and headed towards another field about 400 yards away. about 10 minutes later i had 3 jakes comes through and go to that same field. then about 20 minutes later i had an albino hen and a bearded hen come through together and they also went back to that other field. then about 30 minutes later all 6 of those turkeys came back except this time they brought a big boy with them (: they came back to my field but were out of range. the gobbler would start to come towards me, then he would stop, and start walking back the other way, then come back, then turn away again; just teasing me. then finally he got out in front of me to where i could shoot and i stretched one out 38 yards and dropped him. he weighed 22.6 pounds, had a 10 1/2 inch beard and inch and a half spurs. my second best turkey.
i shot this hen my senior year of high school (2007). i woke up that morning and went to school but on the way there it started to sleet and snow. so i got to school and they wound up sending us home around 11 or 12 o'clock due to "bad" weather. the one week winter season was in here in North Carolina and hens are fair game. after i got home i went up to the second story window to look out over one of our fields; and to no surprise there stood 32 eastern hens in our back field. i put on some boots, threw on a camo fleece over my clothes and grabbed my 12 gauge Stoeger and started the hunt, literally. the turkeys were off the back of our house (about 200 yards), so i went out the front door and eased up the side of the house into the edge of the woods. we have a shop out back about midway between my house and where the turkeys were located. i slid down the back of the shop trying to keep hidden from the birds. when i got up to the edge of the field the turkeys were in i got down on my hands and knees and began to crawl up the edge of a wood pile where my blind was set up. we have a big wood pile back there and for our blind we just simply removed half a section of logs to make a shooting hole and then i put a blind at the end of the wood pile to keep me hidden and just sat on a 5 gallon bucket. a very simple blind, but did the trick! once i got to my bucket i sat there and waited for the birds to get in range. i had 32 hens in the field and not one of them were close enough to get a shot. i waited for probably 45 minutes and right as the birds were starting to get in range my mom drove up and started to spook the birds. as the last few birds were about to run off i jumped up and put the bead on whatever head i could find and pulled the trigger. somehow i stretched out a shot about 45 yards and got my first hen. it was only like the second or third year that we had our winter season in and although not much of a trophy, it put some meat in the freezer and we also wanted to try to make a homemade turkey decoy out of the wings and fan of a hen (not very successful btw, haha.)
this next bird i shot this year during regular season in April. i shot this gobbler on the same field i killed my hen the year before. except this time i was hunting out of a tent blind and the field was sown with chufa. i got out to the field early that morning and just waited for some birds to come in. i didn't need to do much calling because the birds had been using that field every morning. i sat for maybe 30 minutes when i had a sickly looking hen come through. she walked through by herself and headed towards another field about 400 yards away. about 10 minutes later i had 3 jakes comes through and go to that same field. then about 20 minutes later i had an albino hen and a bearded hen come through together and they also went back to that other field. then about 30 minutes later all 6 of those turkeys came back except this time they brought a big boy with them (: they came back to my field but were out of range. the gobbler would start to come towards me, then he would stop, and start walking back the other way, then come back, then turn away again; just teasing me. then finally he got out in front of me to where i could shoot and i stretched one out 38 yards and dropped him. he weighed 22.6 pounds, had a 10 1/2 inch beard and inch and a half spurs. my second best turkey.
