SouthernStrut56

I was just sitting here thinking about how good life is, and how much I love turkey hunting. I wanna hear some stories. I know it's a while before a lot of you can hit the woods, but it's close down here and I'm in the mood! Made me think back to a perfect hunt two years ago on a rainy opening day. A few buddies asked why I was going in the rain, and that I wouldn't see a thing, I just snickered and told em they were stupid. It was opening day! Nothing would've kept me in the bed. One even bailed on me and slept in, tough luck for him. Rainy days mean turkeys hit the open areas, so I headed to a blind I built under an elevated shooting house and got settled in about 10 minutes before first light. Across the field on top of a hill I could hear all the sounds you love to hear in the turkey woods, tree clucks and soft yelps followed up by a hot tom looking for love. As it got lighter, the hens warmed up and cut loose a little before fly down, cutting and yelping to that gobbling tom. A single hen flew down about 30 yards in front of me, clucked and yelped a little to her girlfriends, letting em know it was ok to join her. Three more hens flew down and went to eating and clucking. I sat tight and let them do all the calling for me. About 10 minutes of clucking and yelping was enough for that hot tom. Across the field I caught my first glimpse of him, strutting around the corner on a string right to those hens. I'll never forget hearing that tom drumming from at least 100 yards away, it was awesome. I watched him the whole way, dragging those wing tips and drumming non stop. Just when it looked like he was about to hang up at 70+ yards, those hens made their way further to my left and pulled him right to me at 30 yards. After two painful minutes trying to stick my barrell out of the window without any of the 10 eyes seeing me, I squeezed on him and let it fly starting the season off with a bang. Doesn't quite compare to the feeling of calling in my first and putting him in the dirt, it was just one of those hunts where everything fell together and I'll never forget it. Think back to your most memorable hunt and tell us about it, post a pic if you want. I don't care who you are, there's nothing on earth that compares to opening day of spring turkey season!

-Strut

Turkey Fife

It was a foggy morning. My neighbor has maybe 200 Ac. and takes very good care of the Anmials. So when I was younger I would try to call the birds off him and kill one. This one year I had asked my Neighbors, Neighbor if I could try to call a bird off od Logan's place. She said sure. So I was listening and one Gobbled clost to his Line. I got set up and called to a Gobbler and it came riight to me but, it was in an open field. I could see Turkey and I pulled up and Shot. Turkeys went every direction, so I tryed a shot at a flying Bird. I was Hurt no bird! so I went back to the car and drove over to the other side of the Land to the East. Got out and Gobble-Gobble it was still on Logan's Land but I could walk around to get to hhe bird. I had made a Decoy that year out of a piece of 1"X12" and glued Styfoam for its body, and used some old tail feathers for a tail. Well I got around on the Bird and got set up. I reached over the fence and stuck the Decoy in the ground. And made a call or 2 and here He came he was on me so fast I couldn't get my gun up. first thing I say was thet Beard looked 1 Foot long. He was so close. The only thing I could think to do was Pull and Shoot. When I did CLICK!He took to the air, I got on him and...CLICK! I just could'nt figure it out. When I left the house that morning I had 5 Shells I had shoot 2 at the Open Field. and the Gun was Empty????

I walked home, left my car on the road when I first heard this bird. I was still shook up when I got to my house my Wife came to the door, I asked her I went hunting this morning. She said what is wrong with you? I felt like I was in a daze. I told her this same story. I asked her to take me to my car. The only thing I could think of was that I must have Double Pumped on those first two shots. So I walked back to the spot where I did the WONDERFUL DISPLAY OF SHOOTING and sure enough I found both Shells.

Sometimes it's not the sucess storys you remember best....LoL

Learn from my stupid mistakes!

TF

mfd1027

This is the story of a bird that I killed in New Hampshire about 5-6 yrs ago. I can't remember exactly. I was hunting with a good friend and refer to him in the story. I posted this on a forum I was pretty active on at that time. I saved the post.

I hope I can do this bird justice relaying this story. He's the smallest three yr. old I've ever shot at only 16.5 pounds and skinny as a rail. His beard was only 8.5 " and kind of spindly and his spurs were nice but really nothing special at 1" but they're needle sharp and his wing-tips were gone. If I had to put human qualities to him I'd say he was the Clint Eastwood type.

This quest started on Tue. morning when Dick and I stood at our usual listening spot at the "Honey Hole" a place that has produced 2 other 3 yr. old birds for Dick and I. Tue. was opening morning in NH and the anticipation was high. The morning broke clear and cold with temps around 28 degrees and no wind. Dick's first owl hoot was cut off by a gobble in the same roosting area that had produced both of our previous gobbler's. Well the logical thing to do was to set up where we had killed both of em and that's exactly what we did. Well this guy wasn't gonna play that game and he headed to the "front" field with his harem of at least 3 hens where he would give us that occasional curteous gobble. After a couple hrs. of us calling occasionally and him gobbling occasionally we decided we were gonna have to try for him Wed. morning with a little different tactics and we took off in an opposite direction to do some running and gunning. We came close while running and gunning. A story Dick has already posted. We talked tactics on the way home and decided that Wed. morning I'd go to the rear field where we had the "near miss" and Dick would set up in the front field. We knew we would have our bases covered and felt pretty confident that one of us would kill this bird. This is that part of turkey hunting we all discuss and call woodsmanship. It wouldn't be calling that killed this bird.

Wed. AM the conditions were perfect at 28 degrees, clear and no wind. Dick dropped off at his spot and I continued down the woods rd. to my designated spot in the back field. As I eased up to the field in the dark I saw the two biggest deer I've ever seen on the foot. They were huge! I stood in the road and looked at em through my new Swarovski EL's. Man I love those binoculars. Well I had to get to my spot so I continued on and spooked em out of the field. It was still 20 min. to first light so I wasn't concerned about the noise they made running through the woods. I sat down on the rock wall that surrounds the field and just enjoyed the woods waking up. After a few unanswered owl hoots things looked about rt. for me to really wake things up with a few blasts from my "Power Crow". I've really come to rely on this tactic for shock gobbling action in the am. I'll usually switch to a crow call as soon as the songbirds crank up and way before any real crows start. It works. I pulled the "Power Crow" from my pocket and hit it hard- Caww! Caww! immeditately I got cut off by a gobble across the field in a small ravine that separated the two rear fields. There's actually 3 fields that make up the "Honey Hole" and I was covering the two rear fields. Not knowing which field this guy would fly down into I set up rt. where I was and waited for flydown time. All of the birds we heard this wk. hit the ground at approx. 5:30 give or take a few minutes. At around 5:20 I slipped a Supreme Split V 3.5 into my mouth and hit him with some short quiet tree yelps. Both fields are small at about 5-10 acres and I know he heard me. No response- so I just sat and waited. Rt. on time at about 5:30 I heard a definite ground gobble in the other field. Dammit!! I jumped up and took off back down my side of the ravine so that I could get into the same field with him. The edge of the field he was in juts out into the field and gave me some cover as I literally belly crawled to a small island of trees. I didn't know it at the time but that island was gonna be my home for the next 3 hrs. I already had the mouth call in my mouth so I yelped softly and got an immediate response from a hen followed by a loud gobble. I thought maybe just maybe I could pull em around the tip of the peninsula that stood between us so I yelped excitedly and cutt a couple of times. Man that po'd the other hen and she cranked up and so did the gobbler. About this time I heard another hen coming through the woods from the other side of the field. The calling contest was on!! The crowd drifted out into the field where I could get a good look at em about 75-80 yds. away and they raised hell with me. Over the next few hrs. we had a duel. I watched as he bred both hens and while he was breeding one the other one would dust in a large pile of ashes and through dust 6-8 ft. into the air. What a sight! Again, man I love my binoc's. While all of this gobbling, yelping, cutt'n, purring (I can't think of anything I didn't through at em I even resorted to gobbling at one point) was going on I catch a glimpse of a bird on a mission walking rt. down the middle of field no more than 40 yds. away from me. This bird has a 6 in. beard!! but it's another hen!! Well she heads to the party and is promply bred and then she jumps into the pile of ashes too!! God, I wish I had had a video camera. All of this happens over a 2 hr. period and I'm one big cramp. Everything was cramped up and taking turns torturing me. I got cramps in places I didn't know I had muscles! and tried every position possible to alleviate things all the while trying to hide in this small clump of leafless trees. I showed Dick where I had spent the morning and it looked like a 6 ft. diameter hog wallow. I decided to wait this guy out. Finally his hens started ever so slowly making their way out of the field and I thought that maybe if I could distract him enough they would get away from him and I would finally have a one on one situation. As they fed out of the field and headed on their merry way content with being fed, bred and well dusted I got the break I was looking for. I was able to get him to hang back and strut and gobble. He would gobble at every turkey related sound I could throw at him and after the hens had been gone for about 5 min. I realized that he was finally ALONE. He wanted me bad and his gobbling picked up to a fevered pitch. At one point he literally gobbled 12 times in a row and just ran out of steam and started gobbling like a jake with 2 or 3 syllables. I thought he might just collapse. BUT!! he wouldn't venture out into the field. All I needed was 20 yds. He was 60 yds. from me for at least 30 min. and he gobbled non-stop. I actually felt sorry for him. All this time I had my gun on my knee and my cheek on the stock. My fingers, ribs and diaphram cramped up. I decided it just wasn't going to happen and shut up. Maybe he'll just decide to come over. Nope, he headed back to the section of field he had flown and roosted near. I let him go. When he got out of sight I collapsed and just laid there. Depressed, no elated, I don't know how I felt. Then he gobbled again!! I rolled over and crawled out of the field and hauled ass to the back field and tried to circle him. Well in my haste I spooked a bird that I think was him. Anyways the gobbling ended. As I gathered my thoughts and thought about what had taken place I knew I could kill him the next morning IF he made the mistake of doing the same thing twice. I went to where the dust pile was and looked for my ambush spot. I picked a spot amongst the penisula of aspens 30 yds. away. As I trimmed things and prepared a spot Dick walked up. I told him a turkey was gonna die Thurs. morning if he made that mistake of doing the same thing twice. Now for the "rest of the story".

Again, Thur. we woke to good conditions 28 degrees, clear and no wind. I wished Dick good luck as he took his stand in the front field. We were 10 min. earlier than Wed. morning. We knew I would have to slip into my spot in complete darkness. As I got to the field I eased to the treeline and tip toed to the peninsula rt. along the tree line and then I crawled the last few yds. and sat against the tree I had prepared the day before. Damn it's cold up there in May. I shivered and tried to warm my hands as I waited for dawn. I hadn't heard a peep and when the songbirds cranked up I decided to check things with the ol "Power Crow". CAWW!
CAWW! split the silence. GEOBBBLLEE!! from the same spot as the day before. Big mistake!
I waited a few min. and yelped softly on my Supreme 3.5 split V. No anwer but I really didn't expect one I just wanted to seal the deal. I eased my gun onto my knee and slid down to adjust my aim. Whop-whop-whop I actually see him fly out of a tree on the edge of the field and he lands 40 yds. away but with a little bit of brush between us. No need to hurry things he's bound to offer a better shot in a few seconds. He immediately breaks into a strut and does a couple of pirouette's and now I hear a hen coming from across the field. The hammer on the Encore is already pulled and I'm just waiting for him stick his head out. The hen yelps loudly and he relaxes and stands up. BOOOOOOOM!! and it's all over. I had a real moment of reflection as I sat there on this frosty morning. Killing one of God's creatures can be so anti-climatic. Nope, he's not the best bird I've ever shot but he sure rank's up there with the most memorable.

Dick said I scared the sh-- out of him as he approached on the logging rd. we walk in on. He said "just as I was thinking about how quiet the morning was you shot". We high fived it and just relished in the moment shared amongst a couple of good friends.

I couldn't decide which picture to put up so I put em both up.

I love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks Dick for a great week!


Dan

Ihuntandfish

Great stories so far.

My most memorable hunt was probobly my first season. I was hunting with my dad. We only have a five day season here in Wisconsin, which runs from Wednesday to Sunday. It was Saturday morning, and we hadn't been seeing much all season. Finally, we had some turkeys come out into the field near us. However, they were on the opposite end of the field, which was about 300 yards away. There was no way we could sneak any closer because we were sitting inside a narrow fenceline. It was a group of about five turkeys--one tom, two jakes, and the rest hens. We tried to call them into range, but they remained on the far end of the field strutting and feeding. We would call them in to about 150 yards, but then they would head back to the far end of the field. After repeating this for about two hours, we realized that we needed to change our approach. We started trying different kinds of calling, including gobbling. No response. We hadn't had much luck with decoys so far that season, but I suggested that we try putting them out since nothing else was working. My dad agreed, but there was just one problem. We had left them in the truck. My dad said he'd stay and try to keep the turkeys from leaving the field, while I got the decoys. I belly crawled for about 70 yards until I was out of the turkey's sight. Then I sprinted to the truck, got the decoys, ran back, and repeated the belly crawl until I rejoined my dad. We waited until the turkeys were at the furthest end of the field, and then my dad crawled on his stomach about five yards out in field to set the decoys out. After he made it back without being seen, we tried some calls. At first they didn't notice the decoys. All of a sudden however, they noticed them. Just like that, we had a whole group of turkeys sprinting accross the field at us. The tom was the last one who was trying to run while strutting. They came right into the decoys. With it being my first season, I didn't think of waiting to get a shot at the tom, and as soon as the first bearded turkey came into my opening, I pulled the trigger. The next thing I saw after my seven yard shot wasmy turkey flopping around on the ground. I was about to go out and grab it, when I noticed that the other turkeys hadn't left yet. They started walking around the turkey, and suddenly the tom started fighting with the dead turkey. It was an extremely memorable hunt, and it got me hooked for life.

doall hunter

Well I remember my first bird. It was the juvinile hunt and I didn't get any sleep i was so exited. The land we were hunting was one of my fathers friends and he only deer hunted so he let us turkey hunt there. Anyway when we got ther we got out of the truck, walked about a hundred yards and just listened in a powerline feild that goes on forever. Gobble gobble he was a ways off so it was faint but still it was mar 26 and cold, we went over to him. He when we got there he stopped gobbling so we went off. That year we had gotten a strutter decoy and we had about 4 hens so we started field hunting. set up one: sat ther an hour, nothin. set up 2: sat there 3 hours... nothin. So we decided to try the back corner of this property where the man a a tripod. It was about 11:45 and as soon as I set down my father let out a sereis of yelps. GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! That was only 100yrds away. He was comin. well we called gobble gobble gobble 80 yds. again gobble gobble gobble 50 yds away. again gooble gobble gobble there he was walkin through the brush. Now his head was so white I bet God was up there sayin, "What the Heck is that!" Turns out there was a fence this tom was going to have to cross. It was a square wire fence too. but there was a fallen log on top and that ol tom jumped up there and strutted and gobbled. It was amazing. He jumped of the log and started walkin down a loging road and when he steped clear I let him have it. 35 yds he was dead as doornail =. He was a 2 year old but a 100 year old my story book.

Turkey Fife

Well I ain't no Swampcollie, but here's anothe one. I went to the CC rd. and I heard one Gobble I ran and got set up and called he came running. He was 35 yards and I shot Low and Rolled this bird, like a big Ball with Wings rolling Backwards. However, this Ball got legs and ran and hit the air. Flew off this Big Hollow he was gone food for the Foxes. I was sick! I had never realy hunted this place before so I walked down to the edge of the field to see what it looked like and what seemed a Mle away another Gobbler sounded off so I was offto that bird. Got set up and started calling and he answered and so I called again. He was coming so I shut up and listened. This bird stepped out in a clearing maybe 70 yards away. I will never forget how big he looked. I put the bead on his head and pulled the trigger. He took off and I shot again. Nothing, Wounded One and Missed one in 2 hours. Now I am out of Shells so I head back to the car. I get to the road and have a cup of coffee. Just rehashing the moments and I hear thei vehicle comming and it's a friend of mine BK I tell him the story and he said here is some shells. We had hunted alot over the years it was no big deal. I don't remember even saying thanks. However, I have this Citation Car and I bet drive 20 miles to another spot and I remember having a cup of coffee and my window being down and when I stop the car I hear a Gobble for the car...Really! I get out and set my Coffee on top of the car and get off in the woods and set up and Call Gobble-Gobble this guy is Hot to Trot. Third time is the Charm. I pulled the trigger and he is a gonner. I hated I missed the one but, it happens. I don't rememeber this size and weight. He was a nice bird. The thing I remember most was the time it was a Quarter till One season ends at One in Missouri. So many good memories!

If their is anything to learned from this story is to keep good records cause when you get old you will forget.

TF


Edited: to add that last bird I finally got, crossed the Railroad Tracks to come to the call. At that timeI really impressed myself...LoL Last year I almost shot the front of my Dodge truck and missed a bird. So nothing supprises me anymore!