HuntingNet.com Forums - It' s about time..

To post about this last year' s hunt! ;)

This last year’s turkey season would have to be one of my most memorable hunts. My father and I have made it a “tradition” to be up on the mountain and hunting no later than 4:30 AM during any hunting season. Well, that morning’s hunt started out just like any other, we woke up at 3:00, left the house at 4:00, and were up on the mountain at 4:15. We planned on splitting up, myself going farther up the mountain and my dad staying down lower. Well by 10:30 I had still not heard a thing so I decided to start working my way down the mountain so I could meet up with my dad and we could go get lunch. When I was about a quarter of a mile away from the truck I decided to stop and take a break. I set up my hen decoy, leaned back against probably one of the oldest, not to mention biggest trees in the woods and called a couple times, immediately I got a reply from a lonely tom, and then another, and another. Three toms were traveling together and I had them coming in hot and heavy. Unfortunately they ended up getting hung up on a ridge about 200 yards away. No big deal, I knew where they were, and it wasn’t likely they’d be leaving the area anytime soon. I went and found my dad and we went into town and had lunch. Over lunch I told him what had happened and we decided to both head back to where I had first heard the birds. When we got there we immediately got a response, but again, they were on the same ridge that they had gotten hung up on before. This time though I could see them, we watched them for nearly a half an hour. When I saw the last tom’s head disappear over the rise I suggested we try and move to that ridge. We found an old logging road and followed it down and around and up onto the ridge we had seen the toms strutting on. I went out and set up my father and my decoys and found a place to sit with my back against a tree. My dad was to the right of me and he had a better view of the road. The first couple times he called we got no response, but after about 15 minutes we heard the toms, well, I heard the toms, there was a strong wind blowing and my dad is hard of hearing. I looked over at him and gave him a “thumbs-up” signal. Five minutes later a lone tom strutted up the road, I had already decided to let the first tom pass so that my dad could shoot, and I would take the one that came in behind him. The second tom came running up behind his buddy, but I didn’t see this, there was a small tree ahead and to the left of me. A shot and the first bird fell. I looked at my dad, apparently I looked pretty disappointed, he didn’t know I could see the second bird! He looked back up the road and said, “Shoot!” I looked back up the road too and the second bird had come out from behind the tree in front of me and was standing next to his fallen comrade. Immediately I aimed the bead on the end of my shotgun at the middle of the bird’s neck and fired, and down fell my third turkey.

Just figured I' d share a bit :D