Crazy second day of season!
04-16-2012, 08:19 AM
#1
Spike
Thread Starter
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Richmond, Va
Posts: 47
Crazy second day of season!
I appologize that this is alittle long but I think I may have had a morning that I will never forget! 
I went out this morning to a second area where I had located birds prior to opening day. Opening day didn't go well so I knew today was the day to lay the smack down on some thunder chickens.
I get there dark thirty and wait for the birds to warm up. The area is a hundred yards from a small river on a 5000 acre farm. Around 6:30 the birds begin firing off. I was worried that they were roosted across the river and may not come over to my side. I do some soft calls and chirps and they respond back. I begin getting ready and set up a Jake and hen decoy.
A half hour goes by of them gobbling and me calling back. They seem to get closer but then far away again. Then all of a sudden they shut up and I think they were definitely across the river and went the opposite way since I also heard some hens farther out. I wait a while longer and think about moving to a different spot but I remember what all the old tymers say. If you plan on leaving then wait 10 minutes more. So I do wait about another half hour and a thunder chicken fires off but this time he sounds about a 150 yards out. My adrenaline starts pumping!
I pick up my gun and click on the bushnell red dot scope and guess what. The frickin battery is dead! I must have left it on after opening dud day! After a few curse words I re-focus and say to myself I have a good idea of distance and scope presence to keep going. He gobbles again and I give a soft sexy cluck back and he sounds like he's moving again.
I am going thru my mental check list of things preparing to blast this thunder chicken. I take look over at my decoys to make sure they look good and I see a huge black snake laying directly in front of my hen decoy sunning himself. Now I will admit I hate snakes and avoid them but I swear he had to be 4 foot long and layed out long ways sunning himself. I have never seen a snake that big in the woods before. I almost sharted myself hoping he wasn't comming my way. No lie!
I am thinking at this point I am destined to not get a bird this year. Unaware of all this the thunder chicken is just gobbling his head off and I am unsure of what to do. Do I wait and hope he comes into the opening for a long distance shot or do I get up and move the snake but possibly get busted by the turkey? Now I can asure you I did not want to move that big son of a gun!
After a quick minute of thinking I decide to let the snake hopefully move before the thunder chicken gets close or shoot long distance if able but then remembered that my red dot wasn't working! Once again I begin to curse to myself!
While all of this cursing is going on the thunder chicken is moving closer. I can't see him yet in the thick weeds but I know he is near. I give one more soft yelp and he fires back off and he is danger close. I am thinking to myself If I kill this turkey then I am the frickin man!
I look over and the snake begins to move toward the woods on my right. Now I am thinking oh yea its on! The Turkey begins to move in closer now. I guess-timate about 35 yards. At this moment I begin to hear some movement off to my right and I am thinking is this a different turkey or a deer, but nooooo its a frickin wild yellow tabby cat.
Where in the heck did this cat come from? There is nothing near my location. The farm is 5000 acres and the main builings are miles away. What the heck!! I begin to shake my head and think what have I done to deserve this?
Not only did the cat walk right up to my decoys but he then began to walk right towards where the turkey was gobbling. I crap you not!!! At this point I am cussing myself and I watched this frickin cat walk right towards the thicket were the turkey is. 5 minutes later nothing but silence. I wait another half hour soft helping occasionally and absolutely nuthin. At that exact moment I realized that I was cocked blocked by a cat!!
It took every ounce I had to not shoot that dang cat. I simply laughed to myself and thought there is no way you could make this stuff up. Between the battery in my scope being dead, to a huge black snake laying in front of my decoys sunning and finally a wild cat that comes from out of no where to spook my turkey at that exact moment. I was just not destined to kill a turkey today. Its amazing what type of stuff happens in the woods on a monday morning!
So how was your morning?!
I went out this morning to a second area where I had located birds prior to opening day. Opening day didn't go well so I knew today was the day to lay the smack down on some thunder chickens.
I get there dark thirty and wait for the birds to warm up. The area is a hundred yards from a small river on a 5000 acre farm. Around 6:30 the birds begin firing off. I was worried that they were roosted across the river and may not come over to my side. I do some soft calls and chirps and they respond back. I begin getting ready and set up a Jake and hen decoy.
A half hour goes by of them gobbling and me calling back. They seem to get closer but then far away again. Then all of a sudden they shut up and I think they were definitely across the river and went the opposite way since I also heard some hens farther out. I wait a while longer and think about moving to a different spot but I remember what all the old tymers say. If you plan on leaving then wait 10 minutes more. So I do wait about another half hour and a thunder chicken fires off but this time he sounds about a 150 yards out. My adrenaline starts pumping!
I pick up my gun and click on the bushnell red dot scope and guess what. The frickin battery is dead! I must have left it on after opening dud day! After a few curse words I re-focus and say to myself I have a good idea of distance and scope presence to keep going. He gobbles again and I give a soft sexy cluck back and he sounds like he's moving again.
I am going thru my mental check list of things preparing to blast this thunder chicken. I take look over at my decoys to make sure they look good and I see a huge black snake laying directly in front of my hen decoy sunning himself. Now I will admit I hate snakes and avoid them but I swear he had to be 4 foot long and layed out long ways sunning himself. I have never seen a snake that big in the woods before. I almost sharted myself hoping he wasn't comming my way. No lie!
I am thinking at this point I am destined to not get a bird this year. Unaware of all this the thunder chicken is just gobbling his head off and I am unsure of what to do. Do I wait and hope he comes into the opening for a long distance shot or do I get up and move the snake but possibly get busted by the turkey? Now I can asure you I did not want to move that big son of a gun!
After a quick minute of thinking I decide to let the snake hopefully move before the thunder chicken gets close or shoot long distance if able but then remembered that my red dot wasn't working! Once again I begin to curse to myself!
While all of this cursing is going on the thunder chicken is moving closer. I can't see him yet in the thick weeds but I know he is near. I give one more soft yelp and he fires back off and he is danger close. I am thinking to myself If I kill this turkey then I am the frickin man!
I look over and the snake begins to move toward the woods on my right. Now I am thinking oh yea its on! The Turkey begins to move in closer now. I guess-timate about 35 yards. At this moment I begin to hear some movement off to my right and I am thinking is this a different turkey or a deer, but nooooo its a frickin wild yellow tabby cat.
Where in the heck did this cat come from? There is nothing near my location. The farm is 5000 acres and the main builings are miles away. What the heck!! I begin to shake my head and think what have I done to deserve this?
Not only did the cat walk right up to my decoys but he then began to walk right towards where the turkey was gobbling. I crap you not!!! At this point I am cussing myself and I watched this frickin cat walk right towards the thicket were the turkey is. 5 minutes later nothing but silence. I wait another half hour soft helping occasionally and absolutely nuthin. At that exact moment I realized that I was cocked blocked by a cat!!
It took every ounce I had to not shoot that dang cat. I simply laughed to myself and thought there is no way you could make this stuff up. Between the battery in my scope being dead, to a huge black snake laying in front of my decoys sunning and finally a wild cat that comes from out of no where to spook my turkey at that exact moment. I was just not destined to kill a turkey today. Its amazing what type of stuff happens in the woods on a monday morning!
So how was your morning?!
Last edited by TurkeySlayer75; 04-16-2012 at 08:26 AM.
04-17-2012, 09:50 AM
#7
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Southern TN
Posts: 1,018
That stinks, man. I had some idiot drive his truck right up to my blind while a huge gobbler was 100 yards away to ask me if I had permission to hunt there? Ummm...yes. Couldn't you have stopped and asked the landowner? You know, the guy that lives in the house you just passed!?! That happened to me last Friday...I was just a little ticked! Needless to say, the bird didn't close the distance.
04-17-2012, 11:19 AM
#8
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: RI
Posts: 3,073
I feel your pain. After a tough morning on public land once i finally had a gobbler coming in. Out of nowhere, two dogs run right to him. Apparently, someone riding a bike on the trail about 75 yards away was running his dogs while he was riding. Absolutely illegal to do but in hopes of salvaging the hunt I didn't move. After the dogs were gone, I resumed calling and got a goodbye gobble as he was heading the other way.
04-18-2012, 06:57 AM
#10
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 1,083
Sorry to hear about the bad day. I have a feral cat working the woods I deer hunt and now turkey hunt in. It showed up at my stand location a few times during archery deer season. I am sorry, but I now have one thing for it.... I love all animals, but these feral cat (I have asked all surrounding property owners about it) are NOT pets & are out looking for hatchlings for sure. Haven't seen it this spring yet, but it's more than likely still out there. The DNR was trapping cats with conibears at Chain-o-Lakes state park in 2010-2011 due to the devastation they were causing to the turkey population there. The CO I talked to (asked him what he was doing with the traps) told me he had caught close to a dozen feral cats in the one location alone. I didn't realize there were so many of them out there....
