bird in hand in NC
05-02-2005 | 08:22 AM
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bird in hand in NC
On Saturday, my oldest son Derek and I got up and headed for an area where I'd filled my last NC tag a couple weeks ago. We split up along the main road in plenty of time to greet the new day and hear any gobbles that might give away the location of a bird. The wind was blowing pretty good and would surely affect out ability to hear anything sounding off. The thick and low cloud cover was threatening rain, and I hoped it would hold off for just a few hours to give us a decent chance to work a bird for Derek.
On my second owl hoot, a turkey busted out of the smallish pine tree no more than 15 yards away, right on the side of the road. From her wing beats I could tell it was hen. She flew off towards the river bottom in an area I had not yet been in.
As light came on, Derek and I got back together and eased back into the area we knew were being used by some turkeys. Derek had seen a bird in a different area a couple days before, and really wanted to hunt there. But I felt very confident in the area we were in, and thought our chances were better there in the event of a silent morning.
After about 30 minutes and no responses, we picked up and moved about 150 yards towards the river and set up again. By my second series of calling, I heard a hen putt about 60 yards away. I don't believe she saw us, as the leaves were now out and completely obscured the view. I called back to her and a conversation ensued. When it became obvious that she wasn't coming, and knowing that a tom could possibly be with her, we picked up again and did a flanking maneuver to position ourselves closer and in a totally different direction from her.
As soon as we got set up, she answered us, and within 30 seconds had come to within 10 yards of us. At that point, she stopped, putted, and flew up into a nearby tree to look us over. Unfortunately, there was no tom with her, and after some time, and after a few nagging requests from my son, we got up to go over to the place where he had seen a turkey a couple days before. What the heck. This was his hunt, and if he wanted to go over there, that's where we'd go.
As we drove into a beautiful looking rolling grass field surrounded by mixed hardwoods and pines, Derek pointed down at a draw about 80 yards away and said, "that's where I saw the turkey." So, I eased to a stop, and believe it or not, a hen was right there! Well, she saw the truck, but didn't seem too alarmed and eased off to the woods on the right side. As we watched her, all of a sudden, a full fan popped up, and sure enough, a big boy was down there with her -- and he hadn't seen us.
So, we waited for the hen to draw him far enough towards the woods to completely obscure any possible view of us. As soon as he got to that point, still strutting, we jumped out of the truck and got Derek's gun and my vest and did a wide flanking half-circle to get well ahead of the turkeys and in a completely opposite direction of the one the hen just saw us in.
As we entered the woods at the spot we wanted to begin calling, the immediate area had some large pines and lots of grape vines. We picked a big pine that gave us about 30 yards of visibility with virtually nothing in the way to hinder Derek's shooting lane up to that distance. I did a Power Crystal and Lohmans 827 combination, and within 15 seconds, Derek's cheek goes down on his gun and he swings slightly to his left, simultaneously whispering, "there he is."
I eased my eyes that way but couldn't see far enough in that direction to get a glimpse of the turkey. Right about at that time Derek swings his guns to the right about 15 degrees and freezes. About that time I see a nice red pop out of the vines. His head was totally erect, and he was looking for the hen. I immediately see that it's a jake, and make sure Derek knows that's the case. He asked, "Should I shoot him?" Well, now we knew that there was a big boy with the hen less than 75 yards away, and we had plenty of time to be patient and work him hard. But Derek had spent a week with me in FL on a very frustrating hunt, and had come up empty on two more hunts by himself since then. We also knew the tom was infatuated with the hen over there, and there were certainly no guarantees he would come to us at all. So I answered, "It's up to you son."
Well, Derek didn't have to think long.... BAM!!
He made a perfect shot and the jake flopped for only about 10 seconds. And a turkey putted back over where we figured the hen and tom were.
Well, Derek answered the age old question about whether a jake in the hand was worth more than a tom in the bush. So, we ignored the putts and went over to admire the nice looking jake. Derek was tickled, and felt relieved to have finally killed a bird this year. We took some pictures, and gratefully made our way back to the truck.
I'll post some pictures in a couple days.
Hal
On my second owl hoot, a turkey busted out of the smallish pine tree no more than 15 yards away, right on the side of the road. From her wing beats I could tell it was hen. She flew off towards the river bottom in an area I had not yet been in.
As light came on, Derek and I got back together and eased back into the area we knew were being used by some turkeys. Derek had seen a bird in a different area a couple days before, and really wanted to hunt there. But I felt very confident in the area we were in, and thought our chances were better there in the event of a silent morning.
After about 30 minutes and no responses, we picked up and moved about 150 yards towards the river and set up again. By my second series of calling, I heard a hen putt about 60 yards away. I don't believe she saw us, as the leaves were now out and completely obscured the view. I called back to her and a conversation ensued. When it became obvious that she wasn't coming, and knowing that a tom could possibly be with her, we picked up again and did a flanking maneuver to position ourselves closer and in a totally different direction from her.
As soon as we got set up, she answered us, and within 30 seconds had come to within 10 yards of us. At that point, she stopped, putted, and flew up into a nearby tree to look us over. Unfortunately, there was no tom with her, and after some time, and after a few nagging requests from my son, we got up to go over to the place where he had seen a turkey a couple days before. What the heck. This was his hunt, and if he wanted to go over there, that's where we'd go.
As we drove into a beautiful looking rolling grass field surrounded by mixed hardwoods and pines, Derek pointed down at a draw about 80 yards away and said, "that's where I saw the turkey." So, I eased to a stop, and believe it or not, a hen was right there! Well, she saw the truck, but didn't seem too alarmed and eased off to the woods on the right side. As we watched her, all of a sudden, a full fan popped up, and sure enough, a big boy was down there with her -- and he hadn't seen us.
So, we waited for the hen to draw him far enough towards the woods to completely obscure any possible view of us. As soon as he got to that point, still strutting, we jumped out of the truck and got Derek's gun and my vest and did a wide flanking half-circle to get well ahead of the turkeys and in a completely opposite direction of the one the hen just saw us in.
As we entered the woods at the spot we wanted to begin calling, the immediate area had some large pines and lots of grape vines. We picked a big pine that gave us about 30 yards of visibility with virtually nothing in the way to hinder Derek's shooting lane up to that distance. I did a Power Crystal and Lohmans 827 combination, and within 15 seconds, Derek's cheek goes down on his gun and he swings slightly to his left, simultaneously whispering, "there he is."
I eased my eyes that way but couldn't see far enough in that direction to get a glimpse of the turkey. Right about at that time Derek swings his guns to the right about 15 degrees and freezes. About that time I see a nice red pop out of the vines. His head was totally erect, and he was looking for the hen. I immediately see that it's a jake, and make sure Derek knows that's the case. He asked, "Should I shoot him?" Well, now we knew that there was a big boy with the hen less than 75 yards away, and we had plenty of time to be patient and work him hard. But Derek had spent a week with me in FL on a very frustrating hunt, and had come up empty on two more hunts by himself since then. We also knew the tom was infatuated with the hen over there, and there were certainly no guarantees he would come to us at all. So I answered, "It's up to you son."
Well, Derek didn't have to think long.... BAM!!
He made a perfect shot and the jake flopped for only about 10 seconds. And a turkey putted back over where we figured the hen and tom were.
Well, Derek answered the age old question about whether a jake in the hand was worth more than a tom in the bush. So, we ignored the putts and went over to admire the nice looking jake. Derek was tickled, and felt relieved to have finally killed a bird this year. We took some pictures, and gratefully made our way back to the truck.
I'll post some pictures in a couple days.
Hal
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