Story and Pictures from South Carolina Hunt!
South Carolina Low Country... Great times in the south!
I headed down to hook up with Diablo and our good friends in South Carolina on Thursday afternoon. The weather had been terrible earlier in the week and it was even drizzling rain when I arrived. They had managed to take a gobbler on opening afternoon and another gobbler Thursday morning but the gobbling and activity was pretty slow.
Friday morning it was very cool (39 degrees) and overcast but our spirits were pretty high. Diablo, Brady and myself headed to a spot that had been hunted a little earlier in the week and my owl hoots were greeted by a gobbler in the swamp just south of us. We slipped in as close as we could and setup. Diablo's calls were answered pretty eagerly by the gobbler in the swamp and finally we saw him appear in the field at about 150 yards. He was strutting his stuff for the hens we knew were close by. Sure enough, in just a minute, the hen appeared and just fed along for a while. The gobbler answered some of our calls but it was obvious where his attention was located. The hen headed back in the woods with gobbler in tow. Another bird had gobbled fairly close to these birds a time or two and we thought we might could get one or the other away from the hen. Finally the gobbler came back into the field and started our waY! After closing to about 100 yards he started displaying towards the woods edge again and then we realized the hen was just inside the woods. As the gobbler kept coming and answering I told Diablo and Brady "The feeling I have right now is why I do this!". It was exciting but it was not to be. The hen led the gobbler back into the woods once they were about 80 yards out and it was all but over. We did get the gobblers fired up again in the swamp but couldn't do a thing with them and eventually the gobbling stopped and we headed out for a breakfast of shrimp and grits!
After breakfast Diablo and I headed out to setup a blind for a hunt later in the afternoon hunt for Brady and his two sons. After setting the blind we trolled around in super stealth mode and finally setup in a likely spot and called in to about 50 yards a couple of jakes and another unidentified turkey. Meeting back up with Brady about 3:00 we headed to the blinds with Daniel (aka Bones) and Kyle (aka Slim Jim) for the afternoon hunt on a field edge they had been seeing a lot of turkey activity in. The hunt was uneventful for a while, but Danial, Brady, and I kept each other occupied with stories and such in one blind while Diablo and Kyle were sitting in the other blind about 35 yards away. Later in the afternoon some hens started filtering into the field and finally we had 10 hens right in front of our blinds and were anxiously awaiting the arrival of the gobbler we knew had to be close by. After a while and dark closing in the hens faded off to roost and the gobblers never showed. We had a good time though and I enjoyed spending time with Kyle and Daniel. They are great kids and a joy to be around. I know they will have plenty of gobblers in their future! While sitting in the blinds we all heard a shot and Brady said "That was Ken's big 10 guage!" When we arrived back at camp sure enough, there was Ken with a beautiful gobbler hanging in the tree. The big bird had followed a large contingent of hens in front of Ken's big gun and he sent him to take a dirt nap! The coloration of this turkey was one of the prettiest I have ever seen for an Eastern.
We had a big meal that night and some great fellowship and went to sleep anxious for tomorrow.
Ken was taking Diablo and I to his deer lease for the next mornings hunt and after walking in to a good listening point Diablo got a bird to gobble at his owl hoots. (See, Jeff can hoot too!) We had the general direction and took off along a clear-cut and then through a swamp. We came to the property line and could go no further. The bird was still a couple hundred yards across a broomstraw and mixed pine field and we were contemplating what to do and what the terrain was like. Diablo checked him with a call and he immediatly gobbled so we knew he was interested. After talking a little more about the property lines, access to where he was from another direction, etc. Diablo checked him again to better pinpoint him and he answered right back again from the same place. We were fairly undecided about the best approach and then Jeff said "Okay, after this call we are going to make a decision!" The yelp wasn't out of his mouth good when the bird gobbled 50-60 yards away right in the field. We all hit the ground like we had been shot and were basically waiting for him to stroll right up in our lap but he didn't. We were pinned down with no trees to setup on and were basically laying in the logging road. Diablo watched him cross the road above us and go into a mature stand of planted pines and commenced to gobbling a strutting for the unseen hen he knew was there. After fooling with the turkey for a little bit we realized he was a smart old cogger and it was going to take some doing to get him in our lap. Finally, after toneing down the calls and pulling a few tricks out he started working towards us... right through a thicket! He was in shotgun range for Ken and I but we couldn't see him. I caught a glimpse of him a time or two but it was nowhere near clear enough for a shot. After standing there gobbling and spitting and drumming for what seemed like an eternity he started walking again from right to left and finally I cuaght a better glimpse of him slipping through the woods. He was a cautious turkey, never going into full strut and taking only a step or two and watching forever before making another move. I thought to myself and Diablo had the same thought... "Big, Old, Sharp Spurred Gobbler!" He was good shotgun range now and I had a decent lane to shoot through and he stepped into it and I had about the top 12 inches of his head to shoot at and took it. The bird flipped over backwards and wings went over but he managed to get back up and tried to fly for a little ways but another shot anchored down and Diablo made the tackle!
After reliving the hunt and standing over the bird Diablo noticed a golfball sized sapling that had been shot in half and it was very fresh. We put 2 and 2 together and figured that the gobbler had already been shot at in that spot earlier. No wonder he was very cautious and our "Big, Old, Sharp Spurred Gobbler!" turned out to be a super wary and super cautious 2-year old! I was a happy camper and Diablo and Ken had smiles as big as mine. It was a GREAT hunt and a TON of fun!
We prospected for the rest of the morning and then did a long sit that afternoon on a field edge but nothing was happening. We heard a bird gobble a couple times later in the afternoon down in the swamp.
After another great supper we watched some basketball and hit the hay.
The next morning Diablo and I were setup on the same field edge and Ken was in another field several hundred yards away. The birds started gobbling and we heard about 7 or 8 gobblers that gobbled for about 30 minutes and then it was over. Ken had a gobbler come out to the field edge and needed to take just another step or two for a clear shot but he faded back into the woods. As we were leaving the bird gobbled again several times so we headed back to setup on him but he wasn't interested and faded back into the swamp and we headed home.
I had a great trip to SC again! We had some great hunts, some great food, and best of all got to see some great friends. I want to thank Brady, "Slim Jim", "Bones", Ken, "Saul", & Diablo for everything. Turkey hunting has a way of taking people from different places and backgrounds and bringing them together. The Tenth Legion continues...
Diablo and Ken with the birds taken that week...
