My good friend Mark and I were able to slip out for a hunt this morning before work. I had a spot that hadn’t been hunted hard and the landowner had heard a bird in there recently. We got there early and awaiting daylight, but no gobbles came. I kept thinking I could hear a bird a long ways off but could never pinpoint it. After trolling through there we headed to another place an immediately struck a bird. We set up and my first calling sequence was ignored. Uh-Oh… we suspected hens and that was confirmed when we heard yelping from right where the gobbler should be. The hens finally dragged him off on another property and we were left to prospect back to the truck. The morning was a little slow but fun. It was time to head into work.
We drove back to the house and I wanted to see Mark's new strutting gobbler decoy, and also give him the hide from one of the gobblers I killed so he could make improvements to his decoy. I had taken my boots off and we were standing there talking. Amy and Abby had joined us. We were just shooting the bull and all of a sudden Amy and Mark looked at each other like “Did you hear that?” I hadn’t heard anything but knew that look. I said “Where was it?” We couldn’t confirm so I grabbed my crow call from my truck and got him to gobble again. Mark said “He’s right there!” and pointed over across the driveway to a place we call Squirrel Ridge. I crowed again and he gobbled back and I determined he was on our side. I asked Mark “You wanna chase him?” Mark said “Sure, if you have the time!” I can work anytime, turkey season is only 5 weeks long… “Let’s Go!”
We drove around to and headed out the ridge. We slipped into position, keeping tabs on the gobbler, using the crow call. We finally picked a setup and got ready. My first series of yelps were answered enthusiastically and I thought the game was certainly on. After playing cat and mouse for bit with him I finally decided that he wasn’t going to crest the ridge and come over to our side or even on the top. I told Mark we needed to make a move and get a little aggressive with our setup. I had Mark belly-crawl across the top of the ridge and try to get set up as close to a leafy beech tree that he could so he could have a view down the other side of the ridge. If he was able to get there and felt it was safe for me to bring the camera I would follow. Mark started crawling and soon I realized the camera and I would be staying behind. We were keeping tabs on the gobbler with some light calling and hoping it would pull him up the ridge. He wouldn’t budge and after a while I decided to start slipping back away from Mark and calling and scratching as I went.
I started out about 10 yards behind Mark and the turkey was gobbling at everything. I headed back 10 yards and he gobbled again. 10 more yards and the same result. Further and further I went, yelping over my shoulder. When I was about 60-70 yards behind Mark I stopped in the cover of some brush and had just turned to see what good this would do us. About the time I stopped and turned, Mark shot.
I ran up the hill towards the camera that I had left running and then over the crest to find Mark. I was delighted to see him headed up out of the woods with a big gobbler in tow! He had made a great shot from the prone position behind the leafy beech. He said that when I started down the hill away from them that the gobbler started working up the hill and he saw the tail fan first. The gobbler then raised his head and looked up the hill. He then disappeared again and provided Mark with some tense moments. Finally, he reappeared and craned his head up and Mark decided it was time and squeezed off the shot at 30 yards. The 45 minute battle was over and we were the victors!
We shot some pics and retold the story on the way out. What an incredible hunt and it all happened because we were standing outside and this guy just free gobbles on his own at 8:30. We hunted hard all morning and were rewarded for the effort.
The big gobbler weighed 23 pounds, had a thick 10” beard, and spurs that were about 7/8” but one was broke and the other very sharp and hooked.
Congrats, Mark, on a great gobbler and a great hunt! Job well done!!! The 3rd stop this morning was the charm!
