« Of Chrome and Campfires... | Main | Trout, Turkeys and Take-Off... »
Tuesday
Apr212009

T and T!

DateTuesday, April 21, 2009 at 04:12PM

T is for turkey...

Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! I wondered if the big ol' gobblers could hear my hen turkey calls. I don't pretend to be the world's best caller, but I sure do like tryin'. My watch read 5:35 am. Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! I sat in complete darkness, calling directly into a cold, stiff breeze that smacked me in the face and kept kicking off my hat. I had been waiting two years to hunt this piece of property and so far, the whole "perfect turkey hunt" thing wasn't quite playing out like I had dreamed it in my head. Yesterday I fought heavy wind and rain. By afternoon, that rain turned to sleet. As the third squall of icy pellets riddled my windblown face, I said to heck with it. I was cold, I was tired and was only eight hours into my 2009 hunting season. I scurried out of the turkey field hoping, just hoping my second morning would be slightly more palatable that the first.     This morning, the rain was gone, but the wind was not.

My Stump - Notice my back sits to the sun so birds in front of me can't see me hiding in there

I popped down against the old stump, looking directly into the wind. I sat thinking about how the stiff wind would affect my hunt. I made a spur of the moment decision. I hopped up from my hiding spot and headed into the wind and upa smallhill towards two standsof old Oaks where I thought the gobblers were roosting. 5:42 am I hit my call; Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! Off in the distance I could hear a gobble. Yep, a big Tom turkey hid somewhere in the stand of Oaks across the corn field. I backed down the hill and doubletimed to another angle where I could make sure that bird knew I was around, gale force winds or not. Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! No response. Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! I got a tired, but sure response from a big bird. I raced back downhill to my stump, sat back down and watched the woods wake up.

As first light started to fall on my turkey haunt, I heard a crash and looked up the hill just in time to see the dark figure of a turkey dropping down from its roost right where I had just made the first calls. Turns The view of my turkey haunt from my stump. Notice the small pond, the hay field and the corn field aboveout it wasn't a squirrel next up in the tree. It was a turkey. I watched the hen hit the ground and cross the hill in front of me, never even slowing to acknowledge my calls. For the next half hour I listened to a couple of gobblers wake up and pop out of their roosts, right in the stand of trees I had been eyeing about 200 yards out and up the hill. I couldn't see them and I could barely hear them as the wind whipped my ears and traffic raced behind me on the old country road. I wasn't a happy turkey hunter at that moment. Each time the wind would die down and I'd get a break in traffic, I'd hit my call, Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! No response from the mystery gobblers. For a half hour I sat in silence against my stump, trying to figure out why those birds had seemingly run the other direction. That's when I heard a distinct gobble way off in the distance. It The bittersweet walk outwas surely in the stand of trees I was focued on, but that darn bird was on the far end. Nowhere near my digs.  I heard another faint gobble. Wind howling, I instantly responded, Yelp! Yelp! Yelp. I got a gobble right back. I didn't think much ofit until the gobbler let out another call. I again responded and got a gobble right back. For the next ten minutes I sat, watching the first bit of sunlight hit the field in front of me.  My heart thumped. I knew there was a Tom out there somewhere and he had definately heard my call. The sunlight tipped the field and slowly got brighter and brighter. Suddenly, Gobble! Gobble! Gobble! That darn Tom had moved a hundred yards toward me. Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! The bird gobbled back. I finally saw him walk out from behind the trees, still up on the hill in front of me. He made slow but steady progress my direction, stopping only to fan his tail and strut a second or two at a time.  That's whenI realized this deal was suddenly going down. I decided to keep on this bird, which goes against much of what I've been taught about calling turkeys. Yelp! Yelp! Yelp! He kept moving my direction slowly, but definatley surely. It was amazing to watch this bird strutting, posing, walking. He dropped down the hillside and had a small pond between himself andthe decoy hen which, by the way, I was worried was going to blow away in the gale. That darn thing was flipping and spinning and bouncing in the heavy wind, but the gobbler kept coming. It walked behind a little brush along the pond edge and I gently shouldered my shotgun. I could feel my heart throbbing. I could hearthe blood thumping in my ears. No wind, no traffic, just THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! The proud old gobbler walked right in front of my blind and I clicked off my safety. He paused behind a pile of scrub brush and then walked out into my open site. I harvested the biggest wild turkey of my career. As I stood over that turkey, I felt just a tad of guilt taking the life of such a stately old bird.I don't take hunts like this lightly. They're a big deal to me and that's the way it should be. Oddly enough, once I got home I decided to weigh that big gobbler.  I hoisted the scale, noticing 26 1/2 pounds on the dial. I raised it to eye level and the scale handle disintegrated, sending the whole deal crashing down on my garage floor.   Figures.... Just like that, my 2009 turkey hunt was over. We spend months dreaming of our hunts, anticipating that first early morning walk into the field and then, it's all over.

By the way, T number two stands for Tick. I found only one in the shower post hunt. For the record, he fared no better than my gobbler.

Congrats are also in order for our co-worker, Todd Siebell.  He nabbed his bird Monday morning about 9.  That gobbler had a 10 inch beard!  Get this... Todd's hunt was such a quick one, he missed out on all that rain and sleet.  Jerk....

AuthorBill Sherck | Comment7 Comments |

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>

Notify me of follow-up comments via email.