I have had a blast chasing this turkey. He has won several battles with me giving him chase, as well as 3 tresspassers and two other hunters that has permission on the land.
He has been pressured by many local guys as well as myself, so the feeling of accomplishment to harvest him feels great.
I knew TOM had seen a lot of tactics, heard many calls, wondered about the decoys other hunters used,
seen and heard pre dawn noises that had him on alert, and none the less was a very spooked bird.
I wont go into all the failed attempts of harvesting him, but I would like to share two happenings with this gobbler prior to me harvesting him. On two different occassions, this gobbler strutted, gobbled, and came a-l-m-o-s-t into range for a clean kill. However, for whatever reason, he would absolutely disappear! The second time he done this, he done this while I had him in the binocs. I was trying to "path" his direction so I could get prepared for a shot. When he dis-appeared, he actually walked right into a brush pile that was covered in wild rose bushes. Once he was in there, it was like he nested down, not to be seen again!!!
So, after seeing this I realized he was very call shy and spooked. It was going to take something different.
Fast forward to the afternoon of his departure! It had just finished a downpour! It had rained HARD for hours! I had suspected the turkeys would be hitting the fields pretty good.
I located the gobbler with his same three mature hens he has kept company with the last week or so. I got into position and made just a coupe soft calls to get his attention and to see what his reaction would be. He immediately began to gather his ladies and move them AWAY from my direction... into a field which I do not have permission to hunt.
Here he was about 110 yards away He is the black dot center screen just where the grass and dirt meets in the field:
I kept thinking of a way to get him to come back onto the land I could hunt. I waited almost an hour, and started making some soft content purrs, and clucks. That seemed to do the trick. They turkeys came into a field to my right about 125 yards away. I was able to belly crawl about 25 yards through the woods to get to the corner of the woodlot, then began to try and soft call them in for a shot.
I could tell the gobbler didnt like the sounds I was giving and seemed anxious to close the gap with his hens. So here is where my plan came into place... I waited almost 30 minutes giving the hens time to get well into the field, over half way across the field from where they came from.
I removed all my gear to get ready for the race. Then I let out with some excited yelps, then some constant yelping, loud and excited. I thought (best case scenario) if I couldnt get one of the hens start ticked enough to come in looking for fight and drag him to me, IF not, then surely he would follow the direction he had been doing the last few days and get the hens gathered and pull them away from these turkey calls.
THE PLAN worked. Here he is headed towards the hens to push them away from me. He is 102 yards from me here, best I could get zoomed with a droid:
Now I have to be able to beat him to where I think he will get the hens out of the field. Once he cleared the hens from my direct sight I began baby crawling, fast! I had to look like a toddler racing through the woods!!! I was able to use the land terrain to my advantage, then the last 100 yards I belly crawled and beat the turkeys to the far corner of the woodlot. I set less than 2 minutes when I seen the first hen enter the woods just below me. I was prepared and ready just knowing he would enter below them. So with my pointing almost 180 degrees to the right of her, the other two hens entered. Then 30 yards directly in front of me the gobbler entered the woods just below the hens. He stopped and telecoped his head and looked around. I couldnt shoot because a sapling full of limbs seperated us. He began walking, I let out one quick putt. He went in full alert, gave me a clear shot at his full neck and head. The sound I had been waiting to hear with this bird finally took over the woods!! The turkey was knocked down like Tyson punched him. Total KO.
I was using a Remington 870 SuperMag. Funnelling a 3.5" magnum #5 down the barrel to a Kick's Gobbling Thunder tube. It was a happy moment for sure. I didnt have anyone with me to share the moment or take pictures. I always enjoy taking others and calling in birds for them. I absolutely LOVE hunting with my daughter, but today I was solo, and that sometimes is the best way to bring these weary chickens down! Solo hunting doesnt make for very good picture opportunities, but with a soaked bird I done the best I could. Once I got home I had me wife snap a few. Pictures are not the best, and the poor TOM doesnt look all pretty with his soaked feathers, but best I could do at the time :)
Thanks for taking the time to read my story. I hope you enjoyed it and it maybe put you there with me for a few minutes!
God Bless
Tony
