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Here is the story of my first spring turkey.
Was driving into the field for another reason and saw 5 birds run off, 2 toms and 3 hens. One tom went east with a hen. The other tom followed a hen south and one hen went between the two out the corner of the field. The field is edged by a steep wash. I hit reverse and backed 100 yards west till I was behind a rise, jumped into my waders and my leafy overcoat, grabbed the trusty 12, a few shells, brown jersey gloves, hen decoy, a slate and mouth call. Circled around the building and the yard, came back into the field from the north side called twice on the mouth call trying to sound like what I thought a lost hen would sound like. No response, so I figured I would press them tight. Used terrain and low shuffling to get to where they looked to have been heading before I spooked 'em, a high point maybe 2 feet higher than the rest of the field. Stuck the decoy there backed off north 10 yards and went belly down in the neglected hay field. Called immediately on the slate just excited clucks and yelps. No response. purr, cluck, purr, yelp, Again. No response. Got real loud on the slate trying to sound like a hen lost and looking. No response. Call on slate, answer on mouth call, did that 4 or 5 times over ten min. No response. Can't see much beyond the decoy 11 yards out, so I figured if a bird was coming in silent I'd never see it till it was in range, so I thought I'd tone it way down and try to sound like a content hen talking to my decoy. So very quiet calm clucks and purrs with a little yelp every now and again. Ran this ruse about another 10 min no response. Figured i needed to get back to work and I already wasted a half hr, and my shoulders were sore from being propped up on my elbows this whole time. Checked my watch and said to myself, I'll wait 5 minutes. Put my head down and looked through the overgrown dead grass. Saw what looked like grass moving but it moved wrong-ish. Tried to focus on the spot of grass but had no depth perception being on the ground looking through grass. Caught movement again. Then again. Then I could see a head, then the head turned blue and then red and blue and then I lost it in the grass again. Slowly got the gun up and pointed where I lost the head. Waited a minute or so and it was back in the exact same place but still couldn't tell how far. Lost it again, or it was just not moving, I couldn't tell. It was just not moving but then it moved again then it moved to the right and I could see the top of fan, and then the head, then the top of the fan, then the head. Still not sure how far it is. Then I could see a bit more of the fan and could tell it was facing away but would puff up then pop his head up to see if the decoy was watching. She was not, so he would do this again puff up and check, puff up and check. I knew the decoy was about ten yards and the tom couldnt be much more than twice that but if I'm wrong I could wound the bird, that would be worse than a miss to me. It can't be more than twice that, right? Right, ok then aim careful and squeeze the trig-BOOM! Oh No! The bird was flying away. I jumped up, nope was both tomshad come in, and I hit mine perfectly. Success! Paced it out 21 steps. 22lbs 1oz, 1-1/8 spurs 4.5 inch beard. My first spring turkey was kinda fun.
Thanks for reading
Oh, then I called MuskratWalt for some advise on cleaning and preparation of wild turkey.
