Saturday morning was a good one in the turkey woods. I had a friend hunt with me who had never hunted spring turkey.
As we were walking in we could hear the birds gobbling. Snuck in as close as we dared and got set up. I started calling and they answered in earnest! We heard them fly down.
About 80yards out I see a blue head coming. He walks out into the meadow that we needed him to cross and I could see a nice beard swinging. He's coming right to us. More and more jakes start popping up behind him. They are all coming.
They are coming in on my left but my hunter is on my right. That Tom steps into our little patch of woods and he's 30 yards, right in front of me. I got the bead on him and I'm waiting for my hunter to shoot. My hunter is 20 yards farther away and has no shot. That Tom took one more look at the deeks, one look at the 2 green blobs sitting up the hill(us)and figured he'd seen enough. He quietly turned and started to walk away. It didn't take the jakes very long to string along. It was all going away so fast. I leaned left to find a slot and figured I'd take one of the last jakes through. I Banged the last one (I think) and he dropped right there. The rest of the birds busted down hill into the trees they had come from. But none of them had really seen us.
I grabbed my hunter and hustled down the old stone fence 100 yards and re-set the deeks. With in 5 minutes the jakes were calling to get back together. I started the most sad and pathetic Key Keying I could muster and they started to gobble back. 5 minutes later 2 jakes walk right back into our laps. My hunter dropped one nicely.
2 birds / 10 minutes. I had let the long beard walk but we got a double on jakes.
I used my 16 bore fowler. My buddy used a modern gun.
I also attach a "press release" photo for the ML community with us both holding smoothbores.
As we were walking in we could hear the birds gobbling. Snuck in as close as we dared and got set up. I started calling and they answered in earnest! We heard them fly down.
About 80yards out I see a blue head coming. He walks out into the meadow that we needed him to cross and I could see a nice beard swinging. He's coming right to us. More and more jakes start popping up behind him. They are all coming.
They are coming in on my left but my hunter is on my right. That Tom steps into our little patch of woods and he's 30 yards, right in front of me. I got the bead on him and I'm waiting for my hunter to shoot. My hunter is 20 yards farther away and has no shot. That Tom took one more look at the deeks, one look at the 2 green blobs sitting up the hill(us)and figured he'd seen enough. He quietly turned and started to walk away. It didn't take the jakes very long to string along. It was all going away so fast. I leaned left to find a slot and figured I'd take one of the last jakes through. I Banged the last one (I think) and he dropped right there. The rest of the birds busted down hill into the trees they had come from. But none of them had really seen us.
I grabbed my hunter and hustled down the old stone fence 100 yards and re-set the deeks. With in 5 minutes the jakes were calling to get back together. I started the most sad and pathetic Key Keying I could muster and they started to gobble back. 5 minutes later 2 jakes walk right back into our laps. My hunter dropped one nicely.
2 birds / 10 minutes. I had let the long beard walk but we got a double on jakes.
I used my 16 bore fowler. My buddy used a modern gun.
I also attach a "press release" photo for the ML community with us both holding smoothbores.
