Skychief
69 Cal.
Coming home from a trip to town, I saw five turkeys on a neighbor's property. I had planned to do some more longbow deer hunting this afternoon, but, the sighting changed my priorities.
We have a Fall either sex season going on now. I swabbed out the fowler and headed for the deepest hollow in the woods. Reason being, it's been windy today, and I mean blowing HARD! :shocked2:
I figured if they were in their right minds, the birds would seek shelter from the winds. I slowly hunted above the hollow, traveling its length slowly and sitting for several minutes at a time hoping to spot them. I was in no hurry and it felt great to be out with my smoothbore.
I called a bit as I went.
About an hour in, I spotted some black dots in the bottom. The harder I looked, the more they seemed to move a bit. Yep, targets acquired! :haha:
At this point I was on the back side of a narrow hog's-back ridge, still looking down into the main hollow. I called a bit when they were a hundred yards to my right. I don't think they could hear me above the gale. I sat back and watched them slowly work my way. There were 12-15 hens and poults as far as I could tell.
I slid down a little so the crest of the little ridge I was on hid me well and hit them with some hard cutting and yelping. That got 'em moving. :thumbsup:
As they were approaching, I took note of the terrain and decided to crawl on hands and knees, behind the little ridge to where it nearly melted into the big hollow. Hope was for a short shot. With all the noise from the wind, I made it easily to a small tree a few feet higher than the bottom, and peaked over. They were within 30 yards and feeding contentedly.I slid her long barrel over the crest and chose a clump of saplings as my "close enough" mark.
I had a fern in front of my bare face and smiled like a school boy as I watched them slowly feeding in front of me.
As things played out, I had a good shot or two at adult hens but just watched. I swear these turkeys nearly put me in a trance when they are so close and doing "their thing".
I wanted one of this year's birds. Never ate one, and thought it about time.
A young one walked just behind my marker to the left. Shortly she came toward me then to my right. She stopped with a thumb sized sapling covering her head and neck. Another step and a few seconds for a bird to clear behind her, the black English scraped the frizzen.
Is there a better way to spend a windy Autumn afternoon? :idunno:
Good luck to everybody with so many seasons just in front of us now!
Happy hunting, Skychief. :hatsoff:
We have a Fall either sex season going on now. I swabbed out the fowler and headed for the deepest hollow in the woods. Reason being, it's been windy today, and I mean blowing HARD! :shocked2:
I figured if they were in their right minds, the birds would seek shelter from the winds. I slowly hunted above the hollow, traveling its length slowly and sitting for several minutes at a time hoping to spot them. I was in no hurry and it felt great to be out with my smoothbore.
I called a bit as I went.
About an hour in, I spotted some black dots in the bottom. The harder I looked, the more they seemed to move a bit. Yep, targets acquired! :haha:
At this point I was on the back side of a narrow hog's-back ridge, still looking down into the main hollow. I called a bit when they were a hundred yards to my right. I don't think they could hear me above the gale. I sat back and watched them slowly work my way. There were 12-15 hens and poults as far as I could tell.
I slid down a little so the crest of the little ridge I was on hid me well and hit them with some hard cutting and yelping. That got 'em moving. :thumbsup:
As they were approaching, I took note of the terrain and decided to crawl on hands and knees, behind the little ridge to where it nearly melted into the big hollow. Hope was for a short shot. With all the noise from the wind, I made it easily to a small tree a few feet higher than the bottom, and peaked over. They were within 30 yards and feeding contentedly.I slid her long barrel over the crest and chose a clump of saplings as my "close enough" mark.
I had a fern in front of my bare face and smiled like a school boy as I watched them slowly feeding in front of me.
As things played out, I had a good shot or two at adult hens but just watched. I swear these turkeys nearly put me in a trance when they are so close and doing "their thing".
I wanted one of this year's birds. Never ate one, and thought it about time.
A young one walked just behind my marker to the left. Shortly she came toward me then to my right. She stopped with a thumb sized sapling covering her head and neck. Another step and a few seconds for a bird to clear behind her, the black English scraped the frizzen.
Is there a better way to spend a windy Autumn afternoon? :idunno:
Good luck to everybody with so many seasons just in front of us now!
Happy hunting, Skychief. :hatsoff:
