The past few years I've had a buddy fly in from South Carolina to do some turkey hunting. Corona ruined all of that this year so I had to get after it on my own this weekend. I'm probably an average caller ... but the guy who normally flies in is a certified turkey expert so this year was gonna be different.
These 2 guys were't worried about getting corona'd.
I took my buddy Jake Spoon the decoy and away we went. Jake was excited. On a side note .. Dave Smith Decoys are expensive but they sure do look good.
I got to the ranch late on Friday night so I didn't have a chance to roost a bird. I never seem to kill one of the roost but I always feel good knowing I have one found. I took off Saturday morning and went to an area that had typically held roosting birds. Not a sound was heard. No shock gobbles, no hens, nothing. Not knowing where the birds were I tried to stay far enough away to not walk right on top of them. No luck.
I walked back to the truck and drove to a different part of the ranch. I immediately hear a gobble a long way off and take off after it. Whatever that gobbler was doing, it was doing it going away from me. 1 gobble and I never heard it again.
I walked and called in a big loop back towards my truck and didn't get a response until I was almost back. Basically I had walked a couple of miles for nothing but now I was in business. I got set up and let out a yelp, immediate response and I started getting excited.
I didn't have any place great to hide so I was tucked up under the biggest mesquite tree, back and to the left of my decoy in the picture above. A group of 3 gobblers walks in. One is strutted up and rally giving to it to Jake Spoon so he got it first. I shoot, he falls. One of the other gobblers looks for a second too long and he got it too. 2 shots and 2 gobblers, can't beat a deal like that.
Neither one of them were rope draggers but if you walk in all strutted up and I'm on the trigger, you might get smacked. They were both average birds but it's just something else when they come in all puffed up.
I was content now but set up at another location on the way back to the house. One call and immediately another bird was interested. 5 minutes later he's whooping on my decoy. He was a jake and I had 2 birds in the truck so I didn't pull the trigger, I did get some cool video of him whipping the decoy. Posting video here is hard so pics will have to do.
A couple hours later and I'm back at the house getting ready to clean my birds. What's that? A gobble. I grab Jake and away we go. I wasn't quite in eyesight of the house when I set up but I wasn't far way. It took about 20 minutes of sweet talking to get them to commit. They were looking for an excited hen and once they saw Jake it was over. These gobblers sure don't like another guy running around with their hens.
The broomweed was a little tall but you get the point. I took some pics, swapped the camera for the shotgun and let one fly. Gobbler #3 on the ground.
Poor Jake may have taken a pellet or 2 in the exchange but he never complained about it.
A quick walk back to the house and a few pics later I was back to cleaning those birds.
The sounds and the visuals make turkey hunting something special. I've never been in the middle of bugling elk but I can't imagine much else comparing to some gobblers screaming their guts out. Throw in some pretty country, good weather and no rattlesnakes and it was a pretty good weekend. I've still got a tag in my pocket so I might have to slip out again this weekend and see if Ol' Tom wants to talk.
