I broke the ice with my first of the year Wednesday morning before work. I was originally going after one that had beaten me Sat/Sun/Mon mornings in the same territory, but he stayed silent on this particular morning. When I decided to move towards the one (and another one nearby) that actually was gobbling, I had to do some serious sprinting through a clear-cut to get to a good spot before he flew down.
I was call-cautious with this one, considering the SOB that beat me three days in a row. I only used Mike's Canarywood/Leopardwood call, and man did that boy like it. He was on the ground after the first series of yelps, and on his way to me after the second! I saw a glimpse of him sneaking through the woods quickly, and then I saw his silhouette on the other side of some brush. I even got to sort of watch him gobble out there before he finally came in. When he stepped out in the open, stuck his neck out towards me, and froze, I decided to take the medium/long shot, and he rolled over with barely a flop. I had a very amateurish camera setup with a 10 minute timer (I can't figure out how to change that), so I was more than pleased when I got to work later that morning to find out that I had succeeded in getting my first kill on film (shot right about at the 9:30 mark)!
What happened next (the best parts of the story) was unfortunately NOT on film. When I ran out to step on his neck, he began flailing and flopping all over the place and somehow I ended up on the ground. I remember the crazy turkey coming towards me, me thinking "this is not good," and then covering my face as he gashed my left trigger finger. I somehow got back to my feet and crow-hopped to him, landing on his neck and pushing his head into the water (see first picture). I held him there for a good long while, took a picture, texted people, I mean it seemed like this went on forever.
So, now that I think the hunt is over (it wasn't), since I did the same thing I did to every other tom I'd successfully killed in my life, I went back to get my ghostblind and whatever else I had laying on the ground, then went back to get the bird. When I got pretty close to him, the turkey straight popped back to life and started sprinting down the logging road making a crazy putt noise! After standing there in pure shock for a second, I threw up the O/U that was luckily still in my hand and rolled him over again, blasting off most of his tail and part of his beard/feathers and breaking a wing with that IM choke. Then, I drew the judge and started walking to him, verbally taunting him to get back up. I stuck my knife through his neck when I got close enough to do so, just in case.
I am not sure how my bird did all that after being shot in the face with Hevishot magnum 3 1/2, but it happened. Thank you to Mike Lapp for making that great call for me, but on the next one, please refrain from adding whatever voodoo magic you put on that one that make turkeys rise from the dead!
- Gaines
