I finally made it back to the Commonwealth state of Kentucky for a few more days of hunting. I am blessed to be able to hunt this farm. The landowner puts us up in his house and opens his land to us for our pleasure. I drove down Wed. night at about midnight and managed to grab three hours of sleep. I was out the door at 5:15 a.m. and got set up on a 25 acre pasture. Toms are gobbling at first light and hammering it hard. I put out a strutter decoy, as I was trying to film this hunt for a friends television program and wanted a little distraction. Well the closest bird flew down and immediately worked into my area. He closed the distance quickly and was 45 yds in front of me . While I was rolling camera on him ,he saw my decoys and turned inside out. I got some great footage as he ran the 100 yd dash AWAY from the decoy. He has obviously had his tail whipped a few times from the way he was running. I am the only person who hunts them ,so I know he isn't pressured at all. Five minutes later I see him poke his head up 150 yds away and when he saw that the "tom" decoy was still there he ducked away never to be seen again. I was able to get close to 5 gobblers that morning without getting a good clear shot. It was some of the best turkey hunting I've ever done ,without taking a bird ! Next morning came and I tried to "outsmart" the birds from a new setup. As daylight came and I was second-guessing my choice, a bird gobbles 25 yds away above me . I turned around and watched him gobble on the limb for a half hour before he flew down away from me, of course. Again I was able to make moves on several Toms but the only one I could safely shoot had a broken beard, so I let him walk. Third day and I am hunting with my youngest Daughter, Rachel, today. We set up on the "chicken" bird from Thursday but he was a half-mile away. We made a big move as the Tom kept gobbling all the way. We caught up with him in a huge pasture and quickly set up within 75 yds of the Gobbler. I worked him across the field with a walnut and butternut ShadeTree Caller longbox . He hung up at 50 yds so I purred and clucked a few times on my triple slate caller made by good friend Gregg Guthridge of Shadow turkey calls. At 25 yds I let him have a load of #6's from my Remington and he promptly did the Federal back-flip. I looked at my watch and it was only 7:30 a.m. and I was tagged out in Ky. This bird weighed in at 22 lbs. and was sporting an 11 inch paint brush beard and had 1 1/2 inch spurs on his running gear. I would have given my eye teeth for my Daughter to have been able to harvest the Tom but she couldn't see him well enough from her perspective. I would trade my last 50 birds just to watch Rachel take her first. We took time to get plenty of pictures before heading back to the house. Rachel is becoming quite the photographer now and actually told me this week that she would like to pursue a career in the field. It felt good to hear that she is that interested in one of the hobbies I have taught her! I still have one week left to hunt in Ohio and the plan is to get in at least two video hunts with other hunters. Hopefully the rain will hold out for a few days !! I am tagged out in two states again. What a blessed year !!
Bob Fulcher
SHADETREE CALLERS
