I love it when a plan comes together.... right up to the part where I screw it up!
I decided to avoid the crowd at the camp today and took my "Grampa" calls down to the farm. (If you remember from last year, those are the calls that I made out of a pecan tree my Grampa planted that Katrina blew down. Grampa died when I was 2 y.o., so I never got to hunt with him.) My cousin who still lives on the farm told me that he had seen a couple down in the "big" bottom. So, that's where I went. He also told me that A mutual friend of ours' son and grandson would be coming, too. I gave them the little bottom and the big woods behind it and set up on the western edge of a hay field next to a creek. The western edge is really the only way to set up down there, but that sun gets tough once it clears the trees.
Well, the other two hunters finally showed up about the time it was light enough to see colors and were surprised (and probably a little miffed) to see my truck parked down there -- but hey, I'm family, I got there early, and I gave them about 3 times the property I claimed. They drove on up past the house and came into the little bottom from the back side where they comminced to owl hooting until well past sunrise, then switched to the worst crow call I think has ever been made. I hope to goodness it was the kid. I'd hate to think anybody old enough to have a 15 y.o. couldn't figure out that they just weren't gobbling today.
Back to the plan... my plan was to catch them flying down into that hay field and bring them on over to me with one of the Grampa boxes. Worked like a charm... except all 3 were jakes.
They flew down right on cue as Daddy and Jr were still getting their stuff out of the car and marched right across that field, right up to me to about 20 yds, where they milled around confused and then headed up the creek, but across from the 2 latecomers. I couldn't help but mess with them a little, so just before they crossed the road, I clucked a couple of times at them.[toldyouso One of them tried his hardest to gobble and it sounded like he had laryngitis![rofl] [rofl] He'd gobble, but nothing would come out. I couldn't help but chuckle at him. I stuck around for a little while so as not to bump them and in hopes that a longbeard was also waiting for their exit before flying down. No such luck.[glare] That's about the time that the owl serenade started and the sun topped the trees. I was getting a headache. 7:07 and it was time to go.
The rest of the plan was to go to the far back corner of the place if the bottom didn't pan out. So off I went. I put my back up against an old cedar fencepost and a broken down hogwire fence right on a corner, looking down a long food plot to my right and a fire lane continuing to my left.
view to the right:
view to the left:
I checked out my sight lines and got up to do a little pruning.
I was well covered from approach from either direction while still being able to see down the lanes, but exposed from directly in front. Didn't plan for him to get that far. I pulled up my mask and my boxcall and gave a series of yelps and a couple of clucks. The knot on that old post started digging into my kidney, so I stuffed my jacket back there and scoped out the green plot to the right with the binoculars. Then I did a cursory look to the left while retrieving my gun off the fence and... I was staring at a full fan at 15 yds![blink] Not a gobble, not a sound, nothing... he just materialized! I didn't even have my gloves on yet! I managed to get my gun off the fence and over to that side, but he was closing in that strut.14 yds, 13... I had to make a decision. Which side of a privet hedge stem to bring the muzzle up on. If I went to the left side and he continued to close, I'd have to bring the muzzle back in and around and he'd likely be in front of me then and bust me proper! If I went to the right and he stalled... Uh-oh, the periscope just went up at 10 yds! I was about to be busted! I eased the gun on up and did my best to draw a bead...
Did ya know that at 10 yds your pattern is about as big as a golf ball?
I didn't have my gun cheeked well and slipped that pattern right down beside his neck! Feathers flew one way and he flew the other!... while I was righting myself off of my elbow, trying to get off a second shot!!
Keep your seat...The story isn't over yet!
I sat there cussing myself and examining what went wrong and thought "Hmmm... Who says that he was the only bird around here? All any other bird heard was one series of yelps and a loud noise.[huh] " So, since I hadn't yet moved, I picked up another Grampa box and started calling again. 20 minutes later, I had called that same tom back in! 'cept this time, he came in through the thick stuff at the left-hand side of the frame:
This is looking at my set from where the gobbler stood the first time. My jacket is about where my feet would have been. I was tucked in there pretty good.
Well, he drummed a couple of times, but he picked me off before I could spot him and putted off. (I think I just created a nightmare for somebody else who might want to hunt this bird!
)
Sit back down, the story ain't over yet!
I left the set then and walked down the fire break a ways and started calling again. (no gobbling today, remember?) It was about 9:30 by then and my wife called. I took care of her crisis (she KNOWS not to mess up a good turkey hunt unless it is something important and she NEVER knows which ones are the good ones![cool] ) I saw that I had missed a call from Morgan and we talked about the day so far. So I headed back to the lane back to the front of the property. That lane is only about 50 yds from the previous set, so I went back down there to take the pics (above) to send to Morgan. I sat back down to send them and figured "what the heck..." and started calling again. Would you believe that in less that 10 minutes, I had 2 jakes standing in the same spot that the gobbler was standing a little while before!?!?![blink] One of them came to within 6 yds before they got a little spooky and eased off searching for that hen.
5 jakes and a tom (twice!) Grampa and I definitely had some fun today!
