Okay, day 2 of our season and I took the day off from work and went to a property across the street from my usual grounds. This is where 2 of 6 gobblers I found 6 weeks ago took up residence. So it wasn't too bad this am, no rain and little wind, but it had been raining and more rain was imminent. So I set up right where I wanted and sat in to wait. At 6:15, when it was really still too dark for flydown all of a sudden a hunter starts yelping and clucking behind me at about 60-70 yards.
It sounded like a mouth call and it sounded really great, I mean really good calling! I thought, man, I wish I could use a mouth call that good. It stopped after about 40 seconds, but that was a long time and I thought, ah heck, this isn't good, I am not safe and neither is he and besides, I think he is an idiot to start yelping so loud and crisp so darn early. This yelping and clucking sounded just like a trumpet, or yelper, it rose, it fell, it was mostly on the lower end and it had a distinct sweet yelp sound...something this northern guy has heard much of and I thought, man, how in the heck is he making that sound with a mouth call?
Well anyway it was still to dark to simply stand up and call to him, so I thought I would wait till it was really light. So at 7:00 am, I told myself if he starts in again I'm gonna stand up and call out hello, hello...and sure enough he did and sure enough I stood up and started walking toward him and called out hello! and crap
guess what happened then....I couldn't believe what I heard and saw, not 1,
but 2 hunters flew out of that tree from the top and they both had long skinny beards...yep, I had heard well, but not listened. I just taken to school for sho!! That loud and I mean loud yelping and clucking were the two gobblers. I had never heard the type of yelping they were doing...and actually recently on one of forums a couple guys got started talking about gobbler yelping and I wondered what that sounded like....well sir, NOW I KNOW!
I had been completely fooled and bad. I started laughing so hard I could hardly stand, threw my hat down and just shook my head for several minutes
So what did I learn? I think I still made the right decision based on what my experience was, but I did learn, and I was saying I need to get one 2 months ago, that I need to buy a trumpet or a yelper for my hunting arsenal. There was a darn good reason that guy sounded soooo good, he was the real deal!
It sure was a great day for learning in the turkey woods!
