Couldn't take it any longer. Weather, work and other things.
I had to escape. I had told a couple of fellows that I don't collect calls (my wife would disagree) but I do get calls to hunt with and that the calls I picked up would definetly see woods time. So when I hit the woods I had an Eddleman gobbling box and a Permar trumpet and my "new" toy. An old 1850-ish damascus double barrel black powder cartridge gun. I intentionally left all the other stuff behind. I did really, really miss not having my wingbone. Anyhow, hit the woods late in the day and started working some oak ridges. Finally hit some fresh sign and started following up, running series of lost call yelps and kee kees on the trumpet. This little Roanoke trumpet is a fine little call. Easy to run and has great tone and range of calls. If I can run kee kees on it...its got to have some kinda magic. After about an hour or so I got and answer from out on the ridge in front AND down in the hollow below. Moved as close as I could but the woods were dry and they were gonna have to come to me. Which didn't work....big surprise there. BUT the ridge group moved down into the hollow and sounded like they joined up with the oher bunch. I slipped up to the edge of a bench and could see birds feeding around and doing turkey stuff. Always amazes me that they can cover a mile in a couple minutes it seems or stay in one spot for hours. But no way I could get any closer. So I hit em with the trumpet and they started back at me. Some yelps and clucks. Sounded like young birds till one bird kicked in in a real deep mature yelping run. Either an old hen or a gobbler?? By this time of year there is usually a good bit of difference in the young jakes and jennies in size and voice. So....I pulled out the Eddleman box. This box has a left side that just sounds rite for gobblers and old birds. No effort. It just has it. I think if you thru it down in the truck seat and it hit on the left side it would sound good. Well, I thru some of the left side at em and that really opened em up. Even got a gobble or 2 out of the mix. That was a nice plus! So I hit em with some Permar trumpet talk and Eddleman box call lingo and the crowd really took off. Yelping, cutting, gobbling!
But they never budged and showed no hint of coming toward me but heck...it was fun! Seemed like a long time but eventually the groups split up and one group went up the creek and the other down the creek.I hit em just a little more to size up which group went where and then it was time to get serious. The bunch I THOUGHT were the gobblers or at least had a gobbler in the bunch went down the creek. I have hunted the property a bit and knew that there was a frequently used roost area in that direction and it was about 3 hours to fly up so off I went. I got round to the area that I thought mite be in the area in front of them if they didn't detour off or cross the creek to roost on property that I coulnd't hunt. I was around a little point from the creek so I couldn't see..but couldn't be seen either. Before I set up I thought I mite test the waters abit so I thru some trumpet yelps at em and....BANG...got reponse from the creek area that sounded about 100 yards or so away. Not a lot of talk but something, enough for sure. Pulled out the box and nailed em with 3-4 HARD clucks and a couple real fast and hard gobbler yelps. The next thing I know is I hear running in the leaves and I am diving down to find a place to sit and barely get my face mask up and the old double pointed in the rite direction. The break in the point was just about 35 yards in front. One head, 2...these birds ran around that point with all gears fully engaged and they were rockin'. Six nice long beards skidded to a stop about 15 yards in front of me and they were cuttin and purrin hard. Now if I was on TV I mite have fooled around and enjoyed the show but....not today. In the space of a nano second I had 3 distinct thoughts 1. I did mange to notice that 2 of the birds appeared to be alot bigger and had much nicer beards than the others. 2. It always amazes me that no matter where you are at, wild game has the ability to pin point your location with just a sound or two. Those birds piled up rite in my lap. ( which was real good considering my self imposed range on the old gun was about 20-25 yards.). 3. If you have never hunted with an old double barrel, when you look down the barrel it is like looking down a long 4 lane highway. There was snake heads and black bodies going everywhere but when the first of the nice birds stepped into my path I touched the right barrel in the old girl off. When the smoke cleared I could see I had a nice bird down on the ground and doing its best to rake up a big ole pile of leaves and the others were either running or flying off in all directions. A perfect 360 bust. To bad I only have 1 fall tag in WV. And I had another shell in the gun too!
Not used to that.
It was a super nice fall gobbler, a bird I would take any day, any time, anywhere. 10 1/2 inch beard and 1 1/4 spurs. I was a happy little fall turkey hunting camper fore sure! The only down side was that Dad wasn't feeling up to the hunt so he didn't go. We would have had 2 of those gobblers fer sure. But he was there to check it all out and instruct me on the proper way to clean up and fix a turkey for the table. For the hundredth or so time.
And I loved every minute of it!
My apologies of the long winded story but if you have ever talked to me in person..well, thats just me. Ralph, Mr. E. thanks for a couple of great calls. I won't say they didn't get dinged or scratched on this adventure but like I said, I hunt with my calls.
