Took off work today to hunt since Saturday looks like another 1" of rain in East TN.
Woke up early, drove to the lease, got to the spot I wanted to hunt. Walked and sat on a ridge to listen for gobbling before walking down to the field (small field in the middle of hardwoods), nothing was talking so I set up in the field and yelped a little. Two Jakes come in, have their way with my hen decoy and fight my Jake decoy, pick around a little then meander off. So I hit the box call again and eventually a solo hen comes in. She makes her way the entire length of the field picking and eating then leaves. I hit the box again, I hear two Toms. One about 100 yards away in a creek bottom, the other much farther away. The closest Tom is gobbling at every set of yelps I'm doing and slowly getting closer. Then he shuts up. I set my box call down and get my gun ready figuring I should be seeing him soon. I'm focusing on where the previous turkeys came from and see something black out of the corner of my eye moving across the field. I figure it's the Tom and turn my head and it's a Black Bear..... I made some noise and he left. Five minutes later came back into the field. I make more noise and stand up and wave my hands, he leaves the field. A minute later he's back. I figure my hunt is blown so I go to retrieve my decoys and the bear just stares at me from 40 yards unfazed. I grabbed up my decoys with one hand while the other held my 357 magnum with hardcast rounds tightly. And I walked briskly back to my Jeep and got out of there. The inbound Tom must have felt the same.
Woke up early, drove to the lease, got to the spot I wanted to hunt. Walked and sat on a ridge to listen for gobbling before walking down to the field (small field in the middle of hardwoods), nothing was talking so I set up in the field and yelped a little. Two Jakes come in, have their way with my hen decoy and fight my Jake decoy, pick around a little then meander off. So I hit the box call again and eventually a solo hen comes in. She makes her way the entire length of the field picking and eating then leaves. I hit the box again, I hear two Toms. One about 100 yards away in a creek bottom, the other much farther away. The closest Tom is gobbling at every set of yelps I'm doing and slowly getting closer. Then he shuts up. I set my box call down and get my gun ready figuring I should be seeing him soon. I'm focusing on where the previous turkeys came from and see something black out of the corner of my eye moving across the field. I figure it's the Tom and turn my head and it's a Black Bear..... I made some noise and he left. Five minutes later came back into the field. I make more noise and stand up and wave my hands, he leaves the field. A minute later he's back. I figure my hunt is blown so I go to retrieve my decoys and the bear just stares at me from 40 yards unfazed. I grabbed up my decoys with one hand while the other held my 357 magnum with hardcast rounds tightly. And I walked briskly back to my Jeep and got out of there. The inbound Tom must have felt the same.
