Had an exciting morning hunt but no birds died in the end...
Hunted MS this morning, went out when I thought the rain had ended, heard a bird gobble at a crow across a couple of fields so headed that way... about half way across the second field the bottom fell out and I was soaked for the remainder of the day... of course that bird stopped gobbling once the rain ended. Saw 5 jakes and a hen in the field and messed with them awhile before moving on...
Hunted for 2-3 hours more without any luck then started heading back to the truck about 12:30, calling about every 100 yards when I bumped a hen out of a tree, not sure why she was in that tree at that time but I stopped and started calling, nothing... next I let out a series of sharp cuts and a gobbler hammered across the bottom about 200 yards. Now this is some old grown up clear cut thick "a" nasty stuff with just a few patches of semi open trees so we have some 4 wheeler trails cut through it so we can move around in it. I ease down one of the trails and yelped and he hammered back and was closing. I quickly found a spot off of the 4-wheeler trail so I could shoot the trail, the only other shot I would have would be about 20 yards to my left, not the greatest setup.
I let out a couple of soft clucks and he answered, this time about 100 yard out. Since he was committed I didn't want to call again until I heard what sounded like a turkey across the trail on my right, opposite where my gobbler was coming from, I'm thinking did he circle around to my right, there's no shot on that side. So to check if it was him I yelp softly and he hammered back but 50 yards out on my left... I thought I must have been hearing a squirrel on the right so now I'm just trying to get a glimpse of him at 50 yards but it's just too think. I can hear him spitting and drumming but he either had to continue up the hill to my left of follow the trail in front of me.
As Im listening to him drumming something catches my eye in front of me and it's a gobbler crossing the trail from my right, I've got the gun on him but can't see his beard, don't know if its 6 inches or not so I let him go. Well wouldn't you know it he makes a beeline for my gobbler and the biggest knock down drag-out commences... they are flogging and constant fighting purrs, they sound like they were whooping each other with baseball bats and all I could see was the occasional black mass as they jumped up off the ground at about 40 yards Probably the most aggressive gobbler fight I've seen or at least heard...
Well as they are fighting I can hear them start going away from me and at about 70 yards or so I hear one of them start to putt aggressively and the next thing I know my turkey is gobbling at me from 100 yards, then 150, then 200...
so close, that other bird must have been the boss, he never gobbled and on top of that he escorted my love struck gobbler off and never came back to check on the beautiful hen that had started the whole thing.
guess he was saving me for another day.
on the bright side that was an awesome encounter and I know there are at least 3 gobblers on the place along with at lease 5 jakes, that's probably more than I saw all of last year.
Now I just need to decide if I want to go back in there in the morning or go to another close by farm and see what's happening over there... decisions, decisions...
Hunted MS this morning, went out when I thought the rain had ended, heard a bird gobble at a crow across a couple of fields so headed that way... about half way across the second field the bottom fell out and I was soaked for the remainder of the day... of course that bird stopped gobbling once the rain ended. Saw 5 jakes and a hen in the field and messed with them awhile before moving on...
Hunted for 2-3 hours more without any luck then started heading back to the truck about 12:30, calling about every 100 yards when I bumped a hen out of a tree, not sure why she was in that tree at that time but I stopped and started calling, nothing... next I let out a series of sharp cuts and a gobbler hammered across the bottom about 200 yards. Now this is some old grown up clear cut thick "a" nasty stuff with just a few patches of semi open trees so we have some 4 wheeler trails cut through it so we can move around in it. I ease down one of the trails and yelped and he hammered back and was closing. I quickly found a spot off of the 4-wheeler trail so I could shoot the trail, the only other shot I would have would be about 20 yards to my left, not the greatest setup.
I let out a couple of soft clucks and he answered, this time about 100 yard out. Since he was committed I didn't want to call again until I heard what sounded like a turkey across the trail on my right, opposite where my gobbler was coming from, I'm thinking did he circle around to my right, there's no shot on that side. So to check if it was him I yelp softly and he hammered back but 50 yards out on my left... I thought I must have been hearing a squirrel on the right so now I'm just trying to get a glimpse of him at 50 yards but it's just too think. I can hear him spitting and drumming but he either had to continue up the hill to my left of follow the trail in front of me.
As Im listening to him drumming something catches my eye in front of me and it's a gobbler crossing the trail from my right, I've got the gun on him but can't see his beard, don't know if its 6 inches or not so I let him go. Well wouldn't you know it he makes a beeline for my gobbler and the biggest knock down drag-out commences... they are flogging and constant fighting purrs, they sound like they were whooping each other with baseball bats and all I could see was the occasional black mass as they jumped up off the ground at about 40 yards Probably the most aggressive gobbler fight I've seen or at least heard...
Well as they are fighting I can hear them start going away from me and at about 70 yards or so I hear one of them start to putt aggressively and the next thing I know my turkey is gobbling at me from 100 yards, then 150, then 200...
so close, that other bird must have been the boss, he never gobbled and on top of that he escorted my love struck gobbler off and never came back to check on the beautiful hen that had started the whole thing.
guess he was saving me for another day.on the bright side that was an awesome encounter and I know there are at least 3 gobblers on the place along with at lease 5 jakes, that's probably more than I saw all of last year.
Now I just need to decide if I want to go back in there in the morning or go to another close by farm and see what's happening over there... decisions, decisions...
