Got this one yesterday in NC after two weeks of silent birds.
I have hunted hard for this bird and jake or no jake he is still a dead bird and going in the oven Sunday morning!
I hit the woods around 5:15pm and settled in on an old log overlooking a creek bottom and had about a dozen deer jump up from their beds and tear down the woods snorting and carrying on. I let things get quiet for about 15 minutes and let out a few yelps and stayed quiet for about 30 minutes. I was sweating like Obama kissing a Saudi King's rear when I figured I would try a few soft clucks. Nothing for 30 minutes. I tried a restrained kee kee run and within 10 minutes I see something moving in the creek bottom about 100 yards away. I scrambled to make sure I was ready and well camoed and looked up and a hen was 15 yards from me eating old holly berries. I stayed as still as a statue and saw a line of red heads extending all the way to the creek bottom down the four wheeler trail. One by one they came jake after jake after jake after jake. Not a peep. I saw one raise its head good to look around back down the hill and saw his beard sway and thought he had a longer beard than he actually did. Took the shot, he rolled over jumped up flew about 30 yards then crashed into a tree. I watched to see where he went only to have about 20 turkeys hens and jakes all around me and I could not move. The turkeys lined back up went right back down the trail and back to wherever it was they came from and once I knew they were gone I went to look for the bird. Feathers, good, ing feather where it hit the tree good, no bird. Looked everywhere along the creek bank. Went walking down the creek to check again and there he was floating down hunting creek. Had to pitch the gun and catch him. I came up soaked to the bone with my prize. All in all a fun afternoon and patience paid off knowing birds had been in the area a lot and they showed up.
I have hunted hard for this bird and jake or no jake he is still a dead bird and going in the oven Sunday morning!
I hit the woods around 5:15pm and settled in on an old log overlooking a creek bottom and had about a dozen deer jump up from their beds and tear down the woods snorting and carrying on. I let things get quiet for about 15 minutes and let out a few yelps and stayed quiet for about 30 minutes. I was sweating like Obama kissing a Saudi King's rear when I figured I would try a few soft clucks. Nothing for 30 minutes. I tried a restrained kee kee run and within 10 minutes I see something moving in the creek bottom about 100 yards away. I scrambled to make sure I was ready and well camoed and looked up and a hen was 15 yards from me eating old holly berries. I stayed as still as a statue and saw a line of red heads extending all the way to the creek bottom down the four wheeler trail. One by one they came jake after jake after jake after jake. Not a peep. I saw one raise its head good to look around back down the hill and saw his beard sway and thought he had a longer beard than he actually did. Took the shot, he rolled over jumped up flew about 30 yards then crashed into a tree. I watched to see where he went only to have about 20 turkeys hens and jakes all around me and I could not move. The turkeys lined back up went right back down the trail and back to wherever it was they came from and once I knew they were gone I went to look for the bird. Feathers, good, ing feather where it hit the tree good, no bird. Looked everywhere along the creek bank. Went walking down the creek to check again and there he was floating down hunting creek. Had to pitch the gun and catch him. I came up soaked to the bone with my prize. All in all a fun afternoon and patience paid off knowing birds had been in the area a lot and they showed up.
