Southern Sportsman
Well-Known Member
This one was pretty special to me. My grandparents were poor dirt farmers. They raised six kids on 80 acres growing tomatoes, sweet corn, cabbage, etc. plus the income my granddad got as a Baptist preacher at a one room country church. My granddad passed several years ago. My grandmother's 99th birthday is next month. She lives in assisted living, but she's still going strong. A few years ago turkeys started showing up sporadically on their little farm. Last year one gobbler and several hens were there pretty regularly. I put up posted signs but never hunted him. This year before the season there were two gobblers, four jakes, and several hens. I figured it was time. It's all row crop now, but they were mostly hanging out in what was the cabbage patch when I was a little kid. I hunted them Easter morning and had them all in the field with me. I think it would've been quick work with a decoy, but I didn't want to do it that way. They had plenty of hens and the gobblers chased jakes all over the place. I had to back out and leave them in the field to make it to church for Easter Sunday. I've hunted them a handful of times since but they're hard to deal with because my grandmother only owns field ground. There is a 15 acre block of scrub timber on one side that I can hunt, but the other side is a lot of good ground that nobody hunts. They would usually pitch down and head safely that direction.
I made a detour this morning on my way to work just to look at the fields since it has been raining. To my pleasant surprise, one gobbler and 4 hens were back in the cabbage patch. There are several rises and depressions in the field, and between that and the late season foliage I was able to get to the edge of the field in front of them. I got set up and another turkey was gobbling his head off just off my grandmother's property near where I can hunt in the woods. I was tempted, but I stayed put. There is enough rise and fall on that edge of the field that I could actually work the field turkey, such that he couldn't see my field edge without committing. He got hot, and came to the crest of the rise twice and stood there gobbling, but I could just see the white crown of his head. When he drifted back down into the depression, I repositioned. Next time he came to the crest, I was 20 yards closer.
King of the Cabbage Patch (that's the farmhouse where my dad grew up in the background).
I made a detour this morning on my way to work just to look at the fields since it has been raining. To my pleasant surprise, one gobbler and 4 hens were back in the cabbage patch. There are several rises and depressions in the field, and between that and the late season foliage I was able to get to the edge of the field in front of them. I got set up and another turkey was gobbling his head off just off my grandmother's property near where I can hunt in the woods. I was tempted, but I stayed put. There is enough rise and fall on that edge of the field that I could actually work the field turkey, such that he couldn't see my field edge without committing. He got hot, and came to the crest of the rise twice and stood there gobbling, but I could just see the white crown of his head. When he drifted back down into the depression, I repositioned. Next time he came to the crest, I was 20 yards closer.
King of the Cabbage Patch (that's the farmhouse where my dad grew up in the background).
