Quoted:

I guided and called for Arfcom member big-Al this morning in his quest to take a wild turkey this season. We parked at my brother's house in the predawn darkness at 6:00 AM this morning, and headed to some of my favorite hunting grounds. Before we even reached our destination a half hour later, the rain, which had ceased for a short period of time, started up again. We trudged up a steep ridge to a flat, more open section of the forest, and placed jake and hen decoys 19 yards in front of a large tree.



After calling for awhile and getting no response, Alan suddenly tapped my arm and pointed to the left. A year and a half old buck came walking up the ridge, walked right to the decoys, and literally TOUCHED his nose to the jake decoy. He immediately sprang back from the decoy, either from the realization that it was not real, or from my human scent deposited on it. He trotted towards us, then stopped at a mere 11 yards and stared at us. He mock fed right in front of us a few times, trying to trick us into moving. After calming down, he just milled around us and the decoys for at least 15 minutes before losing interest and wandering off. I did manage to call him back a couple of times with quiet turkey yelps.



We then set up over a large field that was covered with some sort of yellow flowering plants. I placed the decoys out at 20 yards and started calling. Immediately two toms gobbled from the woodlot across the field from us. The field had a slight rise in the middle of it, so we couldn't see the toms, nor could they see us. I told Alan to keep the shotgun up, and to be on the lookout for the toms sneaking in. A few minutes later, I spied the toms entering a wooded finger to our left that jutted out into the field in the direction they'd come. At slightly over 50 yards, both toms hung up and craned their necks towards the decoys. I would purr quietly on my slate call whenever they would groom themselves so as not to have my movement detected. They then turned and started walking away from us. With their backs turned, I let out a few loud, desperate yelps. They both then broke into a strut, but neither would turn and commit. We felt dejected as they distanced themselves from us.



Suddenly, we heard putting behind the huge tree that we were sitting up against. Alan slowly peeked behind us and informed me that we had two jakes at ten yards or less behind us in the woods. I turned to see two stretched necks with swiveling heads sitting on top of them. The jakes were nervous, but showed no signs of running away. Even though Alan had initially said he wanted a mature bird, he decided that since he'd already had a great bird mounted the year before and now only wanted one for the meat, that he would try for one of the jakes. This would involve us switching places, as he needed to be on my side to pull a shot off. The huge tree shielded us completely and allowed us to swap locations, but the jakes spooked when the shotgun barrel came around the tree, and they took off zigzaging through the woods. As we walked out, we jumped a large coyote, but there was no shot opportunity.



Even though there was no turkey dropped, and we were completely soaked and tired, we had a completely enjoyable time in God's great outdoors.