Calendar

Turkey Season 07

May 26th - 5:55am 16lb jake 1/4in spurs 61/4in beard


My season has been very slow as I haven't called in any birds other than a few hens. My hunting time has been limited and my luck quite terrible. I did have 2 chances at toms earlier in the season but both were birds I didnt call in and again, my luck was terrible....or maybe it was my skill. The first opporunity was with my brother Jon and I got set up about 75 yards away from a bunch of birds on roost. We never called and very early the birds were walking around near us, both toms and hens. We had a lone hen decoy out in the field and I figured we were golden. There was 2 toms and 3 hens coming through the woods and looked to be coming out into the field at about 25-30 yards. The birds obviously seen my decoy and were quite shy, as they popped out into the field at about 65-70 yards. A bad judgement of distance and a 1-2-3 shoot at the same bird left us very disappointed. My second opporunity was at 2 jakes called in by my older brother Steve and this hunt was just a big mistake. We were set-up within 100 yards of 2 jakes on roost gobbling and had them come walking in silent about 45 minutes after fly down. A little bit a confusion since they came in from the far right and unexpectedly left us shooting 4 times and missing both birds at about 25 yards. My single shot knocked my bird down but he proceeded to get up and run away. This hunt was just some bad shooting, but if your a true turkey hunter you can't truthfully say you've never missed.

Finally on May 26th it all came together and me and my brother Steve had the 2nd best hunt of our lives...a perfect turkey hunt. We got up real early and headed out to a plowed field that he had been seeing toms and jakes regulary in. We set up his B-Mobile full strut jake decoy with a lone hen laying down. It was still real early and I caught a glimpse of 4 birds working towards us in the next field over. They came into our field about 300 yards away and decided they'd make a B-Line to B-Mobile. At about 75 yards 2 of the birds decided to hang back...they were just small jakes. The 2 larger birds kept coming walking side by side the entire time. They worked right in to about 15 yards from the decoy when they got a little nervous. Not much but enough to stop them from coming closer. At about 33 yards me and Steve pulled the old 1-2-3 shoot and both birds hit the ground. Neither bird moved as we walked out in a celebration of high fives and yee-haaas! This was both of our first doubles ever. There is not a better feeling than walking out of the woods with two nice birds, ecspecially so late in the season...and after watching them come running to the decoy. Steves bird was also a big jake with similar spurs, a 51/2in beard and probably a pound or 2 heavier.