AIRASSAULT
PMA Member
This is going to be a long story.. The hunt pretty much started on Easter Morning. I went out to do some day before scouting to get the latest on the roost-breeding-feeding patterns. I don't call or anything before the season starts and I had a big tom come in at 20yds spittin' and drummin', gobbling and struttin'. There were also about five other toms that were roosted near him and they all ended up congregating out in an un-chiseled corn field straight in front of me right in the dead center of the 350 acres that I can hunt. Right then, I was thinking that opening morning was going to be a chip shot. So, Easter evening, my worst fear was realized when I returned to the same spot to roost the turkeys and the farmer had been out there all day chiseling the corn fields.. "Oh No!" I thought. I knew this would affect the patterns. I ended up seeing one lone tom cut across the chiseled field and roost by himself that evening and the rest of the turkey's roosted on a ridge in the neighboring property about a 1/4 mile from where the lone tom was. I figured I still had a pretty good chance to kill one yesterday because I knew there wasn't any hens with-in about a 1/4 mile of that lone tom.. Usually when that rarity happens, the toms come running in to just a few yelps. Well, yesterday pretty much ended up being the worst, most miserable hunting of my life. I was at least able to borrow a ground blind from one of my friends, but still got soaked during the 1/2 mile walk to the set up. Ended up not hearing a single gobble that morning, so, I figured I would walk over by the corner of a field where the turkeys might be. Sure enough, two toms were with a group of hens all hunched up a long a fence row trying to keep out of the wind and rain. They definately looked like they went from breeding mode back to winter mode.
Fast forward to this morning. I strongly debated going to another property and I decided to give this spot one more try. There wasn't a single tom roosted on the whole property, they were all 1/4 to 1/2 mile east of me. It sounded like there were a dozen gobblers. I decided I would just set up the decoys in the chiseled corn field by where I saw them feeding yesterday when it was raining. As I was walking across the field, a tom suddenly gobbled just to my right about 80 yds into the neighboring property. I could also hear some hens yelping near him. I put out the Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl quick and sat down on the edge of the field with my back to the turkeys, hoping that with some luck they would fly down into the field I could shoot into.. They did what I figured they would do and flew down on top of a steep wooded ridge that they were roosted on.. Right then, all the myths starting going through my head... "Not only will he not come downhill to my calls, even if he does, he will never fly across this 15 yd wide creek and then jump a fence that were both about 5 yds behind me. " Well, I was kindof just sitting there, down on my luck trying to figure out what to do and then I spotted ten deer running across the field in front of me. I was watching them through my binos and then when I put the binos down, I looked up and there was a hen about 20 yards away in the open field that had materialized right on the other side of my decoys... I have no idea how she got there.. I was watching her and calling at her for the heck of it when all of a sudden my chest pounded from a gobble not 30 yds from behind me.... I was surprised that this tom had come down to my calls at the bottom of the ridge... Well, from there, I knew he could see my decoy out in the field and that was all he needed to make him spit and drum a few times and then fly across the creek, jump the fence, and then run straight by me at 5 yds headed right for the decoy.. I could tell he was really p***ed when he saw that Pretty Boy decoy with a hen in the breeding position next to him.. He ran up to it and started doing the mad sounding purr and puffing up and getting ready to beat the crap out of the decoy when I pulled the trigger... I've always kind of shyed away from using decoys because it seems like they always just make the tom "hang up".. The Pretty Boy is AWESOME!! Ive never seen a turkey react like that and come across so many obstacles just to get to a decoy. Normally, I would have probably put the decoys out about 20 yards at least, but when i was walking out to set them up, a hen on that ridge started putting at me, so I could only get them out at 10 yds.. Needless to say, that tom took a 12ga 3.5 inch load of #6 Hevishot to the neck at 10yds... Almost blew his head off! He's not as big as I hoped, but I suppose I still have 4th season to make up for that... Sorry KPM, guess you'll have to shoot a monster.. He is a two year old, with a 9 3/4 inch beard, one spur was 9/16 and the other was 11/16 and he weighed 22 1/2 pounds.
This was about as good of a self field photo as I could do...
This is a picture of the setup. The bigger tree on the upper right is where I was sitting (on top of a pile of washed up corn stalks from the creek), behind that, you can see some fence posts, then the bank of the creek, and then the ridge in the upper left where he was roosted.
Fast forward to this morning. I strongly debated going to another property and I decided to give this spot one more try. There wasn't a single tom roosted on the whole property, they were all 1/4 to 1/2 mile east of me. It sounded like there were a dozen gobblers. I decided I would just set up the decoys in the chiseled corn field by where I saw them feeding yesterday when it was raining. As I was walking across the field, a tom suddenly gobbled just to my right about 80 yds into the neighboring property. I could also hear some hens yelping near him. I put out the Pretty Boy and Pretty Girl quick and sat down on the edge of the field with my back to the turkeys, hoping that with some luck they would fly down into the field I could shoot into.. They did what I figured they would do and flew down on top of a steep wooded ridge that they were roosted on.. Right then, all the myths starting going through my head... "Not only will he not come downhill to my calls, even if he does, he will never fly across this 15 yd wide creek and then jump a fence that were both about 5 yds behind me. " Well, I was kindof just sitting there, down on my luck trying to figure out what to do and then I spotted ten deer running across the field in front of me. I was watching them through my binos and then when I put the binos down, I looked up and there was a hen about 20 yards away in the open field that had materialized right on the other side of my decoys... I have no idea how she got there.. I was watching her and calling at her for the heck of it when all of a sudden my chest pounded from a gobble not 30 yds from behind me.... I was surprised that this tom had come down to my calls at the bottom of the ridge... Well, from there, I knew he could see my decoy out in the field and that was all he needed to make him spit and drum a few times and then fly across the creek, jump the fence, and then run straight by me at 5 yds headed right for the decoy.. I could tell he was really p***ed when he saw that Pretty Boy decoy with a hen in the breeding position next to him.. He ran up to it and started doing the mad sounding purr and puffing up and getting ready to beat the crap out of the decoy when I pulled the trigger... I've always kind of shyed away from using decoys because it seems like they always just make the tom "hang up".. The Pretty Boy is AWESOME!! Ive never seen a turkey react like that and come across so many obstacles just to get to a decoy. Normally, I would have probably put the decoys out about 20 yards at least, but when i was walking out to set them up, a hen on that ridge started putting at me, so I could only get them out at 10 yds.. Needless to say, that tom took a 12ga 3.5 inch load of #6 Hevishot to the neck at 10yds... Almost blew his head off! He's not as big as I hoped, but I suppose I still have 4th season to make up for that... Sorry KPM, guess you'll have to shoot a monster.. He is a two year old, with a 9 3/4 inch beard, one spur was 9/16 and the other was 11/16 and he weighed 22 1/2 pounds.
This was about as good of a self field photo as I could do...
This is a picture of the setup. The bigger tree on the upper right is where I was sitting (on top of a pile of washed up corn stalks from the creek), behind that, you can see some fence posts, then the bank of the creek, and then the ridge in the upper left where he was roosted.
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