LoessHillsArcher
PMA Member
After seeing all the harvest pics and reading the stories I got the turkey hunting bug bad last week. I picked up a tag at Wally World on my way to the farm Friday and had a hard time falling asleep that night… I was pretty excited to get to the turkey woods and try this ‘fan-on-a-stick’ method Saturday morning, plus it had been 5 years since I had been turkey hunting and I wasn’t going in a blind this time.
Got setup early Saturday morning on a spot that put me near 3 roost sites. It gave me the best options for making a stalk with the fan after the toms flew down. I was just laying in a terrace with one hen decoy in front of me. It was a foggy and beautiful morning, not as chilly as I expected it to be. I remember lying on the terrace listening to the woods waking up, hearing a new bird start in singing every so often. It is pretty wild how they each have a different sound when you stop and listen to it. Then the big birds started to add to the music with some thunder gobbles! There were 4 toms roosted in the typical spot, 300 yards in front of me. They were gobbling like crazy too. I was a bit surprised to not be hearing more birds around me but with the heavy fog it may have been keeping things quiet?
Anyway, I give the toms a couple yelps on the mouth call and a couple more on the slate call. They quadruple gobble back at me. I see two birds hop out of the tree and sit on the hilltop, the plan was coming together great since they were flying down to an area I could easily stalk.
Then I heard a whole bunch of racket to my left in a small piece of timber. A bird just flew down within 100yds… It took a minute before the bird stepped out of the timber but it showed up and I thought it was a hen (turned out to be a jake). I had my eye on the close bird to my left and the two birds off in the distance, then all of a sudden I notice another bird walking by at 5-10yds to my right. It had caught me completely off guard (remind you I’m sitting in pretty much the wide open). It worked into the decoy at 15yds and the bird to my left worked over to the decoy as well, they turned out to be two jakes. I didn’t have my gun up to my shoulder, and really didn’t plan on shooting a jake… but it was like there was two people inside my head having this argument…
Person 1 “You don’t want to shoot those jakes, those toms gobbling over there will be easy to stalk”
Person 2 “SHOOT!”
Person 1 “Nooo, just be patient, wait, you’ll get to try the fan-on-a-stick method on those toms and you’ll get one”
Person 2 “SHOOT… NOW!”
Anyway, in my head I was going back and forth between what to do with these jakes. They worked in and out of the decoys, 15yds to 40, back to 15yds, then out to 40 and they looked like they were going to walk away. This whole time I was subconsciously taking my safety off, raising my gun slowly, and getting ready to shoot when in the back of my mind I hear Person 1 telling me “you don’t want to shoot them, just wait, you aren’t going to shoot”. Well, apparently Person 2 won out in the battle of what I was going to do because I felt like I lost complete control of my body. I made a few soft yelps as the birds walked away, they turned around and came straight into the decoys and I dropped one of the birds at 25yds… while the whole time I was thinking to myself… don’t shoot, just be patient. I got a good laugh out of how itchy my trigger finger was on this hunt. I had zero will power.
Snapped a few pics after the shot.
The turkeys view and a few pictures of the setup. And to think they walked by at 5-10yds, that was neat to be that close with them at eye level, this was what I enjoyed most about not being in the blind, it was more exciting sitting in the open (pure personal opinion here)
See, I had the fan ready for a stalk but didn't get to use it... 4th season it is on though!
And snapped a couple pics back at the farm
And lastly, the shell was bigger than the beard. It happens I guess...
I don't know if I'll ever bowhunt a turkey, shooting them outside of the blind with that shotgun was wayyyy to much fun!
Got setup early Saturday morning on a spot that put me near 3 roost sites. It gave me the best options for making a stalk with the fan after the toms flew down. I was just laying in a terrace with one hen decoy in front of me. It was a foggy and beautiful morning, not as chilly as I expected it to be. I remember lying on the terrace listening to the woods waking up, hearing a new bird start in singing every so often. It is pretty wild how they each have a different sound when you stop and listen to it. Then the big birds started to add to the music with some thunder gobbles! There were 4 toms roosted in the typical spot, 300 yards in front of me. They were gobbling like crazy too. I was a bit surprised to not be hearing more birds around me but with the heavy fog it may have been keeping things quiet?
Anyway, I give the toms a couple yelps on the mouth call and a couple more on the slate call. They quadruple gobble back at me. I see two birds hop out of the tree and sit on the hilltop, the plan was coming together great since they were flying down to an area I could easily stalk.Then I heard a whole bunch of racket to my left in a small piece of timber. A bird just flew down within 100yds… It took a minute before the bird stepped out of the timber but it showed up and I thought it was a hen (turned out to be a jake). I had my eye on the close bird to my left and the two birds off in the distance, then all of a sudden I notice another bird walking by at 5-10yds to my right. It had caught me completely off guard (remind you I’m sitting in pretty much the wide open). It worked into the decoy at 15yds and the bird to my left worked over to the decoy as well, they turned out to be two jakes. I didn’t have my gun up to my shoulder, and really didn’t plan on shooting a jake… but it was like there was two people inside my head having this argument…
Person 1 “You don’t want to shoot those jakes, those toms gobbling over there will be easy to stalk”
Person 2 “SHOOT!”
Person 1 “Nooo, just be patient, wait, you’ll get to try the fan-on-a-stick method on those toms and you’ll get one”
Person 2 “SHOOT… NOW!”
Anyway, in my head I was going back and forth between what to do with these jakes. They worked in and out of the decoys, 15yds to 40, back to 15yds, then out to 40 and they looked like they were going to walk away. This whole time I was subconsciously taking my safety off, raising my gun slowly, and getting ready to shoot when in the back of my mind I hear Person 1 telling me “you don’t want to shoot them, just wait, you aren’t going to shoot”. Well, apparently Person 2 won out in the battle of what I was going to do because I felt like I lost complete control of my body. I made a few soft yelps as the birds walked away, they turned around and came straight into the decoys and I dropped one of the birds at 25yds… while the whole time I was thinking to myself… don’t shoot, just be patient. I got a good laugh out of how itchy my trigger finger was on this hunt.
I had zero will power.Snapped a few pics after the shot.
The turkeys view and a few pictures of the setup. And to think they walked by at 5-10yds, that was neat to be that close with them at eye level, this was what I enjoyed most about not being in the blind, it was more exciting sitting in the open (pure personal opinion here)
See, I had the fan ready for a stalk but didn't get to use it... 4th season it is on though!
And snapped a couple pics back at the farm
And lastly, the shell was bigger than the beard. It happens I guess...
I don't know if I'll ever bowhunt a turkey, shooting them outside of the blind with that shotgun was wayyyy to much fun!
