meyeri
PMA Member
My 4th season started out with me missing a tom at 7 yds. Yeah, I know, how do you miss at 7 yds?! I used to say the same thing and now I'm a member of that club!
First thing i did after the miss was swap my full choke for my modified choke; cuz it had to be the gun and not me right?! haha Anyway, the next morning I decided I'd hunt a spot I hit first thing on opening day, but there was a truck in the lot already so I went to my backup spot. No trucks here, Bingo! I made my way through the brush and settled in with about 45 minutes till sunrise. As the dawn approached I hadn't heard a gobble closer than 300+ yards, but I was confident so I held tight. Once they flew down I could clearly hear a group to my south and a group to my west. They were staying vocal after fly down so I was feeling pretty good with my triangular setup. Nothing seemed super interested with my calling, but I continued on, waiting every 20 minutes to call. After a couple of hours of this, I still felt good because both groups were still lighting it up. Especially the group to my west, there were at least two birds that couldn't go 10 minutes without gobbling and one of them finally keyed in on my calling. Every time I would call he'd answer back, so I got a little more aggressive with my calling to see what would happen. After about 30 minutes of this he closed some distance, but seemed hung up. Considering there was a creek about a hundred yards away, I figured he didn't want to cross and was chilling there.
Ok, do or die time, I've always been fairly mobile with my turkey hunting tactics and I've have had great success moving in closer and calling them in the final distance when they lock up. I had my reaper fan face down beside me and I had about a hundred yards of flat ridge top before the hill crests to where the turkey would be able to see me, so I decided to give it a go. I intended to move about 50 yards and call and use the reaper fan in case he busted me moving. After moving about 40 yards from my original spot the gobbles started sounding closer, so I sat down in the middle of the timber behind my reaper fan and rested my gun on my lef. This gobbler was fired up and closing in fast, so with each gobble I would re position my setup to the direction of the last gobble. When he crested the hill, he saw my reaper fan and came in another twenty yards to investigate. Time to click off the safety. At about twenty yards he paused to re-think the situation and when he stuck his neck out I let the 870 unleash a magnum load of 4 shot. Game over this time! My flubbed up hunt was the night before so my pride didn't have to hurt for too long at all! I was super blessed to have shots at turkeys in each of the three times I went out this year and it felt nice to redeem myself, since I know shots can be hard to come by.
He ended up being a mature bird, I didn't get a weight but I'd guess he was in the 20-22lb range.
8 inch beard, 1 1/2 inch spur (he busted one off)
First thing i did after the miss was swap my full choke for my modified choke; cuz it had to be the gun and not me right?! haha Anyway, the next morning I decided I'd hunt a spot I hit first thing on opening day, but there was a truck in the lot already so I went to my backup spot. No trucks here, Bingo! I made my way through the brush and settled in with about 45 minutes till sunrise. As the dawn approached I hadn't heard a gobble closer than 300+ yards, but I was confident so I held tight. Once they flew down I could clearly hear a group to my south and a group to my west. They were staying vocal after fly down so I was feeling pretty good with my triangular setup. Nothing seemed super interested with my calling, but I continued on, waiting every 20 minutes to call. After a couple of hours of this, I still felt good because both groups were still lighting it up. Especially the group to my west, there were at least two birds that couldn't go 10 minutes without gobbling and one of them finally keyed in on my calling. Every time I would call he'd answer back, so I got a little more aggressive with my calling to see what would happen. After about 30 minutes of this he closed some distance, but seemed hung up. Considering there was a creek about a hundred yards away, I figured he didn't want to cross and was chilling there.
Ok, do or die time, I've always been fairly mobile with my turkey hunting tactics and I've have had great success moving in closer and calling them in the final distance when they lock up. I had my reaper fan face down beside me and I had about a hundred yards of flat ridge top before the hill crests to where the turkey would be able to see me, so I decided to give it a go. I intended to move about 50 yards and call and use the reaper fan in case he busted me moving. After moving about 40 yards from my original spot the gobbles started sounding closer, so I sat down in the middle of the timber behind my reaper fan and rested my gun on my lef. This gobbler was fired up and closing in fast, so with each gobble I would re position my setup to the direction of the last gobble. When he crested the hill, he saw my reaper fan and came in another twenty yards to investigate. Time to click off the safety. At about twenty yards he paused to re-think the situation and when he stuck his neck out I let the 870 unleash a magnum load of 4 shot. Game over this time! My flubbed up hunt was the night before so my pride didn't have to hurt for too long at all! I was super blessed to have shots at turkeys in each of the three times I went out this year and it felt nice to redeem myself, since I know shots can be hard to come by.
He ended up being a mature bird, I didn't get a weight but I'd guess he was in the 20-22lb range.
8 inch beard, 1 1/2 inch spur (he busted one off)
