Shoot2Kill
Active Member
The last two mornings have been awesome!! Some of you may have seen my post from Friday where I had 3 toms in full strut just down the road from my house - well...that trio is now a double. One of the guys I work with has been having a little trouble closing the deal since the opener on Wednesday. He and his brother have been going and have had plenty of toms gobbling but they just wouldn't commit. My plan all week was to call or film for him this weekend if he didn't have his bird yet, so when he didn't connect on Friday morning I decided to take him and his brother down the road from my house to see if we couldn't get one of those toms to come out and play.
Saturday morning.....I had 2 spots picked out to set up in...one of them was right across the road from where the trio was strutting on Friday morning...the other, a spot in the corner of the field where I typically see them. We decided to set up across from where they were Friday morning and were all settled in at 5:30. 5:45 the first gobbles echo from up the hill right next to the other spot - go figure. There were multiple gobbles and they were hot and heavy so we packed up and hauled a** up the road and got set up by 5:55. The whole time we were setting up the toms were gobbling their fool heads off at any noise they heard and they weren't any farther than 75 yards inside the trees - I thought it was going to be a slam dunk with the good possibility of a double. The gobbling continued pretty heavy until fly down at about 6:15 then just random ones here and there and they didn't sound like they were moving much.
The next hour was stone dead! Just like that they shut up and didn't make a sound. While considering options to move if the silence continued a hen broke in a started cutting and yelping. She continued that for a while and then a few more eventually joined in and they were coming up the hill to the field just as I thought they would. Finally they showed up talking up a storm to our left and as we were watching them a tom appeared over the hill straight out in front of us in full strut headed right at the decs! We gave him about a minute to see if there was another one so Paul and his brother could get a double, but no dice. As soon as I started to whisper "Tak......." BOOOM! Chuck dropped the hammer on his first turkey and rolled him like a sack of potatoes. All of this within sight of my house and 40 yards off the road at 7:30 on the dot - just when I see them every day on the way to work.
24 lbs
9 inch beard
Inch spurs on both sides
Chuck on the left, Paul (coworker) on the right
All 3 of us...
Day 2 - (this morning) Paul still hasn't connected and today is the last day of his season....
Last night I went out and scouted a farm I recently got permission for...took the aerial map with me and did a hot lap around the perimeter of the tree line....came around a corner and was 75 yards from 5 hens. I looped way around to sit on top of a hill to watch them.....after watching them for 20 minutes 2 toms came out at about 7:30. I watched them from the distance and backed out and didn't think they'd go too far.
Set up by 5:30 this morning in a light drizzle about 30 yards inside the timber from where they were last night and were sitting on road made by loggers from last summer...it looked absoultely textbook. With it being drizzly and crappy out we didn't hear the first gobble until 6:10 and it was WAAAAY on the other side of the timber. Finally a flock of geese flew over honking like crazy at 6:10 and a different tom gave himself up to the honkers and did a triple gobble. I threw him a few yelps and he gobbled right back....game on. He sounded pretty far away but he was looking for love with every yelp I threw out and I could tell he was on his way.
All was quiet for a little bit and at 6:35 he scared the living crap out of us and double gobbled just on the other side of a little hill on the logging road. He was drumming and gobbling like mad but we couldn't see him! Finally after 5 solid minutes Paul says "here he comes" and I slowly turn and there he is in full strut staring right at the decs. He got to about 30 yards from the decs and started putting on quite the show trying to pull the hen from the 2 jakes. We were sitting behind a treetop from the logging job from last summer so Paul didn't have a really clear shot. I threw out the most romantic purr/quiet yelp I ever heard and he couldn't take it and started at the decs...he took about 5 steps and was in the clear - BOOM! Gobbler #2 in 2 days and this one was over at 6:40! Paul has shot a couple jakes in the past 2 years so this was his first tom as well. I should really start charging for my guide service! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
28 lbs!
9.5 inch beard
1 inch spurs on both sides
I killed my turkey on the way to work last year and figured it was my 84 buick commuter car "Beuford" that was my good luck charm....Beuford is now 4 for 4 on morning turkey hunts!
Now I gotta wait 5 days until my season opens this coming Saturday!!!
Saturday morning.....I had 2 spots picked out to set up in...one of them was right across the road from where the trio was strutting on Friday morning...the other, a spot in the corner of the field where I typically see them. We decided to set up across from where they were Friday morning and were all settled in at 5:30. 5:45 the first gobbles echo from up the hill right next to the other spot - go figure. There were multiple gobbles and they were hot and heavy so we packed up and hauled a** up the road and got set up by 5:55. The whole time we were setting up the toms were gobbling their fool heads off at any noise they heard and they weren't any farther than 75 yards inside the trees - I thought it was going to be a slam dunk with the good possibility of a double. The gobbling continued pretty heavy until fly down at about 6:15 then just random ones here and there and they didn't sound like they were moving much.
The next hour was stone dead! Just like that they shut up and didn't make a sound. While considering options to move if the silence continued a hen broke in a started cutting and yelping. She continued that for a while and then a few more eventually joined in and they were coming up the hill to the field just as I thought they would. Finally they showed up talking up a storm to our left and as we were watching them a tom appeared over the hill straight out in front of us in full strut headed right at the decs! We gave him about a minute to see if there was another one so Paul and his brother could get a double, but no dice. As soon as I started to whisper "Tak......." BOOOM! Chuck dropped the hammer on his first turkey and rolled him like a sack of potatoes. All of this within sight of my house and 40 yards off the road at 7:30 on the dot - just when I see them every day on the way to work.
24 lbs
9 inch beard
Inch spurs on both sides
Chuck on the left, Paul (coworker) on the right
All 3 of us...
Day 2 - (this morning) Paul still hasn't connected and today is the last day of his season....
Last night I went out and scouted a farm I recently got permission for...took the aerial map with me and did a hot lap around the perimeter of the tree line....came around a corner and was 75 yards from 5 hens. I looped way around to sit on top of a hill to watch them.....after watching them for 20 minutes 2 toms came out at about 7:30. I watched them from the distance and backed out and didn't think they'd go too far.
Set up by 5:30 this morning in a light drizzle about 30 yards inside the timber from where they were last night and were sitting on road made by loggers from last summer...it looked absoultely textbook. With it being drizzly and crappy out we didn't hear the first gobble until 6:10 and it was WAAAAY on the other side of the timber. Finally a flock of geese flew over honking like crazy at 6:10 and a different tom gave himself up to the honkers and did a triple gobble. I threw him a few yelps and he gobbled right back....game on. He sounded pretty far away but he was looking for love with every yelp I threw out and I could tell he was on his way.
All was quiet for a little bit and at 6:35 he scared the living crap out of us and double gobbled just on the other side of a little hill on the logging road. He was drumming and gobbling like mad but we couldn't see him! Finally after 5 solid minutes Paul says "here he comes" and I slowly turn and there he is in full strut staring right at the decs. He got to about 30 yards from the decs and started putting on quite the show trying to pull the hen from the 2 jakes. We were sitting behind a treetop from the logging job from last summer so Paul didn't have a really clear shot. I threw out the most romantic purr/quiet yelp I ever heard and he couldn't take it and started at the decs...he took about 5 steps and was in the clear - BOOM! Gobbler #2 in 2 days and this one was over at 6:40! Paul has shot a couple jakes in the past 2 years so this was his first tom as well. I should really start charging for my guide service! /forum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
28 lbs!
9.5 inch beard
1 inch spurs on both sides
I killed my turkey on the way to work last year and figured it was my 84 buick commuter car "Beuford" that was my good luck charm....Beuford is now 4 for 4 on morning turkey hunts!
Now I gotta wait 5 days until my season opens this coming Saturday!!!
