The private that I killed this bird has a large field on top of a ridge that drops off both sides into hardwoods. There's a crest in the middle of the field that prevents you from seeing the wood line from opposing sides. Birds will roost on either side of it so Wednesday afternoon I went out to try and pinpoint which side they roosted on. I never heard a peep so it was essentially a guess for Thursday morning. I got in plenty early and chose the right side of the field. I hung back a little bit to allow the woods to wake up and see if I could hear a gobble before I committed to a setup. It got to be well into daylight and still hadn't heard a gobble so I started soft calling and easing my way along the Woodline about 30 yards back from the field edge to see if I could get one fired up. I tried a slate, wingbone, 2 box calls all to no response. I was supposed to be at work by 10:30 and by this point it was 7:45 and I had not heard a gobble, so I was debating packing up and just going to work. Before I did that though I decided to try a locust kee kee striker on a ceramic pot. I have had good luck with it in the past to get hens fired up so I thought it was worth a shot.
Finally after the first kee kee he fires off. I can tell that I picked the wrong side of the field so rather then try to call him across the field I loop around the field and get to high ground where I can see his line of the woods. Low and behold there's a strutter with another gobbler and about 6 other turkeys working through the woods on that edge of the field. So I back out father and run down to a point that they are heading towards where I think I can cut them off. Its about a 1/2 mile trek to get into position and I do it as fast as I can. I get into where I need to check and see if they have beat me to spot and make a few calls and the bird hammers about 60-80 yards from the spot I wanted to be. Its around 8:45 at this point.
I'm forced to just make the best of the spot I was in because they were too close for me to push more. I end up under a small rock ledge on the end of point looking straight down the hill. The birds are off to my left and there's a large deadfall between me and the flock that causes a natural pinch point. If the turkeys continue on their path they should walk between the fence and the end of the dead fall. The fence is 35 yards and the end of the deadfall is about 20 from me. The old single shot throws a good pattern of lead #5s to about 35 yards so I'm super comfortable with where I think I will get my shot. The bird starts gobbling hard, he was even responding to cows bellowing. I can start to hear them coming through the leaves but I cant see any turkeys yet. Directly a jake pops out and goes right through the gap I was hoping. I hear the gobbler drum and i can see him strutting towards the same spot. All of the sudden the jake sees something he doesn't like or the lack of a hen made him put and take off flying. At this point i think i am done but no other bird paid that jake any mind. The gobbler kept strutting and i could start to see more hens around him. I make some soft calls when i think i can get away with it and the gobbler changes directions. Instead of following where the jake went he looped back around me and is now behind me. As soon as he gets on top of the little knob and doesn't see a hen he starts gobbling his full head off. I can feel him drumming he was so close. I couldn't spin around because there was a hen that could still see me. So i had to wait for what seemed like ages for her to move behind a tree so i could make my move. I hunkerd down under the rock ledge and spun and slowly popped my head and gun up over the edge to have the gobbler staring at me at 15 paces. All i could see was his white head sticking up over the knob and i let him have a beak full.
I got up and checked the time and it was 9:45. I had just spent an hour within 60 yards of this bird and had to hear him gobble at least 50 times. It was almost the exact opposite of my oppening morning hunt and honestly it was more fun.
