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First Alabama Gobbler

Started by harleytom, March 30, 2019, 10:31:38 PM

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harleytom

Season opened today in NW Bama. The area I'm hunting is new for me so I went out early Friday morning to get a feel for what the birds are doing here. I heard and later saw 2 gobblers on a ridge surrounded by a large beaver slash on the front side and a creek on the back. I decided to put up a blind in a small field across the slash and slipped in this morning over an hour and a half before first light. As the sun rose the gobbling began. I soft called and was immediately cut off by what I thought was 2 birds. After 20 minutes of back and forth the birds pitched out and glidded over the tree tops and into the field with my decoys. They immediately went into strut and approached my DSD feeder. I was very nervous about them being bunched up and not providing a solo shot so when the lead bird split away and circled the decoy I took my shot. He dropped like a rock in his tracks but his companions seemed undeterred by his demise. One jumped on him spurring and pecking and ultimately violated both him and my feeder. 2 jakes then walked into the field and for the next 45 minutes I sat and watched them do turkey things until they finally drifted away. I've been blessed with another great season so far and hope to be able to have some more wonderful mornings in God's great creation in the month of April. More pics to follow as I get them downloaded. He only weighed 15 & 1/2 lbs, 9 & 3/4 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

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3seasons

That's awesome, huge congrats on a tough state to bag a bird in.

xarcher

 X2 on the congrats and AL being a tough state. 6 week season and a 5 bird bag limit educates a lot of birds.

Guns don't kill people.  Guns kill food.

3seasons

Quote from: xarcher on April 02, 2019, 07:43:25 AM
X2 on the congrats and AL being a tough state. 6 week season and a 5 bird bag limit educates a lot of birds.

That's a big misconception by a lot of people that look at the season date and the limit.  You'd think that with a 5 bird limit that bagging a bird would be easy, but that's as far from the truth as it could be.  People will go hunt Alabama and realize its not gonna be a cake walk in a hurry.  But its a challenge and I love a good challenge. 

xarcher

My experience in Alabama has been exclusively in the northern mountains near the TN border for the last 10 years.  Usually take a trip every year and hunt for a 3 or 4 day weekend.  So let's say a total of 35 days hunting.  Have only killed 3 turkeys.  And I can also say that I've had toms inside killing range maybe another 12 times.  Out of those, have only laid eyes on them 1 time.  They do what their instincts tell them.  Get close but don't commit and make hen commit.  Problem is with mountain turkeys, there is usually a bench or ridge between you and him.  And they find a way to use it.  Was there last week and twice had one inside gun range.  First one I called 4 hens into my lap but he stayed on the other side of a little finger of rocks gobbling and drumming.  The hens walked off and I called them back into my lap.  He still wouldn't come in.  Later that afternoon I set up in a spot with lots of sign and soft called for 2 hours.  Stood up to try another place and there's a longbeard at 50 behind a rock.  He gone. 

And about 4 years ago, my buddy and I had three 2 year olds hang up in gun range but out of sight for 1.5 hours.  Gobbled the whole time.  Most intense turkey hunt I've ever been on.  So I eventually belly crawled about 50 yards away, set up, and threw 3 soft yelps over my shoulder.  15 seconds later my buddy killed one walking down his gun barrel. 

I can honestly say for every 1 turkey I've killed in AL, I've killed or called in for others about 10.  Now Alabama birds don't know they are in Alabama so I don't subscribe to the theory that just because you are in state X the turkeys are tougher to kill.  But like I said above, when there is a 6 week season and a 5 bird bag limit, that puts alot of hunters in front of alot of turkeys.  They wise up real fast.   And combine that with the mountain terrain limiting your range, and they can sure humble any hunter out there. 

But isn't that why we go back???  And doesn't that make us better turkey hunters???

Guns don't kill people.  Guns kill food.

harleytom

Yep, those ridge runner are tough. I was fortunate those 3 were roosted without hens on the ridge behind me in the pic. I have a feeling until the "headache" season arrives the hunting will be much tougher.

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