My early turkey hunting years, I hunted one bird several unsuccessful seasons using field edges, roads and saddles. On the last day of that WV season I did a 180 on him. I went in an hour before sunrise, as usual, but set up on the lone wide tree on the only "hunt-able" flat of a steep river face WV "hill". As I went to place my decoy, I bumped several deer that ran straight toward where he usually roosted. As civil twilight began, he began to gobble. I then threw some tree calls at him. It didn't impress him but a red tail hawk decided to harass me. Despite the hawk making a fuss, the Tom remained tight lipped. Once the hawk could see me, it flew way in his direction. After things calmed down I called again - Nothing. The river valley wind picked up some and the rocky soil let me down as my decoy flopped over. Thinking that I had nothing to loose, I crawled out to stand up my decoy. I took my shotgun just in case he showed up. On my way back to my tree he gobbled. He apparently liked the crunching leaves. He was clearly on the ground and low on the hill side. I scrambled to my tree. Turning to get set up low on my tree I caught a glimpse of him at about 150 yards cresting the edge below. I took a deep breath, rested my gun on my knee and spot welded my cheek to the stock. Then panic set in, my 3M adhesive Stick on fiber optic back sight was GONE. Just then he announced his arrival with one more gobble and stepped up and into my decoy. The decoy flopped again. While he stood there, I then sighted down my rib vent and pulled the trigger. He dropped in place at 15 steps. My biggest bird to date, 11 inch beard with 1.5'' spurs.
Lets hear about your lucky hunt
RB
Awesome story. This past season entailed one of my luckiest hunts. My hunting partner and life long best friend went after a few birds that we had saved for the very end of the season. We ended up getting a late start after driving rain moved out around 10am. When we got out of the truck, the bird I eventually killed was gobbling. We set up on a ridge above the gobbler. He was on the edge of a large swamp. I yelped, he cut me off. He gobbled again closer. I cut him off with and he triple gobbled. I figured the bird would be dead within 30 seconds. Well he wanted to enjoy life for another 30 minutes. He went directly away from us gobbling every breath. He crossed a small bottom that was part of the bigger swamp full of briers and mud up to your knees. He proceeded to gobble on the next hill over for 15 minutes every breath. We decided we had to get on that ridge with him. So as we're fighting the swamp thicket he went through to get to the hill, he gobbles and he's close. 40 yards close. We were in briars up to our waists. There were two trees directly in front of us with an opening about 10 yards by 10 yards just beyond that. All we could do was hunker up against the trees and pray he came to the opening. I clucked and purred once on my copper Hersh trough call and he went off. Gobbled and strutted every step to 7 yards. We heard him drumming the entire way but never saw him until he hit the opening. I put an arrow in him and once he finished flopping, we found the hooks. 1 5/8" spurs 10.5" beard 20#. The craziest turkey hunt I've ever been a part of and the best bird I've ever killed. He's at the taxi right now. I figured if I didn't mount a bird that good after a hunt that unbelievable, I never will.
Keep this thread going. Love these stories
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Calling a gobbler across a river & a main highway & killing it with a 20 Gauge !
I killed the bird below about 3 years ago... I had promised to be home for a family event on my wife's side, and my time window was short.
I had to leave at 9:30 am (as in, in the truck and driving)... Bird answered me at 8 am, and slowly made his way to me. He hung up at about 100 yards in a steep draw below me, and would come no further.
It was quite a walk out (logging road going down a canyon), and finally at 9 am I called it and started to walk out (at a fairly good pace). I was calling as I was walking the road, and apparently the idea of the hen leaving him set the bird into gear. As I closed in on the truck, the bird stayed with me... As I got close to the truck, I sat down and shut up, and low and behold, that bird came out of that draw and walked down the logging road right to me.
I killed the bird about 3/4 of a mile from where I was originally hunting him and that much closer to the truck... Snapped off a couple of pictures (using the timer) and was in the truck by 9:25 and home about 10 minutes before my curfew....
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Shot a make several years ago. It was probably the coolest hunt I've been on for a while. Buddy and I set up and didn't hear a peep. Heard birds fly down but not a single gobble. We sat and discussed our plan of attack to get on a bird and then a bird gobbled as we were getting ready to get up. He was still on the roost directly behind us. I'd not killed a bird with a shotgun in years and didn't get to hunt much the previous couple years so hadn't killed a spring bird for a while. Needless to say, he and his buddy came off the roost behind us. I swung the gun and watched Happy's eyes get quite large. Birds went behind a huge oak tree and I motioned for him to get on out of the way. He stretched out on the ground and the birds peeked out to see what was up. Pulled the trigger and the rest was history. First bird I'd shot with shotgun in years and had a blast doing so.
One other would be the big bird I shot 2 years ago. Heard him gobble on property I'd never hunted before. Was walking to get my permission slip about 45 minutes before daylight when he gobbled. Halfway to where the landowner said he'd leave the slip he gobbled again. Tried to get him to gobble again but couldn't. Figured he was farther off so I stood under a towering oak waiting for daylight so I could see what I was doing. Moved forward about 15 yards and set up. Birds gobbled but not the one I'd heard. Tried working them but to no avail. Was going to make a move on them once I realized they weren't going to come to me. Started to get up and my bird gobbled again. He was in the big oak that I stood under waiting for daylight. Flew down and landed about 70 yards away. He looped back and came to about 25-30 yards when I put the hurt on him. True 12" beard (not measuring the gristle) and 1.5" Spurs. Bird was over 20# but I can't recall the exact weight at this time.
A few years ago it was in the lower 20s at dawn so I slept in, arriving at my lucky tree around 8:30 a.m. I had just set my decoy bag down, loaded my shotgun, and leaned it against my lucky tree when a hen ran past followed by a gobbler, both of which had been spooked by another hunter. I grabbed my shotgun and dropped him running away at about 30yards. I was back at my truck about 20 minutes after I'd first left it!
Mine occurred many years ago, when there weren't near the number of turkeys as now. I live in upstate NY, on Lake Ontario. I was about halfway through the season and, although I had several birds located at the beginning, I only knew where one was...down close to the PA border. I drove down there several times after him but to no avail...couldn't get him. So, Memorial Day weekend was upon us and we were going to my mother's down near Pittsburgh. I told the wife...let's pack up the kids and hit the road at 2:00 AM so I can stop at that spot and try that bird once more. First time he came in on a string...BOOM.
Years ago I was having a rough year. Birds were really tight lipped and i was struggling. Seemed like everything I did was wrong and I just couldn't catch a break. I was walking and calling and had already covered a good two mile stretch and hadn't heard a peep. I finally found two longbeards eating grasshoppers all by themselves in a large field. One was a two year old but the other was a sure Nuff hoss. Couldn't see spurs thru the binos but he had an 11 inch beard easy. That a slammer up here in these mountains. The grass is only 6 inches or so high and there are a smattering of small pine trees here and there. I hit the ground and start crawling, keeping the last pine tree between us. About 30 yards into the maneuver I come face to face with a nice snake. After the initial adrenaline rush I realized he was a black snake and harmless. Using my shotgun barrel I finally got him out of my line of travel and the birds seemed none the wiser. I finally made it to the last pine and quickly got the gun ready and gave a set of yelps. The birds didn't even pick their heads up. A few minutes later I gave him a hard cutting sequence and watched his head go from red to white almost instantly. Game on! He started coming my way at a fast walk and gobbled a few times. About the time he hits the 65-70 yard mark I hear a sweet set of yelps to my right. Still on my stomach I slowly turn my head and a hen is walking by at 20 yards and you know the rest of the story. She went right to them and it was over. Wasn't a thing I could do about it. After they left I got up. I was mad and frustrated. Saying the heck with it I started back to the truck. About halfway back I cot a spot where I had previously sat and called for an hour or so. I decided to take a shortcut thru a thicket. There were some nice trails through it and the walking was easy. I was moving through at a good clip and came around a turn and there he was. Full strut with a hen laying down in front of him. I dropped to one knee and as I did so the hen got up, nervously clucking. She started to walk off and he stretched his neck up to see what all the fuss was about. I promptly clobbered him and it was over. It was pure luck and I knew it. Was thankful for the gift tho.
A few years ago I was running late, it was already light when I hit the woods. I decided to go to an area that I normally went to later in the morning. When I got there I bumped a bird off the roost, as soon as he hit the ground and started running I shot him. I didn't even get to sit down and I was headed home.
This years crossbow kill may qualify. My friend and I arrived at a KS WIHA on the last day of bow hunting season for a late morning hunt. After dropping off my friend and telling him to text me when he was ready to be picked up I realized I left my phone back at camp. Drove back to camp got the phone and was back in 15 minutes. Opened the gate to the pasture, cocked my crossbow and a bird gobbled. Thank goodness I was in the fence row because before I could take a step 2 mature gobblers were coming across the pasture directly towards me. I dropped next to a small tree and was able to get a 2 reed diaphragm in my mouth. One short series of calls and they both were 20 steps in front of me. The second bird turned broadside and the bolt put him down without a flop. I was 20 yards from the gate and 50 yards from my Jeep. If not for returning for my phone I would have been much deeper in this property and would not have been in position to see these birds.
Got quite a few that come to mind. Gotta love those gift birds.
First one is an eastern. I hunted a Saturday, and called a bird in right from the roost. Textbook, uneventful hunt until I pulled the trigger and he flew off. Very strange, but I just shook it off as a freak miss. Another state opened up the following day, and I was hunting virgin ground. All the spots I had scouted turned up dry, so I thought my best bet was to scout and hunt a different piece I'd never been in to learn it too. It was raining and there was a ton of underbrush that got us soaked every step we took. Didn't take me long to decide this was miserable, so we got in the truck and drove to the other side of this piece of public land where there was a fire break road we could walk and at least stay dry. We walked almost the whole road without so much as an answer other than a bird that was well off the public land right at the truck. We were about to turn around when the road went through some knee deep water around a cranberry bog, when we got an answer (of course on the opposite side of the bog). He was the only game in town, and there was no way for us to get through the swamp and thick stuff, so we set up right on the fire break. Not long into the hunt, I hear what sounds like acorns dropping into the water, and realize its the tom walking through the water that had to be up to his belly or deeper. He stepped into the clear in full strut at about 20 yards, and as soon as he broke strut, I proceeded to MISS again! He took off, but a quick follow up shot broke a wing and a leg. Head up, I took aim again and he never flinched. I grabbed my buddies gun and finished him off. Turns out, my choke tube had a crack in it I didn't notice and the pattern was obviously blown out because of it. On the way out, the bird that was way off the public land had come looking for us, and we killed a second bird not 200 yards from the truck. Lucky we found birds the first time into a spot, lucky I hit the bird with that second shot, and lucky it didn't kill me in the process, and lucky the second bird wanted that hen so bad he covered a half mile looking for us.
We went back to a different spot the next day (again, had never set foot in this place) and got beat to the area by another hunter. We parked and immediately heard several birds gobbling back where I assume this guy was, so we took the long way around and ran into a different bird. We got to a power line and realized this bird was across the road on private land by several hundred yards. He flew down about the time we got to the road, and it was obvious he was headed our way so we backed off the road a bit and set up on the powerline (I took my buddies gun this time). I couldn't see it, but my buddy who didn't have a tag got to see the whole show. This bird stood at the edge of a busy road and gobbled every time a car came by, until it was clear. Then he crossed the road and marched right down the powerline to us. I had to wait for him to clear the metal girters of the pole before I shot him. 3 birds on public land in a state we'd never hunted, on land we'd never set foot in in less than 3 hours hunting.
Several years ago, on the last day of Kentucky's spring season, I got to my spot late. Really late! I was heading to a field edge to see if I could find a bird to get after. As I am walking, a bird gobbles out in the field. I peeked over the rise just to see which direction he was headed. I thought to myself, I'll ease up to the corner of the woods and try to put out a decoy. I start heading that way up the adjacent field edge to get to the point and I had made it about 75 yards when I looked up and seen the bird standing 100 yards away at the corner I was headed to. I am standing in a field with my gun and a feather flex decoy. I didn't know what to do. I slid the decoy down the edge of my leg and stuck her in the ground. I slowly start walking backwards towards the wood line. I sit down beside a tree about as big as a baseball bat. As soon as my butt hit the ground, I looked up and here comes this bird running at the decoy wide open in full strut. The dummy watched me sit down and still came in!!! I killed him at 20 yards.
This bird in 2011, I was doing a flash hunt before work and had until about 7:30AM to hunt. He gobbled around 6:30AM straight in front of me so I found a big pine to sit against and proceeded to do multiple flydowns with the wings I carry with me. I figured I would give him all I could and see what happened, I kept switching calls to sound like the multitude of hens he had "heard" and was scratching in the leaves with stick on both sides of the tree. He finally gobbled in a different position so I knew he was coming my way so down went the sticks and up went the gun. When he finally stepped into view at the crest of the ridge I was sitting on he took a dirt nap and proceeded to flop down the steep side of the ridge away from me so I ended up slipping and falling on top of him yanking alot of feathers from the base of his tail fan. Here he is:
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23#'s, 1.5" spurs and 10.5" beard. Biggest VA gobbler I've killed ever. My threshold for mounting had been set at anything 22#'s or bigger and he was it. Killed some close to since but nothing with spurs that long. I feel like I had hunted him for at least 2 seasons prior because of the location of where he roosted.
I feel pretty lucky every time I kill one.... Way back in high school I was walking across a cow pasture to get to my hunting spot I was walking along a cow path the grass in the field was about ankle high. right out in the middle of the field, on the same path I was on, :OGturkeyhead: :OGturkeyhead: a turkey had squatted, I didn't see it until I was 25 yards from it so I froze and it stayed there its head started getting reder an reder I eased my gun up and he stood up big long beard.. he didn't make it . only thing I could think of was he saw me coming and just squatted unlucky for him I was on same path he was on. not much of a hunt as far as calling him up but ill never forget that one for sure
I was in NY a long while back. The birds were there,but silent. On the last day of one of my four day hunts. I had and put awhole bunch of miles on my boots. Hot and tired from lack of sleep,Sweaty,black fly infested,and ready to throw in the towel. It's 11:30 am you can only hunt till 12, Can you get a visual on that? We've all be there a time or two. I took short break. Wiping the sweat I reach in the back of my vest to grab the last sip of warm water before I start heading back.
Then it happens....
The lone crow fly over, CAWWWWWW! > GrrrrrrrObbbbbbbObbbbbbObbbbble!
Less then a 100 yards down a small gulle. Scurried quick to set up. Cluck,cluck,purrrrr. An ever sooooo soft yelp....
BOOOM! My luckiest harvest.
:turkey:
luck certainly can help on a lot of different hunts but I can think of a bird that I never had to call to that I would say I used a bad situation to get lucky on. Cold front blows in and its miserable for mid May 32 Degrees, snowing and winds howling at 30+ mph made the weekend almost impossible to hunt turkeys they way I'd like. I do manage to spend a couple of hours making several attempts at setting up on 2 birds and their 4 hens but nothing worked. Either they weren't gobbling, couldn't hear me, would go the other way or for a breif moment seemed interested but un-willing to cross a creek. I managed to roost them that evening and planned to hunt them one final day before I went home. Next morning was more of the same wind and freezing cold but I was there early and looped above their roost to a semi sheltered pasture where they were strutting the day before. It starts to get daylight and I see a truck in the distance driving down the farm lane, at this time of the morning its either the farmer or another turkey hunter. Well the truck stops under the hill and then I hear an owl hoot, and another and another. This guy must have seen the birds as well the evening before because in the early morning light he's walking across the filed blasting away on this owl hooter after 10 or so attempts on the owl hooter he starts ripping on a pot call then goes back to the owl hooting all the time walking straight for the roost. I knew exactly what was going to happen those birds could see him coming across the open and when he got inside the woods they were all going to blow out of the trees and they would fly across the creek onto the hillside and use a thick band of pines to slip away and over the hill. I slipped down the hill and into the band of pines and got to a stone wall when I hear wing beats and sure enough the hunter had bumped the birds and they all flew across the creek as I can see them landing on the bottom edge of the pines so I duck behind a large pine and sure enough very slowly and cautiously they walked straight up the hill through the pines to me all the while that hunter is still down in the creek bottom a few hundred yards away still hitting his calls as loud as can be to punch through the wind I tagged a nice mature tom at 19 steps without making a noise.
Honestly had it not been the last day of my hunt and horrible weather I would have let the birds walk and gone and found a gobbling bird to work but I had gotten beat bad by this bird and his pals the day before and spent the 2 days prior just trying to locate birds so I figured the history and conditions made the hunt worth while and I punched the tag.
About 15 years ago I was hunting at my old lease in Granville County, N.C. Normally, I might expect to hear gobbles from a few different birds around the lease and on the adjoining land. That morning there was nothing happening. At all. It was almost too quiet. I moved towards the back of the property hoping that I might be able to raise some action near an area where the turkeys traditionally liked to loaf around mid day. Nothing doing. I hung there until 11:15 and had to take a nature break. I slowly looked around before I stood, then eased over a few steps to take care of business. Just as I zipped up I heard the unmistakable flapping of turkey wings in front of me and caught sight of two birds scrambling up in the air, spurring each other near the edge of the logging road about 120 yards below me. I quickly sat back down and started scratching out some fighting purrs on my slate and purring as loud as I could on my mouth call to mimic their ruckus. Within a few minutes I saw turkey heads pop up looking for the other fight as they approached. They had to pass behind a low growing patch of river cane laced with briers, which allowed me to get the gun up and get ready to shoot. I could see their heads moving towards the edge of the cane and knew it was going to happen pretty quick. As soon as they were in the clear, I was preparing to drop the hammer on the bigger bird, but I had to let his head clear a small tree first. The smaller challenger made a lunge towards the big gobbler and both birds scrambled up in the air again. I waited until the bigger bird had his head up and I squeezed the trigger. CLICK. Oh, NO!!! Back at the truck, I'd eased a shell into the chamber and hadn't let the bolt slam closed on my Benelli, which didn't seat the bolt closed on the chamber. Luckily, the gobblers were too preoccupied with each other and instantly started fighting again. I was able to slide the bolt open far enough to reset the hammer and palm the bolt closed quietly enough in my gloved hand not to disturb the gobblers as they tried to settle their differences. I waited until they went behind a big pine and got the gun ready to roll. When the bigger bird stepped out, I clucked once on the mouth call to bring his head up and freeze him long enough to take the 19 yard shot. He weighed 22 pounds 10 ounces with a 10.75 inch beard and 1.25 inch spurs. Even though I never heard them gobble, I saw both birds strut and fight less than 25 yards from me. It was a hell of a show. I was extra lucky that they distracted each other long enough for me to re-cock the hammer and make the shot.
Jim
back about 8 years was my first season out on my own here in MI, I drew the 2nd general season which is only a week long running from Monday until Sunday. i had taken a nice bird the year prior with the help of my good friend and turkey mentor, but this particular year was mine to learn and grow on my own.
i clean missed a bird opening day and had many other near opportunities but just couldn't pull it all together and make it happen. I'll be honest that 7 days of hunting public ground had taken their toll and I was flat whooped by Sunday afternoon. It killed me to not notch a tag but I felt I had learned an incredible amount of knowledge, then it happened..
my phone rang and it was my friend/mentor, He was getting out of work and wanted to see how the days hunting had went. Not being content with me throwing in the towel with 3 hours left in my season, he told me to meet him asap near one of our public grounds so we could hop in together. As we pulled up to our spot he got a quick work call and he handled it quickly so we could hunt.
This spot is pretty small, basically a pine ridge running from the road in with lakes on each side . He hit one quick 3 Yelp call from the road and 3 birds hammer from up the ridge about 200 yds in. We scramble to get in off the road and had barely sat down when a bird 100 yards away is running down the ridge and disappears into a small valley about 50 yds out. Then another bird does the same thing followed by another. the 3rd bird gobbles on his own halfway down the ridge and the first 2 birds exit stage right at 75+ yds with no shot. We soon figure out why...
The 3rd bird pops up out of the valley at 40 yds and I let the nitro shell fly. 22# 11.25 beard and 1.5 hooks that were flat on each side like cat teeth. he was definitely the boss in this section.
Best part is that all this happened, we took a few pics, and we're back to the car only 6 minutes after my buddy took his phone call. So this was both my quickest and luckiest hunt, if it weren't for him I'd had finished that season empty handed. Lucky and blessed to have learned from one of the best!
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First bird i ever killed. I was a self learner on how to kill turkeys. That first turkey kill was over 30 years ago.
About 5 years ago, midmorning on PA public land. I was walking down a cleared trail, and let out a squawk on my box call...GOBBBBBBB...couldn't have been more than 50 yards away! I looked around for a tree to set up against, all I saw were thin beech saplings. I quick ran behind a blowdown, peeked out an opening, and saw him strutting in, ever so slowly. I screatched the leaves a little, and he beelined toward me. I shot him through the opening in the brush, saw him go down, couldn't have been more than 15 yards tops. I set my gun down, and started walking over to him. Suddenly he jumps up, and starts trotting down the trail!! I leaped back to the blowdown, grabbed my shotgun, came back into the trail, and took another shot at him on the run, he was probably 35 yards off by now. This time I know I hit him good, his head was down and he was just barely flopping. I made sure to bring the gun this time when I picked him up, LOL.
In my excitement, I left my facemask behind at the kill site. A week later, a buddy called and asked me if I had lost a facemask, I told him yes, and he brought it by on his way home. Lucky twice. ;)
Im gonna say that my luckiest turkey kill was my very first one. I dint have anyone in my family that turkey hunted,and turkey hunters are usually pretty tight lipped when it comes to killing birds so I went to the woods with a tag,2 decoys,my gun and a couple of calls that I could make turkey noises with but didnt know what sounds to make when. I had done some scouting and slipped into an area where I saw 20 plus turkeys feeding the night before right before dark. I put out my 2 foam decoys and waited till day light. When it started to get light I heard a turkey gobble twice. I made some noise on my call then put it aside. I looked at my watch(no phones then) and it was a minute from legal shooting time. Less than a minute later there was a gobbler standing looking at my decoys. I put the bead on his head and pulled the trigger he started flopping. After he nearly beat me to death with his wings I let him go and he finished his death flop. I rolled him over and saw his beard was over 10" and had over 1" spurs. I tagged him and was home before 0700.