My Franchi and I will send you to Turkey Heaven.
So the story begins the night before when I accidentally deleted all my saved info about the lease in VA i have been hunting. I decided after I was done taking my friend's son I would drive all the roads and walk the main trails to trace them all into the app.
As it so happened the birds on the farm I had the boy on were absolutely silent, which is very unusual for there. At 930 I could tell he was bored so I took him home and proceeded to the lease to get my plan into action.
I drove 85% of the roads and walked 2 very long trails and got them traced. I had one more to trace but it was getting up near 11 and 82 degrees, according to the truck thermometer...still this was a very important trail to have mapped out as it serves as reference for many turkey killing strategy sessions.
I got to where I start to walk and decided I would take the bare minimum with me and possibly call in a couple spots. About halfway out the trail my friends the deer let me know they were as happy as ever to see me and snorted with reckless abandon. I was thrilled at their warm and raucous greeting.
After we exchanged pleasantries and I told the deer exactly where they could go I happened to notice this particular area was very well shaded, the deer were bedded, and I was not sweating as I had been walking other trails. I thought...this may be a good place for a gobbler to spend a hot mid-day in May. I proceeded about another 1/4 mile, which took me around the side of another ridge and hollow and hopefully away from the sound of the previous deer greeting.
As I made my away around I noticed the hollow I was now in was even darker than the last so I decided if I was going to call now would be a good time.
I got myself situated next to an autumn olive, pulled out one of my ceramic calls and some dymondwood and let er rip. I was immediately met with two booming gobbles and the immediate realization there was not a large tree within 10 yards of me. I bailed in against a small tree with some dead limbs behind it and began my wait. Finally I could hear him coming through the leaves below the tiny trail I had been standing on. The shadows made it impossible for me to see him so I just followed the sound slowly with my gun. He finally stepped into the light however he was far enough to my right I could no longer hope to shoot him right handed. Slowly I moved the gun over to my left shoulder but before I could get my head down he stepped into the shadows again. I gave him 3 soft yelps with a mouth call but no response.
I waited a couple min and didn't see him so I crawled over to the edge of the road like the Grinch sliding through those poor Who houses. No bird! I carefully got back to my previous spot and collected my call and striker, which had been previously thrown to the ground, and proceeded to head back in the direction of the truck.
Once I was sure I was out of possible sight of the gobbler I let him have another sequence on the ceramic and was again greeted with multiple gobbles. I again piled against a tree but soon realized I couldn't see much of anything from there. Presently I moved low and quick to another tree and got my gun ready. I gave him a few more good volleys with the ceramic to which he hammered back like it was his job. I then went as silent and still as I could.
Once again I heard him in the leaves and I was prepared....until the leaf crunching stopped. I waited a bit and then caught his movement strutting up in the road I was overlooking before. I got the gun turned his way and was ready to let him have it when he turned and put his fan up again. At this point I am already running scenarios through my head of what I am going to do if He heads away again. Just shortly after I had decided I was in real trouble he turned facing down the hollow and gave a thunderous gobble. I knew @ this point he was the one in trouble. I gave him the same 3 soft yelps he heard before and he immediately hit the leaves again, of course directly behind the oak tree between he and I. I heard his footsteps stop behind the tree and patiently waited for him to pick a side. I was pointed left, he went right and hit an opening. I made an exaggerated and deliberate swing of the gun that caused him to stop and crane his head an d neck up. As our great team captain put it.....It was then a matter of reducing him to simple possession.
