I wanted to share this story because although I was not the shooter I called this bird in for a friend, who has able to take his first ever turkey.
My friend and I hunted hard all day last sat. 5/9/15 and he has never killed a bird as mentioned above, he had one great opportunity on a nice bird on opening day and missed. I felt compelled to get him another shot at redemption so he wouldn't be dwelling on the fact his first ever chance he whiffed. I by no means am a turkey assassin, I've only shot two birds in my lifetime, but everything I've learned hunting these awesome animals has been self taught, and the last two years I've gotten two birds and feel like I'm starting to understand the behaviors and read them. I love watching these birds come in on a dead sprint or hearing them run the woods to the sound of the call, I'm 28 yrs old and wish i would have started hunting turkeys much sooner in life. Fast forward back to saturday morning we got setup we had the gobbler pinned down from the night before left enough space to him approximately 150 yds, and he had absolutely zero interest in us as five plus hens put on a show for him to lure him away from us. We go back to lunch around noon, and my buddy has to mow the yard, and says he'll be back around 4, so I scouted out the south side of the property and killed time until he could be back out. We decided when he got back that we were going to split up one on the NE side of the property and the other on the SW side of the property. After going up to the NE side of the property for 2 hrs and not hearing a bird as the wind began to howl out of the NE around 6 p.m. i decided to abandon my post and join up with friend who was sitting on the SE side. I quietly joined up with him as I was walking I heard a gobble that was to the west of the property in another woods thats across the street. When I got to his spot I could barely find him he was hid so well and I told him that if something comes from the west he will never see us in this spot. I setup the DSD jake with breeder hen and feeder hen off to the side, and was actually feeling great about our chances we just needed a contestant to participate. It's now 6:15 and shortly there after I hear another gobble, and I thought I would see if he rips again in the next 20 mins if he does I'll call to him. Sure enough he rips again approximately five minutes later and he sounds somewhat close approximately 300 - 400 yds. I call to him on the box call and I get no response, I let about a half hour go by before i call again and no response. Another twenty mins go by and I let off a series of agressive yelps and cuts on the box call to try and get a response no response. Its now 7:15 and I'm beginning to think man it's just not your buddies year he had his chance and pissed it down the drain on opening night. Around 7:45 I let off another sequence of calls this time on the slate call as the wind suddenly stopped blowing and let off several mins of purrs and clucks very sporadically. At 8:05 I texted my girlfriend and said this sucks I feel bad for my friend we are hunting such an incredible spot, I can't believe he is going to have to wait until 2016 to get a bird. Now keep in mind our shooting time was up at 8:45 pm on saturday. My friend and I began making plans for fishing potentially the following weekend and all of the sudden I swear I hear a spit from roughly 70 yds away. I slowly pure over my shoulder and look, to my surprise there is nothing. I let out a couple of purrs and pick up where we left off talking about fishing when not a minute later I hear another spit, but this time it's close. I whisper to my buddy and say there's a turkey nearby no sudden movements, he thinks I'm joking with him. When all of the sudden I slowly peer around to the right of and there he is, all strutted out at 50 yards. He comes running down the woods line to the decoys looking to fight the jake decoy when he stops at 15 yds and gives my friend the perfect shot, he had his gun up and ready he lets his 12 gauge rip and the bird just folds and I look over at him and say well not bad for only having 15 mins of shooting time left on our "last day of the season" . My buddy puts his gun on safe and I mean he is speechless, hes making all sort of guttural sounds because he can't even put a sentence together hes high fiving me and fired up. I know my long winded story has made every attempt to capture the moment of the excitement he has. I will never forget the look on his face, and no one will ever be able to take away the feeling of pride I had knowing I was able to get the bird into a shooting range for him. At that moment I realized how much I love to turkey hunt and just love to watch the way they work and interact with the hunter. I can't wait for our 2016 season already.
