Annual Oklahoma Recap - Oklahoma is ok!

[jblackburn]

Got back from my annual trek out to western Oklahoma from southern Louisiana. This year just one other buddy came with me since life happens and work sucks! With season opening on a Saturday and my wife insistent that we are going on a cruise while my kids and I are on spring break, we knew we only had Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning to make something happen. We were able to leave Thursday afternoon to scout Friday and had very high hopes since we found hard gobbling birds on three farms we have permission to hunt before 9:00 am and saw birds all day while driving and scouting. I'm a bad influence as this is my friend's second year turkey hunting and I think I've created a monster.

Mother nature is a cruel beast sometimes. We knew there was a rain chance for opening morning so we had prepared by bringing a blind - my least favorite way to turkey hunt, but hunting from a blind is better than a kick in the teeth so I was prepared to endure until the rain ended. We woke at 5:00, wide eyed and full of hope for opening morning, but no surprise there was rain. We dress and eat a bite and are finalizing plans for where to place the blind an all the other details of the day, when BOOM! Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Now, I realize you can't kill them from the couch, but sitting in a metal framed blind in western Oklahoma during a lightning event is pretty low on my priority list. We stand on the porch while the rain begins to pound harder the the lightning gets more frequent.  We decide that a little more sleep may not be a bad thing.

About 9:00, after a pile of biscuits and gravy, the rain stops and we bust out of the door and hit a close farm. We immediately strike a bird, make a move and he is nowhere to be found. Did we spook him? Did the neighbor spook him? Were we crazy and didn't actually hear a gobble? We will never know because we sat there until 10:30 twiddling our thumbs.  As good residents of Louisiana, we brought a very fresh sack of crawfish with us, so we headed back to the farm house and commenced to put on the best lunchtime crawfish boil this part of the world has ever seen.

After good fellowship with the landowner, the family, and neighbors, we headed to a known afternoon hotspot and were happy and sad to find there were already two strutters in the field.  After a game plan, we made the long way around to the killing tree that has seen several birds go down the last 5 years and nestled in. I began calling and was answered by one of the she-devils know as the boss hen. She was content with two boyfriends and led them straight away from us.  An hour or so later a gobble boomed from the canyon behind us. I began calling and he loved every bit of it and really got worked up when I gave him the silent treatment.  In a matter of 20 minutes he let out a gobble that was so close we both came unglued, however the neighbor's cows were pretty interested in the ruckus coming from under our tree. They put on a solid block that would make any defensive coordinator proud.  Last we heard from him he was 200 yards past us and not interested in turning around.

Fast forward and hour to about 6:00 pm a coyote decided howling was a fun thing to do while the sun was still up. Bless. His. Heart.  A gobble rang out a couple hundred yards in front of us (presumably the same bird) so I called.  He gobbled so hard I thought he choked. He could not gobble fast enough to get the next one out. I gave some excited yelps and cutts and he gobbled within 100 yards and was coming over the hill before I knew what happened. And the joker hit the brakes at 60 yards when he saw the decoys and acted like there was a wall there for 15 minutes. He finally broke the "in range" barrier and my buddy leveled him. He had a solid 10 inch beard and 1 1/8 spurs.

We sat there hoping another may fire up for me, but nothing happened until roost time when two started gobbling. I was game on for Sunday morning.

Remember mother nature? She's a b@$ch sometimes. Sunday morning was foggy. Like Louisiana foggy, but this is western Oklahoma!  Daylight visibility: about 15 yards. the good thing? They were gobbling early and I was able to get close and between them. The bad thing: one of gobblers flew down real early and passed within range just below me but I could not see him. But I could hear his drumming and his gobble vibrated my chest. They hooked up with one of those she devils and I don't have a clue where they went. I just know it wasn't where I was. It was foggy until 9:30! I sat until 11:30 and could take no more. We regrouped, ate lunch and went after it again. We split up and my buddy got into some birds and took a fine gobbler and was happy to report there were more gobbling where he was. I packed up and headed that way. We glassed from a high spot and saw a strutter with several hens, I made a move and somehow got around them and was able to take him!  Just over 20 lbs with a 10.5 inch beard and 1 1/4 spurs!  He made the 50th turkey I've taken.

We still had a lot of daylight left so we struck out to another farm and found a strutter!  I was up to bat again since my buddy had 2 down.  I made a move, had him gobbling, but I was an idiot and was looking in the evening sun and when I saw a half strut bird at 30 yards I let him have it. It's been several years since I shot a jake, I was happy to renew my club jake membership.  He's marinating as I type so I don't feel bad at all.

The next morning we split up and I went to where the jake mishap occurred and my friend went to another farm. I had the perfect set up, decoys in a little bowl only visible from the trees where the birds were roosted, I was between the two gobbling birds and mother nature gave us a wind and fog free BEAUTIFUL Oklahoma morning.  Just after daylight, and after a LOT of roost gobbles, one of them pitched down 75 yards from me and came toward the decoys. It was the other jake. Not wanted to be "that guy" two days in a row I elected to let him be and he gobbled at 10 yards like a man for 20 minutes.  The gobbler? He was content to stay in the tree and gobble until 7:45 . . . and then fly the other way to the other side of the creek. I hate turkeys. The jake heard his flock going the other way and made a break toward them. I made a move and realized quickly why the tom did not come my way. Hogs between me and them. Believing my last morning was ruined I opened fire and rolled a sow at 20 yards with TSS, she got back to her feet and ran off. In the mean time a very confused 40 pounder trotted by me at 8 steps and was met with a load of hevishot 6s (my back up load!) to the head and was very done very quickly.  I drug him out of the woods and to my decoys.  On a whim I let out excited yelps and cutts and that gobbler responded! 200 yards! other side of the creek! Still on the farm I'm on!

In the meantime, my buddy called in a group of jakes and tagged out with his first jake and membership to the club. Two years, 6 turkeys, not bad.

I make a move, cross the creek and crawl under a cedar tree 10 yards from the field edge. I was about to call when I look to my left and here they all come!  I squeeze off a shot and he drops!  It is so much better to be lucky than good.  He turned out to be one of my best. Just over 19 lbs, an 8.5 inch beard, and whopping 1 7/16 hooks!  After careful thought, I left him at a taxidermist. He'll be the first one I've got mounted.

It was full of lows, bad weather, and a sinus infection (which I still have), but it was worth it. Oklahoma is ok!

[Gobble!]

Good stuff congrats!

[tomstopper]

Nice write up. Congrats to you and your buddy

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[bigbird]

I'm glad you were able to get it done. Congratulations

[randy6471]

  Nice job. Congrats!

[Gooserbat]

Glad you left me some

[G squared 23]

I read the story in my head with a hefty southern accent.  Good write up

[zelmo1]

Great trip, great story and great friends. Congrats bro 

[ILHUNTER]

Sounds like a great trip, with its ups and downs, but we all know that's turkey hunting.

[boomer]

Congrats

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