I have another report for you guys with another lengthy story. I had a couple high school/college buddies back in the area for the Easter season so we all decided to get together for a hunt on Friday morning. My one buddy had never even been turkey hunting before but wanted to give it a try. My other buddy has been with me in the past but has probably only shot less than five turkeys. We didn't have time to roost birds but went to an area that birds have been around. Got up there maybe 20 minutes before shooting light so we could see if we could hear some birds on the roost or wait for them to to feed and make a play. We were heading to our first spot driving next to some public land I didn't think would have any birds and I saw some blobs in a tree going past at 50 mph. Backed up and sure enough it looked like two hens and a tom. Couldn't believe it so we drove past and got our gear ready, and set up about 200 yards away. We were set up on a hardwood tree strip with a CRP field out in front of us. Right at shooting light a group of 5 hens and a tom come walking across the tall grass field and fly up into the roost where the others were. Never seen anything like that before so early in the morning and my only thought was they got spooked off another roost and went over to them. Anyway, the birds pitched down and right away they fed away from us with no responses from calling. After awhile my buddy who hadn't shot a turkey (he was first up) wanted to try and put a sneak on them. I reasoned that we can try a sneak to get closer and then see if we can call one over to us. After crawling a quarter mile we got within 150 yards and laid behind a cedar tree and called without a decoy. Luckily one of the toms came over perfectly. Took him forever to come the whole way but he put on a nice show and my buddy laid the hammer to him for his first gobbler!
Got back to the vehicle and went to find some more birds. Didn't take long to find some out in a CRP field spread out just feeding. As we were watching, a single tom started taking off to the far end of a tree row and a tom and a hen were starting to work down another tree row so we got set up in front of them and started calling. It was pretty breezy but I'm certain we didn't hear any responses. Within 10 minutes the single tom that had gone off for the other tree row popped up over a little rise and as soon as he saw our decoys he came running right in. It was probably 30 seconds from the time we saw him till he got shot by my other buddy. I assumed the tom and the hen were probably spooked off so I stood up right away and looked around and that other tom was right below that same rise and coming in strutting. So I sat back down really fast and he pops up over that rise 60 yards out and sees our decoys and you can tell he wants to come, but my buddies turkey is sitting there flopping still and I'm guessing he didn't like that. He turned around and off he went. We were that close to going 3 for 3 on the morning.
We drove around trying to find some more birds but didn't try very hard as it was pretty much time to get on the road. It was an incredible morning, one that I'll never forget. Getting my one buddy his first turkey was awesome, especially because I only get to see him every three years or so since him and his wife and kids live overseas. I was a little bummed I didn't get to fill my tag at the same time as that would have been pretty epic, but that just means I get to go hunting again!
