Well, the annual trip to Alabama was a bust. had a flat. Lost my cell phone and didn't kill a turkey. (but that last part wasn't due to a lack of action). Evidently I am just a mediocre turkey hunter.
On the first day,one gobbled seven or eight times from the roost 150 or so yards away, but he then shut up. After a while I decided he wasn't coming, so I went after him. I eased into the area where I figured he had roosted. In about 10 minutes I had a hen yelping at me from behind. I spun around thinking she would drag him to me. As she and I were yelping back and forth, he started hammering from way up on top of the ridge.
I was not excited about climbing it, but when the hen didn't come to me and headed to him instead, I figured my only chance was to climb up after him. I eased up the side of the ridge hoping not to be seen by him or the hen that was headed up the other side. I got about 20 yards from the top and set up in a clump of brush.
I clucked and he immediately gobbled. I could hear him spitting and drumming. I could hear walking in the leaves. Straight up the ridge or to the right? Straight up? To the right? I couldn't decide where it sounded like the walking was headed, but ultimately I figured it was straight up. I point my gun in the direction I hear walking, click the safety off and wait ... and there she is. The hen standing there looking at me from 20 yards. She didn't like what she saw and stepped back out of view. But I still hear leaves to my right. I turn to see him coming down the hill in a half strut at about 30 yards but there is some brush between him and me. I continue tracking him with the bead on his head, but by the time he clears the brush, he is at 60 yards at least.
I make a plan to be on that long finger ridge the following morning - which meant getting up early and getting in there, crossing a creek, all without a flashlight and quietly. Well, when I didn't hear anything at daybreak, I figured I made too much noise coming in, and it wasn't too much longer before the sun topped the horizon and lit me up like a Christmas tree. I was contemplating other threes that I might be more hidden in the shade when a hen yelped. Again, I'm thinking she may lead him to me. I figured she already was on the ground. I yelped back. And she yelped again, and that is when I saw her pitch out of the pine about 100 yards in front of me. She is sailing right at me and hit the ground 10 steps from me. Of course she immediately saw me and headed up the hill putting the whole way.
At this point I started thinking (rarely a good idea). Every other bird roosted with her or nearby (the gobbler included) now know something is up and will pitch farther up the ridge cutting me out of the entire equation. So I ducked below the edge and climbed about halfway up. In hindsight I should have stayed put. But, I yelped, and immediately heard a hen yelp as she pitched out of the tree to the bottom of the ridge and climbed to me. Again and again and again the same scenario played out. That day, I was very popular with the ladies. A little later, I heard him spitting and drumming, but I couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from, but he never showed himself.
The following day, I go after another bird and get one gobbling at daybreak. problem: he is smack in the middle of a section marked "Safety Zone: No Hunting" - for reasons that are not relavent to this story other than to say it is in the middle of the woods with no apparant safety concern. I know people hunt in it. I have heard shots in it, but I play by the rules - ethical and legal. So I poured over the map and set up as close as I could get on the edge of the safety zone - about 300 yards. he gobbled about three more times before he died from a gunshot in the middle of the safety zone.
It was a great trip (aside from having a flat tire and losing my cell phone) and in hindsight, I guess I'm just a mediocre turkey hunter. And I'm not really sure what I could have done differently to turn those failures into successes. But the good news in this story is that the season hasn't even opened yet in Tennessee.
