This year was a little different, typically with any season that is going to open (deer, turkey, DUCKS) I get very OCD and it is all I can think about for weeks before the time comes. Not this year, that fire just wasn't there for turkeys like in years past. Was it my undying love for waterfowl that never leaves? Was it the fact that the New baby is almost here, 3 year old, and getting the house ready to put up for sale? Was working my regular 8 hour job on top doing some "other ventures" from home? Who knows, it could of been a number of things. I left work a little early Friday because I had nothing around for the opener and needed to locate all my goods for Saturday morning before I made my daily trip to daycare for my little angel.
Pull into to Dad's at 4 AM Saturday to make the 1.5 hour ride to his lease and I still just didn't have that fire but of course I wasnt going to miss the opener. The Spring woods are just to beautiful and paint the perfect picture of the sites God has made for us!
Dad and I have both only shot one turkey a piece, his a jake that came in by himself a few years ago (I wasnt with him) and me with Bollweevil and BertieNC down east two season ago so we have yet to shoot one while hunting together.
Back to the hunt, we pull in the gate at exactly shooting time......somehow we were late but its OK we have the whole season. Dad wanted to try something different and as opposed to running and gunning just setting up on a slash that he had seen several turkeys in both the spring and fall. We get settled in and here four separate birds first thing. Only one of the birds would answer me but it would be a couple minutes after I call and it was only one gobble each time and he was still 200+ yards away. Around 7:30, no more gobbles. We stay put seeing what will happen and I call every 15 minutes or so, ended up calling in a hen but she continued on past after she noticed it was just a local hoochie hen talking crap LOL!
9 AM comes around and we pick everything up and walk to a little field in the middle of the woods between us and the truck...nothing. We unload some of our stuff and decide to walk around a bit and see if we can get a little action. Walk about 300 yards or so calling every so often to no avail but we did bump a lone hen out of a dust bowl. Anyways we turn around and head back towards the truck but I wanted to try one more spot where we have struck up a bird before so we did. Now we have walked past this little creek bottom 3 times prior calling and have heard nothing but we decide to cut the distance between the main road and the cutover on the passage road (which is only about 100 yards long) and give it a shot.
I give it one series of yelps and GOBBLE! YES!! He was only 75 yards away!!!! We get set up and wait a minute, hit the call GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE! Alright here we go, but he sounds like he turned and started the other way. I give him a minute, gave him a series on my mouth call and BAM GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE and he is coming strong. Now I have been down this road several times in the past few years but something always goes wrong, whether it is being busted, not getting a shot, etc. Anyhow, this bird is HOT and coming fast and furious. Not being able to take it I probably over called but when a bird is that hot and gobbling its hard not to do. I would call he would cut me off and vise versa. This bird gobbled 50+ times in a 10 minute window and it couldn't have worked any better. He finally got close enough to where he quite gobbling, and we could hear him spitting and drumming. I could see his silhouette through the brush but it was THICK and could never make out his head. I noticed at that point dads gun was not up and I could tell he was in a "Gobblin Fog" and was not paying attention to anything but the bird. I whisper "he's about to step on the road, get your gun up......he doesnt....I whisper again "Dad I got him" bc his gun is still not up and at this point the bird was close enough that if I let last nights beans rip he would of headed for the hills. He finally steps onto the road full strut, as I see him peak out at 15 STEPS, not yards but steps, and I take aim. WELL, in the mili-seconds this is all taking place, I see out of the corner of my eye dad's gun swinging around and so does this ol' tom. He takes an immediate jump into flight and simultaneously catches two rounds of T98's that sounded like one.. Needless to say the bird was lifeless before his beak hit the dirt. Dad and I both look at each other saying "Did you shoot" and needless to say we both did LOL! First heard this bird at 9:15 and he was dead by 9:30. What an AWESOME HUNT!
This bird is the first that I called in AND killed and the first Dad and I have been together for. Yes, we both shot the bird (which was very apparent by the two separate areas of dealthy T98 impact LOL) and I would not have had it any other way!!!!!! Definitely one of those birds that I will NEVER forget! I wish the fan hadn't gotten so beat up as I wanted to do a mount for Pap for Father's day but maybe I can get everything back together as I picked up most of the feathers.
Thank you Lord, The fire is back!!!!!! One more tag and four weeks to fill it, can I do it??
10" beard
1" matching spurs
19.5 lbs
