Yesterday was the start of 4th season in Southern Illinois. I'm lucky enough to have two tags for the next 7days. I killed a bird first season( 2 weeks ago) and have been scouting different areas and know where several birds are.
Plan A was some private land that had a couple birds staying there and a couple more using the area but the day before I learned a friend was planning on being there and that was his only option for the day. So the evening before I went out and walked some public land that I had hunted earlier. I was mainly looking for sign of other hunters and was happy to see no boot tracks.
Thursday morning was clear cool 38° and no wind.I was standing at the edge of a slough and the birds were chirping,owls hooting,but no turkeys.
I stood there thinking that maybe I should have went to the hills and heard one fire off 200 or so yards on the other side of the slough. I headed off his direction and heard another deeper on the woods. The closer one gobbled just enough for me to have a good idea where he was. By now its light enough that the woods is almost silent. Im thinking he can't be more than 100 yards away so I found a suitable tree and sat down. The bird deeper in the woods was pretty vocal but the closer one had not made a sound in more than 5 minutes. I made 2-3 soft tree yelps made a fly down sound with my hat and sat there.
I thought I might have heard him fly down but a train went by and I was not for sure. I was fighting off the urge to get up and get about 50 yards deeper in the woods when I heard him gobble, he was close. I raised my gun and waited. Then I saw him about 50 yards out in the brush strutting. I made a soft call just so he knew where I was and scratched the leaves a little.He strutted straight for me. I was afraid that I was not his good enough so when he was about 40 yards and stopped I made sure my sights were on his waddle and squeezed. The second I pulled the trigger I Knew I had flinched. He rolled but was on his feet again and running right at me. A second shot and he was down for
good.Next thing I know I ran over to him and but my foot on his head. After his death flop was over I rolled him over and saw he looked to be a 2 year old . 23 pounds ,1" spurs,9" beard. The other bird started to get fired up and I really thought about going after him,but decided to leave him for another day. I looked at my phone and it was 0620.
