Tagged out in Alabama

[Beretta686]

Finally I have punched all my tags in Alabama.  I killed #4 a little over 2 weeks ago and have only missed 3 days since. Man I have been close, I have been on hammering turkeys 6 times and had them from 15-30 yards and could not pull the trigger. I guess that is what makes it so fun.

Yesterday I was feeling dejected after getting on a turkey and having him whoop me again when I friend called and told me he had a turkey tied out. He doesn't turkey hunt, but owns several hundred acres of land.  I don't ask to hunt, I just get invited. Anyway he said he had been seeing a big bird in the bottom pasture across the road from his mother's house.  I said sure I'm game. I have driven past the pasture 100 times and even hunted doves and fished in the bottom in the pasture before, but wasn't sure where the turkey was.

I brought up google earth and called my friend back. He said there were 2 birds, one pitches down and then walks up the hill between the 2 ponds to another pasture and the other pitches down in the southwest corner and then walks into the adjacent property. He said set up in the middle and split the difference. He told me I should be able to hop the back fence and sit along the creek. I had a game plan.

4a.m. came too fast, but I still was up before the alarm went off. It is amazing how your body can function on 4.5-6 hours of sleep when you get use to it. Anyway, I wanted to walk across the pasture in the dark so I got there at 5 am. With a full moon, the bottom looked kind of spooky with a blanket of fog in the moonlight.  I got to where I wanted to be, set the 2 hen decoys out (love Dave Smith Decoys) and hopped the fence. To my surprise there was a new fence and it was 15 yards from the creek, not on the creek. Not good, where am I going to set up. I couldn't lean on the fence, my gillie suit would hang all over the fence.  I had everything I needed in the truck; double bull blind, gobbler chair, heck comphy chairs for inside the blind. Well it was too late to walk back so I would just rely on my gillie suit. I found one little sapling about as big as a broom handle growing up in the fence and figured that was all I got for my set up.  With a hip replacement sitting Indian style is out of the question so I sat on my knees and heels. Not the best idea when I am still going to rehab on the torn ligaments in my ankle.  I figured I would just stretch them a little.

At 5:50 movement to my right caught my eye and I watched a turkey land in the pasture. The bird was about 150 yards to my right and was hard to make out in the fog. I purred and clucked a few times and was answered by 6 gobbles. He looked at the decoys and started the slow strut in. It took almost an hour for him to strut in to 30 yards at my 2 o'clock. My legs had long past the pain, sleep, and now were in the numbness stage. Now I hate pasture/field birds. I can't judge distance in the open. When he was strutting in I even pulled out my range finder to check the yardage to different spots before he got there, but the battery was dead. So I knew the decoys were 23 steps from the fence so I made an arch around to the direction the gobbler was strutting in. Now remember he was coming sloooooooooowwwwwly. The fog actually got thicker as the time past. Finally he passed the spot I figured was 30 yards.  With nothing but 5 strands of barb wire between me and the gobbler I began easing my gun up. Man I love a gillie suit.  I settled the cross hairs on his neck and let Ms. Wicked speak. The gobbler went down and was flopping, I tried to get up and my legs would not function. I got ½ way up and fell into the fence and my forehead looks like I got in a fight with a cat. I look up and the gobbler is running. Dang it, from my knees I shoot again and see him run up the pond dam. I couldn't do anything but pull myself up and stand there holding a fence post waiting for the feeling to come back to my legs and feet. I tried to take a step and my feet felt like cinder blocks and legs were jello. As I was standing there cussing myself for screwing up a hunt I noticed the fence was broken. I had shot a strand of wire in half. I kept watching up the hill and never saw the gobbler cross into the other pasture. When I got the feeling back in my legs I hopped the fence and went looking. I was looking in a ditch along side of the pond in the brush when I noticed something in the pond. There he was floating in the pond. I couldn't believe it. With water moccasins around a pond striping down to get in the water was out of the question. I waded in waist deep and was able to reach the gobbler with a stick.  

I called my friend and told him thanks and about the hunt. When I told him I would be back this evening to repair the fence, he said don't worry about it, he would have it fixed this morning. I thought  he  was going to wreck his truck he was laughing so hard about my hunt.


He's wet, but he's in the truck

[Basser69]

That was a great read! Thanks for sharing it with us. 

[LX_Trkyhntr]

Congrats on a GREAT season!!

[bowhunter84]

thats awesome!   congrats

[guesswho]

Good job Jeff!

[Hognutz]

Congrats on the bird and the great season..Mike

[Reloader]

Congrats! You were definately on em this year.

[Wrangler95]

 

Very nice,congrats!!!

[harvester]

 

[trkycaller]

Nice!

[socalturkeyman]

LOL great read! Congrats!

[BOFF]

Great hunt!!

So do the Ghillie suits float? 


Congrats on a nice bird, friends who share their land, and barb wire. 

God Bless,
David B.

[cannonball]

Congrats!