Maryland
5/7/2021
We drive through the night and arrive at out destination in Maryland early on 5/7. As daylight approaches we can hear a faint gobble in the distance so he jump in the trucks and cut the distance by a mile and he's still a long ways off, we find a place to park and we hit he ground running. We finally get a bead on this bird and he's off in the middle of a nasty swamp. We got close to him once, but we could tell he was walking back and forth. We backed out and made a loop and was easing in on him when he gobbles not 70yds away through the thick swamp. We were pinned so Bradley eases down beside a small sapling and I was standing beside a huge oak tree 10yds behind him. We both had the same idea of letting the bird walk away again and then slip up 30 more yards clearing the swampy area we were sitting in. well the next time he gobbles he's maybe 40yds away, so I decide to soft call to see if he would step out in the oak opening and take a look at us. I purr and he gobbles I purr again and he gobbles this may work I think. Then I catch movement to our right and I catch his head through an opening as he's coming in to our right. I whisper 2o'clock and purr one last time and the bird gobbles and Bradley spins to his right. Now I can see the bird and he's in the wide open to me walking straight to us. My slate is in my hand and my gun is on my shoulder, not ideal but I knew Bradley was about to shoot. The bird stops at 18-20yds spins and is gone in a flash, he lacked 1 step to get where Bradley could see him, but he lived to be chased another day. We hunted one more day in a different spot but didn't hear a bird, so we diced to head to New Hampshire and possibly come back on our way home in we had time.
5/20/2021
After an all evening and most of the night drive from New York we arrive in time to get 3hrs of sleep before daybreak. We decided to split up to cover as much ground as we could and then regroup. Well we both hear birds and phone service is pretty bad where we was at so we finally got a text to go through and we both went after birds we had heard. The bird I was after was our old friend from a few weeks ago. He gobbled good and I was able to make a huge loop through some thick cutover and get to within 80yds of him on the roost. As day broke he stayed on the limb gobbling so I started soft calling and scratching the leaves, he would cut me off at every call or scratch. Finally around 7:30 he flies down and lands 70yds from me but is so thick I can't see him. Then I hear yelping, I text Bradley to see if he had slipped in the woods with me but never got an answer. Then I hear it again and again I realize its not Bradley and as bad as I hated to I called back in a way that anyone should have known it was another hunter. But this guy keeps coming and calling, he ends up walking up 40yds from me I whistle loudly and stood up to let him see me and he waves at me then proceeds on where the turkey had flown down at, I just shook my head in disbelief. I eased out and met up with Bradley around 11:30 who had a nice gobbler in the back of his SUV.
He had found them in a beautiful swamp and set up and called every so often and was able to get a shot as they walked by. He told me about his hunt and told me it was another bird with the one he shot and that I might could get it. So off in the swamp I go until dark with no luck I only saw a hen but had high hopes for the next morning.
5/21/2021
As day start to break, we can hear a distant gobble deep into the piney woods. The gobbler wasn't where we had hoped he would be, so we take off trying to close the distance on this gobbling bird. After a little over a half mile walk through the pines we finally get somewhat close to the gobbling bird who is now on the ground, just out of the piney woods and in a mix of pines and hardwoods but thick, and seems to be working his way back and forth in this low lying swamp area in the middle of this pine\hardwood thicket. We decide to set up with Bradley behind me and try him. He gobbles a few times and moved off way off, we hear him way in the distance and check out maps and decide to make a loop and try to get in front of him well we made the loop all 3 miles of it and as were standing there trying to catch our breath and pick all the briars and limbs off of us after the hike through that nasty pine thicket. His gobbling has slowed way down but he gobbles off in the distance so we look at our maps and bail off in the woods, we make it a few hundred yards and he gobbles again as we are approaching a somewhat open area of big woods. We're as close as I want to get so we set up again with Bradley 20 or so yards behind me. He soft calls a few times and the bird would gobble sporadically, I decided to gobble at him and so Bradley calls and I gobble twice. Silence, I thought to myself well dang that might not have been good then he gobbles in the distance. Ok so were still in the game, sorta. About 30min goes by since the last gobble and the mosquitos are about to tote me off. I hear Bradley fire up his thermacell and I fire mine off, only to hear it go out. Thought I was out of gas so I ease it apart and see I still have gas I fire it back off and set it on my leg to hopefully get some relief. As I'm sitting there scanning the woods trying to think what to do and mainly waiting for him to give away his location again so we can make a move. I catch a slight flash of while as it disappears behind a clump of trees that about 35yds from me. Things just got interesting, I slouch a little to get down on my gun and start scanning looking for what I thought I saw. Bradley said he was about to ask what I wanted to do when he saw me ease down on my gun and he knew something was about to happen. I finally pick out a hen easing though he woods angling away from me and then he appears in full strut at about 60yds cutting her off. My heart stopped and then went into overdrive, Bradley lets out a super soft yelp not knowing what I can see and the bird turns and starts my way. He marches up to a downed log that's about 2' off the ground and now all I can see is his feet and the top of his head. When he gets to the log he moves right and stops just at the edge and stretches his neck out to look for the lone hen in the flat where we sit. I know he prob isn't coming any closer and dang if there isn't a clump of holy bushes coving half his head, so I ever so slightly slide to my left opening a clear shot to his head, I consciously cant my shotgun so that the barrel is off canter to the left of my red dot that way my pattern would clear the brush a little more. (learned experience from a previous hunt) I take a breath and squeeze my trigger and the bird flips, I just lay down against my tree in utter disbelief of what just went down. I hear Bradley say I sure hope you got him as he come by me to check out my bird. He was a beautiful big Maryland gobbler. All in all it was right at 5 miles once we got back to the truck.
What an amazing hunt to end an incredible couple of weeks of travels throughout the North East.
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