“Strange but True” Turkey Stories

[Tom007]

This thread will be for things that happened during your hunting career that seemed "strange", but actually happened in the turkey woods. The big one that comes to mind for me happened in the early 90's. A few days before opening day, I caught pneumonia, had a bad fever, and was out of it. I vowed to never miss an opening day of turkey hunting. I rested all weekend, and against my wife's wishes, I planned on going out on the Monday opener. The weather actually was miserable, cold, wet, and very foggy. I slipped into my favorite spot before daylight. I promised my wife I'd be back by 8:00 am. There was a dense fog, as I sat occasionally clearing my throat. I was calling at daylight sparingly even though the visibility was minimal. Not hearing anything, at 7:00, I decided it would be best if I started heading out for the day. The fog was appearing to thin, I stood up and ejected a shell out of my chamber. I was hunting with a Remington 870 pump. I gathered my calls, and got ready to start walking out. I said to myself "give it one more call". I yelped on my mouth call, and across the hill from me "A Gobble". Wow, I quickly sat back down, faced his direction and yelped very softly. He gobbled, here he comes. The thinning fog started to dissipate, but there was still a "Misty haze" in the woods. With the gun up on my knee, I spot a Fantail approaching me, a full tail. He came out of strut and and walked to 35 yards. He stopped, looked and started walking in. At about 30, I hit the trigger,"Click". Oops, no shell. I had ejected it out when I was going to head out!. He stopped, stood, I pumped the next shell in, he went into strut. The fog masked my "stupid move". When he came out of strut, I dropped him. I was shocked this fine gobbler allowed me to tag him in this manner. I threw him over my shoulder and headed out. I got home by 7:30, my wife told me I was crazy to go out there. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and reminiscing on my opening day gobbler that got "fooled in a fog". I was very lucky here, a clear day for sure would have had a very different ending...

[deerhunt1988]

Spring of 2022 - scouting before opening day in another state. Had located a few gobblers. Opening morning rolls around and I whiff on one of them. There is a noon closing time in this state and about 10:40AM I drive past where i'd spotted another gobbler the day before while scouting, and there he is strutting with a hen in the woods about 60 yards off the blacktop! There is another road that comes in behind him so I high tail it around, park, and the clock is ticking. Sneak as tight as I can and see the birds working my way. End up shooting him at 11:10AM.

Fastforward to this spring. The same state. I arrive a day early to scout. My first stop is where the above took place and there in the exact spot is my bird reincarnated! These are woods birds too, not fields. I end up roosting another bird elsewhere and went after it opening morning. No luck. About 11:00AM, with an hour of hunting left, I drive by the late morning spot. Amazingly, there he is walking and gobbling on the shoulder of the freaking medium traffic road! I high tail it around to come in behind the bird and run into another hunter. I thought he may have been going after the bird but nope, he was cleaning a jake he'd just shot! I told him about the bird and he told me to go get him. So I get set up about ~50 yards from where I'd killed two years prior and I hear him gobble on his own. Hit a call and he hammers and he's already crossed the blacktop onto private. With time being limited, I lay it on him. Box call, mouth call, raising a ruckus. He goes wild. A few minutes pass and he gobbles MUCH closer, obviously on my side of the road. Then he comes strutting on in to 40 yards. Time of death, 11:30AM. 30 minutes til closing time.

Two birds, two years apart, opening day, shot within 20 minutes of the same time with less than an hour of hunting time left, and they fell within 50 yards of one another. On EXTREMELY pressured public land. In the woods, not field birds. I'd have a hard time believing it if it hadn't happened to myself.

[KYTurkey07]

The place I like to fish is a few acres with a little lake surrounding it on three sides. I discovered there were turkeys in the area a few years ago. So around the same time, I got a Lynch World Champion box call and thought I would hunt them sometime. I knew absolutely nothing about turkey hunting. So I decided on opening day I would do some fishing and turkey hunting. Opening day came and I drove out to the property. I parked the truck about 9 am and started to get my gun and gear ready. Then I thought to myself, why am I fulling with camo and my gun, there's no way I will call in a turkey because I don't know what I'm doing, this is my first try. I'll just call and see what happens. I walk into the woods and I'm about 50 yards from the bank. The paper in the Lynch box says to give 3 short strokes, so I do that and hear a gobble right away across the lake. I couldn't believe it and thought it was great! I thought okay, that was across the lake, if I hear a gobble in the direction I drove in, I'll get my gun because there's actually a chance he will come to me. About 5 min later I do another 3 yelps and immediately a gobble across the lake. I thought man, this turkey calling stuff is easy. Just then I hear wingbeats. A gobbler (Jake) has flown 150 yards across the lake and is on the bank 40 yards in front of me searching for the source of the yelping. My heart is pounding, I go to get my gun and realize I left it in the truck. I try to sneak back to my truck. I'm stepping on branches and leaves while that turkey is bobbing his head down the bank away from me. I get my gun and go back to where I was and yelp but of course nothing. I thought that was just the coolest. I went back a few more times and could get them to gobble across the lake but could never get another to fly across. Beginners luck. It was then I learned the excitement of calling to a turkey and decided I had a lot to learn if I was actually going to get one some day. I've been hooked ever since.

[3bailey3]

Good stuff guys!

[Treerooster]

There was a study going on in an area I hunted a lot. The study went 3 years from 2008 to 2010 and they banded a bunch of turkeys over a large area. I really wanted to get a banded turkey! The area was a draw only hunt.

In this area I helped several hunters acting as a sort of guide, nonmoney, just for fun. Four of the hunters I helped in one way or another killed banded turkeys. I just couldn't seem to get one tho. One time I had 4 two-year-olds come in in a sandy area and could see their legs clearly...no bands so I let them walk. When 2015 hit (3 years after the study ended) I thought I was out of luck. The youngest turkey with a band would be 6 years old...what were the odds of one surviving that long, much less me getting it.

By now they had changed the rules per the study. You could draw a tag AND hunt private land on  a general tag. I had some private to hunt and had a gobbler come down a two-track form like a half mile away. Shot him at 20 yards and he was banded!!! A 6 year old tom. I was elated.

About 10 days later my draw tag kicked in and I hunted public. It was raining for days and these birds don't gobble in the rain much. Out roosting I heard no gobbles but saw a hen roosted in a tree. I decided to go hunt near her in the morning. The area was very open and I got there in the dark and set up about n100 yards from the hen. At least it had quit raining. Gobbling time came and the gobble blew my socks off! After a few more gobbles I saw him in a tree 60 yards away. He roosted low and right next to the main trunk. All I had to do was call to get him to fly my way and he would be in range. That's what happened and I shot him at 25 yards. BANDED!! This guys was 7 years old. After 5 years of trying to get a banded gobbler no banded tom...I get 2 in one season!

1st pic is the 6 year old. 2nd is the 7 year old gobbler. Both bands have a lot of wear but the 7 YO has more.

[Tom007]

There was a study going on in an area I hunted a lot. The study went 3 years from 2008 to 2010 and they banded a bunch of turkeys over a large area. I really wanted to get a banded turkey! The area was a draw only hunt.

In this area I helped several hunters acting as a sort of guide, nonmoney, just for fun. Four of the hunters I helped in one way or another killed banded turkeys. I just couldn't seem to get one tho. One time I had 4 two-year-olds come in in a sandy area and could see their legs clearly...no bands so I let them walk. When 2015 hit (3 years after the study ended) I thought I was out of luck. The youngest turkey with a band would be 6 years old...what were the odds of one surviving that long, much less me getting it.

By now they had changed the rules per the study. You could draw a tag AND hunt private land on  a general tag. I had some private to hunt and had a gobbler come down a two-track form like a half mile away. Shot him at 20 yards and he was banded!!! A 6 year old tom. I was elated.

About 10 days later my draw tag kicked in and I hunted public. It was raining for days and these birds don't gobble in the rain much. Out roosting I heard no gobbles but saw a hen roosted in a tree. I decided to go hunt near her in the morning. The area was very open and I got there in the dark and set up about n100 yards from the hen. At least it had quit raining. Gobbling time came and the gobble blew my socks off! After a few more gobbles I saw him in a tree 60 yards away. He roosted low and right next to the main trunk. All I had to do was call to get him to fly my way and he would be in range. That's what happened and I shot him at 25 yards. BANDED!! This guys was 7 years old. After 5 years of trying to get a banded gobbler no banded tom...I get 2 in one season!

1st pic is the 6 year old. 2nd is the 7 year old gobbler. Both bands have a lot of wear but the 7 YO has more.

Congrats on a great story. It's nice to see that some Tom's live to 7 years old!

[GobbleNut]

Great stories.
This happened long ago (thirty-two years ago to be exact...my oldest son was ten and he's now forty-two). We were hunting a vast, public-land area where turkey flocks are few and far between. It was a place I had never hunted before, so I was just prospecting for gobblers by driving around, stopping, and calling. Starting a daylight, we had covered many miles without a response. By mid-morning, the notorious mountain winds here had arrived, and I was basically just going through the motions hoping for a miracle for my son.

On the verge of giving up and heading back to camp for breakfast, we drove out the end of a two-track road about fifty yards from where it dropped off into a big canyon below and I told my son we would just walk over to the edge and call. By now, the wind was howling and I was thinking "no way", but we walked about thirty yards from the truck to the edge...no gun in hand...and I yelped loudly. 

A gobble rang out from just over the lip probably fifty yards away!  Seconds later, a big old Merriam's gobbler walked into sight at thirty yards, looking around for the hen.  We were standing there, in the "wide open" with my truck in plain sight thirty yards behind us!  I expected the gobbler to turn tail and run or fly off, but he just took a few steps to his left, putting him behind a thick cedar tree from us.

I whispered,..."Sneak back to the truck and get your gun", as I watched for the gobbler to, at any moment, get the heck out of Dodge.  My son quietly went back to the truck, got his shotgun, and snuck back over to me. I put a shell in the chamber and handed the gun back to him...just as the gobbler walked out from behind the cedar tree and stood there, letting Jessie get a good aim and shoot...dropping the gobbler in its tracks! 

Sometimes the turkey gods just smile down and hand a gift gobbler to a ten-year-old kiddo!...and his dad!...   

[Treerooster]

There was a study going on in an area I hunted a lot. The study went 3 years from 2008 to 2010 and they banded a bunch of turkeys over a large area. I really wanted to get a banded turkey! The area was a draw only hunt.

In this area I helped several hunters acting as a sort of guide, nonmoney, just for fun. Four of the hunters I helped in one way or another killed banded turkeys. I just couldn't seem to get one tho. One time I had 4 two-year-olds come in in a sandy area and could see their legs clearly...no bands so I let them walk. When 2015 hit (3 years after the study ended) I thought I was out of luck. The youngest turkey with a band would be 6 years old...what were the odds of one surviving that long, much less me getting it.

By now they had changed the rules per the study. You could draw a tag AND hunt private land on  a general tag. I had some private to hunt and had a gobbler come down a two-track form like a half mile away. Shot him at 20 yards and he was banded!!! A 6 year old tom. I was elated.

About 10 days later my draw tag kicked in and I hunted public. It was raining for days and these birds don't gobble in the rain much. Out roosting I heard no gobbles but saw a hen roosted in a tree. I decided to go hunt near her in the morning. The area was very open and I got there in the dark and set up about n100 yards from the hen. At least it had quit raining. Gobbling time came and the gobble blew my socks off! After a few more gobbles I saw him in a tree 60 yards away. He roosted low and right next to the main trunk. All I had to do was call to get him to fly my way and he would be in range. That's what happened and I shot him at 25 yards. BANDED!! This guys was 7 years old. After 5 years of trying to get a banded gobbler no banded tom...I get 2 in one season!

1st pic is the 6 year old. 2nd is the 7 year old gobbler. Both bands have a lot of wear but the 7 YO has more.

Congrats on a great story. It's nice to see that some Tom's live to 7 years old!

After getting these 2 toms, and given the difficulty of aging gobblers past 3 or so, I have wondered if we hunters don't realize just how old some of the gobblers we get really are. That 6 year old bird had 1 1/8" spurs...nice hooks but nothing too special. Until you see by the band he was 6.

[Haypatch]

Man the odds of those 2 bands!!! WOW congrats!

[Tom007]

Great stories!!

[KYTurkey07]

I'm enjoying these stories. This thread topic was a great idea!

[Will]

Many years ago, when I was just out of high school I was hunting public land in Western Maryland. One morning the A-10 Warthogs were flying low altitude in the area, and when they would turn a certain way, the engines would get loud quickly. This would trigger birds in the area to shock gobble and I made my move three times that morning to set up on a particular bird. They weren't gobbling to anything else that day. It was interesting to say the least, but I never did pull the trigger or have a response from my calling the rest of the morning.   

[Prospector]

Years ago I made my way to a small maybe 4acre hayfield where a few days before I had observed a gobbler strutting. I set up determined to hang out a while in an attempt to tempt him or another in range. Couple hours in and I have seen nor heard nada. A southern spring thunderstorm rolls in and begins that long, low thunder rumble...and several turkeys gobble kinda all around me. No less than three. No answer to my calls. But everytime it thunders. I have heard thunder provoke gobbles but only one other time has it been anywhere near what was that day. At first I was mad because they paid me no mind but soon was just happy to hear them- got wet too.

[3bailey3]

Good stuff guys, the banded birds I wonder why one was below the spur? only saw a few in pics and they have all been over the spur!

[bbcustomboxcalls]

This happened to me about 40 years ago. I was hunting a oak ridge that I had hunted many times before but didn't hear a peep or see any sign on that morning. So about 11:00 I decided to take the long walk back to my truck and have a sandwich.  I was walking an old abandoned logging road and when I came around a bend there were three big toms standing in the middle of the road at 30 yards. SOOOO I shouldered my 870 and shot the one in the middle.
Well two of the birds ran off to my left and the one I shot staggered a a little then ran into a manzanita thicket on my right so I ran up to where he went in but couldn't see anything. Then I look up the road and here he comes running straight at me. At this point I think I couldn't believe what he was doing and he was closing the gap fast. When he got within about 4 ft I swung my gun at him and hit him in the head with the barrel knocking him to the ground. He started to get up at that point I jumped on him and we rolled around on the ground for several minutes before I finally subdued him. When I got up it looked like a turkey had been plucked there and some of my blood from his spurs.
Bill