My Mississippi Trip

[davisd9]

Sorry it is long, but I am sharing the whole trip.  Hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed reliving it.  Thanks!

I was invited to hunt with a buddy of mine in Southwest Mississippi for turkeys.  I have never really hunted outside the borders of South Carolina so it was something that I wanted to do, especially since it was for the game animal that I love the most.  The trip to the land was a 10 hour drive one way, but the time and adventure was well worth the effort.

I arrived to hunt in Mississippi on Thursday, March 15, 2012.  When I first got there my friend took me around the land to see exactly the area we would be hunting.  To say the land was beautiful is an understatement.  The land was mostly pines with a few hardwoods scattered throughout it.  There was a creek that ran through it and a few ponds with a camp.

We did not get out to the woods on Thursday until around 4:00 pm.  We decided to go sit behind a pond that is near the end of the property.  As we came to a food plot, we decided set up on the other side of it where the woods were open. After choosing the trees to sit beside and getting settled, our calling sequence was started.  After finishing the first sequence I started gazing around looking for movement.  Five to ten minutes had passed when I caught movement to my left.  A few anxious seconds pass and then two jakes appear.  They come out upon a trail working and feeding in front of us into the woods about 40 yards.  We call them back to us and they work their way to the food plot and start to come to the realization that hens should be here but we cannot find them.

After they leave we pack up and start around the pond looking at where the possible roosting tree is in the area.  We take an old road that has grown over a bit but is easily walked.  I am walking behind Russell and all of a sudden I see that he has been surprised by something in the road.  Looking passed him I see a small copperhead that is about 8-12 inches long. After stopping and dealing with the snake in the way the host wanted me to we move on.

We move slowly near the end of the road making sure there are no birds in the food plot that we are approaching.  A quick scan of the plot shows that no turkeys are there.  We cross the plot and set up about 40 yards apart.  Our calling sequence is started.  We are aggressive and loud, throwing cutts and yelps back and forth cutting one another off just to start bickering back and forth again.  After about two sequences and 15 minutes we hear two birds start gobbling.  They are hot!!!  Counting their gobbles stopped at 34 and that was within 10 minutes of them being there.

The two birds are strutting and gobbling.  One gobbles and then the other.  I call to them and they double gobble.  To understand the excitement here one has to realize that we are not talking about as the sun is going up, but as the sun in 45 minutes from going down.  These birds are hot and they are looking for a hen. To say that I did not get caught up in the excitement of the birds gobbling would not be true and because of my over excitement I over call.  Shutting up and making the birds come to me would have been the smart thing to do, but I did not do this.  The birds were within 35 yards, but were in the trees with no true shot.  Eventually they calm down and we hear them fly up into the tree.  I have easily decided where I will be at first light Friday morning.  We leave for camp.

As Russell and I are riding to hunt we discuss where we are going.  He is going behind the pond again because he pulled a camera card which had four strutters on it from the morning before.  I go back to the area from the evening before.
The birds start gobbling on the roost about 6:50 am, the time Russell said they would.  They fly down and I start working them.  They were gobbling a good bit again.  We did this dance for about 20 minutes and then I heard some real hens appear.  As real hens usually do, they took the boys with them.  I decided I would stay put because I believed that the Toms would eventually show up once the hens left them.  After about 2 hours of waiting for them to show up calling every 10-15 minutes I decide that I am going to walk around, calling on ridges down into the bottoms to see if I can strike a gobble.

After walking about 100-150 yards from my morning setup I start calling and then listen.  My goodness, they are back and gobbling where I was just at!  I put my unnecessary items down and run back setting up about 15 yards from where I just was.  Thirty minutes pass by of me trying to work them to no avail.  They are continuing to gobble.  All of a sudden to my right I hear another bird gobbling.  It is moving closer to me.  The first two hear the third and the three start gobbling back and forth to each other.  One would gobble and the other two would double gobble.

I can easily tell the third bird is moving closer.  In about 15 minutes, I see 4 hens working through the woods.  About 30 yards behind them I see a strutter coming along.  There is an opening in the woods so I decide when he hits this spot I am going to call to see if I can make him think one of his hens has walked out to the food plot.  He hits the opening so I call and he turns and starts right for me.  Just as he is exiting the woods and entering the plot, a hen yelps causing him to turn around.  I see an opportunity that is now or never so I cluck and he throws his head up. BOOM!!! goes the 835.  The bird jumps straight up into the air and turns hitting the ground running.  I missed!  I grit my teeth in frustration and walk over to the area to make sure it was a clean miss.  I found no feathers or any sign of a hit.  I do find a sapling that is torn to pieces from my pattern.  We head to camp for lunch.  My nickname was (is or was) now Sir Miss A lot.

Friday evening Russell and I decide to hunt together again.  This time instead of setting up in one place we decide to walk a road calling every 100-150 yards waiting to see if we get a gobble.  We walk about 600 yards and are talking when all of a sudden a gobble rings out right down the road.  Russell states he knows exactly where the bird is and we hurry to try to get set up.  As we approach and try to make a quick plan I hear the bird coming, he is very close.  The Tom pops his head up close to Russell where I cannot see him.  I see Russell has a shot so I throw my gun up in case he loses the opportunity.  His 835 roars and the bird is down.

[davisd9]

We high five and start taking pictures.  In the middle of our picture taking session another gobble rings out from the same spot as the harvested bird.  We quickly set up right off the road.  The bird gobbles again.  After some soft calling we hear something approaching.  Russell sees some red heads.  I slide the safety off the gun.  We realize the birds we are looking at are jakes.  Then all of a sudden Russell says a strutter is behind them.  It is a jake strutting.

Since we had to cut off the picture taking session, we just laid his bird down in the road to use as a decoy.  The jakes worked to our left and hit the road.  Then they sight the bird in the road and start toward it.  For the next 10-12 minutes we were given a show by the five jakes pecking at the dead bird, strutting, spitting and drumming, and gobbling.  Eventually they left and we were able to go look for another bird, but had no luck.

Saturday morning I decide to go back to the same spot.  I hear 4 birds gobbling on the limb.  One directly in front of me within 100 yards, another to my right very close, and two in the distance.  I try to work the bird in front of me, but no luck.  I trail him and another bird about 600 yards into the woods and then cross the path of the jakes from the day before causing me to lose the longbeards.
To say that I had the turkey hunter blues is an understatement.  I had my chance to take a bird and I blew it.  I was on my last day hunting and nothing was going as it should.  Self pity started to set in.  Russell and our friend Skip stop hunting and go back to camp.  I decided to hunt longer today to try my luck. After walking for 3 hours and about five miles all I had was one gobble and a half hearted gobble.  I headed to camp feeling sorry for myself.

After getting back to camp I get something to eat and get over my blues.  I have had a great trip and have had lots of action with the turkeys.  Instead of feeling sorry for myself I need to be thankful for the opportunity to see and enjoy this beautiful land.  We head back out around 4:00 pm and we decide to spend the evening together again. 

We first hit a spot that Russell had some heavy gobbling and seen a strutter during his morning hunt.  We call as we are walking to the area and then set up for about 15 minutes or so with no luck. It is decided that we will move on to another plot.  The quickest way to get there was to walk through the woods and then cross a creek.  We reach the plot with nothing in it and nothing answering our calls so we move on down the main road.

We find an area on the main road that you could easily see in different directions and it had a couple of bottoms around it.  It seemed as these bottoms are where the turkeys like to be.  We set up the decoys and call.  Around 6:15 pm there is still no action so we move again.  Together we decided to go to a plot that is passed the one I missed the bird in because we had not hunted that area at all and it is where the missed strutter had came from.  We get to the plot and start calling aggressively.  Our series ends and bam a gobble.  I point that it is to our right, but Russell says no it is behind long plot to our left.  Dang, we can never agree where it comes from the first gobble.  Waiting a minute or two to allows things to settle down and then I start cutting and yelping.  Bam, Russell is right he is behind long plot.

We hurry down the road to get set up.  Russell decides to get in a box stand to get a better view and I sit on a small pine that has a camera on it.  It was actually in the open area of the woods where I shot the morning before.  Before we set up we came up with a plan of action.  We set up a jake and hen decoy where they would be easily seen from multiple areas.  I told Russell that I would start calling with some short cutts and yelps to take the birds temperature.  If the bird does not respond to me alone then I will start again and I want him to cut me off with his calling.  If that does not work we will start the soft, conservative calling.  Russell stated that if he sees the bird he would start purring to let me know it is in sight, and I would cluck when I saw the bird.

Our first sequence is started and after we finish all we hear is silence.  I wait a few minutes then start calling again. Not as long of a sequence as I had been doing cause we were going to tone it down a bit.  I finish my sequence.  About 2 minutes after I finish I hear Russell purring.  He sees something but I cannot.  After what seemed like hours I finally catch movement through some brush on the field edge of a dark spot in the food plot, I know it is a male bird.  Please let it be a longbeard. 

Eventually the bird works its way in good sight about 180 yards away and turns toward us, his beard is swinging downward, YES!!!  Now can we get him the 140 yards I need to get a shot?  Russell continues purring on and off and the bird is slowly feeding towards up.  I throw a few clucks now and then and some light yelps.  He is slowly coming.  He gets to a clump of dirt and weeds in the field that I believe is around 50 yards from me.  He walks behind it so I grab my rangefinder while he cannot see me to make sure of my guess.  Good thing I did cause it is actually 72 yards away. 

I find a spot of wheat in the field that is greener than other spots because water sits here.  I know that is in my range and decide when he passes it I will shoot.  He becomes visible again and spots the jake decoy and jumps into strut.  He walks 5 yards and breaks strut.  Then slowly feeds and for 5 yards then repeats going in and out of strut.  He has hit the green area so I slide my safety off.

He is still looking at the jake.  He passes the area and is walking toward us.  He is 35 yards.  I lower my head on the gun and cluck.  Stopping and throwing his head up (who is stopping?) I unleash my Hevi-Shot 3.5" 2 oz #6s and he drops to the ground with maybe one flop.  It is over.  I jump up from the ground and almost fall having to lay my gun down to keep from falling.  My balance is back and I jump in the air with a fist pump.  Excitement is flowing strongly threw my body.  I feel so alive.  I thank God for his gift to me!  Thank you LORD, THANK YOU!  Russell gets down we fist bump and grab hands. Pictures are taken. 





I would have to say that I now believe that the Lord was testing my perseverance.  Did I have the will to be strong and try hard?  I am happy to say that in this instance I did and God blessed me.  Not only did I learn of this test dealing with hunting, but in my everyday life.  As I go through life I need to set my eyes upon the Lord and His will and not give up even when my own self pity sets in.  He is a loving God that is loving and merciful and on this day he gave me, his earthly son, a small gift that I will forever treasure. 

Russell showed me a wonderful time and I cannot be more thankful to him.  The only thing that I wish could have happened that did not was Skip getting him a bird.   He heard them and he even saw them, but things just did not happen for him this time.  They will before the season is over. 

This hunt reminded me of a saying that a wise gentleman on one of the hunting forums stated.  He goes by Jo the Mo and his quote is as follows, ""The Lord loves a turkey hunter! He can put upon him the troubles of Job in the morning and BLESS him like the King of Kings in the afternoon (or vice versa!)"

[fallhnt]

Congrats.Whats next?

[Basser69]

Congrats on nice birds!

[El Pavo Grande]

Congrats!!!

[TennLongspur]

Congrats!! Nice bird and great hunting.

[RutnNStrutn]

Congrats on a successful trip!!

[cannonball]

Congrats!

[WiLL B]

Congrats !!

[nctrkyhntr]

 

[guesswho]

Congtrats!  I like the old school Mossy.

[M,Yingling]

Nice read ,,Congrats on the birds

[mnturkey]

Congratulations on a nice bird and a great read.

[MouthCaller]

Nice story telling and great birds 

[Bigmiah22]

Good lookin birds!