I have been turkey hunting for 4 years now and finally got my first bird.
Our season opened this past Saturday, and it was a cold, breezy morning. I didnt hear a gobble til 10:15 am, but that bird was pretty much unapproachable. I tried to work him as best I could, but he just slipped off and up over the mountain.
Monday April 30, I was up at 3:30 am and hiking by 4. I got up to the ridge where I had heard that Gobbler on Saturday by 5:00am and waited and listened for the first gobble so I could make my move. Of course I was up at the top of the mountain, and a bird starts to gobble about 500 yards below me. I waited for a few minutes to see if anything else would talk up my way before making a move, but it was silent. So I dropped back down the mountain and managed to get set up about 150 yards from this bird. He gobbled 15-20 times on the roost and I was praying nobody else would hear him and come in and bump him (the joys of PA public land) At 5:53 I saw two birds fly down and land about 60 yards from me. My heart was racing, I thought they were going to come right up to me and It would be a quick hunt.
I thought i would see the birds instantly, but 20 minutes passed and I hadnt seen or heard a thing. I hesitantly let out one cluck with my mouth call, nothing. About a minute later I hear him gobble from 100 yards, so i yelp and cutt a few times and I hear him double gobble and can hear him running right to me. I get the gun up, just knowing its going to happen. Then, there he is, full strutt, at 60 yards. He hangs up there, just strutting back and forth. Now I just have to wait him out.
This is where things get interesting. I can see the second bird that flew down with him, its his hen. She is acting crazy, running as fast as she can in circles and literally jumping up and down, meanwhile the gobbler is just in full strut, chasing her as fast as he can go. All of this is happening 60 yards away. At one point, the hen runs up and jumps on top of the gobblers back and stands there for a second and then keeps on acting crazy. She finally stops and he breeds her. Then all the action started again, she goes crazy, he goes crazy and he breeds her. He bred her 4 times that I saw.
Finally after an hour and a half of these two running around at 60 yards, then hen decides shes had a enough and starts to work her way towards me. I start shaking like crazy. Of course, the direction they take is through a ton of brush and the total opposite way I had my gun pointed. I some how managed to get turned around and the gun in the direction they were coming. The hen passed through the one opening I could shoot in and the gobbler followed her still in strut. In this whole time, over an hour and a half, this bird never ever came out of strut except when he bred her.
As he got to 30 yards, he saw me move a little as I made my final adjustment to get on him. He stayed in strut, but raised his head a little and I took the only shot I had. My 870 with hevi-13 #7s and indian creek choke dropped him on the spot. I was so pumped up!
I had been watching this bird for an hour and a half and it was such an incredible feeling to finally be able to pick him up after all that time.
Stats: 19lbs 10 1/16" beard, 1" spurs, He had some beard rot going and his beard was a few different colors.
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tjh24 at 2012-05-02
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tjh24 at 2012-05-02
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tjh24 at 2012-05-02
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tjh24 at 2012-05-02
