So just like most folks, I have had an interesting turkey season here in Michigan. It has been everything from wonky weather, the henned up birds, to large bachelor groups to everything in between. Still wouldn't trade turkey hunting for anything else though!
My daughter has been turkey hunting with me since she was three, and this would be the first year that I was able to have her do some "running and gunning" with me. Previous years we were always stuck in a blind, but that was not the plan this year.
As the season drew closer, I had her help me with setting game cameras in some well-known strut zones, and roosting areas. She helped with pre-season trimming for possible set up spots, and we even spent a few mornings and evenings in the woods listening, and observing the birds and their movements.
When our opener arrived, we were more than ready and headed out to the woods at O Dark Thirty. The plan was to get started in a ground blind that we had set up in a roosting area, and then depending on how the morning went, we would break in our hunting boots by covering some ground.
We knew from the cameras that there was one Longbeard in this area but we also knew there were a ton of Jakes as well. My plan was to sit here so that she could get the true experience of a morning sound off and experience the thrill of fly-downs in the morning. The birds did not disappoint, and put on one heck of a gobbling show but there were no longbeards in the bunch so we let them walk. After flydown, things were quiet in the area we were in, so we headed to a different spot on the property after picking some flowers for Mom of course.
I had invested in some new calls for her in the offseason, and let her put her crow call to work all morning. One of the highlights for the day was the next Tom we located due to her crow calling. Just seeing her face light up by getting a response was worth my ringing ears!
We set up on him, but after 45 minutes of some gobbling but no committal I figured he had hens and we needed to come after him from a different angle. We packed up, and headed back around to a section of field that I knew he was close to. By this point, my daughter was a little steamed that he wouldn't play the game like we wanted him too. We had a very entertaining conversation about how things worked in the turkey woods that I plan on reminding her about when she starts dating.
We got setup as close to the area where we last heard him as we could, and finally managed to get him to answer our calls about every third series. When we got cut off by a hen, I knew we had our work cut out for us. Over the next two hours, we worked that bird but he was down in some thick brush and refused to leave his hens. Finally, we ran out of time and had to get some food in our bellies and then get her off to school for the day.
As we pulled into her school, I put the truck in park. She had been quiet for the past 5 minutes, and she asked me what I was going to do after I dropped her off. Knowing a loaded question when I heard one, I asked her what she thought I should do and my jaw about hit the floor when she replied;
"Dad that Tom really ticked me off. I did my best calling, and you called him too and he just wouldn't come in. I think you ought to go out there and kill him. I want that fan on my wall."
After finally being able to stop laughing, I said that is what I would try to do. I headed back out to the woods, and went to the last spot we had left him.
There is a small spot of open field by that area that the birds love to spend their afternoons in, and strut so I figured that is where he would be headed eventually. I made sure I took her same box call she had been using on him in the morning, and after some yelping he hammered back. I tucked myself into a corner overgrown with brush where I was still able to observe the area he would come from, and settled in.
After the first series of yelps where he had responded, I sat quiet until I finally saw a redhead appear from the long grass. I hit the box call one more time quietly, and he cut me off and went into full strut. Not being able to see the whole corner and field area where I sat, he slowly worked his way in, stopping to strut and gobble periodically. I let him get to about 25 yards from me in the field, enjoyed the strut show for a few moments that gave him the soft cluck to get the head up. That was all she wrote.
He was a great old bird, with 1.5 spurs over a 10 inch beard and weighed 23 ΒΌ pounds. Couldn't have been happier with him.
Had him hanging by the time she got home from school, and she couldn't have been happier with him either. To say she is looking forward to the Fall hunt when she will be able to do some shooting herself is a little bit of an understatement!
After I went back and pulled the game cam's, I found this picture which has quickly become my favorite one from the season;
Thanks for reading, and have a great remainder of the season in the woods!
