"Well, thar I was..."

[FullChoke]

I, for one, never get tired of hearing a good story about how you were finally able to close the deal on that arrogant feathered Harry Houdini that has been able to pull off his disappearing act on you for most of the season. You know, the one that you had to measure his spurs with a yardstick and his beard with a rangefinder!

Feel free to share your stories about your successful hunts in here. Know that we will be hanging on every word as if we were right there with you.

Have fun!

FullChoke

[FullChoke]

Here's a story about one from a couple of years back to help make having to wait on opening day that much more torturous.

Last Wednesday morning before work, I slipped back into an area on a local WMA where I had heard turkeys gobbling in the past. That morning I heard two birds gobble 10 times between them, but had to leave before we could get up-close and personal.

I studied on these two toms all afternoon that day. The next day I was exactly where I wanted to be, sitting on a listening log when the first one hammered in a pine thicket about 200 yards away. I moved into position just down from him where the pines met a hardwood bottom and set up. My first set of yelps from a Flextone Freak Nasty diaphragm call was answered immediately. I excitedly cut back at him and he hammered back. He continued to gobble on a logging skid row about 125 yards in the pines but would not make a move. Shortly it sounded like he was leaving out the back door, so I moved away about 50 yards and headed into the pines to get on the same skid row that I thought he was on. Just as I got to the skid row, he gobbled again right at the tree that I had just vacated! I kicked myself for being so impatient and set out my ugly FeatherFlex hen decoy in the skid row and sat down at a pine tree about 20 yards away from her.

The gobbler answered every call I made, every time I scratched in the leaves, every time I purred and clucked to myself - but wouldn't move back to where he had just been. At one point it sounded like he was leaving. Then a miracle happened. The other gobbler that I had heard the day before started gobbling and heading in to me from the opposite direction. He continued to get closer and his last gobble was off to my left about 75 yards on the other side of a beaver pond. I wasn't sure which way he would take around the pond, but I hoped that he would approach from the other side of the deke.

Moments later, I spot a black form moving through the pines on my right. It was the gobbler that I had been calling to all morning. Apparently, he realized that he was about to lose HIS hen to this other dude and decided that he better get busy. He stepped out into the row, took one lascivious look at the hen, busted into a strut and started showing the hen what she was going to have to deal with in just a minute, if she played her cards right. He vogued for 30 seconds and walked right up next to her and busted into strut again. I enjoyed the Greatest Show on Earth for as long as I could take it, slid the mouth call into position, lined up the sights, took a breath and PUTTED at him good and hard. He didn't move! I thought, "Alright, this time with feeling!" I bowed up on the call and putted for all I was worth. He finally got the message and stuck his head up. This was when our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ accepted him into glory .054 of a second later, if I've done the math right. All drop, no flop.

Statistics mean a lot to a turkey hunter, so here goes. He clocked in at 19.53 lbs, carried 1" & .9375" spurs and was swinging a 10.125" beard. A good 3 year old public land gobbler! He gave up the ghost at a distance of 20 yards from the barrel compliments of a Federal, Flight Control, HeavyWeight, 3", #7, 20 gauge yeller shotgun shell.

I have been hunting this overhunted WMA for a number of years, and this is the first tom that I have taken from it. I look forward to releasing the fury on bachelor number 2 sometime soon.

Cheers.

FullChoke

[FullChoke]

I first met King Tut on public land in Northern California. He was well known and greatly respected far and wide for his incredible ability to find the weakest link in every hunters armor and exploit it for his own survival.  California did not allow afternoon hunting during the time that I first met him. I crawled up to a ridge overlooking a meadow and spotted him strutting in the middle of it surrounded by 10 hens and 2 jakes. I didn't need the binoculars to see how thick his beard was. He was the King and he was holding court! I watched him for 2 hours until he worked his way up onto the opposite ridge right at sunset. Finally he gobbled two long, throaty proclamations of his unchallenged royalty and I started making plans right then.

The next morning I made my way under the cloak of darkness across the open meadow 1-1/2 hours before sunrise. I sneaked up onto the grassy ridge and could barely see the outline of a big black oak tree. I was about 100 yards up the ridge from where I had heard him gobble the night before. I set my hen decoy out about 30 yards from the oak tree and eased over to sit down against it and wait for the morning festivities to start. Just before I sat down, I stopped and something told me to look around. I looked all around and then looked up the tree. There, looking straight down at me, was a giant bird and much smaller one! King Tut and a courtesan! He stuck his head out and clucked a deep guttural question, "What are you?" I froze. He clucked several more times as I tried to figure out what I was going to do next. Directly his clucking calmed down, and finally stopped. I stood motionless for 10 minutes to let him fall back asleep. Slowly, I just turned around and sat down right below him.

The sun began changing the night sky into a warm peach color and the diurnal players started warming up for their show.  A coyote yipped down on the other side of the meadow and the two jakes started gobbling at him. Hens started waking up and clucking all around me. Directly a large, warm splat hit the ground right next to me and another one hit the ground right on my other side. The rattling gobble that jarred my teeth from right above my head was unmistakable. It's good to be the King. I was hoping that he would drop off of the roost and introduce himself to the dewy baby doll making eyes at him from about 30 yards away from his boudoir. Hello Baby. No such luck! When he sailed out of the tree, the anchor rope hanging off his chest was simply ludicrous! But, he was sailing and didn't hit ground until well out in the meadow. Other turkeys bailed out of the trees, stopped by to chat up the new chick and left because they didn't know how to communicate with this stuck-up broad.

I had 3 other very close encounters with his Majesty that year, and he managed to escape the lead headache each time. I had the drop on Tut in that tree that morning and could have lowered the boom on him, but there is not enough money in this world that could have convinced me to end his glorious reign without giving him a fair chance. I don't know that he was ever shot, I want to believe that he wasn't.

FullChoke

[Sand Man]

Last year was my first year to hunt with the 20ga, and the year I ended my KS jinx.  I was tagged out in KS by 6:15AM and ended my season on a Saturday.  How's that for quick!  To make a long story short, this was my 3rd year in KS and the previous two years if it could go wrong it had.  I called up and watched plenty of birds die for friends that don't turkey hunt much, but it always seemed like when it was my turn I couldn't close the deal.  It had pretty much become a running joke.

I headed up on Thursday to meet up with my buddy and drive up to his family land.  His cousin had got us access to 10K additional acres that had never been turkey hunted.  Between the normal family ground we hunt and the new ground we had an 8 mile X 4 mile strip of land to hunt.  Friday AM had us taking the land owner with the 10K acres hunting as he had never turkey hunted.  Not knowing the ground and him not being an experienced turkey hunter had us doing more scouting learning the ground than anything.  It took us until about 3PM to see all the ground, and I think we bumped/spooked/ran off/etc/etc over 20+ strutters.  To say I was a little frustrated was an understatement, but I'm not going to tell a guy who's letting us hunt his ground how to drive us around and scout for turkeys either.

That afternoon the farmer and my buddy's cousin both had to work ground and plant beans, so it left just he and I to hunt.  We went to his family's place we are familiar with to scout/hunt/roost some birds.  We ended up finding two good groups of turkeys with several big strutters, jakes, and lots of hens.  I was really surprised to see that many hens with toms so late in the season.  We ended up playing a game of cat and mouse with one of the groups but could never close the deal.  We decided about 30 minutes before fly up to head to the truck and watch the birds go to roost.  We ended up roosting both groups with one going to the North of his great grandmother's homestead beside a corn field and the other group roosting to the South of the homestead on the edge of a big cattle pasture.

Saturday morning found us up really early as we knew to get into the fields and get set up would mean doing it in the darkness as to not get busted.  The temp was 48 degrees when I stepped out of the truck at 5:30AM to walk to a lone Bodark tree in the middle of this cattle pasture I had watched these birds strut in for hours the day before.  I really didn't think I had a prayer of calling these birds in as there were 3 nice strutters with one DANDY, 8 hens, and 5 jakes.  However, I was hoping at some point during the morning they'd make their way near me in their daily routine.  When I sat down, I fully expected the birds to be roosted to the North of me and work their way to the South on the way to the old homestead where they like to feed most of the day.  However, instead of roosting where we had left them and thought they would fly up, the birds had worked their way further to the South.

I have no idea what time the boss bird gobbled, but he about blew my hat off.   He was very close and directly across from me on the edge of the field.  I was afraid to move at all.  It seemed like it took me forever to ease my legs up to rest my gun on as I had stretched them out to relax since I had got in so early.  Eventually, I could make the bird out in the roost tree.  Before long the hens with him started to get fired up.  I let out some soft yelps on my mouth call to get his attention and hopefully where he would see my decoy.  I watched him strut and gobble on the limb for probably 10 minutes.  I never got to use my box or pot calls as I was afraid to move a muscle with the bird so close.  I never got a chance to watch the bird fly down as a deer got within feet of my decoy/me blowing and stomping and my attention was on her when the bird flew down.  I really thought the deer was going to blow the entire gig for me.  Finally the deer got down wind of me, spooked, and ran off.  By this time, there are turkey every where in the field with more pitching into the field.

The big boy was in full strut when my attention finally left the deer and found him.  He never got out of a full strut the entire time he was off the roost until I shot him.  There were two hens to my right, 3 strutters directly in front of my, and several birds to my left.  The strutters started following the hens to my right and if they keep on this path there was no way I was going to be able to shift with all those eyes in the field and me this exposed to get off a shot.  I eventually get the 5 jakes interested in my calling and decoy as well as one boss hen.  The boss hen and jakes made their way to my decoy.  The hen gets to the decoy and gets into a half strut if you will or an aggressive state with all her feathers ruffed doing a very aggressive purr at my decoy.

This brought the 3 strutters in on a string.  They had already been in range of the 20ga with TSS, but they were directly in front of me and would take some very subtle movement to get my gun up and in position to get a shot off.  It was all I could do watching them strut, gobble, and spit for what seems liked an hour to not try and shoot one of them, but when I saw them switch from going to my right to my left I knew they were going to get in my wheel house.

The 3 strutters finally get to withing 25 yards and almost on top of my decoy.  Knowing how well this TSS penetrates I knew it would be no problem shooting one in full strut even though my old man had always taught me to never do that with lead.  I didn't want to risk spooking any of the birds at this point either as they were on top of me and would know the call didn't come from the decoy.  I pick out the biggest bird, put the red dot on the base of the neck, and squeeze.  He fell like a ton of brick.  Never flopped.  His two buddies when about 8 to 10 foot straight up in the air on the shot.  I racked another shell and missed on my 2nd shot trying to shoot one in the air like an idiot.  Hey the excitement go the best of me!  At this time all heck is breaking loose and turkeys are going EVERYWHERE.  I keep focused on the other strutter I was shooting at and start cackling, cutting, and doing a fighting purr on the mouth call.  He makes a mistake and stops as he's running off to see what is going on.  I put the red dot on his head and squeeze.  He drops like a ton of bricks. 

Not only did I end my KS jinx, but I ended it with two birds and one of the most exciting hunts I can ever remember.  I hadn't been that shook in a while waiting for those birds to get in range.  At one point, I had 8 hens, 5 jakes, and 3 strutters within 40-50 yards of me.  I still don't know how I didn't get busted sitting in the middle of a cattle pasture under a lone tree.  Only regret was my old man who taught me this great sport wasn't leaned up against the tree with me.  I didn't put a tape on the birds, but the big boy had a 10'+ paint brush with 1 1/8"+ spurs.  I'd guess a 3-4 year old bird.  His running buddy was a 8-9" beard with 3/4"-7/8" spurs.  I'd guess a good two year old.  Here are a few pics:

[gophert]

Good stories!

I have been on a few good memorable hunts, but none even come close to the hunt where my daughter killed her first turkey.  I have a very small spot that just happens to be in the right place I guess.  It is only 15 acres and long and linear.  I can probably throw a ball from one side to the other.  It is nothing to go to this property and hear 5 different gobblers sounding off at daylight.  My friends house is on the front of the property and then woods with a small field at the very back.  This morning was unusual in the fact that the only turkey we heard was far away, so far that we could barely hear him gobble.  I told Leah that we probably wouldn't have much luck this morning, but would get on the side of the property in hopes he could hear us call.  The turkey gobbled quite a bit, but as soon as he hit the ground he went silent.  By about 7:30 or so we decided to go set the decoys up in the back little field and just call for 30 more minutes and then we would go home.  Leah was ok with that since it was pretty cold that morning.  We set up and started calling.  Before long a lone hen strolled into our setup and we enjoyed her company and it at least gave Leah something to look at.  I started calling aggressive to her just to see if I could get her excited when the next thing I heard was that gobbler again.  He was still a good ways off, but it sounded like he answered my call.  I told Leah to listen real good and I let out some loud yelps.  BAM!!!  He responded and we could tell he was getting closer.  At that time I knew I had to get rid of this hen in front of us.  I stood up and ran her out of the field the opposite direction. I sit back down and yelped again...and BAM!!!!!...he was now within 100 yards coming in from behind us.  At that point I told Leah to get ready and I stopped calling.  The next gobble was loud and right behind us. Now, I don't know which directions he is going to come from, either from my side of the tree or Leahs.  The next thing I heard was him right behind us drumming.  I'm talking, standing beside the tree we are sitting by.  And now....watch the rest:

http://youtu.be/PN8lPFbm-Pk

[FullChoke]

Absolutely fantastic hunt. I am so proud of her and you.

FC

[Eric Gregg]

Two years ago a friend of mine wanted to go turkey hunting with me. We went to a place where the previous year I had run into a loud mouthed gobbler that showed me just how much of a rookie I was. In short, adrenaline got the best of me and the gobbler lived another morning. A couple of weeks later I took those lessons and learned from them. The gobbler was in the same vicinity, and I made great set up on him. I got him to commit to coming and within 100 yds and closing a poacher opened up and messed everything up. I was hungry to get after it again and this time we were going to seal the deal.
The morning was cool and clear with not wind...just perfect for listening. I hoot owl called down one gravel road and nothing sounded back. So we made it to a listening spot on top of a ridge, settled down and waited for the woods to wake up. I started to tree yelp real soft.....my friend was to my left and all I could see was his eyeballs. I looked over and his eyes were wide open and he said "did you hear that"?  After listening closely I heard a gobbler sound off at our 5 o'clock. We turned around and he was gobbling on his own roughly 200 yards to our now 11 o'clock. By now I could tell he was on the ground. We decided to set up right there, but as it got more daylight I could tell that we were really in a bad position, and I felt that we could move closer due to the amount of terrain between us and the gobbler. As we got up I could hear a hen yelping, moving towards her boyfriend that was up on that next hill out of our sight. She met up with him and he strutted back and forth on top of that hill where we couldn't flank him. I tried my best to call him down but he had assumed his position and he wasn't moving. The gobbler eventually moved away towards a food plot on an adjoining property, throwing gobbles back as he went.
I made a decision that the best thing we could do is get out of there before we buggared anything up, get some breakfast and a little rest and we would come back and see if he was away from the hen/hens that he met up with earlier that morning. I was betting that he would be lonely about that time.
We came back right to the same spot, parked the truck and we walked to the edge of the property where I knew I could hear him if he was in the food plot still. I used a crow call and nothing responded........ok so I will risk it and yelp......nothing.
I told my buddy that we would go right back to where we set up before that morning and see if we could catch him around that same area. We walked down the gravel road thirty-forty yards, turn to our left off the road and on my second step I am eyeball to eyeball with Dr. Evil....the Gobbler that Busted Me. Before I could say "turkey" he was halfway out of sight. I hit the ground, on my knees, a humbled hunter. That gobbler had found a pushed down small cedar tree to hop up on and strut. We could see where the bark was tore up where he had walked up and down that log, strutting and waiting for hens that frequented the area to come by.
We enjoyed the hunt, but I left with a sick empty pit in my stomach knowing that I had been one-upped that morning. But man was it fun!!!!!!

[Sand Man]

I have to admit these were shot with a SBE 12ga I built before I saw the 20ga light.  Hopefully, y'all will forgive me.   

Not the biggest birds, but a hunt I won't forget for a long time.

I had Friday off from work.  A buddy who's had a run of bad luck with the thunder chickens was supposed to go with me to a spot I had put a buddy on a bird opening weekend.  Well, something came up at work, and I went it alone.  I went to a spot with relatively easy access on public ground where we killed one opening weekend and left them gobbling.  I heard one bird on the roost, and he was a long way off.  He also wasn't accessible due to a deep creek between us.  I tried several different set ups where we had birds working the opener, but I never could get a response other than the bird really fired up across the creek.  I had him double and triple gobbling.  Very frustrating since I knew he was ready for some TSS, and I couldn't get to him.  I left and did a little recon to see if I could come in from the other side on foot.  Well, I found out I could, but it would be a several mile walk thru some thick cover.  The only option I came up with was a long boat ride thru a mine field of stumps.  I just happen to have a good friend with a mud motor.  So, the plan was hatched for the next morning.

My buddy with the run of bad luck couldn't go on Saturday due to a double header in baseball with his boys.  So, I invited another friend who's shown interest in hunting, but his only hunting experience was dove hunting with us this year.  I sent him to Academy Sports to get some camo pants/long sleeve shirt and the time to be at my house.

On the way to the boat ramp, I gave him the run down on what to expect.  I also gave him instructions on how to use my red dot in case we got two toms in, and the other ran up jumping on the dominate bird after I shot him.  He didn't want to shoot first as he had never turkey hunted.  He mainly wanted to go to watch and learn.  I told him that situation didn't happen very often, but there was a chance.  Little did I know this scenario would work out perfectly.

We launched the boat about 2 hours before I had heard the bird the previous morning.  It was a brisk 34 degrees.  I had been on warmer duck hunts.  Glad I brought a sweatshirt and jacket for my partner as it would have been one cold boat ride.  I must mention this boat ride isn't for the faint of heart.  It's thru one of the worst stump fields of any lake I've ever run.  You have to know the creek channel that cuts thru it and even then you still hit a stump or two.  Any of you that own or have ridden in a mud motor know what it's like.  To make matters worse, there's a thick fog just on the surface of the lake where the colder water and warmer air from the heat of the previous day combine.  I can not run the boat with a spotlight as the fog blinds me.   The sky is clear and the moon is bright, so I have to run without a light and by the reflection of the moon.  My buddy had never been in a mud motor.  Much less WOT in the middle of the night thru a stump field with me.  He said the ride was a little intense.     Finally we got to the general area where I thought the bird was the day before without an issue or man overboard, but I wasn't exactly sure where the bird was as two creeks come together in this area.  Decided to sit at the mouth of the two creeks to see if I could get the bird to gobble.  Gave several owl hoots and finally got a response.  The bird was close to the same spot as the day before.  Moved the boat up what I thought was the correct creek, beached it, let it get quite, gave another owl hoot, and our boy sounded off again.

We were in business.  The bird wasn't fired up like the day before, but he gobbled enough for me to get a good idea of where he was roosted.  We slipped in to within 200 yards or so of him.  I wasn't comfortable going any close as it was very still.  I didn't know the terrain and didn't want to run the risk of spooking him.  Got set up and started calling.  Couldn't get a response from the 'ol boy to save my life.  He gobbled maybe 7-8 times on the roost opposed to 40-50 the day before and not a word on the ground for about thirty minutes.  Finally I got him fired up with my old trusty box call.  I'd cut him off on a gobble, and he'd instantly cut me off.  I told my buddy that if the next time he gobbled and was closer he was coming.  Well, that he did and got quite.  I got my gun up think he was coming.  After about 15 minutes he gobbled again, but he had moved back to his original location.  After 30 more minutes of no gobbling, he gobbled again in about the same location.  I told my buddy we needed to move.

On the way to the bird trying to slip as quite as possible, the bird gobbled at a crow.  He sounded like he was 60-70 yards at most at a diagonal from us on the other side of a corner of the field in the woods.  I told my buddy we needed to sit down right here.  As soon as I sit down and reach in my vest for my box call, I spot what looks like a turkey at about 40-60 yards in the open timber in front of us.  I tell him to not move.  The bird finally moves, and I confirm it's a turkey and not a tree stump.  Fortunately, the bird didn't see us.  It ends up being two jakes feeding up thru the oaks and edge of the field looking for all the hens making the noise.  I tell my buddy I'm not going to call aggressive as I don't want the jakes getting in our laps and spooking.  About that time I see the strutter thru the woods at about 100-120 yards with another turkey I guess is a hen.  By now the jakes are 20 yards at most to our left.  Thinking the stutter is with a hen and looks like they are moving off to our right, I get aggressive with the calling to try and get the hen to come to us.  To my surprise it's 2 toms, both are now gobbling about every step, one is doing the strut run, and the other is running to us.  I tell my buddy to get ready.  The strutter and his buddy work to our right.  I let them get close enough for my buddy to hear him spitting and drumming.  Finally, I can't take it any more.....CLUCK....neck sticks up......BOOM!!!

Immediately I look for the jakes to my left as my bird isn't even kicking.  The jakes and the other tom are very disoriented.  I hand my buddy my gun and tell him to shoot any of the birds when he gets a chance.  I'm now cutting, cackling, etc on the mouth call even more confusing them.  About that time it dawns on me to start doing a fighting purr.  All 3 toms run up and start pecking at my bird.  I finally get one to stick his head up with a CLUCK.........BOOM!  His bird almost falls on top of mine.

Not the biggest birds.  Mine was a two year old and his was a jake, but I think it's a hunt he'll remember for the rest of his life.