Eventually I've found the time to post this. Life is busier when you're retired than when you're still working, or so it would seem.
Got up to SC and got everything set for my first morning hunting this season. I packed up my turkey hunting wizardry items, along with my gun and binocs. I loaded the truck, hooked up the trailer and put my latest stealth turkey attack vehicle on charge.
0430 came way too early, but I was unloading the buggy as the sky changed from black to gray. As I got set to pull out, I heard a couple of distant early gobbles.
I smiled as I stealthed down the sugar sand roads in my electric turkey killing machine. It wasn't long until I heard 2 gobbles from not all that far away. Fog built in and limited the gobbling for a while, but as it lifted more gobbling fired up just down the road.
I cruised down to my next listening area, and had 2 gobblers both going off within 300 yards. One sounded like it was through some thick stuff, across the creek and up a hill. The other was a little closer, in less thick terrain and seemed to be more fired up. He was really hammering!! I eased in as close as I dared and set up with no decoy. I would make him come look for me, the terrain was perfect for that.
He got fired up, so I gave him some hen talk to let him know I was there. Soon it became apparent that he had settled into a strut zone and was doing what gobblers do.
I formulated a plan and stuck with it. Every time he fired up again, I would wait longer to reply, give him less yelps and clucks, and call softer every time. He figured it out pretty quickly and sloooooooooowly started moving my way on turkey time.
He finally got within a hundred yards, but I couldn't see him. I was up on a ridge, and he was down on a bench. Finally he got about 50 yards out and fired up. I gave him 3 super soft yelps and scratched in the leaves, then shut up.
About 10 minutes went by when I saw him finally come into view, walking up the hill. When he got on the same level as me, he angled in right to where he'd heard "the hen".
He stepped into a shooting lane at 32 yards, and I dropped the hammer!! He went down fast and hard, ending 2 seasons of frustration. I sat and watched him flop, then pointed to the sky and thanked the good Lord for blessing me.
He was the kind of 2 year old everyone loves. He gobbled around 125 times in an hour and a half. What an exciting hunt!!
I took some pictures, packed up my stuff, and had just picked up my gobbler when another hearty gobble rang out from 125 yards behind me. I briefly thought about setting up on him. Instead, I just smiled and said, "I'll see you tomorrow!"
