Oklahoma
4/6/2019
Got an invite from my good friend Steve out to his lease in Oklahoma in hopes of filling my Oklahoma turkey tag, I hunted Oklahoma two years ago and I got to watch my little girl kill her first bird out there in western OK with my other good friend Russ. But I was not able to get a bird on that trip or one I had made a few weeks prior to that trip so I had my fingers crossed that things would work out on this trip.
Saturday morning we found ourselves in tight to a roost area with multiple birds hammering. We saw them pitch out into some open area then we could see them coming to our set up, it was 7 jakes one of which had an ohhhh so close to full fan. I mean it was a quarter inch from being perfect. But I just couldn’t make myself shoot, had we been in the woods he would have been in trouble. After an hour of them whipping my decoy and spinning the hen decoy into ground at 12yds they finally walk off. I about fallout from the excitement. We make a move and strike up another group of birds which come in fast, we’re in some pretty thick woods and they come in to about 15yds but I’ve got a fallen tree blocking my view and all I can see is their heads. After they walk off Steve, who had a different view point, said the strutter was nice and full, I couldn’t believe it I couldn’t see him, I had seen one jake and never saw a strutter but I could hear him drumming. I was hoping I hadn’t missed my chance as they walked off.
Around lunch it flooded and the wind picked way up. We got something to eat and got back to the woods around 4pm. I set up in the woods hoping to call in a bird going to roost and Steve went to another spot about half a mile from me to watch another area and said he would call if he saw a gobbler.
It was very windy and every now and then I could hear a faint gobble in the distance so I got up and headed towards it. I ran into a group of chatty hens but never heard or saw a gobbler with then nor heard the one I went after so I eased back to my setup. About an hour later I get a call from Steve asking me if I could hear the bird gobbling to my SE, I told him no I couldn’t hear anything but wind but I was making a move to get closer.
I look at my map and made a plan to slip and look in some open areas and try to strike the bird up. As I’m easing through the woods I’m soft calling and glassing but don’t see anything, I make it to one opening and decide I need to get to the other opening. As I’m slipping through I catch movement and it’s a hen about 80yds to my left and she’s feeding in a small gap in trees, then another walks through, then I hear drumming and it’s pretty loud in the wind and I know he’s got to be close. Im in the wide open and in a bind so I drop down and go towards a cedar sapling but I get about 8’ from it when another hen hits an small opening at 30yds and then I hear the deafening drumming again and I see a big black object through the dense timber walking from my right to left. He stops just short of the small gap in the trees and now I’m shaking like crazy and I have to make a decision. He breaks into about half strut and I can see his full head and half of his body and I say to myself he has 5 hens and I haven’t seen a hen with another bird on this place so he’s got to be the boss bird. I steady my dot on his head and filled my Oklahoma tag with a fine bird. It was an unreal hunt and the Good Lord blessed me on that one for sure. But it wasn’t over.
As I regain my composure Steve calls and asked if it was me that shot and that he had spooked a good bird that was coming my way. Just then I hear one gobble close to me and I told him to get down there with me. He drives his truck down south of me and parks, I call him and tell him where I'm at and he comes up towards me and when I see I point to a tree and he sets down. We get to calling back and forth to each other and we get another bird fired up. It wasn’t 3minues and we see him come running by the truck and runs up in Steve’s lap and he takes a really nice Oklahoma bird. Doesn’t get much better than that.
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