I got off work and met my buddy at 1830hrs. He has only turkey hunted twice, and never taken a bird.
Pulling up to my wheat field, we saw some hens along the edge moving away from us.....busted already
Did a little glassing and saw a couple of toms fanned out at the other end, so we basically squat walked the other side of a tree row, and got within 100 yds. They weren't spooky acting, so we set up and I started calling with yelps, and got triple gobbles. Another tom we couldn't see was out of our sight.
The group of 6 hens kept walking/feeding along the edge away from us, so I started clucking, mixed with some yelps. One hen lit up and started yelping continuously. It was so sustained that I thought some other hunter was on the other side of the field.
The hen kept coming to my clucks and gathering whistles, yelping all the time. The toms gobbled, and gobbled and never came to us.
The hen kept coming. She finally got within 3 yards of us, and kept yelping and clucking. She finally walked behind us, still within 3 yards, and started yelping.
How awesome is this? A live decoy
While she was behind us, I started clucking again with the box call, and she lit up every time I did. Moving my eyes only, my buddy was shaking like a leaf. Still the toms never came but were gobbling like crazy. She walked back in front of us and started looking for bugs, so I started clucking again. She must have been a young of the year and never seen a human, as she was not alarmed.
All of this tension went on for almost an hour, and she finally walked toward the toms. We relaxed, and then decided to try a sneak. Going down the tree row, I spotted another group coming out of the trees into the old bean field. We got behind some Johnson grass for cover, and started calling. All of a sudden, out of our sight, 6 toms came out chasing one huge bird. He was the boss tom. They were trying to run him off from the hens. We called and called, but never could get anything but a gobble. They herded that boss tom away from the hens for an hour and we got to witness it all. I would have given a hundred bucks for a video camera.
Long story, but altogether, it was the most tense, exciting turkey hunt in my life.
My buddy was thinking when that hen was coming in that I need to STFU with the clucks, but she lit up every time, so it was time to throw the turkey hunting rule book out the window and go with the flow
After this any turkey hunt will be so so.
Pulling up to my wheat field, we saw some hens along the edge moving away from us.....busted already
Did a little glassing and saw a couple of toms fanned out at the other end, so we basically squat walked the other side of a tree row, and got within 100 yds. They weren't spooky acting, so we set up and I started calling with yelps, and got triple gobbles. Another tom we couldn't see was out of our sight. The group of 6 hens kept walking/feeding along the edge away from us, so I started clucking, mixed with some yelps. One hen lit up and started yelping continuously. It was so sustained that I thought some other hunter was on the other side of the field.
The hen kept coming to my clucks and gathering whistles, yelping all the time. The toms gobbled, and gobbled and never came to us.
The hen kept coming. She finally got within 3 yards of us, and kept yelping and clucking. She finally walked behind us, still within 3 yards, and started yelping.
How awesome is this? A live decoy
While she was behind us, I started clucking again with the box call, and she lit up every time I did. Moving my eyes only, my buddy was shaking like a leaf.
Still the toms never came but were gobbling like crazy. She walked back in front of us and started looking for bugs, so I started clucking again. She must have been a young of the year and never seen a human, as she was not alarmed. All of this tension went on for almost an hour, and she finally walked toward the toms. We relaxed, and then decided to try a sneak. Going down the tree row, I spotted another group coming out of the trees into the old bean field. We got behind some Johnson grass for cover, and started calling. All of a sudden, out of our sight, 6 toms came out chasing one huge bird. He was the boss tom. They were trying to run him off from the hens. We called and called, but never could get anything but a gobble. They herded that boss tom away from the hens for an hour and we got to witness it all. I would have given a hundred bucks for a video camera.
Long story, but altogether, it was the most tense, exciting turkey hunt in my life.
My buddy was thinking when that hen was coming in that I need to STFU with the clucks, but she lit up every time, so it was time to throw the turkey hunting rule book out the window and go with the flow
After this any turkey hunt will be so so.
