dgarbus
05-04-2009, 11:58 PM
So today was my 22nd birthday and I made sure to get the day off so I could do some hunting. Unfortuantely, since I've been so busy this year, I never actually got a chance to go scouting.
With it being my first day of the season at my buddy's property, I headed over to a spot in the woods where I killed a bird last Memorial Day. As darkness turned to light, I was shockingly undewhelmed at what I heard. Unlike last year, I only heard one bird gobbling on the roost, and it was very faint. Had there been any wind, I probably would have never even heard it.
Because there was nothing really going on where I was sitting, I got up and started heading toward where I thought the bird might be. About 300 yards or so later, I let out of a couple of yelps on my Typhoon box call. Sure enough, my second call was met by a gobble - much, much closer and just on the other side of a small hill! A couple more calls, all met by gobbles, confirmed that it was time to sit down. I took a seat against a tree near the edge of the trail and began to call sparingly to determine if the bird was heading my way. Although it was definitely getting closer, a couple calls later, it stopped responding. Instead, a hen was yelping loudly from what I guessed to be about a hundred yards. I knew that my only chance at this bird was getting the hen to come to me. After mimicking its long yelps for a few minutes, it was obvious that the hen was getting closer. I put down my calls and rested my gun against my knee. About a miunte later, a grey head pops up. As she continues to walk toward me, two other hens follow closely behind. After about a minute of them slowly walking and looking around, I see the bright red and blue head pop into view. This was it. I waited for him to get to about 30 yards and put the dot on his head (by this time, the first hen was only about 10 yards away from me). A couple seconds later, he was down!
All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present. I'm really glad that I decided to go, considering I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before.
Anyway, here's some pics :)
http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/turkey-5409.jpg
http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/spurs.jpg http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/beard.jpg
The beard comes in at about 7 inches and the spurs are almost an inch long. It's not the biggest bird I've ever killed, but I'm nothing short of happy!
With it being my first day of the season at my buddy's property, I headed over to a spot in the woods where I killed a bird last Memorial Day. As darkness turned to light, I was shockingly undewhelmed at what I heard. Unlike last year, I only heard one bird gobbling on the roost, and it was very faint. Had there been any wind, I probably would have never even heard it.
Because there was nothing really going on where I was sitting, I got up and started heading toward where I thought the bird might be. About 300 yards or so later, I let out of a couple of yelps on my Typhoon box call. Sure enough, my second call was met by a gobble - much, much closer and just on the other side of a small hill! A couple more calls, all met by gobbles, confirmed that it was time to sit down. I took a seat against a tree near the edge of the trail and began to call sparingly to determine if the bird was heading my way. Although it was definitely getting closer, a couple calls later, it stopped responding. Instead, a hen was yelping loudly from what I guessed to be about a hundred yards. I knew that my only chance at this bird was getting the hen to come to me. After mimicking its long yelps for a few minutes, it was obvious that the hen was getting closer. I put down my calls and rested my gun against my knee. About a miunte later, a grey head pops up. As she continues to walk toward me, two other hens follow closely behind. After about a minute of them slowly walking and looking around, I see the bright red and blue head pop into view. This was it. I waited for him to get to about 30 yards and put the dot on his head (by this time, the first hen was only about 10 yards away from me). A couple seconds later, he was down!
All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present. I'm really glad that I decided to go, considering I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before.
Anyway, here's some pics :)
http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/turkey-5409.jpg
http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/spurs.jpg http://davidgarbus.com/photos/hunting/turkey-05042009/beard.jpg
The beard comes in at about 7 inches and the spurs are almost an inch long. It's not the biggest bird I've ever killed, but I'm nothing short of happy!