Enjoy a recent story from friend Mr. Burton, showing location and patience can be just as successful as running and gunning:
"I
am not a good turkey hunter to say the least. I don't listen for
gobbles and chase turkeys through the woods but generally set up and
wait. I have hunted and killed several turkeys but sometimes it seems
more like luck than skill. This season might be case in point. I was
able to hunt the first day of my permit but due to family commitment I
was unable to hunt the next two days. I had third season south zone -
Friday April 20 thru Wednesday April 25.
The first day hunt was filled with high
expectation. I had seen turkeys in this field during the youth turkey
season. Plenty of hens and toms around then. I put out my lone
hen decoy and waited patiently for the turkeys to come. I heard gobbles
in the woods behind me and beside me like I expected but as the sun
came up they didn't come into my field like I expected. In fact there
was only one lone hen to cross the field all morning. I was persistent
and stayed where I set up early expecting the tom to come out any
second. No such luck. Long morning waiting and watching.
A quick note here - I am traveling about 62 miles
from where I am staying to where I am hunting. The route goes through
eight little towns so is somewhat slow going. I was getting up at
3:00am to get to the hunting site and in position by 5:30am. Now that
may seem like a boring run but my only thoughts were on the hunt and the
turkeys. Always second guessing the plan made yesterday. Trying to
think of a new technique or strategy to get a nice turkey in range.
Always wondering if I am calling too much or not enough.
The second day I was able to hunt I set up along the
edge of a woods looking over a planted corn field. The corn is up a
couple of inches. About 60 yards into the field from where I am
situated is a grass waterway which is about 20 to 30 yards wide. In the
early light I heard gobbles from six or seven different toms. They
were located all around me and now I am really excited. I had put out
two hen decoys and one jake decoy. Again it seemed like forever before I
saw the first turkey. And of course it was a hen. It was about 125
yards across the field from me. Looked at the decoys but other than
look there was no action. At approximately 7:00 I saw the first tom of
the day. It was across the field and simply walked out into and across
the corn field without so much as a serious look at my decoys. Then at
7:30 another tom came out of the woods this time much closer to me. He
saw my decoys and looked but no other action. He simply walked along
the other side of the grass waterway without paying any attention to
lonely ole me. But when he was about even with me in the field there
were two toms and a hen coming across the corn field toward the grass
waterway. The one tom coming saw the one walking along the waterway and
immediately charged toward that tom. Of course the one walking the
waterway took off running. The other tom didn't chase too far and
rejoined his buddy and the hen. They walked to the woods but didn't
enter then walked back pretty much from the direction they came. This
was the beginning of a slow parade of 8 toms and 7 hens to walk along
the other side of the waterway from me and all the time paying
absolutely no attention to my decoys. The wind was making the
decoys turn a little bit once in a while which I thought was good but
apparently not good to the turkeys. There was one very exciting part to
the morning when I happened to notice movement immediately to my
right. It was a hen of course but she was only about 4 or 5 yards from
my position. She walked out to the closest hen decoy and pecked it then
walked around it and fluffed up like she was going to flog it. There
were actually two hens but I didn't see the other one until they were
walking away. At 12:30pm I had had enough! I picked up the decoys and
gave up the day. But I did retrieve my ground blind from the truck and
put it up in the grass waterway!
The very next morning I got in the blind with full
expectation. This time I thought I would try for that aggressive tom so
put up my strutting tom and hen decoy pair. Again there were gobbles
all around. In the ground blind and wearing Walker hearing protection I
am unsure of the exact direction they come from but judge from the
volume how close they are. There were two that were close for sure.
And of course the gobbles off in the distance that make me always second
guess where I have set up my decoys for the morning.
Seemed like forever before I even saw a turkey. The
sun had come up and my decoys were making shadows. I still hadn't seen
a turkey. Then I happened to notice two hens in the weeds across the
corn field. The weeds are tall enough only the heads were visible.
They disappeared quickly into the weeds. Then at 7:15am finally a tom
stepped out of the woods at the end of the cornfield. He was about 125
yards away. But he noticed the decoys right away. He strutted and
gobbled several times moving very very slowly in my direction. I don't
believe he was the tom that challenged the bird from yesterday. Could
have been the bird that was challenged for all I know. But he did keep
strutting and gobbling and slowly ever so slowly moving my direction.
He had come probably 20 yards closer when a hen came out of the woods
between my position and the tom. Of course I was concerned now. The
hen slowly worked her way away from my position and the tom was showing
interest moving away also. But it seemed he couldn't keep his eye off
the strutting tom decoy. As it happened the wind had come up in slight
gusts. This of course caused the strutting tom decoy to turn slightly
once in a while. This must have been what kept his interest. He would
strut for the hen then strut and gobble for the decoy. Quite a show to
say the least. Then the hen walked quickly away from us. I knew for
sure I had lost the tom. But the tom wouldn't follow and came a few
more yards toward us strutting and gobbling. That caused the hen to
turn and come our direction causing my heart to pound a bit harder.
They seemed to move a little quicker once the hen started toward
us. She was kind of feeding or at least pecking at the ground as she
came our way.
I had used the range finder earlier to determine
distance from my shooting position and had decided any tom within a
certain area was going to be shot. This tom was working his way into my
shooting area. Of course the ground blind has small windows to view
and shoot from. He was coming from my right so I shouldered the shotgun
left handed thinking he would come only so close and stop. But as luck
would have it he kept moving toward the decoys. Now the
decision.......... I pulled the shotgun barrel back into the blind and
changed to right shoulder pushed the barrel back out the window and
the tom turkey was out there in my shooting area. I didn't wait to see
if he would come to the decoys or suddenly change his mind and take off
after the hen so I shot him. He was 32 yards away from the blind. Of
course the analysis after the shot - I should have waited to see what he
was going to do and I would have seen more strutting and maybe a gobble
closer. He must have gobbled 25 times in his travel from the woods to
the shooting area. I saw him first at 7:15 and shot him at 7:40.
It was quite a show to say the least with many changes in anticipation.
The hen sure changed the equation for a while but I think eventually
she worked to my advantage when she came back to the tom and kept moving
my direction.
See what I mean by more luck than skill?"
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| Mr. Burton with his turkey 11 1/4" beard, 1 1/8" spurs, 21 lbs 3 oz! |
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