The season opened with nasty weather and I managed a longbeard only minutes into the season and the pressure was off, on a great early season hunt. To top that off, I was able to tag another longbeard two weeks later with my son and my dad along for the ride.
May 1, 2014, rolled around and I was riding on cloud 9 and ready to get after some birds with good friend and hunter partner Carl. Between us we had three tags in three counties in Illinois and we had joked for weeks that we were going to have an epic hunt with 3 birds down in 3 counties in 1 day!
Unfortunately, day 1 met with overcast conditions, scattered rain showers and a windchill in the 30's. It was generally a miserable day and the birds did not cooperate. In fact we heard one gobble the entire day.
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| A slow day leads to me taking "artistic" pictures of the hunt... |
May 2, 2014, started in the same spot with similar results. Two birds gobbling a couple times at least 1/2 mile a way. The frustration of day 1 and yet another cloudy day to start out, led to a couple of hunters that settled on an early breakfast and a new plan for the rest of the day. We hit the local spot for breakfast and then decided to head to the South farm, for which I had my final tag. Carl and I talked all things turkey and as we drove the miles away I realized we were going to drive right by another farm I had permission to hunt so we decided to do a quick calling series and see what happened.
We parked the truck and quickly walked to the back field and hit the call a few times as I pointed out different aspects of the farm to my friend. As we started to walk to the truck Carl joked that we would probably hear a bird gobble when we walked all the way back to the truck. Instead a bird responded just across the property line in the field! I was on the gun this time so Carl dropped into a calling position and I quickly put out a decoy. Based on experience I knew the bird was close enough to spot us if we were not careful. I quickly set up, ironically on the same tree where I killed my second bird only 6 days prior. It was about 8:20 a.m. when the bird first gobbled and though he answered our calls the bird did not seem really fired up. I quickly laid eyes on the birds and realized there was a hen involved and eventually at least two longbeards. I struggled to stay still in the wide open terrain despite the birds being several hundred yards through the open timber I felt exposed. The birds gobbled occasionally, but moved right to left with the hen instead of towards our location. At one point the big gobbler jumped up on a log 150 yards away and stood motionless staring our direction for over ten minutes! That was the first time I got a clear look at the lead bird and he looked enormous! Carl later said he looked like a parade float drifting across the green timber floor in half strut.
About 40 minutes into the hunt I thought we were done as I saw the birds running across the timber, but later realized they were running yet another bird off, and soon they were working back my direction. My heart rate jumped up as they eased our direction once again. They closed the gap to 75 yards with the huge lead bird showing very little interest as his hen left him he headed back to his original location, only stopping to give us a courtesy stare before disappearing into the bottom. His companion was a nice longbeard but paled in comparison to the first bird. He stopped and did a half strut show for us before trotting off to catch up to his buddy. Once I was sure they were gone, we slipped out after working the birds for over an hour, we decided maybe things were breaking loose for us and we headed for the south farm.
By the time we drove several miles to the south farm and walked the 1/2 mile into the timber it was after 11 o' clock and though the clouds were still present, the temps were better, and the wind was picking up. I decided to work into a bottom where I had called birds before and get out of the wind.
Carl and I set up side by side with our backs to the property line. That line consisted of a few yards of thick brush, a very steep creek, another few yards of thick brush and then a bean stubble field that I had heard turkeys in on several occasions. So to set the stage, we sat with our backs to the field facing a small field road/corner of an old pasture where I had set a decoy. It was 11:28 a.m. by the time we trimmed enough briars for clear shooting and comfortable sitting. I whispered jokingly to Carl "Ok I'm ready, call me in a turkey!" He nodded in agreement and we hit our first series of calls with no response. Carl hit his call a second time and I thought I heard a faint gobble to my right. We had just talked about imagining gobbles when it is slow, so I elected to say nothing and wait to hear it again. Just a few minutes later and we were startled by a gobble only 60 yards away, behind us and straight up the field line! Carl hit the call and the bird hammered back even closer. I was exposed to the back so I did not dare turn and look and I whispered to Carl that he needed to keep an eye on him because he had a tree to hide him. He spotted the bird within what seemed like seconds and whispered that he was walking the field edge strutting and spitting and drumming. He stood directly behind us in gun range and gobbled again, then I heard him spitting and drumming. During all this commotion I heard what I thought was a bird flying the creek and I whispered to Carl, I think I heard him fly the creek. He whispered back that he was still behind us and I again heard him spit and drum.
My heard was pounding and my breathing was going nuts as I listened to that bird drum. In all the elevated excitement I heard a stick break to our left. I sat facing the decoy and as a left handed hunter I had moved my gun directly to my right when the bird had first gobbled as I thought he may cross the fence and come in from that direction. So as I glance slightly to my left I suddenly see a red and white head at 10 YARDS! I peeked through the brush and realized it was a jake, but then caught more movement and realized there were two birds a jake and a big gobbler, stepping out right behind Carl and looking at the decoy. I had a small portable "x" blind out so I now had to raise my gun over the blind and shoulder it then get a shot all without them seeing me from 12 yards away! As I started moving, Carl still did not know the birds were there and mumbled something I can not repeat but it boiled down to him thinking this bird is standing right behind us looking this way and all of a sudden I am moving my gun! The big gobbler suddenly popped out of strut and did the famous "wing flip" and I knew it was a matter of seconds and he would be gone. In one slow motion I brought the gun up and over the blind and shouldered as the bird walked away Carl suddenly realized we had 3 birds on top of us not just one! The big gobbler started to make his escape and despite it being a very hard shot to my extreme left, I was able to get square and get the bead on him. I was a bit panicked and honestly was telling myself "do not miss!" which typically does not turn out well! I hit a series on the mouth call as I put the bead on his head and he looked up just long enough! I pulled the trigger and the bird went down in a heap!!! Carl jumped up and gave me a quick high five before heading over to check out the bird, as the jake vacated the area. I stood up, still shaking and Carl yelled over to me something about "hooks" and we shared a few more hoots, and high fives before snapping pics. After all the excitement, I realized that I had just put bird number 50 on the ground for my turkey hunting career, what made that special was Carl and I hunted together when he hit 50 just a couple years back!
The bird was a great one, 23 lbs 1 oz, 1 9/16" L spur, 1 7/16" R spur and a 9 1/4" beard.
