Turkey Time
Before I get into any sort of turkey story, I want to point out a couple things about what a success stories turkeys are. I remember as a kid it was a big deal to even see one and now they are seemingly everywhere! What a huge conservation success story and hunters have played a major part in that. Without a lot of hard work and turkeys being a game species (with an added value) they would never have made such a recovery.
My turkey hunting goals were pretty simple…harvest a legal bird. Other than chicken, wild game and fish make up almost all of the protein at my house. Adding a turkey to that mix would shake things up a bit so getting whatever legal bird I could was the priority.
We had some options with turkeys and my dad did some scouting the week before. It is a strange deal to set up the pop up blind and what not for turkeys. It doesn’t bother them at all which is weird to me. They truly are not very smart but that is what makes them hard to kill sometimes. We had an action packed morning but the problem was all the action was going down on the neighboring property. It was fun to watch one bird meet his demise over there. We never had a chance at anything and called it quits mid morning. I had really no intentions of continuing the hunt elsewhere. However the amount of gobbling and action I saw was vastly different from any of the 2 times I’ve previously turkey hunted. I was inspired to see if I could make something happen the rest of the day. My parents were excited to hang out with the girls so I was heading out solo so they could spend some time with them.
I’m not even really up to the level of a beginner turkey hunter but the worst that could happen is I would learn something. Plus I hoped to check a couple morel spots and search for some ramps. I hadn’t touched a turkey call since high school so it was going to be interesting to see how that goes. I headed to the first spot and things happened instantly. My plan was to set up in the area I’ve killed my only previous turkey at. But as soon as I cleared the first fence row I spotted a far off dark spot on the move 2 fields over. I got the glasses on it and confirmed it was a good sized tom moving away from me on an even walk. I had the terrain to my advantage to make some quick moves and get to a spot where I could have a chance to intersect him. Off on a sprint I went, I covered one field quickly and got the glasses up again.
He was heading to an area where he had different options depending on the direction he went after he hit the cover. Off on another sprint I went to get to the field I was hoping he would get to. All the while trying to make sure I didn’t come up on any other birds as this was all likely habitat. The bird could have gone 2 ways once it hit the cover so I chose the conservative spot to ensure I wouldn’t bump him.
Given that I hadn’t had anytime to practice the call I was a little nervous about making my first yelps directed at an actual turkey. Sure enough I got an immediate gobble back! The bird had gone the opposite way I had hoped and was in the woods across the field. He would absolutely not budge despite my uneducated calling. I had 2 decoys out and moved locations a few times trying to get him to think I was on the move. Nothing worked but he certainly wasn’t leaving. This has gone on for close to an hour at this point and I decided it was time to go completely silent. Not long after that 4 hens popped out into the field and started taking their nap in some dustbowls. Surely he would want to come check them out right? After waiting a bit longer I finally caught a glimpse of that white and blue head moving out into the field. He proceeded to strut out in the field forever. I called a couple more times after a while and while it got some gobbles but neither him or the hens would move. I guess it was proof my calling was at least not offensive to them!
I was wishing at this point I had made a move to that corner of the field before those hens came out. But for now I was stuck until they moved on. The tom finally faded off behind the hens disappearing out of site and I had no more moves to make. I had one more property to check but I wasn’t going to leave until these hens made their exit. After what seemed like forever they decided they had a long enough nap. I nosed out of the cover to get my decoys and move on while carefully looking into that corner. With a different angle I was able to catch the outline of half of that strutting tom. Back into the cover I went and it was time to make a play. The way the terrain and cover worked out I could get close to that tom if things went well. I was convinced he wasn’t coming my way and decided now was the time to gamble vs hoping to hunt him in the morning.
I’d be close when I rounded that corner and with all the crunchy oak leaves around I needed to be silent. So I borrowed a trick I had seen on a Meateater episode and took the boots off. The stalk was pretty uneventful because I couldn’t see anything. They were either going to be spooked or I was going to round that corner peak over that hill and shoot.
As I rounded the corner all the hens and that big blue headed tom were right there. I could see their heads bobbing around and unfortunately the tom was facing directly at me. I decided to stay where I was and take the tippy top of his head off. Unfortunately something didn’t quite work and I had to take a couple steps and anchor him with another. Hitting a moving turkey in the head is a cakewalk compared to a lot of waterfowl shots!
I’m going to be honest it was pretty dang satisfying to get that bird on my own especially after the way it all unfolded. I definitely have a bigger appreciation for turkey hunting now and it has been some very fine eating so far. I parted my bird out so I still have a lot of recipes to do but the turkey tenders did not disappoint. Check back for a turkey cooking blog at some point this year. The added bonus was bringing it back for the girls to see. It makes my day when they get excited about all that stuff hopefully it will inspire their own adventures in the outdoors in the future.