Turkey hunting forum for turkey hunting tips

I had to dial the "Way Back Machine" a long ways to start this thread. My illustrious turkey hunting career started in the early 70s and I was a green kid with nothing but desire and a gun for gear. Actually, I kind of remember someone telling me, "son someone is pulling a cruel trick on you, there are no turkeys around here". I knew I wasn't on a snipe hunt, I had seen the beast with my own eyes!

My my very first act of stupidly was not even knowing what my quarry would look like. The very first gobbler I ever called to came right in and a friend and myself sat and discussed whether it was a gobbler or a hen and if we should shoot it, uhh it walked away unharmed.

I will start this thread with a couple of my boners and then add more later after y'all get it rolling. My very dumbest stunt and one that haunts me to this day and makes me cower in shame is this one, but I was a 17 year old kid with no supervision. I had heard a gobbler on this hill and he ignored my calls, so I decided to sneak up on him. As I peaked over the bench edge I see a white spot at the end of a neck and a dark body. I didn't know much but I knew gobblers had a white top nod. So I aim and shoot and nothing happens. Then I stand up and realize I was a dumbarse. I had shot a white trillium at the end of a stump. Honestly I never told this story before right now. What it did do is make me realize how important identifying your target is, I have never made a similar mistake in the many years since.

The next one is pretty simple. I learned to never lean my gun against a tree and walk off 30 yards to take a dump. I was moving to set up on a gobbler and the "oh my gods" hit me. So I leaned my gun against a tree and went over the bank to do my business. I was just wiping when something caught my attention, the gobbler had come to the sound of crunching leaves. He stood just 30 yards from my gun. So I half pull up my pants and stumble my way towards my gun. I get to it and he still there laughing his gobbler butt off. I get my gun and drop my drawers and just as my  gun hits my should he puts and runs away laughing.

Good times!  I'll throw one in that comes to mind. 

I was 16 or 17 and was solo hunting before school.  Had a gobbler pretty fired up on top of a ridge early one morning.  I slipped out the top and got to within about 75 yards from him and squatted against a tree to start calling.  The problem was I literally squatted down vs. sitting on my butt. 

The gobbler had a couple hens with him but I finally pulled him into range after about 30-40 mins.  I dropped him and stood up to go grab him up.  Yep, you guessed it, my feet and legs had fallen asleep due to the lack of circulation.  I didn't even make a step-just flat on my face.  It took me a second to figure out what happened but it's one mistake I've never made since.   

A few years ago I got on a gobbler and made some of the stealthiest and most calculated moves I have ever made. I was in the zone and knew I was going to kill him. I actually snuck by him at 50 yards to set up behind him and call him back over the lip of the mountain. I heated him up to the point of him gobbling every few seconds. Then dropped the silence on him. I had the gun on the opening I knew he was going to pop his head into to sneak a peak. After a few gobbles he went quiet and I got real attentive on the gun knowing he was gonna give it a quick peak and then retreat. Sure enough his head popped right into my  sight and I squeezed the trigger...  but it didn't move. Safety was still on.

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I was blessed with a father that let me "learn on my own" or either shoo'd me away from him...they may be one and the same or something like that, but I have no clue and will go with the first one.

I was about 10 years old and hunting in a grapefruit block that backed up to a big swamp in South Florida. For some reason I was confident in my ability to call them with just my mouth. Have no clue why. Birds gobbled on the roost and I began trying to yelp and cackle with just my mouth, no mouth call, and managed to scare every bird off the roost.

Can honestly say being able to run around as a kid on my own, do dumb things and attempt to ambush animals made me the hunter I am today. My theory is that I've figured out every way not to do it so now I'm left with the good ideas!


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I messed up and told the game warden where I killed the turkey. On a mandatory check in 

Early on... worked a bird for about 3 days (in MO you can only hunt til 1) off and on. I finally found the birds comfort zone, but it was across a fence on the neighbors place. I spent full, half days, trying to get that bird to come across the property line. 

Gave up on afternoon of day 4, drove a few roads I was unfamiliar with to get to the property owners house, was gonna plead my case for hunting that bird that ruined my week. I pulled up to his house and that old Tom was sitting on his porch... apparently it was a tame eastern he had raised from an abandoned nest.

My first ever public hunt, i hunted all morning and was so tired for getting up so early to beat everyone to this spot and back to the truck for lunch and back to my spot calling ever so often like i had done all morning and i was napping off, i look about 30 yards form me and see this pretty red bird on top of this stump , as i'm watching this bird on this stump all of a sudden the stump and the red head just walk away. I was like in a trance..omg.. it's a hunt i will never forget..

Quote from: Greg Massey on February 16, 2021, 06:23:16 PM
My first ever public hunt, i hunted all morning and was so tired for getting up so early to beat everyone to this spot and back to the truck for lunch and back to my spot calling ever so often like i had done all morning and i was napping off, i look about 30 yards form me and see this pretty red bird on top of this stump , as i'm watching this bird on this stump all of a sudden the stump and the red head just walk away. I was like in a trance..omg.. it's a hunt i will never forget..

That's a good one, I can see that happening when your dozing a bit.....

First turkey I ever killed. Two came in gobbling and got within 15 feet of me but I couldn't get on them to shoot. They got out to probably 30 yards, I squeezed the trigger and nothing happened. Decided the shell was bad. Pumped in another shell. Birds moved but came into another opening. Squeezed the trigger again and nothing! Thankfully it didn't shoot because I was on a hen at that point. Birds worked off and I pumped in my third and final shell. Made some yelps on the ol Madd Calls Hatchet and the two jakes came back gobbling. Third shell went off and got my first bird, a Jake.

After looking over the shells I determined I was so nervous I didn't pull the trigger far enough. The 870 trigger creep and adrenaline got the better of me.

 Picking up the camo hanker chief someone "lost" in the middle of the trail. Thats a lesson you only need to learn one time.

Quote from: Brian Fahs on February 16, 2021, 06:57:05 PM
Picking up the camo hanker chief someone "lost" in the middle of the trail. Thats a lesson you only need to learn one time.

Hahaha! I've sat down at the base of trees before and wondered why there was a little fabric sitting there. You are right... Only takes once!

OMG, there's so many dumb things I did. First turkey hunt I didn't even have a call. Friend of mine, older guy, who also didn't know anything about turkey hunting, owned some land and told me a big gobbler roosted on the hill behind his house, and it would be no problem to sneak up on him and kill him.

Opening morning found me on the hill behind his house before daylight. Sun was just beginning to light the sky across the field in front of me, when I began hearing a strange noise. After hearing it several times, it finally registered with me that it was a gobbler.

I looked across the field, and sure enough, silhouetted against the morning sky perched on the limb of a big oak in the fencerow, was a gobbler. I can still see that dangling beard. I tried to put the sneak on him, and, of course, failed. Drove the 20 miles to Springfield that evening and bought the only turkey call I could find, a Ben Rogers Lee box.

Killed my first bird across the road from this place a couple of years later. I hunted the area for about 6 or 7 years, and never heard or saw a gobbler on my friend's farm again!


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I had killed a couple turkeys before but never a longbeard.  I was 8 years old and sitting between my Dads legs.  My Dad gave me the little nudge to shoot when the turkey was about 20-25 yards away.  After the shot the gobbler started the rolling flop away from us.  I rushed to the gobbler and grabbed a foot, big mistake.  A big battle ensued, I never managed to get the other leg, and in fact lost my grip a couple times on the one I did have.  But like a seasoned fighter I managed to finally inch my way up and get a hold of its neck, which turned out to be a worse decision than my initial decision to grab a foot.  Now he was working my midsection over with both feet.  I finally won the battle and he expired.  I still think he got the best end of the deal even though he lost his life.  I did get scratched up and spurred a time or two.  After I finally had my prize I look at my Dad and he's still sitting with his back against the tree with his head tilted sideways just staring at me.  No smile or nothing.  Finally I see him kind of chuckle and shake his head.  He then told me you know all this could have been avoided, we have more shells.  I still have a scar to this day on the knuckle of my middle finger on my left hand where either a toe nail got me or a spur. 

I plan on killing one this year with that same gun, but I'm using two shells if needed.   

Still catch myself acting out incredible stupidity every year.  Some fools never learn. First bird I ever killed by myself is shining bright tonight though.  To this day, I have never heard anyone call to a turkey as much as I did to that turkey. Funny thing was it worked. I was 16 then.


Decided I would get nice and tight one morning.  Had em roosted and had my plan.  Problem was I got too close.  When he fired off the first time I realized this as I had a heart attack when I discovered he was above me.  Moral of that story he spooked. 


Also don't leave your gun on a tree and walk out with your dead turkey.  What's bad is that been pretty recent


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I was completely self-taught, before there was an internet and no turkey hunting books that were easy to find so I had no idea about ANYTHING related to turkey hunting...

First few turkey I shot, I body-shot them and had no idea that wasn't right :TooFunny:  Looking back, I was really lucky to kill them.  I finally figured it out but I started off with an old push pin call, no turkey choke, pheasant loads, and body shooting the first 3-4 turkey I killed. I came from a deer hunting family so that's also how I hunted turkey, for the most part, in my early years.

I have done a lot of dumb stuff over the decades, but the one incident that always comes to mind for me if someone asks about the dumbest is this one:

I mentioned in another thread that it took me about ten years of "on and off" hunting spring gobblers to kill my first one by calling him in.  That would very likely have happened in my second year when I was about fourteen, as I recall,...if I had a clue as to what I was doing.

One afternoon, my dad dropped me and my brother-in-law off at the bottom of a canyon high in the mountains of New Mexico.  I had an old scratch box call that I didn't have an idea how to use, but we walked up the canyon a bit, sat down against a big pine tree, and I started scratching out what I am quite sure were the gawd-awfullest turkey noises ever uttered by mankind. 

I don't remember how long we sat there,...it's all foggy now five decades later,...but all I remember is that all of a sudden a gobble rang out so close it literally made us both jump.  In my mind now, I am pretty certain that gobbler would have died had I had the presence of mind just to be still and wait for him to appear.

In my delirium of the moment, my reaction was,..."that gobbler is so close I can just jump up and run over there and shoot him".  ...Which is exactly what I did,...except for the "shooting him" part.  I jumped up, ran in the direction of the gobble,....and never saw or heard him again. 

To this day, that gobble haunts me in my sleep!....   :laugh:

I will also throw out that I once swung wide right and shot a gobbler 1 handed with a mossy 835 and 3.5" shells. That wasn't too bright. Not sure who bled more.

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Quote from: Happy on February 17, 2021, 09:16:17 AM
I will also throw out that I once swung wide right and shot a gobbler 1 handed with a mossy 835 and 3.5" shells. That wasn't too bright. Not sure who bled more.

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Ah, that reminded me of another mishap.   Won't go into details because I've heard a picture is worth a thousand words.  And 999 of those words I couldn't use on this forum to describe this turkey hunting mishap anyway.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/4755/39393221905_454cba2e22.jpg)

Quote from: guesswho on February 17, 2021, 12:02:12 PM

Quote from: Happy on February 17, 2021, 09:16:17 AM
I will also throw out that I once swung wide right and shot a gobbler 1 handed with a mossy 835 and 3.5" shells. That wasn't too bright. Not sure who bled more.

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Ah, that reminded me of another mishap.   Won't go into details because I've heard a picture is worth a thousand words.  And 999 of those words I couldn't use on this forum to describe this turkey hunting mishap anyway.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/4755/39393221905_454cba2e22.jpg)

i bet that watered the eyes a bit!

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And dirtied my mouth????

I have had my share of dumb mistakes, but one of the funniest spectacles I have experienced, I was glad to just be a witness to. It was nearly 30 years ago, and a couple buddies of mine convinced a fella that had a lease in Texas that I could call some birds in for him. We worked out an arrangement that I would call him in a bird and then I would get to shoot the next. Sounded like a sweet deal for me at the time. The second morning of the hunt turned off a little cool by hill country Texas standards and the ole fella had donned some light camo coveralls.
About mid morning, he announced he had to answer a call and disappeared into the mesquite behind us. He returned a little while later and sat back down. He hadn't gotten settled in real good when he did a little wiggle and then jumped straight up and lit into a cussing tirade worthy of Olympic proportions.He walked back into the mesquite and was gone a little longer this time. When he returned, he no longer had those coveralls in his possession. I never said a word and itvwas all I could do to try to keep a straight face.
So......my advice I learned the hard way through someone else is that if you ever wear coveralls Turkey hunting Nd have to answer the call, you might wanna make sure ya leave nature in the nature instead of your coveralls!

I was running late one morning, but had roosted a great big gobbler at my old lease the night before and wanted another crack at him.  He'd walked by me on the wrong side of a tree and rather than try a wild swing shot, I chose to sit tight, let him walk, and try him another day.  Well, this was that other day. I was working my way toward the already gobbling bird, though he flew down faster than I expected. Luck was on my side that I happened to be next to a good sized oak tree.  I floated out a couple clucks and immediately got a gobble back.  He was headed my way. Pretty soon, I caught a glimpse of a black blob passing through the underbrush to my left, and could hear him drum, so I eased the safety off.  He stepped out from behind a tree and I settled the bead under his head...CLICK!  In my haste to get there, I'd forgotten to load the gun.  The gobbler heard the sound but hadn't busted me. My hand scrambled through my vest pocket and I grabbed the first shell I felt.  I slid the action open as quietly as possible and the gobbler still wasn't on to me, but he wasn't totally relaxed either.  I chambered the round and tried to close the bolt without that familiar, loud Benelli click.  Except the bolt wouldn't close.  I was still looking at the gobbler, who by now, knew something was up, and was starting to drift off.  I struggled to close the bolt before the gobbler was gone out of range. Then, I looked down and realized that I'd accidentally loaded a round disposable lighter into the chamber instead of turkey shell.

I still carry a lighter with me by force of habit and for safety's sake (I don't smoke, though you never know when you might need to build a fire).  But, it is never a round lighter and it is always carried in an inside pocket, away from ammo.

I never did kill that bird, even though I had him inside 35 yards twice...  I hope he made plenty more just like him.

Jim

Here's one of my dumb ones- My buddy and I had hunted one of two new properties we leased most of the morning with no luck. At 11:00(we could only hunt till 12:00) we decided to drive over to the other property. We parked on the road and walked in about 50 yards. Standing straight up I sent out a couple yelps on the pot call. Boom fifty feet away a bird gobbles! Where are the guns you might ask? You know it. Even though I  was able to crawl back to the car and retrieve my gun and get back to my partner the gobbler would answer back to our lame calls and sit tight . He finally was able to beat the 12:00 whistle. Once we stood up we saw him look at us and take off. Moral- take your gun with you and shells too.

My dumbest stunt/move regarding turkey hunting was I started in 1982. I wish I started earlier in life. I promise, I will make up for that now. I try to hunt several states, everyday that I wake up.....be safe best of luck...

the dumbest move I ever made was when I started turkey hunting('75)..walking around the woods near Salem Crossroad , S.C., yelping like a jerk , I heard a gobble....headed that way and came to a 4 ac. logging deck w/ a strutting bird in the center.....also heard yelping that the tom answered , but never seen the hen....I ,of course yelped my head off , and the bird went the other way and into the woods...after a few minutes the ''Hen'' stood up from his hide......If you are on this forum and read this, I sincerely apologize 

My 8 year old son at the time was having one of those seasons where you do no wrong.  They ones that only come once every 5-6 years where just in the right place at right time. He had already killed two on the first week in season on our first two hunts. We are hunting the 3rd hunt in afternoon and strike two birds.  They came strutting in and I told home which one to stay on that seemed to be the better bird.  He has always wanted to shoot 1,2 boom.  I told him No and to just shoot when ready and I would deal with what's left causeI didn't want him to rush his shot.  He shot and his flopped.  I shot and mine flopped.  We went out to look at the birds check the spurs we high fiving, hugging as this was our first and only double thus far.   I went back to the tree and was getting our stuff together and he was hollering "dad" in a whispering type voice. I look up and my bird is trotting off with a slight limp.  I couldn't shoot because my son was between me and the turkey.  So I run past my son to shoot and missed that rascal 4 times. Lil did I know his wing was broke and he was boogered up pretty good. The woods were so thick that he kept getting hung up from the wing not being able to fold up.  I was able to go put my hands on him after I emptied my gun and ran after him.   I learned to keep my gun with me at all times.  This was only 2 springs ago ????.   

 Hunting before work when I was 18. I locked my keys in the car. When I got back to my car I reached in my pocket and they weren't there. Looked in side, there they are, in the ignition.  I needed that job! Picked up a rock and opened a window so I would not be late. Worked for free that day.

Around the same time I had a friend that hunted pretty hard. He woke up and it was getting daylight out. He grabbed his gear and out the door. We always had a spot close, so that's where he went too. He told me that he set there for what must have been two hours before he realized a super bright full moon had doped him.

He was tired after setting there, retreated back to his house and fell asleep. This time he was late when he woke up. Pretty sure he didn't even bother after that.

I always liked that second story.

In my younger days when driving twenty hours to turkey hunt was a piece of cake.I decided to leave right after work for South Dakota.Some where in the middle of the night in the middle of the Illinois I noticed a building in the middle of nowhere.I thought it was cool as it broke up the monotony of the road.While I struggled to stay awake,I glanced over to see the building lights still there and thought that has to be the longest building I have ever seen.As I stared into the darkness admiring the lights it finally hit me I was watching a train.

A buddy and I were hunting together one morning when we heard a bird gobble way off. We grabbed our stuff and took off in his direction. We finally came up on a field out in the woods and the gobbler was on the far side of it with about 8 hens who were completely ignoring him. I eventually called the whole group to us by backtalking the hens. I was sitting cross legged and my buddy had squatted next to a tree. His legs were completely numb and mine had gone to sleep. The hens came right to us with the gobbler about 40 yards behind. We waited as long as we could and both of us shot the bird at the same time. He shot again and my gun wouldn't shuck the shell. (Who knew that this would happen when you shoot a 3" shell in a 2-3/4 shotgun?) The bird was flopping in the field so I jumped up to run to him and both of my legs were not obeying what my brain was saying. I was hopping out to him when he got his feet under him and up came his head. I swapped ends on the gun, executing a classic ten-finger golf grip on the barrel, head down, back swing, left arm straight, shift weight and a perfect follow through sent his head solidly into the ground. I grabbed him by the head and he proceeded to beat the snot out of me with his wings. I hobbled back over to where my buddy still sat. As I got there, he says "Man, yer gun." Turned out that when I went all Jack Nicklaus on that bird's hard head with my 12 wood, it completely splintered the stock of that Ithaca. Now, I try to just kill them dead without having to execute a followup.

Quote from: FullChoke on February 21, 2021, 09:56:10 AM
A buddy and I were hunting together one morning when we heard a bird gobble way off. We grabbed our stuff and took off in his direction. We finally came up on a field out in the woods and the gobbler was on the far side of it with about 8 hens who were completely ignoring him. I eventually called the whole group to us by backtalking the hens. I was sitting cross legged and my buddy had squatted next to a tree. His legs were completely numb and mine had gone to sleep. The hens came right to us with the gobbler about 40 yards behind. We waited as long as we could and both of us shot the bird at the same time. He shot again and my gun wouldn't shuck the shell. (Who knew that this would happen when you shoot a 3" shell in a 2-3/4 shotgun?) The bird was flopping in the field so I jumped up to run to him and both of my legs were not obeying what my brain was saying. I was hopping out to him when he got his feet under him and up came his head. I swapped ends on the gun, executing a classic ten-finger golf grip on the barrel, head down, back swing, left arm straight, shift weight and a perfect follow through sent his head solidly into the ground. I grabbed him by the head and he proceeded to beat the snot out of me with his wings. I hobbled back over to where my buddy still sat. As I got there, he says "Man, yer gun." Turned out that when I went all Jack Nicklaus on that bird's hard head with my 12 wood, it completely splintered the stock of that Ithaca. Now, I try to just kill them dead without having to execute a followup.

:z-winnersmiley:

About 15 years ago my and I decided to go on a late afternoon. It was getting late in the season and Morel mushrooms were really popping. We took are time walking through the timber looking for mushrooms and occasionally making a few yelps. We were in more of the mushroom hunting mood, but if the opportunity for a turkey came along we weren't going to turn it down. We gave a few yelps and got a gobble back about 75yds away. We found a big tree sit beside, gave a few more yelps and got another answer, but closer. About 5 minutes later here comes 5 Jakes at about 40 yards. Since we weren't to picky at the time we were going to take them if we got a shot. They disappeared down into a little gully and re-appeared at about 30yds. They stopped and we could tell they weren't coming any closer. We each picked out a bird and shot. Both birds dropped and started to flop. We high-5'ed on the double and stood up to go get the birds. That's when both birds decided it was time to leave. We both shot again. I dropped mine and he missed. As my buddy is running through the timber chasing the bird he yells at me to give him a couple of shells. I reach into pocket only find I didn't have more with me. we each only had 2 shells with us. He finally was able catch his bird when it was hiding in a brush pile. 

Now I always put at least 4 shells in the gun and take at least 5 more with me.

All-in-all it was good afternoon. We ended up with 2 turkeys and around 60 mushrooms.

(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50966033178_85798959f0_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2kDGf2Y)000_0208 (https://flic.kr/p/2kDGf2Y) by K Pete (https://www.flickr.com/photos/152428466@N06/), on Flickr

The first turkey I ever killed was an interesting experience. My friend am I started hunting on my deer lease and we didn't know what we were doing. We kept saying "there's probably some turkeys right over this hill" and we would march over the hill and yep, there they would be and there they would go. We finally decided to be a little more sneaky. One morning after an unsuccessful hunt we were sitting down in this little section of pines between two hills. Thinking back it was really a crappy spot to try to call a turkey but anyway. We were just sitting around in there bored and messing around with all our calls. We had completely emptied our vest and had all our calls scattered out on the pine straw. At some point in our cacophony of calling we see three turkeys come selling over our heads and land down in front of us. We got set up and called in the three Jakes and I killed my first turkey.  We spooked so many birds starting out but after that we were hooked and started giving them the lead!


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There are many but one I distinctly remember is do not under any circumstances sit on your wood box call it really changes the tone of the call.

I had a 72 yr old man teach me how to turkey hunt and the 1st day I went with him he called me an old gobbler and bang down he went. He explained to me that you don't get that lucky every time you go. The very next day went back and snuck up on a flock behind a levee and got my 2nd in 2 days. I then made the mistake of calling him and bragging "I thought this turkey hunting was suppose to be hard" hunted religiously for the next 7 years before I called my next one up and killed him... Open mouth insert foot....

I was self taught. I picked up the turkey gun in 1999 at the wise age of 9 years old. My dad went with me a year or two, but lost interest and let me off of my collar to roam our private property at the even wiser age of 11. I made a pile of mistakes... But the one that kills me, if you can even call it stupid rather than just being a rookie,  was when I had a handirifle break open single shot .410 with #8s, and had 2 gobblers at 10 yards. My dad has it filmed... You can see the wad and shot string as it goes straight over the birds head. I was shaking that bad lol and a .410 gives little room for error.

The other most memorable hunt where i did something stupid was actually last year. I knew I shouldnt do it, but I was overly confident because I was on a hot streak and I just knew I was going to finish my season early at that moment. I had a gobbler coming straight to me, full strut, wide open, straight down a natural pipe line opening in a hard wood bottom. He had covered 200 yards in a very short time frame. He got 100 yards away and decided to cut a 90 degree turn into the palm fronds to my right to swing around me, presumably because he didnt see a hen. I said, "not today sucker," and as he momentarily disappeared behind a live oak, I shifted 90 degrees to my right and called when I did it. STUPID. When I called mid shift, he poked his head out from behind an oak like a lightning bolt and busted me harder than Ive ever been busted before. I didnt see or hear from that bird again all season.

I have a new all time dumbest thing I ever done.....I read and posted in the thread about Youtube hunters, holy cow that has got to be my biggest brain fart in a while. At least I can play the feeble minded old man card.  :deadhorse:

Quote from: eggshell on March 06, 2021, 12:12:39 PM
I have a new all time dumbest thing I ever done.....I read and posted in the thread about Youtube hunters, holy cow that has got to be my biggest brain fart in a while. At least I can play the feeble minded old man card.  :deadhorse:

At you tried to keep an even keel and have an honest conversation as opposed to unbridled emotion. So you got that going for you

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The scene was about 5 years ago in Alabama, late one afternoon. My buddy John and I picked up his brother, Gary to go check out Gary's lease for turkey sign. Gary is not a turkey hunter, but could get us access to hunt.

We pull up to a gate in my buddies truck, and I commence to open the back door and retrieve my shotgun, when John, already through the gate, says not to bother, we are just going to check out the food plot and it's "real close".

I think, okaaaayy, and shut the door, sans shotgun. Well, "real close" is a relative term, which, in this case, was probably 150 yards to a long, narrow clover patch maybe another 150 yards to the end.

As soon as we enter the food plot we begin seeing sign, and lots of it. There's a relatively open area of mature pine bordering the field on our right, and about halfway down the length of the field John and his brother drift over into the pines and immediately call me over and start pointing out all the scratchings, droppings and feathers. We were getting pumped!

As we were admiring the site, and already planning the next morning's hunt, I, who has a bit of a hearing loss, thought I heard a gobble. It's getting late now, and after hearing it again while they were talking, I told John I thought I heard a gobble.

Now, John is an excellent hunter, and far better with a mouth call than I am, but he's a little excitable, so instead of just listening for a minute, he immediately pops in a call and gives a 100 decibel string of cuts which were instantly cut off by multiple gobblers!

Now, John is 10 years younger than me, and in better shape physically, but I managed to pull off an entirely acceptable challenge as to who could cover the distance to the truck first. He beat me, but not by much.

However, on the return leg, youth won out and I began to lag behind. Winded, I kept whispering as loudly as possible "stop!", but John was in a zone and totally oblivious to my pleadings as he kept hoofing it down the food plot.

Eventually I just stopped. Eventually John spotted the gobblers in the pines at roughly the same time they spotted him, and although he had an opportunity for a quick shot, he missed.

We relive that every Spring now and have a good laugh, but at the time, it was only humourous to Gary, who was laughing his rear off at the spectacle! Well, and maybe to those 3 longbeards.

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