Have you ever had one of those days when you didn't kill a turkey but still had a great day. Yesterday was one of those days. My son Joey and I went to check out some new public land. We had never been there before, except for walking in from the lake side out of a boat. Joey found a road on Saturday that went right to some public land. So we headed in that direction, not knowing where we were really going. We found a place to park and started walking. About a 1/2 mile in we heard a turkey gobble. Then another one. We headed in that direction and by the time we got close it was gettin light. I spotted some black spots on the ground near the gobbling and the binos went up. There were turkeys already on the ground. It was 6:02 am. The turkeys on Saturday where I hunted flew down at 6:40. Finally after all the turkeys flew down I counted 7 strutters and there was 3 different birds gobbling in other areas. We were in amongst um. I called and they gobbled, then the hens would go crazy and they would gobble some more. We finally made a move on some turkeys and in the middle of the move the turkeys gave us a courtesy gobble. Thats the gobble you don't expect but helps out alot when you are moving on a turkey. Joey spotted the gobblers coming down a creek bed and we positioned ourselves to shoot the creek. Thats when I heard a guy start calling. My first thought was " this guy calls pretty good". Then I answered him, knowing the turkeys were getting closer, and they gobbled at me about 60 yards out. The hunter cutt back at me and the next time I called the turkeys gobbled 15 yards behind Joey. I had placed him in front of me so he could have a good shot. He did the mad scramble to turn around because there was alot of cover behind us. We never saw or heard them 2 gobblers again. I have no idea where they went. We didn't hear any putting so were pretty sure we didn't spook them. It was getting later in the morning and we tried another spot that I could hear a turkey gobbling earlier that morning. With no luck we started to head out. Then I saw a hunter walking across in front of us. I thought it might be the guy that was calling earlier and I wanted to tell him I thought he sounded good. I hooted and he stopped an looked and we got together. He introduced himself " How you doing Von Eubanks". I told him my name all the while my brain is going 100 miles and hour because I know that name from somewhere. We began to talk about the morning hunt and he started talking about seeing 2 guys walking over the hill where there were some turkeys gobbling. I told him that it was us and that we had been calling back and forth to each other. He said he thought it was a real hen and that I had fooled him. That made me feel good. My brain was still turning trying to figure out who this guy was until he started talking about turkey hunting and calling and how he had competed years ago. BINGO this was Von Eubanks the 2 time GNCC gobbling champion that I had called against in my first ever trip to the Nationals in 1991. We got to talking and had a great time. I could have talked with him for hours. I told him that there isn't many times I come across a good caller in the turkey woods in CA. I asked him where he was from and why in the world was he in CA turkey hunting. He has been working in CA for the last 2 years and is from AR. He had drove from Bakersfield 3 hours to come and hunt this public land. We had a great talk and exchanged phone numbers. I don't get to meet to many turkey hunting legends while out in the field, especially in CA. It was a great day even though we didn't kill a turkey. We found some new public land with alot of turkeys. We were around turkeys all morning and met a turkey hunting legend all in 1 day. Gotta love turkey hunting.
TRKYHTR
