My First Turkey

[TJK68]

Beautiful bird, Congrats!

[sbbow]

Congrats 

[Flydown]

Nothing better. Congratulations! Welcome to the affliction! 

[bamagtrdude]

welcome back to the sport of turkey hunting!  congrats - nice bird!

[WillH]

Nice!! 

[jdub2041]

Congrats on the bird!!!! It never gets old getting close to those big gobblers!

[FunkyTownHorn]

 Nice bird!  Similar story here.  Got my first bird (with very similar measurements to yours) last year at age 36. Heres to the next 30 years of turkey hunting.

[hunter-b]

Nice Job !

[spur collector]

Congrats on a fine first bird.

[captin_hook]

Congrats. He's a good one!

[stone road turkey calls]

nice bird

[ElkTurkMan]

Congrats on your first.

[eminart]

Thanks again, everyone!

I guess I can tell the story of how it went since I'm not doing anything today except work.

I was hunting on public land, and I've never turkey hunted there before. But, I'm a falconer, and I'd taken my hawk hunting squirrels there a couple of months ago. So, I had a couple of areas in mind that I thought might have some turkeys. Being public land, I figured there would be plenty of competition for hunting spots, so I got there EARLY. I think I sat in my truck for and hour and a half waiting for it to get closer to daylight.

About 30 min. before first light, I eased into the woods and walked for a short distance down a logging road and stopped to listen. Not knowing the area well, I figured there was as much chance that a turkey was roosted over my truck as there was one roosted a mile away. So, I waited, and when the time got close I tried out my very rusty hooting. I didn't hear anything answer, but within a few minutes, I saw an owl come in close to check out the competition. He decided to let it be known that those were HIS woods and all the small rodents there belonged to him. His owling was considerably better than my own, but the turkeys paid no attention to him either (to my smug satisfaction).

The owl soon moved on, and I eased on down the logging road. I was walking as quietly as possible in the very dim light, and hadn't gone far when I thought I heard a turkey gobble. The crunching leaves underfoot made me think that maybe my ears were playing tricks on me. But, I stopped to listen, and sure enough, he soon gobbled again, and he was close.

Being a novice turkey hunter, a thousand thoughts were going through my mind - how far is he? should I get closer? how long until he comes off the roost? it's open in here and no leaves yet. can he see me? is he across that hollow, or on this side? do I have time to stick up my little blind?

In the end, I decided he was close enough to hear me, and I was afraid if I tried to get much closer he'd see me in the open woods. So, I moved just a few yards closer, off the logging road, and quickly put up my blind and sat down. I got situated and got out my calls. The turkey(s) was gobbling quite a bit. Crows were awake by this time, and he was answering them. I called, but didn't get a response. But, a couple of minutes later, he'd gobble randomly. I called to him a few times getting the same results. Still gobbling, but not obviously answering me. Crap. Was I too far away? Did he have hens with him? Was my calling really really bad? Lots of second-guessing.

Eventually, I heard a sound that might have been him flying down, followed by a couple of quick gobbles, then nothing after that. I sat there probably 45 minutes without hearing him again, only calling a few times. I was beginning to think he'd gone the other way, but then I heard something behind me to my right. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a jake pop out and trot out beside me. He'd somehow circled around and got on the logging road behind me, I guess. Like I said, I'm new to turkey hunting and a jake isn't beneath me. I started making my plans for how I was going to get turned and shoot him. He went behind a big tree and stopped. That's when I saw the boss strut over the rise directly in front of me. Holy crap! It worked! A turkey showed up! He strutted straight across in front of me, paused and stuck his neck out, and I pulled the trigger. When my eyes readjusted from the recoil, I could see him laying there. I ran over and put my foot on his neck. At that point he started quivering/flopping, but only for a few seconds. I almost couldn't believe it. Sometimes it's amazing when a plan comes together. There was definitely a lot of luck involved with me walking into an unknown area, and right on top of a gobbler, but I'll take it.

[cwhite]

Awesome story and awesome first turkey 

[Spring_Woods]

Great story & Nice bird!