Fashionably Late in PA

[Tommy Strutsalot]

I spent the first week upstate hunting at a friend's place that has become turkey camp for the last seven years. It was a long anticipated trip and frankly was a good excuse to not do a whole lot of pre season scouting locally, as I had plans to take care of business at camp. Six 40 degree and steadily raining hunts from 5 am until twelve, one close call, and lots of bud lights later I was on my way back home thinking I should pick up golf. I was exhausted and decided to take last week off, my iron will is deteriorating with age.

Due to an afternoon obligation, Saturday the 14th found me confined to my home turf, with only previous knowledge and second hand recent info. I walked out of my place at 5:00 am after assuring my lab I was not shooting ducks or geese, and realized that it was basically broad daylight and that I was in fact, "fashionably late." I drove the 20 minutes to the spot where once parked, I was greeted with a few birds gobbling coming from the hillside about 300 yards from my location. My original plan was to be on the hillside, which would no longer be a feasible play due to my tardiness. I decided to plop down on the field edge below where the gobbling was coming from. Typically, the turkeys stay high on the hillside and the plan was to let things calm down a little and sneak up there later in the morning. I put my decoy in the field and put my gobbler lounger in a cutout of a large pricker bush on the field edge where I felt both hidden and safe. Shortly after my first cadence of calling, I heard a turkey leave the limb from up on the hillside, and watched a hen fly over top of me into the field and next to my decoy. While she expressed her displeasure with my decoy, Gobbles continued to resound from the hillside and were seemingly working away from my location, despite answering calls from both myself and the live hen. Eventually, the hen meandered off, the gobbles came to a brief halt, and things seemed to have slowed down when I heard a gobble from behind me that was clearly on my level of elevation. I situated my position to favor the direction I believed the turkey would show from, turned on my red dot and waited. A short time later he presented in full strut at about 80 yards, and we would have pillow talk back and forth for the next 30 minutes while he spun around like a ballerina in full strut. I began questioning whether he was gonna hang up with the decoy in his sight, but he would keep breaking strut for a short time and inch just a little closer. To distract myself, I chose a spot in the field that if he crossed, I knew he would be within the reach of my 870. What felt like an Obama administration later, he finally crossed the imaginary line I had drawn. I took the safety off and put the red dot on his waddles and waited for him to come out of strut. That proved to be asking too much, as he stood there, staring straight at me, in full strut like a concrete statue. I waited, and waited. He stood there looking like B Mobile. He continued to close the distance while refusing to offer me any compromise at all with respect to neck extension. Once he came inside the 30 yard mark, I decided try and force the issue, even at times making sounds that were not even comparable to a turkey, and he would not break strut. He eventually spun broadside, and came down to about 3/4 strut and I couldn't take it anymore. 9" beard, 3/4" Spurs, and I didn't weigh him.


Spring colors....

[cwb04]

Congrats on an awesome hunt!  Enjoyed the story.  Must have taken FOREVER to cross your imaginary line     

[Gooserbat]

Nicely done

[boatpaddle]

Congrats....

     Great story & a beautiful gobbler...

[tomstopper]

  Congrats

[knifeshark]

Nice one! Congrats, and in the end it was well worth it!

[renegade19]

 

[WyoHunter]

Congrats!

[Greg Massey]

Congrats on a nice bird and great day of hunting.

[mgm1955]

Congrats!!

[NJGobblerHunter]

Congrats!

[surehuntsalot]

congrats

[maytom]

WTG!!!! 

[TRG3]

Good story and well-written. Sometimes a little tardiness pays off. You saved yourself a sweaty climb up the hill but still got the job done. I'm guessing that next season may find you executing a similar plan since this one was so effective. I've had good luck with utilizing a similar plan but add a tom decoy (Pretty Boy, Funky Chicken, foam jake, etc.) over a hen on the ground in the breeding position. Add a few gobbles while they are still on the hill and often they will pitch down, see the intruder tom, and come on in to defend their peck order. Sometimes the hardest part is not shooting your decoy when the real bird gets in his face!

[Tommy Strutsalot]

Thank you all for the comments. Thanks for the suggestion TRG3,  I'll definitely consider that addition.  5 days left to hunt in PA and I have another tag burning a hole in my pocket.  I've passed on quite a few jakes since harvesting this bird and also put a buddy who's had a tough season on a longbeard and he missed clean!   No good deed goes unpunished!  It was fun though!