An Opening Day That Couldn't Be Forgotten!

April 10, 2006

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2006 1:52 pm Post subject: An Opening Day That Couldn't Be Forgotten!

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I awoke at 5:00 Saturday morning expecting to find wind and rain and was greeted by only a slight breeze and a few clouds, it looked like the tidewater region had lucked out with the weather.

I gathered my gear and drove to my grandparents farm which is about 10 min. up the road from ours. I parked at the end of a logging road and walked about a half mile back. I sat on the top of a small ridge until the world started to wake up. I waited for the first owl to crank up and I joined in hoping to hear a bird respond around me. I waited til around 7 without hearing a tom. I proceeded to walk around for the next hour trying to locate a bird with my crow call and a few select yelps here and there from an old Lynch. By 8 I was discouraged from not hearing a bird and decided to try my other grandparents farm.

I drove the 15 min. to that farm, stopped at the main gate, and blew my crow call. A bird gobbled in what sounded to be the back field on the property. I drove my truck up to the old house place, parked, and started to walk to the middle field so I could peer into the far back field. Just as I started to round the corner of the middle field, BOOOM!!! about 75 yards away. I ran out into the field to see a bird flapping on the ground and a man walking towards the bird. I yelled at the guy and told him not to move until I got there. He proceeded to tell me his name and that my grandfather had given him premission to hunt there. I knew this couldn't be true, seeing he's never given permission away before, I didn't know this guy, and my grandfather didn't tell me before that day. I got the guys name again and then told him to have a nice day. I drove as fast as I could to our farm where I called my father and grandfather. Neither of them knew the guy or gave anyone permission to be there!!! Needless to say, the guy lied to me about everything except his name. The police department and game warden visited him shortly after and we was served a warrant.

Well it was now about quarter after 9, and I decided to go back to our farm to hunt. My dad had seen 7 gobblers together, two evenings before, so I decided to set up where I thought they would be this late in the morning. I crawled to the edge of a huge wheat field and saw one tail fan about 200 yards out. That was all I needed! I set out one jake deek and one hen deek about 15 yards in front of me and I back up into the thick edge to begin calling. I gave a few soft yelps and cluck and wait for about 5 mins. I hadn't seen or heard anything. I rose slowly to my knees and then to a standing position only to see the bird, or now I should say birds, had moved to about 350 yards away. I had figured he had hens and they were taking him away from me. I moved up the field about 100 yards, crawled about 15 yards out in the field and set up the decoys on a little knoll and crawled back behind a log in the woods. I got on my knees where I could see what I thought was the one gobbler and his hens. I called loud on my Lynch, as they were far and it was breezy, and the closest "hen" went into full strut. Another bird! I made a few more yelps and he broke strut and start working my way slowly. Maybe I hadn't been calling loudly enough!! I sat down, got comfortable, and maybe 3 more yelps on the box call. He popped over a hill at about 200 yards and went into full strut. I only made a few clucks here and there and a few purrs. The bird was about 40 yards out in full strut when I saw 4 more longbeards pop over the hill! It was the boss and his "hen" harem coming to see what the fuss was about. By the time they got there the bird I had called in was about 20 yards from me, right beside the decoys. It crossed my mind to wait to try and take the main strutting bird, buy my bird was still strutting and I did work and call him in, the others just got interested, left the hens, and decided to investigate all his strutting. So I decided to go ahead and take him, I was getting ready to make a cutt when he lowered all his feathers and looked up as if he knew it was his time to go. The ol' Remington 1100 barked and the winchester #5 did there job. The other birds all stopped staring at their fallen comrade. I began to cutt loudly, and they started running in circles and eventually ran into the woods beside me. I waited for a little while and walked out to retrieve my bird. I sat down beside the bird and just enjoyed my surroundings and the moments right after a harvest.

It had been one heck of a morning but I was grateful for the way it had ended. The bird was 19 lbs. 8 oz., had a 10 1/4 inch beard, and about 7/8 inch spurs. I will post pictures later on when I upload them on here and figure out how to post them on here!

Thanks for listening and remember to always be extremely safe. Turkey hunting is one of the most dangerous types because of all camo and the communication aspect. You NEVER know who might be out there, so always be careful and never lose your control.

huntn4bucks · April 10, 2006