Spring Gobbler Season 2013

As I was sitting here typing up a few new recipe posts, I realized I never posted about how I actually got the turkey. If it was anything like last year's season it would have been from the frozen foods section, but this year was a different story. To be honest, this year I took a more lackadaisical approach to turkey hunting. In years past I have done a ton of prepping and scouting for the season. This year, not so much, I had to work the opening weekend but that wasn't discouraging due to the random weather we were having.

By the time I was finally able to make it hunting it was the second weekend. I met up with Jay early that morning and we headed out to a blind he had taken a gobbler from the opening day, nearly two weeks previously. The day started out amazingly, before we could even make it into the blind we had a few gobblers already gobbling coming off the roost. At that point we dove in the blind as quick as possible to prepare for whatever was coming our way. The gobbling soon quit and so did nearly everything else. Nearly an hour passed before we hear something coming from behind us. We were sure at that point and time it was  going to be those gobblers emerging from a creek bottom to our left. Much to our surprise it was a loan doe slinking through the woods looking for a snack. We watched this deer for a few minutes until it go spooked and slowly retreated back towards the creek bed. Even after we saw the deer leave the area we still heard movement behind us. This was we believed the gobblers were actually circling around behind the blind to enter into the area in front of us on a similar path we came in on. It took the group of turkeys nearly another hour to make their way around us. At that point Jay spotted a smaller gobbler moving in front of us from left to right. Before the lead gobbler could make it past, two larger gobblers came in behind him. These three gobblers came in quick and left just as quick. They never made it in closer than 75 yards ducking in and out of trees. They proceeded to head back towards the creek bed and serenaded us for a half an hour with continuous gobbling. After unsuccessfully trying to call them back in we decided to go run and gun, but that didn't provided to be successful either.

With the previous weekend's hunt ending without being able to get a gobbler in range we planned to hit the turkey blind again the next Saturday. With a little scouting done during the weekend we were hopeful but leery due to the terrible weather forecast we were seeing. The terrible weather came through earlier in the week than we thought, but still has the tail end of it last through Saturday morning. Even with the bad weather we still decided to head out and sit in the turkey blind considering we wouldn't get wet and still thought we might have a chance. Jay and I got the blind just as daylight was/should have been break, but due to the weather it was still dark and overcast. We sat there for nearly two and a half without even seeing a thing. At that point we decided to make a few calls and then come up with a new game plan. We had just began to talk about where to move to due to the rain letting up when Jay frozen mid-sentence saying that he hear something. At that point and time we both saw a lone hen streak across in front of us. With the movement of this hen we both were still silent when we hear the same noise coming back in, yet we knew it wasn't the hen because it hadn't let our field of view more than two minutes previously. Jay grabbed the camera to film whatever was coming in and I grabbed my shotgun in hopes that a big tom was strolling in. As the noise closed in we saw a singe head come into view and then another and another. All and all we had six Jakes come in front of us. At that point we figured it was the best time and opportunity to take my first turkey, plus I had been dying to get some wild turkey meat. Needless to say with the six jakes on the move, trailing the hen, I didn't have much time to choose. I only had a few second to choose and  one bird that was separating from the rest was the lead bird, so I put the head of the shotgun on it , pulled the trigger, and managed to take my first turkey.