Turkey Time

This weekend i went turkey hunting for the first time in my life. I had never been hunting until last fall when two of my pally pals, Brad & Cliff introduced me to pheasant & grouse hunting. I have never hit a bird, but when the idea of turkey hunting came up i was all in!. Going into this weekend i had strange feeling.... no, not a strange feeling...um.... let me rephrase, i KNEW i was going to shoot a turkey and the anticipation had me bouncing off the walls for weeks, even more so when i woke up saturday morning at 4:37am, 3 minutes before my alarm!

It was 5:11am and the three of us were already running 11 minutes late. we started the 3/4 mile walk to our "spot" on a morning that was very brisk, with a temp around 30 degrees (i didn't actually check, but it sure was cold). Brad and I were on a mission to get set up, Cliff had a heavy bag and small boots (in other words, he was a ways behind us). As we crossed the creek and doubled back i looked back across the creek and noticed Clifford standing still. I asked him how he was doing and he said to me, in a whispering shout, "can you help me, i'm stuck!" I dropped my decoys & gun on the ground and hustled back to help him get out of the very wet, sloppy mud. You may ask how myself & Brad had made it through without slowing down. Well, as i mentioned before, Cliff had a "heavy"(as he called it) bag and small boots so he had more weight and less of a base for that weight to be distributed over the wet mud causing him to sink right in.
After a few minutes, we were all on the move again. We get to our destination at about 5:38-5:40am (roughly), set up the decoys & our blind and took a seat beneath a very old & large Oak tree. We were all camoflauged up and started with a couple of hen calls... Nothing. after a little bit (about6:45am) we heard a gobble off to the Northeast. Cliff & Brad started calling the old Gobbler in. As it got a little closer i asked them, "who gets the shot?" Since I was was still a beginner hunter & had never shot anything, they told me i had first shot, to which i am very greatful (thanks guys). As the turkey got closer and closer, gobbling in response to one of our calls every 5-10 minutes i started to get a tad excited, visually. I started shifting around in anticipation of shooting a turkey! I was shaking ever so slightly when Cliff whispered to me, "he's coming out of the woods." I leaned over my already drawn shotgun and waited for him to get in clear view, after i had waited for him to get with in 20 yards (what seemed like forever!) i took a deep breath, held the gun somewhat steady and pulled the trigger! I HIT HIM!!! i was so excited seeing that turkey drop to the ground! I was not 100% sure if i had hit him well enough to kill him, i jumped up and was ready to put him out of his suffering but was quickly reminded by my trusty hunting companions that it was just nerves and he was already dead. At that point, it was 7:30am on our first day and i had just got my turkey, i was SO pumped!

We headed in to get breakfast and to register my bird. Hits stats were:
weight: 19 pounds, beard: 9 1/2" and spurs: 3/4". He was a 2 year old Tom. I fileted him up and got 8 pounds of meat from his legs & breast.

I was just a "tag along" the rest of the day as we kept on trying to get Brad and Cliff some birds, to which we were actually successful. It was 7:30pm (we had until 8:21pm to shoot for the day) and we decided to call a few more times to see if were could get a turkey to come in towards us just as Cliff was getting very anxious and couldn't relax any more... yep, as antsy as i was throughout the day, i wasn't the one that couldn't take another minute of sitting in the woods. we soon heard a bird gobble to the northwest of us. we called him, he was then directly west and a little closer. we called again and i heard him even closer and just southwest of us when i heard brad (behind me) whisper, "there's two up on the hill" i turned around and directly to the east there were 2 toms coming across the field (about 200 yds out). we kept calling and they kept coming. Brad noticed 2 more a little further behind them to the north as well. What the heck! its 8:00, we have 21 minutes to shoot for the day and we had 5 birds very close to us, but were they going to get within shooting range before 8:21? i was shaking more than i had been when i was about to shoot mine (partially out of excitement and partially because i was freezing cold) as we kept calling them in. Finally, 2 of them came over the hill between 2 of our decoys (well within shooting range) as they poked around and stayed close to eachother Cliff shot, HIT! dead turkey! the other tom jumped (i would too if whoever was standing next to me was shot) and was about 10 feet from his "pal" and Brad shot, HIT! not dead, the bird was running away, limping badly. Brad shot again (as the bird is running away, yep, in the back. brad is such a coward, who shoots something in the back? ha) and this time, the bird went down & was dead!! what time was it? 8:18pm!! we had our 3 birds! in one day!! and with 3 minutes to spare!!








































WE ARE THE BEST TURKEY HUNTERS EVER!!!


















(my turkey was not available for this photo)

It was awesome and as i sit here typing, my heart is racing and i'm super excited for the next time i go turkey hunting!!

GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!!