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by: Heath Wood
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You always hear about a father who took his child hunting or fishing for the first time and what a unbelievable experience it was. Well I believe that I have experienced just the opposite of this, but was still able to experience one of the most memorable hunts that I have ever been on.
It all started off with seeing and hearing turkeys like crazy days before season, in a new place that we were fortunate enough to be able to hunt.
I actually heard seven different gobblers one morning, in the same location, Without even making a call these turkeys were gobbling like crazy.
Hearing these birds, finding some scratches, and discovering other sign, while scouting was all I needed to decide that this was the place that I would be on opening morning.
The Hunt
After a long wait, opening day of the 1997 spring turkey season was finally here. I had been turkey hunting in previous seasons with my grandfather where we experienced some very memorable hunts together. So I thought I would try to get my father to go with me for a change, since he had never been turkey hunting and because he was probably my favorite person to hunt with. We had been doing every deer season since I was old enough to stumble along behind him.
I got my dad to purchase a turkey tag, and off to the woods we went. After we got there, I located a gobbler by using a barred owl hooter. We then walked towards the gobbler and finally set up along a fence row that bordered a wide open cow pasture.
After about twenty minutes I had two monster gobblers coming across the field to my calls. unfortunately some cattle that were further down in the same field, decided that my calling sounded pretty good as well. The cattle worked in between us and the two long beards, so I didn't get a chance to fire a shot at either of the two gobblers. After a long and unsuccessful morning of spring turkey hunting, dad and I decided to call it a day, pack up and go to the house.
Second Day
The next day of hunting we came to the same location as the day before where we were greeted by another gobbler which roosted only about fifty yards from the field that where we had encountered the two gobblers the previous morning. Before making my first call on this bird I checked to see where the herd of cattle were located. They were about six hundred yards away in the next field over from our set up.
I set a up hen decoy along the fence line which came out of the timber and into the field where I had guessed the turkey would approach. I started calling softly just to give the turkey our location so that he would fly down and start our way. Dad and I had decided earlier that I was going to take the shot since I had never harvested a bird either. Meanwhile time went by and the gobbler sounded like he was gaining some ground, but so had the same cattle from the previous morning. I guess they had heard my calling and were making their way toward the decoy. The cows were now on a fast pace to see what was going on and why that hen turkey was calling so much but nothing seemed to be happening. Then they decided to just give the decoy a friendly nudge, knocking the decoy off of the stake and onto the ground. Believe me, I have learned my lesson about hunting in the same field as cattle.
| I picked up the decoy and told dad that we should get in the woods
and out of the field. We were now set up on the same gobbler but were in
a better location to harvest him. We decided it was now time to get serious
and start trying to get this turkey into shotgun range. I proceeded to
do another calling sequence and each time that I did , the lonely gobbler
would responded with a gobble. A few minutes passed and the turkey was
getting closer and closer. My heart was pounding in my chest, more time
had passed, and the gobbler had became silent.
After about twenty minutes of disbelief and confusion about where the gobbler had moved, I decided to get up and try another location, but before I could relocate the gobbler gobbled once more. This sneaky bird had moved all the way behind our location without us knowing it. |
 I don't just shoot them with a gun. Photo by Allen "horntagger" Morris |
The first and only thing that I could think of was to set Dad up in front of me and I would move farther back to start calling. So I told him to be ready and to stay still because this bird was about ready to show his location. I made two more calls, and he stuck his head up over the hill side. Before I could think, Dad had taken the shot on the gobbler. It must have been a good one because all I could see were feathers flopping in the leaves. I jumped up and ran toward the downed bird, turned around to shake Dad's hand when I saw him still sitting there against the tree with disbelief in his eyes. After a few breaths, he got up and started to thank me for such a hard worked hunt.
From that day on, my dad and I have never gone a spring without heading to the woods to chase those turkeys up and down the Ozark Hills of Missouri. Even though we're not always successful it reminds me of a good saying that a friend told me. " Its not if your successful in every hunt. its if your successful in being able to hunt."
So don't miss the opportunity to take a kid hunting, or do as I did
and take your dad or mom hunting, for the first time. Hunting with a loved
one is one of the most memorable things that you can do together.
So Have fun and be safe.
Heath Wood
Photo By Kevin Small of ktshunts.com
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by: Heath
Wood
As
soon as I hear that first gobble rumble down through the woods for the
first time in the spring I start getting the fever to get out in the woods
and start hunting. One thing that
I have started this past couple of years, is as soon as I hear the first
gobble of the spring, I start writing down on the calendar or a journal
of some type. I write down what happened that morning, how many I heard,
what time it was, and the weather.
When the season
finally got here, I set up on my first gobbler of the year at 8:30 a.m.
but had only heard two gobbles since the break of daylight.I
used several different locater calls to try and shock a bird into gobbling. |
As soon as
I made my first couple series of soft raspy yelps, I had the gobbler responding
to my calls. Each time that I called I was answered by a gobble, but unfortunately
each time it sounded as if the gobbler was getting farther and farther
away. These kinds of gobbles are called courtesy gobbles; the gobbler will
gobble like this when he has hens with him and/or when he wants you to
follow along with him. In this situation is where scouting plays a big
part in being successful. If you know the terrain the best
Thing to do
is circle around in front of him, and try to get in the path that he is
traveling in. If the gobblers are leading you along to a specific destination,
such as a field or strutting areas, so knowing where these areas are before
you hunt will be
Sure enough
after about 5 to 6 minutes of this tom gobbling at my calls, hens started
interrupting my calls with some really raspy and loud yelps. I think this
hen was trying to tell me to shut up because this gobbler was already hers
and he was not going to leave
If you absolutely
have to make a call while using the silent treatment. Try making some soft
purrs and clucks while raking the leaves with your hand, this will stimulate
a hen that is feeding down through the woods and has lost interest in the
gobbler. This will make a tom mad, and make him come in and investigate
what is going on and why she will not come to him.
Skipping to
the third week of season. The turkey hunting was now a whole different
situation. The breeding stage of the season was just about over, gobblers
are starting to get back into groups and hens are starting to set, so the
hunting is pretty tough at this point. Try and get a gobbler going, some
have said that the gobblers were responding well to this type of call.
At 5:00 a.m.
the alarm clock went off, I awoke with a strong ambition to get out and
hunt hard. I arrived at my hunt location to start the morning off; I tried
locating with a hoot tube, but had no response. I shook the gobble call
one time, right off a gobbler gobbled in the distance.
I circled around
trying to get closer to the bird, after walking a distance of about two
to three hundred yards, I stopped to try and locate again. I shook the
gobble call, again the gobbler responded. Still wanting to get closer I
started walking again. Little did I know, the gobbler had decided that
he wanted to come closer as well. I topped over the hill to meet the gobbler
head on. Since I had spooked him, I just sat down and gave some time for
the gobbler to calm down and maybe start gobbling again.
About twenty
minutes had passes along with my thoughts of what had just happened. I
started off down through the woods to try and locate this bird, so that
I could get set up on him again. The gobbler responded to a curious crow,
he was about a hundred yards away, down in the bottom of a ravine. As I
was walking to the gobbler I jumped a hen that was on her nest, she flew
along with the gobbler that was just right up in
The next day
I headed back to the same location that I had seen the gobbler the previous
morning. I started off trying to locate with a crow call, and then tried
using the gobbler shaker once more, since it worked the day before, but
I had no response. I tried off and on all morning, finally at about 7:00
a.m. A gobbler responded to a box call that I yelped on a few times. I
quickly set up beside a tree that was just wider than my shoulders for
a good background behind me.I started
calling on my mouth call, giving real soft yelps. The gobbler only responded
two times in about a twenty-minute span. During this time I realized the
gobbler was still in the tree.
The gobbler
finally flew down, and come to my calls. When the gobbler showed himself
at about thirty yards I quickly put the bead on and shot, unfortunately
my shot was just a little to the left, and the gobbler flew off, unscaved.
So, after a long season
of hard to hunt gobblers, I ended my season without a bird. But the one thing
that I try to do if I don't get a bird is to look back on the season and see
all the things that I have learned from my experiences, the good and the bad
ones. I feel that this will just make you a better hunter for your next hunting
adventure.
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