I was invited to go down near Bowling Green, KY for the turkey season opener with a good friend of mine. We would be assisting with getting footage for a hunting TV show which will hopefully appear on the Outdoor Channel. I was mainly planning to be behind the camera but if things went well enough I'd grab a tag and try to get one myself.
Saturday was the opener and we were in the blind well before sun up. Had a gobbler hammering close by but once he flew down he shut up on us other than an occassional gobble so we called it after three hours and went back for lunch and a nap. Went to a different farm after lunch and my buddy was able to get a nice tom by crawling behind a decoy 150 yards toward a group of birds in the corner of a field. Once he got about 40 yards away the dominant bird had had enough and charged him. That was the end of day one.
Sunday started out at yet another farm and more gobbling than I've ever heard in my life. There must have been 12 toms & jakes roosted about three hundred yards from us across a field in a clump of trees on the edge of a pond. When they pitched down about half ended up on the bank of the pond and started strutting. We were enjoying the show and calling to them here and there when they all busted back up into the trees. A coyote popped up on the pond edge a second later and I thought for sure the morning was done. They coyote looked our way and disappeared in the tall grass of the field. He popped up a minute later around 75 yards out and was eyeballing our decoys. He attempted to circle us but unfortunately for him he circled way too close and I dropped him at 15 yards with a 3.5" #6 Winchester. Here's the footage:
About a half hour after the coyote went down the turkeys came back down and we had three jakes come in on us. The third guy in our group dropped one and I tried to play catch up and take one of the others but peppered the ground just behind him due to being twisted around at a really bad angle. The wind picked up in the afternoon and the birds disappeared into the woods until just before dark. We tried to put a last minute stalk in behind the decoy but got busted.
We went back to the farm we started out at Saturday this morning. As we got out to our position it was eerily quiet. We had one gobble in the distance behind us to an owl call but the roost from Saturday was quiet. Eventually we did get them to gobble before daylight but it sounded liked there were only two or three up there. As soon as there was enough light to see the hens were already on the edge of the pond. We could see three toms still roosting and the hens started heading our way. For whatever reason they turned around before making it very far and headed out of sight around the patch of trees. 20 minutes went by and we were calling to the toms we could see roosting. Out of nowhere this big boy appeared off to my left at 70 yards and puffed up into a strut for a minute. I slowly started shifting my shotgun toward him and he crept in. He got to around 35 yards and something caught his attention. He stuck his head up in the air to take a peek and I dropped him. Unfortunately I hit him in the neck/chest area and tore up the breast pretty good. Had a 10" beard, spurs around 1.5" and we guestimated he weighed around 27lbs. First gobbler I've ever shot and it was a hoss. I'm hopelessly addicted now.
Hoping next week goes as well when the Indiana season opens!
Saturday was the opener and we were in the blind well before sun up. Had a gobbler hammering close by but once he flew down he shut up on us other than an occassional gobble so we called it after three hours and went back for lunch and a nap. Went to a different farm after lunch and my buddy was able to get a nice tom by crawling behind a decoy 150 yards toward a group of birds in the corner of a field. Once he got about 40 yards away the dominant bird had had enough and charged him. That was the end of day one.
Sunday started out at yet another farm and more gobbling than I've ever heard in my life. There must have been 12 toms & jakes roosted about three hundred yards from us across a field in a clump of trees on the edge of a pond. When they pitched down about half ended up on the bank of the pond and started strutting. We were enjoying the show and calling to them here and there when they all busted back up into the trees. A coyote popped up on the pond edge a second later and I thought for sure the morning was done. They coyote looked our way and disappeared in the tall grass of the field. He popped up a minute later around 75 yards out and was eyeballing our decoys. He attempted to circle us but unfortunately for him he circled way too close and I dropped him at 15 yards with a 3.5" #6 Winchester. Here's the footage:
About a half hour after the coyote went down the turkeys came back down and we had three jakes come in on us. The third guy in our group dropped one and I tried to play catch up and take one of the others but peppered the ground just behind him due to being twisted around at a really bad angle. The wind picked up in the afternoon and the birds disappeared into the woods until just before dark. We tried to put a last minute stalk in behind the decoy but got busted.
We went back to the farm we started out at Saturday this morning. As we got out to our position it was eerily quiet. We had one gobble in the distance behind us to an owl call but the roost from Saturday was quiet. Eventually we did get them to gobble before daylight but it sounded liked there were only two or three up there. As soon as there was enough light to see the hens were already on the edge of the pond. We could see three toms still roosting and the hens started heading our way. For whatever reason they turned around before making it very far and headed out of sight around the patch of trees. 20 minutes went by and we were calling to the toms we could see roosting. Out of nowhere this big boy appeared off to my left at 70 yards and puffed up into a strut for a minute. I slowly started shifting my shotgun toward him and he crept in. He got to around 35 yards and something caught his attention. He stuck his head up in the air to take a peek and I dropped him. Unfortunately I hit him in the neck/chest area and tore up the breast pretty good. Had a 10" beard, spurs around 1.5" and we guestimated he weighed around 27lbs. First gobbler I've ever shot and it was a hoss. I'm hopelessly addicted now.
Hoping next week goes as well when the Indiana season opens!
