I was invited to hunt with a friend of mine in north of Comanche on the 30th of March. He had told me that there was a lot of birds on his lease, and boy was telling the truth.
We got to the lease late Saturday night, got settled in and caught a couple hours of shut-eye. At 5:30 the alarm went off but due to my excitement about the upcoming hunt, it was about an hour late.
I had been up getting calls in order and waiting on my buddy to get out of bed. Well, 5:45 rolled around and I decided that I had better get the rest of my gear from the truck. As I was walking to my truck an old tom let out a loud gobble just below camp. I thought it must be my imagination, heck it's still over an hour before first light and heck it sounded like he was just on the other side of the campers. I blew it off and continued getting my stuff together. My buddy came outside and I told him I thought I had heard a bird gobble and he said well it sure is early to be gobbling. As we sat there tlking about it, not 30 seconds later GOBBLE,GOBBLE. This old tome fired off again this time with a double gobble. I was now sure of what I had heard and my buddy had heard it too. He said there was an old creek down the hill and we agreed to try that bird first.
While on our long 100 yard hike down the hill from camp, the bird kept on hammering, making our decision on where to set up almost too easy. For the set up we decided to use an old feed lot for cover. He sat up in the barn to do some calling while I sat against an old wooden fence waiting to ambush the love struck old tom. As we were getting settled in a hen started putting and clucking in a tree right above us. We had gotten a little to close and she flew out into the darkness, and at this point I figured the hunt was over.
But we stuck it out and began to do some soft yelping and were greeted by a half gobble from the smae tree the hen had flown from. There was a tom right over us, and how we did not bogger him up is beyond me. Everytime we would call he would gobble, not to mention any turkey in hearing distance. If we heard 1 bird gobble I bet we heard 15. They were just tearing it up this morning.
Finally, first light was starting to break and I gave my rendition of a fly down cackle and the toms went nuts again. For about 2-3 minutes after this it was silent and I thought we had gotten busted, maybe I had called too much. When behind the fence I was leaning on I heard chic-vroooom,chic-vrooom followed by a thunderous gobble. The gobble made the hair on my neck stand up and I think I nearly screamed. Scared the heck out of me. There was a bird behind me at 5 feet (my buddy saw him but I did not move a muscle). I sat there hoping he would come around the fence but he didn't and I never saw him.
I stayed tucked in to the fence and before long a bearded hen came running down the fence line, to my hen decoy. Following her, there was a bright red head in hot pursuit. He was in a dead run when he spotted my decoy and locked up the brakes and breaking into full strut at 6 yards. I cut on my mought call to get him to break strut and the 835 barked. I had my first bird fror this spring and I was very thankful to get him.
He sported a 10 1/4 rope, 1.25" hooks and tipped the scales at a hair over 23#.
Sorry for the pics, they got distorted on the resize.
James
We got to the lease late Saturday night, got settled in and caught a couple hours of shut-eye. At 5:30 the alarm went off but due to my excitement about the upcoming hunt, it was about an hour late.
I had been up getting calls in order and waiting on my buddy to get out of bed. Well, 5:45 rolled around and I decided that I had better get the rest of my gear from the truck. As I was walking to my truck an old tom let out a loud gobble just below camp. I thought it must be my imagination, heck it's still over an hour before first light and heck it sounded like he was just on the other side of the campers. I blew it off and continued getting my stuff together. My buddy came outside and I told him I thought I had heard a bird gobble and he said well it sure is early to be gobbling. As we sat there tlking about it, not 30 seconds later GOBBLE,GOBBLE. This old tome fired off again this time with a double gobble. I was now sure of what I had heard and my buddy had heard it too. He said there was an old creek down the hill and we agreed to try that bird first. While on our long 100 yard hike down the hill from camp, the bird kept on hammering, making our decision on where to set up almost too easy. For the set up we decided to use an old feed lot for cover. He sat up in the barn to do some calling while I sat against an old wooden fence waiting to ambush the love struck old tom. As we were getting settled in a hen started putting and clucking in a tree right above us. We had gotten a little to close and she flew out into the darkness, and at this point I figured the hunt was over.
But we stuck it out and began to do some soft yelping and were greeted by a half gobble from the smae tree the hen had flown from. There was a tom right over us, and how we did not bogger him up is beyond me. Everytime we would call he would gobble, not to mention any turkey in hearing distance. If we heard 1 bird gobble I bet we heard 15. They were just tearing it up this morning.
Finally, first light was starting to break and I gave my rendition of a fly down cackle and the toms went nuts again. For about 2-3 minutes after this it was silent and I thought we had gotten busted, maybe I had called too much. When behind the fence I was leaning on I heard chic-vroooom,chic-vrooom followed by a thunderous gobble. The gobble made the hair on my neck stand up and I think I nearly screamed. Scared the heck out of me. There was a bird behind me at 5 feet (my buddy saw him but I did not move a muscle). I sat there hoping he would come around the fence but he didn't and I never saw him.
I stayed tucked in to the fence and before long a bearded hen came running down the fence line, to my hen decoy. Following her, there was a bright red head in hot pursuit. He was in a dead run when he spotted my decoy and locked up the brakes and breaking into full strut at 6 yards. I cut on my mought call to get him to break strut and the 835 barked. I had my first bird fror this spring and I was very thankful to get him.
He sported a 10 1/4 rope, 1.25" hooks and tipped the scales at a hair over 23#.
Sorry for the pics, they got distorted on the resize.
James
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