As has been tradition for the past few years, my old roommate and I made our 3rd annual trip to his ranch in Caldwell county between Lockhart in Luling. It started off leaving after work on Monday, one quick Walmart stop and we were at the ranch building a fire and hanging the hammocks. We had a few drinks and snacks and then hit the sack for an early wake-up.
Phone alarm went off at 6:00 and we rekindled the fire and boiled some water for coffee in the french press (first time to have/make it that way, I liked it). As the sky begins to gray, we stalk 100 yards down the road to a large field. Zach makes a quick abrupt halt, and then I see his reason. Three large hogs and a number of small piglets are feeding in the field. Unfortunately Zach hadn't practiced with his open sight 30-30, and missed the biggest of them all. I run up and roll two piglets with some #4 and spray a 3rd one that is running away.
We continue on our way, and stalked and called until 9:30. We hadn't heard a gobble all morning. We head back for camp and hear pigs squealing. Long story short, we make a stalk and discover a coyote harrassing my wounded piglet #3 in some cactus brush. We are spotted at about 25 yards, but hidden well. The coyote circles downwind, and I tell Zach to get ready for him to appear behind the tree. 25 yards there his is! Miss #2....
We go back to camp to hydrate and listen for distant gobbles. Around 10:30 they start sounding off. We stalk down into the tall hardwoods near what we call "The Swamp"
We set up the decoys and sit at the base of a fallen tree, and I begin calling. Turkeys are responding immedietly in the distance at about 11o'clock and 2 o'clock from our position. All of the sudden, two gobbles very loud behind us. I turn and see two gobblers running in. They hang up for a second at 50 yards behind us, and we slowly turn. They then run into the decoys, which we are facing away from now, and begin fighting with the strutting jake we had. Over the next 45 seconds we try to turn slowly, but between our movement and the plastic intruder, the birds got fed up and began working directly away from us.
At 35 yards, their sight of me was blocked by a tree and I turned, however Zach was still visible. After 10-15 seconds of me being in position and the birds staring at him, he tells me to shoot if I get a chance. They stepped into view, both heads side by side. I had to wait for them to separate because Caldwell is a 1 gobbler county; plus I want Zach to get a kill also.
They split, and I fire. One bird drops and gets up and run. We give chase for 50-75 yards before Zach fell straight on his face. I caught up to the wounded bird and as it was starting to death wobble I finished it off. It was a great hunt and Zach ended up going back this past weekend and getting a nice bird.
Phone alarm went off at 6:00 and we rekindled the fire and boiled some water for coffee in the french press (first time to have/make it that way, I liked it). As the sky begins to gray, we stalk 100 yards down the road to a large field. Zach makes a quick abrupt halt, and then I see his reason. Three large hogs and a number of small piglets are feeding in the field. Unfortunately Zach hadn't practiced with his open sight 30-30, and missed the biggest of them all. I run up and roll two piglets with some #4 and spray a 3rd one that is running away.
We continue on our way, and stalked and called until 9:30. We hadn't heard a gobble all morning. We head back for camp and hear pigs squealing. Long story short, we make a stalk and discover a coyote harrassing my wounded piglet #3 in some cactus brush. We are spotted at about 25 yards, but hidden well. The coyote circles downwind, and I tell Zach to get ready for him to appear behind the tree. 25 yards there his is! Miss #2....
We go back to camp to hydrate and listen for distant gobbles. Around 10:30 they start sounding off. We stalk down into the tall hardwoods near what we call "The Swamp"
We set up the decoys and sit at the base of a fallen tree, and I begin calling. Turkeys are responding immedietly in the distance at about 11o'clock and 2 o'clock from our position. All of the sudden, two gobbles very loud behind us. I turn and see two gobblers running in. They hang up for a second at 50 yards behind us, and we slowly turn. They then run into the decoys, which we are facing away from now, and begin fighting with the strutting jake we had. Over the next 45 seconds we try to turn slowly, but between our movement and the plastic intruder, the birds got fed up and began working directly away from us.
At 35 yards, their sight of me was blocked by a tree and I turned, however Zach was still visible. After 10-15 seconds of me being in position and the birds staring at him, he tells me to shoot if I get a chance. They stepped into view, both heads side by side. I had to wait for them to separate because Caldwell is a 1 gobbler county; plus I want Zach to get a kill also.
They split, and I fire. One bird drops and gets up and run. We give chase for 50-75 yards before Zach fell straight on his face. I caught up to the wounded bird and as it was starting to death wobble I finished it off. It was a great hunt and Zach ended up going back this past weekend and getting a nice bird.
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