Sorry in advance for the long (and possible confusing) read!
Me and my fiance went down to the lease a couple of weeks ago with the intention of hunting some sheds/pigs/coyotes/turkey and we only had success in 1 area but that was fine by me!
We spent some time hunting for sheds but we never found the first one. Did see a couple bucks that were still wearing both sides so we might have been a little bit early.
We spent a little time hunting pigs but didn't have any luck there.
We discovered that it is absolutely impossible to use my new Primos Alpha Dogg caller when it is 300 miles from where we were hunting, nicely tucked away in the closet at the house.
Knowing where some turkey usually hang out, we headed out mid-morning to see what we could do. When we got to where we wanted to start, sure enough there were a couple of turkey at the bottom of a small hill. We headed in their direction but by the time we got to the bottom, those 2 were gone but we could hear more off in the distance so off we went.
Tracking off through the thick South Texas brush, we made our way to the lake on our place and after working our way around to the dry side, we spotted a couple of groups of birds. They were in an open area but fortunantely, they were only a short distance (60-70 yards) from some grown up brush/weeds where 6 months ago, the area was under water.
We cut a trail through the brush/weeds and made it to a point that I felt like we might be able to call a bird in close enough to take a shot. There were 2 groups of hens about 30 yards apart with 2 toms close by. Tom #1 was working back and forth between the hens while tom#2 just kinda strutted around just outside 1 of the groups.
We settled in and I tried calling a few times with my mouth call but never really got a response. After calling for a little bit, I realized that wasn't working so I decided that I would just belly crawl my way out into the field, get close enough for a shot and take my first turkey. Sounds simple enough until you consider that I'm 6'1" and weigh in at about 255#!
I tell my fiance to sit tight and let me see what I could do. I unloaded my pockets, including my box call and slate call and start sneaking off into the field after the birds. (I doubt anybody would call what I was doing, sneaking but I felt like I was) I was able to crawl out to a small cluster of dead trees, that was about 40 yards from the birds and get my shotgun propped up on a limb. I tried the mouth call a couple more times but still wasn't getting a response like I had hoped for.
After laying flat for about 20 minutes, waiting for a tom to give me a shot, out of the blue, tom #3 starts talking right behind me and every turkey in the field, stops what they were doing and focuses all their attention on him. This seemed awfully strange because I knew Kim was right back there somewhere and couldn't believe this new bird had came in between us.
In less than a minute, the group of birds to my left and most of the birds to my right were heading to investigate, which meant they were headed straight towards me. Before I knew it, I had 10+ hens, 1 big strutting jake and tom #2, literally standing within 10' of me laying there on the ground! By now, tom#3 is really raising hell and as the birds make their way in front of me, I was able to move enough to get to a point that I can make a shot on the tom#2! The bird I shot hits the ground, starts flopping around and MOST of the other birds fly away with the exception of tom#1.
Still confused by what had just happened, I roll over on my side, look back and Kim and I see her sitting up with this really proud grin across her face! I tried to ask her where this other tom behind me had gone and she just laughed!
She had got bored sitting there waiting on me so she picked up my slate call(she had never seen a slate call before that moment) and started playing with it. Once she made it make some noise, she noticed all the birds looking/responding to her so she continued and the more she messed with it, the more the birds were responding!
After figuring out what was going on, I rolled back over on my stomach and I realize that tom #1 was still in front of me, having his way with a hen. As soon as he gets through servicing his lady, he jumps off of her, runs straight to the bird I had shot a minute earlier and attacks him! Feathers are going everywhere and with all of the confusion surrounding me, the only logical thing I could figure to do was to shoot him too!
Me and my fiance went down to the lease a couple of weeks ago with the intention of hunting some sheds/pigs/coyotes/turkey and we only had success in 1 area but that was fine by me!
We spent some time hunting for sheds but we never found the first one. Did see a couple bucks that were still wearing both sides so we might have been a little bit early.
We spent a little time hunting pigs but didn't have any luck there.
We discovered that it is absolutely impossible to use my new Primos Alpha Dogg caller when it is 300 miles from where we were hunting, nicely tucked away in the closet at the house.
Knowing where some turkey usually hang out, we headed out mid-morning to see what we could do. When we got to where we wanted to start, sure enough there were a couple of turkey at the bottom of a small hill. We headed in their direction but by the time we got to the bottom, those 2 were gone but we could hear more off in the distance so off we went.
Tracking off through the thick South Texas brush, we made our way to the lake on our place and after working our way around to the dry side, we spotted a couple of groups of birds. They were in an open area but fortunantely, they were only a short distance (60-70 yards) from some grown up brush/weeds where 6 months ago, the area was under water.
We cut a trail through the brush/weeds and made it to a point that I felt like we might be able to call a bird in close enough to take a shot. There were 2 groups of hens about 30 yards apart with 2 toms close by. Tom #1 was working back and forth between the hens while tom#2 just kinda strutted around just outside 1 of the groups.
We settled in and I tried calling a few times with my mouth call but never really got a response. After calling for a little bit, I realized that wasn't working so I decided that I would just belly crawl my way out into the field, get close enough for a shot and take my first turkey. Sounds simple enough until you consider that I'm 6'1" and weigh in at about 255#!
I tell my fiance to sit tight and let me see what I could do. I unloaded my pockets, including my box call and slate call and start sneaking off into the field after the birds. (I doubt anybody would call what I was doing, sneaking but I felt like I was) I was able to crawl out to a small cluster of dead trees, that was about 40 yards from the birds and get my shotgun propped up on a limb. I tried the mouth call a couple more times but still wasn't getting a response like I had hoped for.
After laying flat for about 20 minutes, waiting for a tom to give me a shot, out of the blue, tom #3 starts talking right behind me and every turkey in the field, stops what they were doing and focuses all their attention on him. This seemed awfully strange because I knew Kim was right back there somewhere and couldn't believe this new bird had came in between us.
In less than a minute, the group of birds to my left and most of the birds to my right were heading to investigate, which meant they were headed straight towards me. Before I knew it, I had 10+ hens, 1 big strutting jake and tom #2, literally standing within 10' of me laying there on the ground! By now, tom#3 is really raising hell and as the birds make their way in front of me, I was able to move enough to get to a point that I can make a shot on the tom#2! The bird I shot hits the ground, starts flopping around and MOST of the other birds fly away with the exception of tom#1.
Still confused by what had just happened, I roll over on my side, look back and Kim and I see her sitting up with this really proud grin across her face! I tried to ask her where this other tom behind me had gone and she just laughed!
She had got bored sitting there waiting on me so she picked up my slate call(she had never seen a slate call before that moment) and started playing with it. Once she made it make some noise, she noticed all the birds looking/responding to her so she continued and the more she messed with it, the more the birds were responding!
After figuring out what was going on, I rolled back over on my stomach and I realize that tom #1 was still in front of me, having his way with a hen. As soon as he gets through servicing his lady, he jumps off of her, runs straight to the bird I had shot a minute earlier and attacks him! Feathers are going everywhere and with all of the confusion surrounding me, the only logical thing I could figure to do was to shoot him too!
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