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Returning the favor.
This morning, I lethargically crawled out of bed at 4:30am again, got around and went to pick up my friend to try to get his bird.
We went down to a family farm and were slow walking into the timber by dark of night. Once reaching a logging road, we settled against a tree to wait for gobbles to find our target. With the gray sky a few sparse gobbles came but nothing very close, so we began to move closer to the best chance. About half way there, I realized someone was stumbling through the neighboring ground, a bout a half hour after they should have been set...and spooked the bird, time to regroup.
We went to my truck and drove to a couple of farms to glass fields for strutting toms...nothing and moved on. We headed to a farm of one of my uncles, which I'd never turkey hunted and began to glass. I spotted a tom and a hen about 1/4-1/2 mile to the west on a hillside near a wooded draw. We began our stalk across the land, crossed a creek and set up on the edge of a draw a hundred yards from where the birds had exited view.
The setup is the turkeys are suspected to be a couple of hundred yards to our north, we're on the west bank of a wooded creek bottom on a hillside.
It doesn't take long for the yelps of our calls to be answered....a dominant hen is coming our way, hopefully with the gobbler. To our surprise, they circle down into the creek bottom, cross the creek and come up the hill, passing within 10 yards of where we lay on the ground.
The fun begins as the hens approach the single hen decoy, and begin to beat the living shit out it...pecking, raking with spurs...an awesome display of turkey on vinyl turkey violence, a mere 15yds away...I can barely contain my giggles for the 10 minute onslaught. Then, they roam away.....and we once again call, to be answered, and have another hen take a similar path, coming as close as 6 yards...before entering the open field.
During this time, I notice a gobbler and 2 hens entering the bottom across the creek....they see the hen at our decoy and make quick time in what we think is running away....but they're circling.
Not long after, we see a semi-strutting gobbler charge over the hill in our direction. He puffs, flairs, fans, puts on his display at 20 yards for a little while before 3" mag #4 thunder breaks the morning air, and another one bites the dust.
and another one's down and another one's down...another one bites the dust.
After reaching the truck and beginning to leave, not 200 yards from the truck in the other direction...a massive gobbler with a ground dragging beard strutted probably to keep me humble.
Another nice day, another great hunt.
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