The first turkey hunt of 2011 turned out to be a successful one after a disappointing season last year...first year in a long time that nobody took a turkey at our farm (might I also add that it was the first year in a long time that I didn't hunt at all...coincidence?).
My dad and I decided to set up together in the double bull blind in hopes of connecting on a couple of longbeards. We have had multiple birds come in on this same set in years past so we figured we had a decent shot at a double. I was toting my bow in hopes of arrowing a turkey with the stick and string, and the plan was for me to get an arrow off just before he squeezed the trigger on a second bird. Well, as always seems to be the case, our feathered friends had a different plan. As the woods started to wake up, we heard the first unmistakable sound of a gobbler ringing off in the distance. Minutes later, we found ourselves encompassed by resounding gobbles in all directions. Only problem was, none of them were where we expected them to be.
We let them do their thing for awhile before I let off a series of soft tree yelps to let them know we were there. Several different birds responded...two were quite a ways behind us and another other two were much closer on the field edge but at the opposite end, although quite a bit further away than we'd like. We let the woods continue to wake up and enjoyed the sounds of gobbles for what seemed like an hour but probably only lasted 15-20 minutes. The woods gradually became quieter as we assumed most of the birds flew down from their roost and were likely with hens. We still had that one closest tom sounding off to our calls for awhile longer but he eventually became silent as well.
I decided to go runnin' n gunnin' around 9 to see if I could get a lonesome tom to sound off with no luck. When I walked back out towards the field, my dad peeked out the back of the blind and saw that a couple birds had snuck up on him and were walking along the field edge towards one of the decoys. They must have seen/heard me because they headed back into the cover of the woods before he could get a good look at them, but he thought they may have been jakes. We devised a plan to try and cut them off and made a quick sneak up ahead. Just before we got to a point in the field, my dad let out a series of yelps and a gobble sounded off in the other direction, probably not more than 100 yds away. I peaked around the point and sure enough we had cut those other turkeys off as well.
Things got interesting from here...those two turkeys turned out to be three, and the one gobbling turned out to have a buddy with him too. So now we have two toms sounding off to our right at every sound we make and getting closer each time, and three "jakes" to our left that are staying quiet. We didn't have the best cover to hide in but tucked ourselves back into the timber while trying to stay quiet because we knew it was only a matter of time before we were being bombarded from both sides. I'm thinking that the two that we hadn't seen are going to come in first so I set up in their direction. Before we knew it, the three to our left came trotting in...no gobbling, no strutting, just walked right at us. It wasn't until then that we realized these were mature birds and not the jakes we thought they were. My dad, off to my left, let them get as far as he could hoping to get us both an easy shot. The closest bird was only 10 ft from the end of his barrel and they were starting to act a little spooky.
He pulled the trigger on the back bird thinking I had a clear shot at the lead one. I did, but I also probably would have blown his ear drums out if I took the shot so I waited. He rolled his bird and the other two fled the scene, with one heading right into my shooting window. I dropped it thinking we had our double but it popped right up and took off running across the field. I was standing at this point, and for a brief instant, stood there relaxed and said to myself, "welp, here we go", knowing what was about to ensue. I took off in a dead sprint after the wounded bird trying to catch up to it before it made it into the timber. It may come as a surprise, but a turkey can run much faster than I can apparently! I took a hail mary shot just before it got into the timber and rolled it again but it just kept on going. I entered shortly behind him and stopped as I tried to figure out which way he went and taking note that I only have one shot left so I better make it count. The silence must have been too much for him to handle, because he popped up from the tall grass he had hid in just feet away from me and took off running and putting. I'm not sure what took me so long, maybe he startled me that much, or maybe he was just that fast, but he was already long gone by the time I got my gun shouldered. And the chase continued...
The next couple of minutes consisted of an all out sprint through the thick timber, over fallen trees, under fallen trees, and through thorny vines. The turkey was much more agile than I throughout the chase, but I somehow managed to keep up. He finally made it to some thick brush on the edge of the field where he thought he was safe. I stopped 10 yds to his side, took a few seconds to catch my breath, and slowly raised my gun to seal the deal. Definitely not the "easy double" we had thought it was going to be just minutes prior, but eventful nonetheless.
I dragged the little rascal out into the field, collapsed on the ground, and lay there by the side of my trophy as my dad and his new bionic knee gimped his way down the field where fist bumps and laughs were exchanged.
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