We hunted Friday and Saturday out of Walkerton with Luke from Wingfeather Outfitters. It was an absolute blast! He worked so hard for us. I have only been out with one other outfit that worked as hard, and that was Serengeti Charters. (shameless plug, I know
)
Our first bird on Friday was textbook. We had put the Tom to bed the night before, and knew where he wanted to strut his stuff in the morning. We set up on him a couple hundred yards away, near the field edge and waited for the light.
Once the woods had started to brighten up, he started gobbling on the roost. Soooooo cool! Once he flew down and Luke started calling him in, he came in like he was on a string. I was set up on the trail that we expected him to come in on, and Kooz was set up 20 yards away in the trees in case he tried to flank us.
I saw him zip out of the trees and onto the trail, but he seemed to be taking a long time to come down the trail for his introduction to my 870 and 2 ounces of #4 shot.
I glanced over at Kooz, and saw him slowly shift his shotgun. He shook the woods up with a big blast, and Tom went for a dirt nap.
We did a few more setups, without success. We had some hens take offense to that we were plotting, and they took the toms with them.
We spotted a big tom out in a field. Luke had permission in that field, and knew where the bird would be heading. We drove a couple quarters away, and
walked in to set up on him. The wind had picked up a lot, but Luke set out his dekes and began to call. No reply from the turkeys, but we had a young golden eagle swoop down and clobber one of the hen decoys! Very cool!
We moved to the next patch of bush and set up again. This time, we got a reply right away, and close! I had to belly crawl to get set up in the bush to wait. It was a short wait, as Luke reeled in 2 beautiful toms. They came in gobbling like mad, right into my chosen shooting lane. I had to wait until they split up, or it would have been a 2 for 1 shot. Once the bigger tom split off enough for a shot, I let him have it! Great bird, 22 pounds and a bit. I never actually measured the beards and spurs, but have a pic with a card in it for reference.
I'll do a separate post for Saturdays hunts.
Turkey hunt pics and stories - Long post :)
Linear Mode
