There was plenty of time for a morning turkey hunt before the muskrat auction today, so Weasel and I hit it once again.  Just like clock work, we were in our blinds well before daylight.  The robins nesting in the tree under which I was sitting were quite surprised to find me there when they awoke.  A more perfect morning for turkey hunting could not have been made.  Warm, a very slight breeze at times, overcast….beautiful!

As it began to get light and one could make out the outlines of the tops of the trees, I realized I was not in the spot I had in mind to be sitting, but it was way to late to be making any moves.  I had parked myself too close to the roosting trees and out on the edge of a clearing.  The clearing was where I wanted to be, but I was too far down the hill.  I wanted to be up at the far end of it which would have made me some 100 yards away from the roost.  But, here I sat and unable to move.

I had built a bit of a blind out of some deadfall I found without using my flashlight and it was just a little bit of cover.  I was hoping it would be enough to break up my outline should the birds come down my way.  I positioned my shotgun out in front of me facing the line of trees where the roost was.  Again, you never know if the birds are roosting where they normally do or not, but you have to plan that they are.  My mind said they would fly straight down out of the roost trees and walk out into the meadow I was sitting next to.  With my shotgun pointed in that direction I could move it to my left or right to make adjustments as they came walking out.  This was going to be my day!

In the meantime, Weasel had his new tent blind  and was down the hill from me.  I thought we would be about 200 yards apart and if the birds were roosting down his way, he would get the shot and the birds would run up my way, if they were roosting in the band of trees up my way, I would get the shot and they would run down his direction.

It got lighter and lighter and I was surprised there wasn’t any gobbling going on.  I began to think the birds were not there.  And then I heard the first hen make a soft sound…..crick, crick, crick….And then a little louder….Crick, Crick, Crick….And then I heard her wings flapping as she dropped out of the tree.  I shouldered my shotgun and sighted down the barrel…within a few seconds I could see two birds coming my way out of the trees.  Perfect!  I tried like crazy to see a beard on either one, but they were both hens and they came out perfectly, just like the plan said.  Crossing from my left to my right and out into the meadow about 20 yards from where I was sitting.  They were contently feeding and clucking away when I heard another bird launch itself out of the trees.  This one flew up and out and came down my way like a bomber and landed between me and the two hens.  I was quite certain it was a gobbler.  Much bigger than the hens and darker, but I could not be sure.  Besides, it was to my right and nearly behind me when it landed.  And then the trees erupted with the sounds of wing beats and flying birds.  Down they came, flapping and making strange turkey sounds and they landed with the other 3 birds out in the meadow.  NINE turkeys less than 30 yards away.  Three toms and six hens!   My heart was pounding and I was holding the shotgun in the wrong direction and couldn’t move.  I had my cheek laying on the stock of the gun and peering over to my right watching the birds.  What a magnificent sight!  Nine huge birds right there in my lap and I can’t do a thing but try and hold still and watch them.  The whole time there were always at least two of them with their heads up and of course looking right at me.  I was as stone still as I could be, but after about 5 minutes I could feel my arms beginning to go numb.  The birds fed around behind me and were last seen coming my way.  This is crazy!  I thought to myself.  And then immediately behind the tree I was leaning against, the biggest tom started a fight with a smaller one.  They were only about 10 feet away and I could hear the wings beating against each other and they were cussing in turkey language.  The battle didn’t last too long, but the smaller one finally ran out where I could see it again, obviously roughed up a bit as his feathers weren’t all nice and straight.

Pretty soon all the birds were going in the same direction as the roughed up one and that direction was again to my right and away.  As they neared the far end of the meadow they disappeared from my view, but I held still not knowing if one had an eye on me and I just couldn’t see it.  Then the biggest tom came back into view and stood out about 40 yards and gobbled!  He gobbled 6 or 7 times.  Then I heard Weasel give a call out and the toms head went up and he took about 3 steps down toward where Weasel was.  I thought to myself, “keep it up Weasel and this big boy will cross right in front of me”….but the bird held.  Soon the whole flock came back and joined him and then they all fed across the meadow and out of sight behind me.  I relaxed my arms and let them hang at my sides and the blood finally got back into them.  As I’m typing this, I can still feel the soreness in my biceps.  10 minutes is a long time to hold a shotgun in shooting position without moving.

With them out of sight, I figured I could sneak up a slight depression in the terrain and get above them and I was doing really good at hunkering down and moving quickly when all of a sudden I heard the dreaded PUTT, PUTT, PUTT….busted again!  I backed out as quickly as I had gotten in there.  I never saw them again and I’m sure when that Putting started they high tailed it out of dodge.

So, there you go….Turkeys 7, Hunters 0…..But we were close!  Very close!  Had I been were I wanted to be I’d have gotten a shot and maybe even a bird.  When I got down to where Weasel was, we heard a gobble from up the direction the birds would have ran from me.  We both hid in his blind and tried calling but they wouldn’t have anything to do with it.

Bears Butt

May 19, 2014

I just thought of this:  When those 9 turkeys went behind me and the two toms started to fight, the last turkey I saw was so close I could see its “nose hole” as it sucked air in and blew it out.

How close is that?