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Category: Turkey
Published: Saturday, 07 November 2015 10:11
Written by Greg

The Parade

The Parade started 150 yards to the south, at the far end of clearing from where our ground blind stood. As the event began, our memories flashed back roughly 12 hours prior to the bitter cold morning where these same turkeys, which now appear as tiny specs across the horizon, out smarted us.

 

fall turkey hunt, parade line of turkeys in clearing
                                           Starting to form a line before heading across the field

 

We awoke to the faint moon light which provided just enough illumination to make out the silhouette of turkeys on the roost, just yards away. It wasn't long until the vocal birds calling from the cottonwood trees had our blood pumping, even though the thermometer read a chilling 15 degrees. But within minutes, our plot was foiled as we watched the 30+ turkeys pitch down and glide past as they came to rest 70 yards away. Their huge bodies appeared closer to the boys than they really were...definitely out of range for the 20 gauge which had first dibs on this hunt. Still, the memory of hearing the wing beats smashing against the tree limbs as the birds swooped down within feet of our misplaced ambush is something we won't soon forget.

 

fall turkey hunt, in ground blind
Excitement building inside the ground blind, wish I would've thought to get more pics of turkeys parading toward us

 

The optimistic words from my 5 year old grandson who said "I know Carson is going to get one", followed by a nod of confirmation, caused us to focus back on the turkeys at hand. Looking through my binoculars I could see that the procession now stretched 50 yards long as I counted 33 birds in all. The excitement in the small confines of our ground blind grew...! Our hope now was that our confidence decoys would be the final objective of the advancing line.

 

iwenthunting i went hunting fall turkey hunt with turkeys, tail fain
                                        Got our fall birds...decoy in background helped seal the deal

 

Then it happened, the pivotal moment occurred as the "grand marshal", in this case the huge matriarch hen, turned the troop to march down "Confidence Decoy Lane". We positioned ourselves within the blind and peered out through adjacent window portals. As individual birds approached to within 40 yards, I reminded Carson to single out a turkey that stood clear from the rest. However, the situation got a little tricky as the flock neared the end of their route as bunching occurred upfront, so Carson asked for permission to shoot the trailing bird. I confirmed and replied to shoot when ready. At the sound of the blast from his 20 gauge, I nearly simultaneously pulled the trigger on a solitary jake about midstream. "It's down, I got one!" Carson shouted. Quickly I moved to look out through his window, a big smile crossed my face as I visually confirmed that he had in fact just killed his first turkey!

 

first turkey, fall turkey hunt  first turkey, heading back to camp

                First turkey, couldn't be more proud                                                   Headed back to camp