Bumped from their Roost

While applying for a limited entry turkey tag for my youngest son this year, I apparently chose the wrong hunting area on the application. So when a tag showed up in the mail for an area where we had never hunted (let alone visited) before, we were quite surprised. However, the hunt dates coincided with Carson’s spring break, so we figured we would leave a few days early and do some scouting.

iwenthunting strutting tom gobbler long beard turkey
                                One of the many strutting gobblers

 

Spring break week arrived and found us driving through unfamiliar territory on Wednesday afternoon. In the distance we noticed several out of place dark spots amongst the green alfalfa field. As we drove closer, the dark specs slowly morphed into familiar shapes, turkeys! It didn’t take long and we found the landowner who gladly gave us permission to hunt his property – what a stroke of luck. We spent the next two and a half days watching the turkeys in hopes of patterning their behavior. Even though we encountered relentless winds blowing at a constant 20-25 mph, often gusting to 45 mph, we saw 100+ turkeys each day, with many being mature long beards. The greatest number of strutting toms we saw at any one time was a whopping seven!

i went hunting turkeys, tom turkeys long beard gobblers
                         A few of the long beards we saw

 

Thursday morning we set up a ground blind in hopes the turkeys would become familiar with the camo-patterned addition to their very familiar landscape. Then on Friday we actually decided we’d try a little calling to see how the turkeys would react. Early that morning we set up near our ground blind, which happened to be very near a turkey roost. At first light, 40+ turkeys flew down and landed 60 yards away. I let out a few calls, but the strutting toms and their hens paid little attention. It was somewhat surprising how well the turkeys could hear our soft calls since the wind was blowing straight toward us. However, the entire flock eventually wandered off. Undeterred, I continued calling. After about 30 minutes, seven jakes popped out of the brush 65 yards away.  Unlike the flock before, they were extremely interested and trotted right toward us. Within a minute we had all seven jakes bobbing around 15 feet in front of us, what an awesome sight!

"  jakes looking for hens

                  Jakes running toward us                                                 Jakes within 15 feet

Friday night we lay in bed and made our game plan. Since we observed the turkeys skirt our blind a few times, we decided that hiding in the brush near our jake encounter would be our best bet. Additionally, seeing so many mature birds somewhat lulled us into the mindset that bagging a long beard would be.s doable – so much so, Carson decided that he’d pass given the chance to shoot a jake.

turkey hunting, jakes bobbing around 

                                               They're trying hard to find those hens

 

We were up early the next morning, 4:32 a.m., just enough time to sneak to within 50 yards of the roost in the cover of dark. I slipped out into the open and placed three decoys 20 yards in front of us and slithered back into the underbrush, it was now 5:30 a.m. At 6:29 a.m. we heard our first turkey call from the roost. Immediately the first turkey flew down and landed 50 yards away. Then another and another and another until about 50 turkeys had hit the ground. Within a couple of minutes, five big mature toms began to strut around. However, the toms happened to be at the far side of the flock and were strutting about 60 to 70 yards away.

Softly I placed my striker on the glass call and produced some soft purrs. This definitely got the flocks attention. Moments later several turkeys started to ward us. Carson was ready with his 20 gauge leveled and pointing toward our decoys. It wasn’t long before thirty turkeys were prancing around our decoys, with at least ten of those turkeys being jakes. However, those smart old gobblers kept their distance and continued to strut about 45 – 50 yards away…just a little too far for the 20 gauge. After ten minutes or so, the turkeys lost interest and began to saunter away. Within minutes there was not one turkey in sight, our opportunity to shoot had come and gone.

As the morning progressed, the relentless wind made hearing vocal turkeys impossible. No doubt conditions were less than ideal, but we decided to hang in there and sit for the entire day. Our hope was to lure a tom to our location or perhaps we’d be lucky enough to have the toms come utilize their strutting zone again…but that never happened.

At 7:00 p.m. we started getting very nervous. Not a single turkey in sight. Yet every single evening for the past three days we had watched dozens of turkeys feeding out into the very areas that now stood void of birds. At 7:15 p.m. I asked Carson to sneak onto the other side of the hedgerow to see if turkeys happened to be feeding into the other field near our ground blind. Moments later Carson returned excited as ever, turkeys were indeed present.

We made our way to the other side of the hedgerow and could see two strutting gobblers 170 yards in the distance. Fortunately for us, a large a hollow separated us from the turkeys, ending with a 3 ft. high embankment about 35 yards from the toms. All we had to do was to close the distance and pop up over the dirt mound and shoot a tom. Easy enough, right?

Everything was going according to plan. We reached the bank and peeked over the top, there stood two strutting long beards and they were headed our way. Seconds later disaster struck as a flock of turkeys popped their heads over the bank 20 feet away. We froze. Several hens were in sight, along with some jakes, but we couldn’t move and just waited hoping the flock would continue past, dragging the toms along. After a few minutes of inquisitive behavior a couple of hens became nervous and straight away reversed their direction. All we could do was watch as the flock of turkeys scurried away out of sight. I checked my phone, 7:32 p.m., the sun had set and we had just bumped 50+ birds off their roost.

As we lay in bed wondering what to do the next morning, Carson decided he would shoot any legal turkey, given the opportunity. At 5:45 a.m. the next morning we were in position nearby our turkey decoys. This time we decided to forgo using the strutting jake since it seemed like the gobblers weren’t keen on engaging our mock competition. Our goal on this morning would be to call aggressively, hoping to pull some turkeys from somewhere far away.

As sunrise fell across the landscape, not a single turkey could be heard calling from their roost…no surprise there. Eventually the first turkey call pierced the quiet still of the morning from way off. But unlike all of the previous days, this morning was much cooler and very calm. I yelped on my box call, I purred and yelped using my glass call. Then in the far distance we heard a few hens calling back and forth to us and to each other. Finally Carson heard a faint gobble. I kept calling. Ten minutes later a turkey emerged from the brush approximately 130 yards across the field. I brought my binoculars into position and quickly noticed it was a big mature long beard. I whispered to Carson, it’s a tom! Quickly I produced a couple of soft calls, the tom was in full strut mode. A few more calls and the tom began to head toward us.

To this point in the story, I’ve failed to mention that we decided to setup 20 yards left of our decoys, which put us closer to where we had seen the toms strut on previous days; anticipating a closer encounter with a mature bird. In fact, from this position on opening morning Carson would have been able to shoot a mature tom.

The tom now gobbled in response to my infrequent soft calling and had now closed the distance to within 80 yards. The bad news is that the tom was headed directly for our decoys and we were tucked back into the brush such that Carson would not have a shot opportunity if the tom continued on his current path. At 50 yards, I whispered to Carson to wait, wait…and again produced a few small purrs and peeps. At 30 yards, I softly let out another peep, hoping to draw him from his hen decoy destination. Finally the huge gobbler made it to the hedgerow 20 yards from our position, but with no shot opportunity. Just then I noticed two more toms pop out of the brush on the far side of the field. I whispered to Carson to hold completely still. To our good fortune both toms were gobbling and strutting towards us. Within no time, the toms were at 60 yards and paying more attention to my calling than to our decoys. Slowly they danced their way closer until the biggest of the gobblers was strutting 35 yards away, but just a bit to our right. Carson was steady as a rock and patiently waited for his shot opportunity. Five long minutes passed and then the big old long beard moved straight into the path of Carson’s Weatherby. Without moving my head, I glanced at Carson’s gun and saw him move his finger onto the trigger, only a matter of seconds now. One last gobble from the big tom before the loudest silence breaker of them all blared from Carson’s barrel, we had done it! 

 

Got his long beard  i went hunting turkeys, Back to the truck

                     Got his long beard!                                                           Back to the truck...

In the end it seemed as if scattering the turkeys the night before may have worked in our favor because these three gobblers seemed anxious to meet up their dates after spending a lonely night away from the flock.

 

turkey hunt with tom turkey gobbler long beard, i went hunting turkeys
                       Back home with his huge gobbler