hunt0168
Well-known member
Took the day off from work to enjoy myself on a beautiful (yet frosty) morning. I went to one of my coyote properties that I had seen turkeys tracks during the winter and knew some birds were around. As I was waiting for the skies to get a little brighter before ripping a howl on my diaphragm, a real coyote howled a couple hundred yards away, and to my good fortune a bird gobbled just about 100 yards across the pasture from where I was standing! I’m in a 2 acre woodlot surrounded by a pasture on all sides. This bird was roosted on the opposite side of the narrowest corner. What luck!
Well this coyote starts howling and booger barking and 3 birds start firing off gobbles. Perfect! Now to find my setup and see what happens. I setup around the corner from where they were roosted thinking my yelps and purrs wouldn’t do me much good if there wasn’t a bird in sight making them. I had to make them come look for me.
As dawn broke and legal shooting time arrived I let out some tree yelps and got 4 gobblers answering back. I heard one pitch off but couldn’t see it. A few more tree yelps and then a flydown cackle from me and they all fired off again. Then one by one I heard more pitch off. They hit the ground gobbling. I heard a hen yelping in with the boys and they were really hammering to her. I went into my usual routine of working on the hen to see if I could drag her in with her group of fanciers. To my dismay they sounded like they were getting further away.
Don’t panic.. Stay in the game. I let out some yelps on both my diaphragm as well as my pot call and they answered. Then I went quiet. They gobbled, and gobbled, and for good measure, gobble some more. I just threw out a few random clucks and purrs for the next half hour or so, and every once in awhile one of them would gobble back. At about the one hour mark I see a hen rounding the corner. And then a string of 4 toms that all had short beards. Oh, c’mon!.. Well they’re coming and suddenly the lead “Jake” goes into full strut. That’s no Jake! Thats a perfect full fan. And the rest went into strut with the same. Ahhh… Bad winter and deep snow had cropped their beards. Okay, game on again.
As I sat with gun rested on my knee, the hen walked past at 20 yards. 20 yards behind her was a group of 4 in tow. As the lead gobbler that was doing most of the strutting walked into my red dot I squeezed the trigger and watched my bird crumple without a twitch. The rest departed and I sat there giving thanks for my successful hunt. About then my bird did the turkey to heaven flight while lying on his back. About 10 seconds later all was quiet again.
Classic 2 year old. About 3/4” spurs and a busted off 3” beard. I’d guess him at 17-18 lbs. I’m happy with it.
I have a second tag I can fill during the season, but the last few years I have limited myself to only one bird. Numbers have been slipping for a bunch of years now. And the winters have been tough on them. Always hopeful for a good breeding season and a nice comeback.
Thanks for reading. Good luck to those that get after them.
Well this coyote starts howling and booger barking and 3 birds start firing off gobbles. Perfect! Now to find my setup and see what happens. I setup around the corner from where they were roosted thinking my yelps and purrs wouldn’t do me much good if there wasn’t a bird in sight making them. I had to make them come look for me.
As dawn broke and legal shooting time arrived I let out some tree yelps and got 4 gobblers answering back. I heard one pitch off but couldn’t see it. A few more tree yelps and then a flydown cackle from me and they all fired off again. Then one by one I heard more pitch off. They hit the ground gobbling. I heard a hen yelping in with the boys and they were really hammering to her. I went into my usual routine of working on the hen to see if I could drag her in with her group of fanciers. To my dismay they sounded like they were getting further away.
Don’t panic.. Stay in the game. I let out some yelps on both my diaphragm as well as my pot call and they answered. Then I went quiet. They gobbled, and gobbled, and for good measure, gobble some more. I just threw out a few random clucks and purrs for the next half hour or so, and every once in awhile one of them would gobble back. At about the one hour mark I see a hen rounding the corner. And then a string of 4 toms that all had short beards. Oh, c’mon!.. Well they’re coming and suddenly the lead “Jake” goes into full strut. That’s no Jake! Thats a perfect full fan. And the rest went into strut with the same. Ahhh… Bad winter and deep snow had cropped their beards. Okay, game on again.
As I sat with gun rested on my knee, the hen walked past at 20 yards. 20 yards behind her was a group of 4 in tow. As the lead gobbler that was doing most of the strutting walked into my red dot I squeezed the trigger and watched my bird crumple without a twitch. The rest departed and I sat there giving thanks for my successful hunt. About then my bird did the turkey to heaven flight while lying on his back. About 10 seconds later all was quiet again.
Classic 2 year old. About 3/4” spurs and a busted off 3” beard. I’d guess him at 17-18 lbs. I’m happy with it.
I have a second tag I can fill during the season, but the last few years I have limited myself to only one bird. Numbers have been slipping for a bunch of years now. And the winters have been tough on them. Always hopeful for a good breeding season and a nice comeback.
Thanks for reading. Good luck to those that get after them.
WTG, Bob. 
