Every year it seems
more difficult to drag out of bed at 3 am to go hunting. After missing the first week of the spring
turkey season, gopher hunting, My butt was stuck in bed this am. But I had set the alarm across the room,
making me get up.
I usually stop at
McD’s for a 2fer egg muffin, one for breakfast one for lunch. In Pennsylvania, you MUST call toms
only. NO Run-n-Gun allowed. So that means a stationary portable
blind, folding chair, decoys, 3-8 calls.
Tired as I was I left my bow at home and grabbed my 12 ga.
Got to the site
about 1 hour before sunrise, set up and sipped my coffee from thermos
(stainless steel just to add some weight to my full pack).
5 minutes after
opening hour I heard a Tom about ¾ mile off, sounded like he was still treed
up. No hens heard. I gave some sexy clucks and instantly had 3
other toms answer, some even closer but all in different directions. This is a time to just relax…don’t let the
blood pressure go up and over call.
My 3 hen decoys
were closely clustered in a small opening about 15 yards away, with a jake tom decoy which I hand painted BRIGHTLY, hovering close by them.
I called and
clucked for 10 minutes as all answers went calm. This usually means they are walking in
quietly to check thigs out, or you dummy you scared them off! More time to just relax.
Breakin the dawn quiet, I heard a
cluk/thump close on my left. Turning slowly,
there was a monster tom that was the first bird I heard: and he had flown across
the valley and landed within 15 foot of me.
Told myself to freeze as he went into full strut and brushed his fan
against the side of my camo blind…his eye looked to be 2” large, and his neck
was stretched so far up he was above my seated position…just freeze.
After he had
eyeballed this strange looking Bear, he staggered toward the hen decoys. I eased the gun up (red dot was already
turned on to medium bright), choke adjusted to super tight. Just as I got the gun up he decided to circle
the girls and went behind a small thick bush.
Well I figured,
either he is going to come out the other side or he is going to go straight
away back down the steep ravine he flew over, thereby denying me a shot, after
having given me quite a show.
But he did come out
the other side of the bush but was no longer in fan display but with his head
tucked deep into his chest wings dragging ready for a quick thump or maybe the
thought he could get all 3 hen decoys?????
Again, told my
heart to relax and wait, he was still only 15 yards away, and I wanted a head
shot. In a long 5 seconds he again went
into full fan display and his head slowly raised up. In fact, it rose up to my red dot, and my ancient 870
fired without my even thinking of pulling the trigger.
With a broken neck
and stone dead he still thought it best to fly, so the powerful wings took the final flight as his body lay dead.
One of my better birds,
21#, 12”+ beard, haven’t measured the spurs.
He was too heavy for me to
carry with my gear, so it was a double trip back to the Ford. It was now just 20 minutes after opening
hour and my turkey season was over.
Eating that second
Egg McMuffin now with the remains of my thermos coffee.
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