Fall '10 Eastern Jake

11/10/2010. We hunted hard in the morning starting out with 4 inches of fresh, wet snow. We walked ridges, calling and stopping to listen, through vast public lands in SE Montana. Not hearing or seeing any turkeys we made our way down to some lower private land that didn’t have as much snow accumulations.

We finally spotted some turkeys feeding along a creek bottom with some cows. After obtaining permission from the landowners, we bullrushed the turkeys to separate them from the cows (land owners wishes). We then hunkered down behind some old dead brush and trees and called them back in. Turkeys came from the left and right back to our position. I knew my son was getting anxious waiting for me to shoot one. Quietly though I explained to him that I was waiting for a male turkey to come by us, as I have a thing personally about shooting a breeding hen, even though they are legal to harvest in the fall season. Finally I saw this Jake come into range, at about 30 yards. I could see his little 3 inch beard bobbing up and down, with his goofy teenager gate. I settled the front sight right on the base of his neck, pulled the trigger and down he went.

This is by far not the biggest turkey that I’ve shot, but it is one of the more memorable ones, as my son was able to be along for this one. After the hunt we drove back into town and ordered some awesome hot wings, I had a beer with mine, Jack had some Orange Soda with his. We headed home the next morning after having some cool guy time.