On this particular April morning, my alarm sounded off at 4 am, I almost changed my mind, because I was tired, looking for any excuse that there wouldn't be any turkeys out this early in the morning. Fortunately though, I had done some pre-scouting the night before, and had found a good group of turkeys right before sun down. I was pretty sure that they were headed to roost as I sat at a safe distance and watched as a few Toms strutted for their pretty lady friends. Hunting is usually the only thing that gets me out of bed before the chickens, and seeing these Toms strutting had an awesome effect on me.
I pulled my truck into the edge of the field in the morning. I checked the clock and it said 5 am. Checking the internet last night I knew sun up was going to be at 6:14 am. As I gathered my hunting vest, decoys, my shotgun, snacks and water, I could already see the first hint of light coming in the east. I turned on my head lamp and headed down a small trail that ran along the field where I saw the turkeys last night. As I approached the location where I last saw them, I turned off my head lamp and was surprised at how light out it was already. I panicked a little bit and checked my watch. 5:30 am and I didn’t have a moment to lose.
I unpacked my decoys and in the process dropped one of the fiberglass stakes that hold up the turkeys, but I didn‘t want to turn my headlamp back on to see it. I made a split decision. Since I only had one stake, all I could put out was one decoy, so I decided to put out my Feeding Hen decoy. I stabbed the stake into the ground, and not even a second later I heard a booming gobble coming from within a 100 yards. I think I crapped myself, just a little! I scurried as quietly as I could and got to the edge of the field and set up in front of a barbed wire fence, as I didn’t want to have to shoot thru the fence. I found a spot that had some over hanging limbs, tall grasses and settled down about 20 yards from my Hen decoy.
Let the torturous waiting begin. I sat there for about half an hour and listened to what I could tell were 5 different Toms gobbling back and forth, at what felt was right above me. This was already one of the coolest hunting experiences I have ever had. I’ve never had the pleasure of just sitting and listening to multiple gobblers going back and forth like that. While I was sitting there I kept second guessing myself, wondering if I should try to sneak out and put up the Jake decoy that I had along. The trouble was the leaves around me were completely dry and any little movement would make a huge ruckus. I also wasn’t sure where the missing stake was, and I was positive that I would spook the turkeys if I tried it. I checked my watch at 5:50 am as I saw geese coming in overhead and landing in the field ahead of me. That made up my mind, I was just going to have to work with one decoy out in the field.
I should also tell you that I have never tried to call in a gobbler by myself. I have been with buddies that have tried calling when we were out with little success. At this point I was sure wishing I would have had one of them with me using their turkey calling skills. I had borrowed an Owl hooter and a couple slate calls from my good friend Andrew and had practiced on them at home in front of my wife and kids. (them not giving me a lot of love in the end). I wasn’t deterred though. I have worked with a box call in the past and knew the cadences that I need to follow for the yelps and cutts of the hens. I thought, “What the heck“? The turkeys don’t know how to laugh. Worst case, I will just go home empty-handed like every other turkey hunt in the past years.
At 6:00, it was like a switch was turned on, and my little pocket of Cottonwoods came alive. More Geese were flying into the field now, deer were out feeding, raccoons were running down the Milk River behind me, and the turkeys had really picked up their gobbling. I could also hear the hens start to chatter now. I was finally able to pick out a dark spot about 300 yards away from me on the opposite edge of the field. Even through my binoculars I couldn’t tell what it was, although I could see it move around and hear gobbling coming from that direction. I was like a little kid in a candy store at this point. Geese, deer, turkeys, pheasants were surrounding me, and I was soaking up the sights and sounds of this morning. I was wishing that I had my video camera along or some sound recording equipment just to capture what was going on around me.
I was soon snapped out of my wonderment state as I watched a couple turkeys soar through the edge of the trees and land in the field 75 yards from me. As soon as these two were on the ground, 3 more turkeys came down from the roost, and 3 more were soon to follow. I could hear gobbling from some of these 8 turkeys and then I saw a couple fans come up and my heart went in my throat. I counted 4 Toms and 4 Hens in that bunch and was pretty sure there was at least one more Tom across the field.
Now it’s my turn to make some noise. I took the slate call out of my pocket and started out making some really soft yelps, I have heard to always keep it light, the turkeys will hear you and you don’t want to come on too strong and sound unrealistic. I was listening to the real hens and how much their sounds differed from each other and that was a real confidence booster. I altered between watching the turkeys and calling to them. Checking on the other Tom I noticed that he had closed the distance to 150 yards, and I could see a big fan with white tips on it.
Once the lone Tom got to within a 100 yards, he veered off from the group and crossed the field in front of me. He then disappeared into the tall grass and trees bordering the field to the left of me. All the time I watched him I could tell that he was a good turkey with a nice beard that would drag the ground when he fed. Then a thought occurred to me. That bugger is going to bust me if he comes back through the trees and stumbles into me, as since he wasn’t gobbling anymore, I couldn’t tell where he was!! 10 very long minutes passed as I called and watched the group of turkeys on my right and watched for any movement on my left. All of a sudden a hen appeared where the Tom went in and he was following her back to the group on my right. As they got back to the group he then turned around and came all the way back across again. This time I figured he was about 50 yards out, still way too far to shoot, as I had my Weatherby shotgun that just has a fixed full choke. I wasn’t exactly sure how far out it would reach. I knew it patterned good out to 30 yards, and was confident I could take anything close to my decoy.
All the calling I was doing didn’t seem to have any effect on the Toms. I wasn’t sure what to do as the wind was in my face, I wasn’t sure that they could hear me as I was calling really soft. But surely they could see my decoy right?? As he got off to my left I really layed into the slate call, he absolutely put the brakes on and his head was on a swivel looking for the hen he had just finally heard. He started strutting hard as he also finally saw my decoy off to his right at 30 yards.
I said to myself. “Ok Chris. It’s time to put up or shut up! You have waited a long time for this.” He would approach another 10 feet or so and I would lay into the Hen call. He would stop, throw his tail feathers up, give the hen a little dance and then continue on until I would call to him again. The whole time I am running the sequence through my head. How close do I need to get him, set down the call and pull up my shotgun from my lap without him spooking? I called to him 4 to 5 more times until he was about 10 feet from my decoy. I called him one last time to induce his dance ritual and while he was turned a little I eased up my shotgun and clicked off the safety. He must have heard my safety clicking off, because his tail went down immediately and his head was on a swivel looking for the danger. It didn’t matter though, I pulled the trigger and he fell right by my decoy at 6:42 am.
I then fell to my back screaming and yelling, punching the air and thanking the good Lord for letting me harvest this awesome bird. My nerves were fried, but I had called in my first turkey!! I got the turkey out of the field, packed all my gear and walked back to my truck. The walk back sure didn’t seem as bad as the walk in! I then had to go find some friends that I knew were close by, so that they could take some pictures for me. After the pictures and back slapping were over I drove to the land owners house and thanked them and showed off my turkey. I then made the short drive home and apologized to my wife, because I knew immediately that I would get a full mount of this turkey to preserve my memories of this awesome hunt. My family is awesome though, as they know how much this hunt and harvesting this Turkey means to me.
