Wow, where do I start? What a day, what a hunt, the crazy part was this turkey wasn't even the exciting part!! I guess I'll say that I actually tried turkey hunting alone one afternoon about 10 years ago by myself, didn't work, never did it again! My friend Bit Savage has been telling me for 4-5 years now that he would take me and every year life comes up with a different excuse for me not to go, that may change now!
I don't want to give away Bit's secrets, but to not tell the story would be to not honor the day we had in my mind. SO I made it down on Friday night expecting a good night's sleep, when I was told no-can-do! The time had changed and it isn't light until almost 6:30 so why not? Well apparently these crazy turkey hunters leave around 5:00 AM to get set up!!! CRAZINESS! So we were a little late and I believe that may have been my fault but we went out Saturday morning to a place Bit had watched some hens and a gobbler go up to roost the night before. It was still pretty much dark and Bit said we were about 20 minutes late, they'll see us now??? And then he said he forgot his owl call, and I said I can do a fair one with my mouth so he said give it a shot and I'll tell you if it is bad, I let it out and was SHOCKED, a turkey gobbled back at me and the hunt was on!!! Bit said, "that'll work!" as I did a little dance like I was a turkey calling mad man! So we sat down on the gas line waited a few minutes and Bit let out a little call (I think it was a Yelp) well I had NO IDEA how cool this was about to be, the Turkeys went NUTS! We had a least 4 different ones gobbling for 20 mintues all over the place, Bit said that is right where he thought they were and he wanted to be in the middle, I'm not sure my heart could have taken it if we were, these dudes were ready for action!
So we thought we had them coming in 2-3 times we heard a couple fly down, and Bit kept calling, then he said, Uh-Oh, those are hens calling, and they are with the hens! At this point I had my shotgun up for almost an hour and a half with visions of an gobbler coming out right on top of us and making this a short and easy day and was one uncomfortable puppy so I invited his suggestion to move. What I didn't understand was why we had to go 250 yards in the opposite direction of the birds??? But I kept my mouth shut and went with the man who seemed like he knew what he was doing. We went down to the creek and he used the hill side to muffle the noise and we stayed in the water as much as we could to get in the woods a couple of hundred yards and set up. We ended up almost right under a buddy stand I have down there, we sat down and I thought I heard something so I kept looking, Bit said Jimmie, turn this way, there is one out about 90 yards, the heart started going and I slowly turned and Bit kept calling a yelp here and a put there and a pur here, next thing I know there they were two HUGE gobblers and a couple of others I expect were hens just a bit up the hill right next to us at about 40 yards in range, THIS WAS IT! The bead was on them, but it was too thick, all I needed was 10 more yards, so I waited! One let loose a gobble and I about jumped out of my pants! We just couldn't get them on our side of the brush and I didn't want to make a bad shot and they were sort of in Bit's direction which made me uneasy as well (Bit too, because I glanced over and his head was back and his finger in his ear waiting on me to shoot!! LOL) after about 10 minutes they dipped off away from us and 5 minutes later what I believe we believe was two more gobblers came in across the bottom in front of us with big beards hanging and beautiful and once again, I thought, "THIS IS IT!" They went straight to the same spot and started strutting and just going in circles just like the others, I was amazed at how cool this really was, whether I got a shot or not! We watched them walk back off where they came from and then Bit called in the hen that was over there and feeling lonely after so much company, so she almost jumped in Bit's lap! Putt-Putt...Purr...Yelp, and she kept looking around and getting closer and closer right where I had hoped the gobblers would come. He kept saying sit tight to me, and I was thinking, yeah I'm not worried she is going to get you first, she was less than 15 feet from Bit! Then she walked off and Bit jumped up, and said "THAT WAS AWESOME!!! That was a good hunt right there, Man!!!" and I laughed because I thought that was my line!!! It really was, it was incredible, all these years and I had no idea. Plus at this point, I knew I was with the right guy, to put us in that location using the land and terrain to get set up and have them so close and never spook was very impressive to me and I've been hunting for over 27 years!
So we proceeded to walk 800 miles up and down and get hot with basically no action for two hours and on the way back to the truck, Bit said, I gotta go give it one more try, so we got on the gas line and he hit the call at 11:30, and one let loose again. I almost died laughing because Bit's eyes lit up with surprise about 3 inches wide as he about ran me over to jump into the bushes!! It was great! We had two gobbling again and the hurting legs and hunger pains quickly went away! We thought they went away, so we made the decision to start all over again and climb the big hill and get back around and work in, but half way up they gobbled again, they were already coming and they were RIGHT on top of us! But we weren't set up, I think we spooked one and the other walked around us, but boy it got the heart going! Bit said "Dang, I messed up, but that is part of it!" I don't see how anything negative could come out of it, we were having a blast and it could have just as easily been the best move we made as well! It was a GREAT hunt with my friend that I'll never forget, and I didn't even take the safety off!
My Jake was sort of a fluke! We went behind the camp and was walking out after a hour or so of no action when over the truck I spotted a turkey in the clear cut! When I just started to say something Bit said, "TURKEYS!" as another one moved. We were looking over the truck at them!!! We froze as they just walked off the hill side, and Bit said "They were males, go run down the wood line they are going to hug the hill and angle back towards the woods and you should get a shot!!"
Now I'm tired, fat and out of shape, and at this point, I thought Bit was just wanting to see a fat boy run!!! So I started jogging and turned and he said "GO, RUN NOW!!!" so I ran about 75 yards and turned again to make sure he wasn't on the ground laughing, and he was actually joggin behind me, so I knew he might be serious. So I ran about 150 yards and edged up over the hill to see nothing but sticks and logs! Out of breath and tired and dissappointed for actually running for no reason, then I caught movement at about 35-40 yards as a head stuck out from behind a brush pile just as Bit said they would, red throat and beautiful, but I couldn't really see a beard, so I hesitated, then the second one came out, and they were aware something was up so they started walking faster. I was just taking it in, the beautiful colors of their neck and feathers, they never did anything for me before this day! Then a little hint of a beard on the second bigger one, I really didn't want to shoot a jake and I hesitated again, and a quick pain from my legs from all the walking and running reminded me it was time to capitalize off of the effort, so I shot and laid him down flopping! The other one jumped/flew up about 10 feet and landed at the woods edge and dissappeared. Bit ran up tired, and said, "What took you so long? I thought you weren't going to shoot!!!"
One day, one shot, and one kill! My first turkey, and my friend Bit there to do the honors of bloodying me up for the first time in over 20 years! He had about a 4.5" beard and just little nubs for spurs (probably just under a 1/2") but I didn't care!I used the 12 guage my dad gave me that up to this point has taken many species of wild game, but never had taken a turkey, which made it even more special to me.
We high fived, shook hands, laughed and retold the story five times like we both didn't just live it, and I thanked him for an awesome awesome hunt that I would have enjoyed just as much even if I didn't get one.
Now I had told the wife that if I got one I would come home (thinking there was no way I would get one), but now what? But because I have the best wife in the world she gave me no grief in staying, so I went out with Bit after we cleaned up my bird and took 47 pictures and enjoyed the moment for a while this time with just a camera in hand. We didn't get much action, but I got to watch and learn from a man who knows what he is doing. At one point Bit even handed me a call and said lets fight, I felt like I was in grammar school and was excited at the chance to make some noise. After no answering for a couple of hours we were walking out and Bit said I just don't know why these turkeys don't answer to an owl hoot here like they seem to everywhere else. On the road on the way out, he let out one last hoo-hoo-hoo-hwah and one let loose back where I had said I thought I heard one fly up, his eyes lit up and a smile hit his face, as he said, "Got him! Oh yeah, I know where that one is! See you tomorrow!"
Thank you Bit, sorry we got rained out on Sunday (well I did, Bit went out anyway with rain gear, which I didn't have) but thank you very much for an unbelievably great hunt and experience at the Fur & Feather! I'll never forget it. I look forward to getting back down and going again, until then, I'll be practicing and getting ready for a gobbler next time!
