Got a nice invite for this morning from a pal for a turkey hunt. I have no idea how, but I woke up on my own at 2:58am and was able to shut off the 3:00am alarm before it bothered the wife. Didn't like getting up in the middle of the night, but we had a 1 hour drive and then a walk, and I hate to be even a minute late for gobbling time.
Got to the spot and set-up along the divide between two fields. We put out a hen and a full strut decoy. We debated as to whether we should use the full strut deke, but decided we were after a boss tom if possible and decided to go ahead and deploy the challenger. We were sitting in about a 10ft. wide brush/tree line with an old bean field behind and facing on old corn field. We heard a few gobbles from the wood lot behind us. My friend knew the spot and that the birds usually roosted in those woods (off-property). He figured we had a 50/50 shot - if the birds rolled out to the east, we were done. If they came west, they'd most likely pass through our field via one of three spots through our fence row.
There was only one bird gobbling, and when he hit the ground he got a little quiet. We figured he was with his hens. We did some nice soft calls now and then and the tom honored us with a few gobbles here and there. Eventually, we spotted the flock heading our way across the bean field. I could only see them by turning my head hard to the right and looking behind. It was quite a flock - at least 9 hens, 3 jakes and one strutter. The birds meandered our way. I heard some leaves crunching and 2 hens walked to within 5 feet behind us. We never moved, and they eventually wandered back to the group, which was now about 10 yards directly behind us. We could hear the tom dragging his wings while he strutted - very cool. I might have been able to turn and kill him, but that field is off property and so we stayed still and let the plan work. A hen stepped through the tree line about 10 yards to my right. I expected the tom might follow, but the main group moved down the bean field and eventually started coming into our field about 100 yards to our left. I carefully repositioned my gun to cover to the left and on the decoys and hoped for the best. I saw about 10 birds had walked into the field, and then my friend whispered "here he comes!". I figured that meant the strutter was now in our field, but when I turned my eyes that way I saw him coming on a dead run! He paused at 50 yards and strutted for a second, then slicked down and kept coming. He stopped right at my 20 yard stick. I made the final adjustment of my shoulder to shoot, and he saw that and putted, stuck his head up... and then caught 1 1/8oz. #6's from old smokey.
There was a lot of back-slapping and celebration of a successful end to an exciting morning.
Tom was down at about 6:30am. Not a monster, but he was definitely the boss of the flock... 19lbs, 1" spurs and 9 1/2" beard. Always great to share a hunt with a good friend, and it's all the more sweet to be tagged out with the flinter. That 3 years running - 6 toms and counting for the flintlock. If you have a smoothie and think turkey hunting might be fun - go for it. A flintlock is more effective than you might think, as long as you know the gun's limits and obey them.
Spurs weren't as visible as I'd thought in the photo, but it's a good close-up of the flintlock action for anyone who's interested.
Got to the spot and set-up along the divide between two fields. We put out a hen and a full strut decoy. We debated as to whether we should use the full strut deke, but decided we were after a boss tom if possible and decided to go ahead and deploy the challenger. We were sitting in about a 10ft. wide brush/tree line with an old bean field behind and facing on old corn field. We heard a few gobbles from the wood lot behind us. My friend knew the spot and that the birds usually roosted in those woods (off-property). He figured we had a 50/50 shot - if the birds rolled out to the east, we were done. If they came west, they'd most likely pass through our field via one of three spots through our fence row.
There was only one bird gobbling, and when he hit the ground he got a little quiet. We figured he was with his hens. We did some nice soft calls now and then and the tom honored us with a few gobbles here and there. Eventually, we spotted the flock heading our way across the bean field. I could only see them by turning my head hard to the right and looking behind. It was quite a flock - at least 9 hens, 3 jakes and one strutter. The birds meandered our way. I heard some leaves crunching and 2 hens walked to within 5 feet behind us. We never moved, and they eventually wandered back to the group, which was now about 10 yards directly behind us. We could hear the tom dragging his wings while he strutted - very cool. I might have been able to turn and kill him, but that field is off property and so we stayed still and let the plan work. A hen stepped through the tree line about 10 yards to my right. I expected the tom might follow, but the main group moved down the bean field and eventually started coming into our field about 100 yards to our left. I carefully repositioned my gun to cover to the left and on the decoys and hoped for the best. I saw about 10 birds had walked into the field, and then my friend whispered "here he comes!". I figured that meant the strutter was now in our field, but when I turned my eyes that way I saw him coming on a dead run! He paused at 50 yards and strutted for a second, then slicked down and kept coming. He stopped right at my 20 yard stick. I made the final adjustment of my shoulder to shoot, and he saw that and putted, stuck his head up... and then caught 1 1/8oz. #6's from old smokey.
There was a lot of back-slapping and celebration of a successful end to an exciting morning.Tom was down at about 6:30am. Not a monster, but he was definitely the boss of the flock... 19lbs, 1" spurs and 9 1/2" beard. Always great to share a hunt with a good friend, and it's all the more sweet to be tagged out with the flinter. That 3 years running - 6 toms and counting for the flintlock. If you have a smoothie and think turkey hunting might be fun - go for it. A flintlock is more effective than you might think, as long as you know the gun's limits and obey them.
Spurs weren't as visible as I'd thought in the photo, but it's a good close-up of the flintlock action for anyone who's interested.
