OK so it has been wild turkey season for a week so far and I had not been out yet. I DID buy a tag some time ago, thinking that I would probably hunt them at some point. So last night I decided that I would go out today and see what I could do up at Foley Mountain (near Westport Ont), where I have permission to hunt on about twenty acres of private land.
I had a pretty rough night, and decided about 0400 this morning that I was NOT going to hunt today. I did not get back to sleep, but anyways I did not go out in the dark either. I got up, had a coffee, read my e-mail and generally farted around until about 0900, then decided that it was REALLY a nice day and I might as well go hunting. So by the time I packed up all of the kit it was about 0930, and off I went. I needed gas so I stopped for gas. And going through Inverary, I decided to stop for a ham and egg on a bun at the Ptomaine Palace. Finally got to the property about 1100.
Oh, did I mention that I did not do any scouting? And for that matter I did not pattern the shotgun either, but heck it is the same gun and load as last year. So I drove the truck right up to where I was going to set up, unloaded the decoys (box full of water....) and the ground blind, chair etc etc all about 20 yards off the road so I did not tire myself out with long carries. The sun was beating down and the black flies were merciless. I backed the truck up to the garage, about a hundred yards away, changed into a camo top and face mask, loaded the shotgun (CLANG!), closed the truck door (SLAM!) and went to sit in the blind.
OK to be honest I did not believe I had any chance WHATSOEVER of seeing anything, but I had driven an hour and so I was going to give it a shot.
The black flies were BRUTAL and I had no bug spray. In fact I think I must have applied “ON” to myself this morning, instead of “OFF.” I could NOT sit still inside the sweltering hot tent, which by the way started to flap every time a breeze blew through as I only used four tent pegs to secure it. But every once in a while I used the box call to make like a love-crazed hen, and interspersed that with calls from the gobble call. Early on I saw some black thing moving towards me in the woods, and I actually got my heart going until I saw a bushy tail.........
It was pure unadulterated misery in that hot, breezeless, insect-infested tent and I had decided enough was enough, when I heard “SOMETHING.” It might have been a real hen turkey, or for that matter a crow, I don’t know, but anyways I decided to call some more. Silence. OK, must have been my ears playing tricks on me, nothing new there. Then I heard the faintest sound that could have been a gobble, a very long ways away, down the back of the mountain and across a road from where I was set up. But I gobbled back. Silence. A little bit later, a DEFINITE gobble, but still a long ways away.
OK, it is theoretically possible, thinks I to myself, that I have actually called a real live tom turkey and he is actually responding to my calls. So I went to town. You know that advice about over-calling? I ignored it. The gobbles were definitely getting closer, and I realized that I was mal-positioned for a shot in the direction from which the noise was coming, and NO WAY to re-align the blind, so I knew that if a tom came in it would likely be up close and personal, and he would probably bust me when I stuck the shotgun out the side of the blind. Then the gobbler went silent for a while, and was obviously hung up on the other side of the road, about 150 yards from where I was, and with the garage and my truck between me and him. 
Oh well.......
I made that box call sound like the ###iest hen on the planet wanted to be put RIGHT FREAKIN’ NOW!!!!!!!! I heard a gobble that seemed to be closer, then nothing. I reckoned he was going to come in and thought I would just wait him out. Then all of a sudden THUMP!!!!! He had flown over the garage and my truck and landed RIGHT BEHIND ME! I could not see him of course because of the blind, and wanted to get an idea of where he might appear, when all of a sudden there he was, about 10 to 12 yards away, off to my right at an impossible angle to shoot.
OK, at this point I am finally getting the understanding why a lot of turkey hunters get pumped up about this stuff. I poked the gun out the side window, making both noise and movement of course, and the gobbler turned away from me and looked like he was about to bolt. I would have taken the hail mary shot at that point but could not see his head for trees. Then a sound “WHOOMP” like a tent being opened, and he was at full strut, looking at the one jake decoy. He was walking with his head down on his chest, no neck to shoot at, but when he gave me an opening between two trees I let him have it. When I got to him I saw that the shot had been a bit low and caught him right below the neck at the top of the breast, which was quite hard on the beard and put his crop into the Canadian Shield. Fifteen yards, 12 ga, 3” shells, duplex #4 and #6 shot, it looked like he had stopped a hand grenade. Time: 12 noon.
Three quarters of an hour from set-up to tear-down, twenty pound tom, 7/8” spurs, 8” beard, a good season for me at under an hour of all of this nonsense.
Doug
I had a pretty rough night, and decided about 0400 this morning that I was NOT going to hunt today. I did not get back to sleep, but anyways I did not go out in the dark either. I got up, had a coffee, read my e-mail and generally farted around until about 0900, then decided that it was REALLY a nice day and I might as well go hunting. So by the time I packed up all of the kit it was about 0930, and off I went. I needed gas so I stopped for gas. And going through Inverary, I decided to stop for a ham and egg on a bun at the Ptomaine Palace. Finally got to the property about 1100.
Oh, did I mention that I did not do any scouting? And for that matter I did not pattern the shotgun either, but heck it is the same gun and load as last year. So I drove the truck right up to where I was going to set up, unloaded the decoys (box full of water....) and the ground blind, chair etc etc all about 20 yards off the road so I did not tire myself out with long carries. The sun was beating down and the black flies were merciless. I backed the truck up to the garage, about a hundred yards away, changed into a camo top and face mask, loaded the shotgun (CLANG!), closed the truck door (SLAM!) and went to sit in the blind.
OK to be honest I did not believe I had any chance WHATSOEVER of seeing anything, but I had driven an hour and so I was going to give it a shot.
The black flies were BRUTAL and I had no bug spray. In fact I think I must have applied “ON” to myself this morning, instead of “OFF.” I could NOT sit still inside the sweltering hot tent, which by the way started to flap every time a breeze blew through as I only used four tent pegs to secure it. But every once in a while I used the box call to make like a love-crazed hen, and interspersed that with calls from the gobble call. Early on I saw some black thing moving towards me in the woods, and I actually got my heart going until I saw a bushy tail.........
It was pure unadulterated misery in that hot, breezeless, insect-infested tent and I had decided enough was enough, when I heard “SOMETHING.” It might have been a real hen turkey, or for that matter a crow, I don’t know, but anyways I decided to call some more. Silence. OK, must have been my ears playing tricks on me, nothing new there. Then I heard the faintest sound that could have been a gobble, a very long ways away, down the back of the mountain and across a road from where I was set up. But I gobbled back. Silence. A little bit later, a DEFINITE gobble, but still a long ways away.
OK, it is theoretically possible, thinks I to myself, that I have actually called a real live tom turkey and he is actually responding to my calls.
So I went to town. You know that advice about over-calling? I ignored it. The gobbles were definitely getting closer, and I realized that I was mal-positioned for a shot in the direction from which the noise was coming, and NO WAY to re-align the blind, so I knew that if a tom came in it would likely be up close and personal, and he would probably bust me when I stuck the shotgun out the side of the blind. Then the gobbler went silent for a while, and was obviously hung up on the other side of the road, about 150 yards from where I was, and with the garage and my truck between me and him. Oh well.......I made that box call sound like the ###iest hen on the planet wanted to be put RIGHT FREAKIN’ NOW!!!!!!!! I heard a gobble that seemed to be closer, then nothing. I reckoned he was going to come in and thought I would just wait him out. Then all of a sudden THUMP!!!!! He had flown over the garage and my truck and landed RIGHT BEHIND ME!
I could not see him of course because of the blind, and wanted to get an idea of where he might appear, when all of a sudden there he was, about 10 to 12 yards away, off to my right at an impossible angle to shoot. OK, at this point I am finally getting the understanding why a lot of turkey hunters get pumped up about this stuff. I poked the gun out the side window, making both noise and movement of course, and the gobbler turned away from me and looked like he was about to bolt. I would have taken the hail mary shot at that point but could not see his head for trees. Then a sound “WHOOMP” like a tent being opened, and he was at full strut, looking at the one jake decoy. He was walking with his head down on his chest, no neck to shoot at, but when he gave me an opening between two trees I let him have it. When I got to him I saw that the shot had been a bit low and caught him right below the neck at the top of the breast, which was quite hard on the beard and put his crop into the Canadian Shield. Fifteen yards, 12 ga, 3” shells, duplex #4 and #6 shot, it looked like he had stopped a hand grenade. Time: 12 noon.
Three quarters of an hour from set-up to tear-down, twenty pound tom, 7/8” spurs, 8” beard, a good season for me at under an hour of all of this nonsense.
Doug
Congratulations on a nice bird.
