Dad's Turkey Scouting

Dad went turkey scouting for Jeremy this week, here's his account:

Hey Jeremy!

Just wanted to let you know how turkey scouting for you went this morning.

I awoke at 4:45 am and decided to walk up the hill behind the house to see if anything was gobbling up there.  Of course, I walked all over the place and didn't hear anything for quite awhile.  Then, I heard a gobble a ways off.  He kept gobbling, so I couldn't resist getting a little closer.  I spotted him at 200 yards and set-up just to see how he would respond to the calls - getting him prepped for the weekend, of course.  He wasn't real responsive, and I was really in a hurry (I do have to work at 7 am every day, and my boss is a stickler!), so I decided to get a little closer.  I cut about 100 yards off, and eased into a little depression to to listen for a minute.  

Just as I sat down, I saw a bird drop out of the tree in front of me - and then another....two hens.  Of course, that's why he was circling a tree gobbling his fool head off!  Anyhow, I let out a couple of yelps, and the two hens started up the hill towards me.  The hens went through a shooting lane at 35 yards, but your gobbler didn't want anything to do with it.  Instead, he gave up on the two hens and headed right towards me.  Now normally, this would be a really good thing, but remember, I was scouting, and I was in a hole (depression) where I couldn't see a thing.  So, when he popped his head up at just over 5.5 feet (yes feet) away from my gun barrel, I had two options:

1) Risk getting my eyeballs poked out by a madly in love gobbler

2) Shoot in self defense and hope I could scare him away to save my eyesight!

To make a long story short, I chose option #2.  Of course, at five steps, by the time I rolled to my feet, he was running, and I sent a $5 round of Hevi-shot right behind him.  I must not have read the box closely enough.  Apparently, you still have to aim the gun not to miss, but remember I was more concerned about my safety than killing the turkey.  Not to worry though, the second shot sent him tumbling out of the air.  He looked like he had crashed just below me.....and sure enough, I found him laid up just down the hill.

BUT...........when I went to grab him, he decided to take off on a sort of run/fly/hop, head for the next county operation.  My first reaction was to whack him with the end of the gun barrel - like a night stick or something.  Did I mention that I don't teach this technique in hunter safety for a reason?  Seemed like a good idea, but when I missed, my barrel was plugged with about 4 inches of mud and grass and the turkey was still running/flying away.  Sooo, now I was scared that my gold plated shot would peel the barrel of the freshly painted Nova back like a banana, so I had no choice, but to chase him down the hill and tackle him.  Yeah, I know, so much for shooting in self defense.

Anyhow, so I learned a couple of important lessons for your hunt:

1) Your gobbler very much liked my calling which is good, but now he is a very dead gobbler

2) We may want to consider hunting somewhere else where I didn't scare every bird off the mountain chasing a wounded turkey while cursing like a Frenchman and trying to maintain my usual cool composure

3) Mark Drobish has requested that we continue to wake him up with gunfire at 6:00 am, since apparently I was shooting directly at his house from across the river  - so much for getting away with taking more than one shot!

See you tomorrow, don't forget to bring extra ammunition!  These turkeys must be close to bullet proof to survive Hevi-shot at 5 1/2 feet!  Oh, and Jill literally almost got hit by a jumping steelhead trying to take EPA water samples today - you should probably bring your fishing pole as well.