03/28/2017
Wanted to re-share and make sure everyone saw this...Awesome story and a good looking bird! A big thanks to Joel Ramon for sending it our way. Keep those stories and success pics coming all through the spring!
First bird of the season on the turkey pole! It was an interesting hunt. Started out behind the camper with a few jakes gobbling their heads off. I passed on them and was listening for other birds when I heard a pair gobbling behind our upper pond. Made my way over to them while also trying to avoid getting seen by some annoying geese that unintentionally ended up helping me out. When I got close enough to them, those geese raised Cain and made those birds gobble which revealed to me that they were on the next ridge over. I set up and started calling on an aluminum pot call and they answered my clucks and yelps. I actually saw them making their way to me and thought they would come far enough to crest the ridge I was on and I would be slinging at least one of those birds on my back. Nope! They hung up at the bottom and refused to come up to my position putting them out of my sight. After a long while and thinking they may have left I made another call and watched them fly off. I thought "Shoot! I'm a big dummy!...I shouldn't have called so loud!".... I figured what's done is done so I need to get up off my butt and find another bird. I heard one earlier in the morning towards the front side creek bottom so I walked and called on the road to see if I could strike him up. Nothing... I set up to sit and listen at a patch of hardwoods across from the creek bottom to formulate a plan for the rest of the day. I decided to go and hunt the first two birds again but from a different direction and different calls. As I come back out to the road and started on my way, I heard a single gobble from the creek bottom. Change of plans! I decided he was gonna be the next bird I hunt. I set up on a spot that I had doubled at before. The creek bottom bottle necks at the base of a pine ridge. I set up and made two series of calls with the pot and my Jordan yelper in the span of an hour and heard nothing. I then decided to try a gobble call. A minute after I called I heard another gobble. I knew then he heard it. I gobbled at him a few more times and then broke out my Buckner scratch call. I made another series of calls with it and finally they got to gobbling at both the call and then a crow that was flying around overhead and cawing like crazy. By this time the adrenaline started flowing because I knew they were getting really close. They stopped at the pine ridge in front of me and were spitting and drumming. As I'm waiting I hear something walking in the leaves and turn my head left ever so slowly to see the biggest hen I've ever seen headed towards those gobblers. I couldn't believe this ol' girl was gonna take these boys away from me! She went up the ridge and things got quiet. That is, until another hen showed up to my right and started clucking away making the hen on the ridge come down and start cutting at her. I thought she was running her off but they ended up walking off down the creek bottom together leaving the the gobblers up on the ridge to me. I gobbled one more time, yelped on the scratch call and put a diaphragm call in my mouth (the only time I use them) and got ready. Sure enough, I heard them coming down the ridge to me and when I saw them, chose the trailing bird to have the honor of hanging off the pole.
I normally don't do stories like this but it was an interesting day and thought I would share. No, not the literary eloquence of Nash Buckingham or Ernest Hemingway but I hope y'all enjoy reading this little tidbit of adventure. I certainly enjoyed experiencing it! 🦃
