04/26/2026
After about 5 years of slowly learning this whole Turkey Hunting thing, we finally knocked one down! This was an outstanding experience, and it was all possible with the help of Mason McMeekin.
STORY TIME:
We arrived at our spot around 0515. A sleepy eyed 3-year old, Mason and I got the blind set up, decoys out and got cozy. We sat for a few hours before my son started to get cold. We decided we would sneak out around 0900 to warm up, eat breakfast and regroup. When we were sneaking out, we scouted some turkeys about 150yds out, but still decided to leave (when you have a 3yr old that says he's ready to go, you go).
In the meantime we got some advice from a friend of ours to go back and sit about mid day. So we did. We trudged back, packed up and moved closer to the roost we saw the birds fly out of that morning. Mason reset the decoys and I anchored in the ground blind. No more than 5 minutes later, we heard the gobbles and spotted 2 tom turkeys 250yds away. They danced around eachother, jumped up and began a full out brawl. After separating we could see one turkey was missing feathers in his fan on the left, and one identical on the right. The reigning champ stayed put, while the other ducked into the trees.
Roughly 15 minutes had gone by since we saw the turkey that made his way to the trees. But then, about 100yd away. There he was. Puffed up and marching in our direction.. the video will show the rest! (After the shot, he made it about 20 more yards and died).
Full of excitement, we tagged my bird, took some pictures and decided to let things settle before going back out for the evening. With 1 bird down, we returned to the blind about 1630. We saw a lot of turkeys but none seemed too interested in us or our decoys.. Then, there he was, a Tom missing fan feathers on the right side. But... he walked right on past, already in hot pursuit of a hen. We kept and eye on him as we watched other turkeys circle us. With not much going on, we decided we would give it a few more minutes before backing out. Thats when we heard the gobble, deafening, no more than 60yds away. That hen was coming right for our decoys, with him following close behind.. head on over to Mason's page to see how that ended!
(Turns out we killed the 2 birds we saw fighting earlier that afternoon)
Long story short, yesterday was nothing short of pure excitement and adrenaline. We learned a ton, and will continue to as we keep chasing these "Thunder Chickens"
