Turkey Hunting Vignettes...
... Are those little memorable moments you have while turkey hunting, that are stored away on your hard drive to conjure back up while sitting in a blind waiting for a longbeard to come in, or on the porch, enjoying a beer & waiting for turkey season to come around.
I’m not talking about that big old twelve incher that came in, just like you planned for him to, and went in the freezer. I’m talking about little unusual “slices” of a hunt that can only be experienced by the person in the woods. They can’t be had vicariously, reading a turkey article or watching the ubiquitous turkey hunting videos... It’s easier to describe a few of mine than explain what I mean.
Like the time I was calling in the fog and a stump about 50 yards away seemed to change shape & grow.. Almost imperceptibly. I rubbed my eyes and looked again through the haze.. and .. no, it was just a stump. I hit another series of yelps and it appeared to grow again. I closed my eyes for a few seconds and looked again... it was totally my imagination, of course. Like the tree branch buck. This time I stared at it as I struck a few yelps, and watched as the unmistakable shape formed, of a gobbler going into strut as I called out an invitation to him..
Or another time, in the Florida haze, when I was hunting from a blind, hastily made of palmetto fronds after locating a gobbler still in the tree. I’d set out 2 decoys and started calling. Getting no answer. I looked around trying to pierce the patchy fog that was drifting through the woods. One moment the decoys disappeared. The next they appeared. Then a second look revealed the decoy flock had grown.. to five.
Another time I was trying to locate a gobbler and having no response. I was walking around my lease and ran into a bobcat on the trail. The cat took off to my right into the woods and, in less than a hundred yards, ran through a flock of turkeys, scattering them with a loud clamor. I sat down off the trail and got the gobbler who had been with them to answer & eventually come in. He wasn’t what I was after, so I left him to grow another year. I’m thinking of a trained bobcat to locate turkeys for me...
April 5th, 2010. I was setting up my decoys and looked into the eastern sky. I figured I had about 10 minutes to get situated. As I placed the last decoy, it seemed as if the sun suddenly bounced up: the whole place was lit up. I looked up to see the space shuttle, Discovery, climbing into the eastern sky and lighting up the world early. A pre-dawn shuttle launch is an amazing sight. It startled a gobbler to hail the launch from his perch. I looked on that as an omen for a successful hunt.... It wasn’t... from a harvest standpoint, but it was; every other way I looked at it.
My hunting buddy had been to a party, late, the night before a hunt, and after calling for a few minutes with his back against a tree, fell asleep. He awoke to a rustling sound and opened his eyes to see a nice gobbler, right at his feet, strutting and dragging his wings. The gun was in the wrong position and the bird was only a few feet away. He finally got the job done, by moving an inch at a time. He had to get his blood pressure checked after that hunt.
Then there was the time, twin jakes attacked my blind to the point I almost had to shoot in self defense. They refused to accept my verbal insistence that I was human, and not a lonely old hen, looking for a May-September menage-a-trois. It’s sometimes amazing to me that jakes ever achieve “manhood”.
Old “Corkscrew” was even bigger than the twelve and a half inch bird I’d taken 2 years before in the rain. I gave him that handle, during a brief encounter the day before, after seeing the twisted end on his long beard. An encounter he had won handily.
But, I had his number now. I had his phone number, his address, even his e-mail. And I knew where he slept the night before; almost to the tree.
I slipped in quietly to the spot in my plan. It was about 150 yards from his roost. I quietly set up a blind of palmetto fronds I’d brought. There was a perfect LZ (landing zone) in front of the tree I would be resting against. In the totally still morning, I hadn’t made a sound and had plenty of time. I carefully placed my decoys, Henrietta & Jezebel, in the LZ. I checked the blind once more, as I settled in against the tree & laid my calls out on the vest next to me. Everything was ready. After looking at the eastern sky, I decided I’d start calling in 5 minutes. Just enough time for a quiet cup of coffee & contemplation of the drama about to unfold.
It was so quiet, the pouring coffee sounded like a waterfall. I relaxed and smiled as I brought the cup up and took a sip... Suddenly the tree... my tree.. Exploded with a shower of leaves & dew. Hot coffee went all over me & I uttered an expletive, as I looked up to see a huge bird with a twisted beard, silhouetted against the eastern sky. He had been quietly watching me lay the trap; chuckling to himself, no doubt, while waiting for just the right moment to make a fool of me... Next year, my friend, next year....
All turkey hunters have these little hunt moments to look back on, and to look forward to.. Give yours some recollection and relish them. They’re a little of what sets us apart from those poor souls who choose to sleep in on spring mornings.
Greg
