This morning, I woke up at 3:30 so that I could be out the door and on my way to my Somerset County location by 4. I arrived at 4:30 which was about half an hour too early, so I sat in the truck for half an hour and enjoyed watching the sliver of a moon rise in the east just ahead of the sun a few hours later. I was walking down the farm lane in the dark without a flashlight by 5 and got to my spot and was set up by 6.
I don't usually need to go to the farm I hunt before the first day to scout because the turkeys use the farm in similar patterns every year and if you are patient enough, then usually before the end of the first day, you will see turkeys. That was true this morning too! However, my heart sank when I pulled in the farm lane and saw that the farm fields were planted with winter wheat and all this warm weather has it about 20 inches tall.. TOO TALL! My favorite spot to set up is along a field edge and that was not possible this morning!
This was taken from the spot I usually like to set up. Not today!
So, I decided to go to another favorite spot... over the years I have killed most of my turkeys on this farm from these two spots. Most years, I hear lots of turkeys gobble on roost. One year I identified 27 different birds. This year I heard only 3. And by 7 a.m. all was quiet. I never heard another gobble until 10 a.m. Then I had one gobble in response to one of my calls and this bird was behind me. I had chosen to take the bow this morning and that proved to make for the turkey's lucky day! He came in behind me and as close as 10 yards and for the next hour gobbled, strutted, spit and drummed behind me that whole time. His gobbles made the hair on the back of my neck stand up - he was that close. The only problem was that I was sitting on the ground with bow in hand facing the other way (toward my decoys) and he was behind me and I couldn't move and he couldn't see my decoys...so on and on and on it went.
For the better part of an hour we played this game. If I had had a gun in my hand, I could have spun around and got him or if I had been in a blind I could have turned around and got him... but I don't like hunting out of a blind - I am more in favor of sitting in nature. So, I sat there and sat there... finally, I got a glimpse of him out of the corner of my eye as he started to drift away (I quit calling him and didn't respond to his calls so he lost interest) He was a BIG Tom... likely had a 12 inch beard and would have gone well over 20 pounds. I hoped he would drift out to the woods lane and see my decoys and then I knew it would be over. For the next half an hour he and I called back and forth as he steadily walked away.
All that calling brought two more turkeys in but they came in QUIET! They also came from behind me and got to about 10 yards when one of them saw me so, I closed my eyes and waited till I heard him spit and drum and walk. Unfortunately for me, I had taken my mouth call out of my mouth (this is the first year I have been able to use one - conquering my severe gag reflex!) and I had placed my bow in it holder. When the two Toms saw my decoys, they took off running toward the strutting decoy. But when I grabbed my bow, the jake caught my movement and the gig was up. I was able to draw on them and could have shot both of them with one arrow but that is not legal so I had to wait for the bigger bird to get clear... when he did, I thought I had a big enough opening in the sapplings to shoot through but not so! My arrow hit a branch and deflected over the turkey's back... and they went away. The jake stayed about 25 yards away for 10 minutes trying to decide if it was going to come back... it didn't. But in the mean time, the first bird from earlier was coming back...BUT the clock was 11:50 and you have to be done hunting by 12... so, all I could do was hurry and get my stuff together and get out of there so that I didn't educate him.
This is the opening I tried to shoot through... Not wise!
What an awesome day to be in the woods! Though, I have never been so bored in the early morning hunting at this farm. Usually, I am done by 7 and home by 8 but not today. Since it was the first day, I stayed the full time. The 3 boring hours gave lots of time for prayer... praying for my family, Community of Joy, and some dear friends. So all in all it was a great Turkey Season opener!
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