Our 2024 Turkey season went off with a bang that "shook the ground" according to my boy last Saturday evening. We spent hours in the woods from October thru April, enjoying all of the wild things - deer, turkey, squirrel, owl, birds, fish, bobcat, and snake. In January and February we saw two rafters of turkey. One group had 31 and the other had 33. It was very cool to watch them move around, establish pecking order, and do all the jerky movements these Turkeys do! LOL
Here are a couple of short clips.
and
My boy loves seeing and hearing the woods come alive at first light. I love twilight dawn before first light. Spending that time together in the woods - wonderful. Wonderful is how I would describe it. Sure, there are some bird calls we can do without ... chuck wills widow, blue Jay, etc. And sometimes the frogs get real loud. But all of these trump the sounds of vehicles, leaf blowers, and the voices of Kimmel and Colbert.
This 2024 Turkey season my boy and I have played cat and mouse with a few Toms. Every outing we have been successful in call and response over and over. Only to have a real hen come in and literally steal the show. Not once, not twice, but 3 different times! It got to the point we laughed about it. I mean come on - tmatch.com (turkey match)!
Saturday late afternoon we settled into our homemade blind. My boy to my right, the downhill slope before us, and our branch and sapling trunk walls behind and to my left. We sat down around 4:30 PM. I got on thr box call and made some calls. Around 5:15 PM I heard the familiar sound ... of my boy snoring! LOL. He was laid out flat, snoring away. BUT I also heard the sound of disturbance of the leaf litter! Within minutes that familiar march of the turkeys was approaching. To our right over the hill came a turkey! Small Jake. Followed by another Jake. Followed by another bird but I couldn't make it out. The first Jake was now about 20 feet from me. Come on keep moving along ... let me see bird #3. NOPE! PUTT! First Jake didn't like something, made his putt, and all moved away from us. Not fast, but focused and away. ##%@%@%%×^@%!$!%@^ LOL. Here we go again. But I got it - we were 20 feet from each other and motionless as I was that turkey did not like something. He kept eyeing me. I had one eye closed and a camo net over my face, but still the Jake warned the others and off they moved.
But I whisper to my boy to remain still, be quiet, that the turkey didn't fly off, they simply moved away and they might return. We heard them move up the hill to our right and behind us. After about 15 minutes back on the box call I get. Real soft and short. About 40 minutes later on our left and behind came that same march of the turkey. Or is it? Because at some point what sounded like turkey morphed into a possible human cheh cheh ING along. I have my Remy 870 shouldered, it is feeling heavy, and I still hear the leaf litter noise but sounding more and more like a human walking through the woods! I start thinking maybe a tresspasser is coming for a surprise because the rhythm and loudness is sounding more like a human than a turkey. Due to our previous outings where multiple birds came in but flew off after putting I refused to move and turn my head in an attempt to see what or who was coming. Whatever was making the noise was approaching ... Wait for it ... a Jake! Okay so 1 Jake is in front of us. And then another bird comes in from the left. .. a Tom! Nice bird. Now we are talking! I hear 2 more birds to our left. Decision time. Take the Tom 25 feet before me, or wait to see what is around the corner (of our blind)? I hear my boy ask if that Tom is ours, and that is all I need. BAM! And down goes our Tom! First thing I hear is "Papa! That thing shook the ground!" He said he felt the Remy 870 on the ground. LOL. Seeing the look on my boy's face as he looked at our downed Tom was awesome. He appreciated the colors on the feathers and the sharpness of the spurs. We walked our land carrying our bird together ... we will likely go sit in the woods again before the season ends to listen and watch for turkey. And just enjoy being there together.
Collecting our bird and talking about the hunt as well as our season was just as awesome as pulling the trigger. These adventures are numbered I am very aware. I try to be the best sponge I can and soak it all in every time.
Here are a couple of short clips.
and
My boy loves seeing and hearing the woods come alive at first light. I love twilight dawn before first light. Spending that time together in the woods - wonderful. Wonderful is how I would describe it. Sure, there are some bird calls we can do without ... chuck wills widow, blue Jay, etc. And sometimes the frogs get real loud. But all of these trump the sounds of vehicles, leaf blowers, and the voices of Kimmel and Colbert.
This 2024 Turkey season my boy and I have played cat and mouse with a few Toms. Every outing we have been successful in call and response over and over. Only to have a real hen come in and literally steal the show. Not once, not twice, but 3 different times! It got to the point we laughed about it. I mean come on - tmatch.com (turkey match)!
Saturday late afternoon we settled into our homemade blind. My boy to my right, the downhill slope before us, and our branch and sapling trunk walls behind and to my left. We sat down around 4:30 PM. I got on thr box call and made some calls. Around 5:15 PM I heard the familiar sound ... of my boy snoring! LOL. He was laid out flat, snoring away. BUT I also heard the sound of disturbance of the leaf litter! Within minutes that familiar march of the turkeys was approaching. To our right over the hill came a turkey! Small Jake. Followed by another Jake. Followed by another bird but I couldn't make it out. The first Jake was now about 20 feet from me. Come on keep moving along ... let me see bird #3. NOPE! PUTT! First Jake didn't like something, made his putt, and all moved away from us. Not fast, but focused and away. ##%@%@%%×^@%!$!%@^ LOL. Here we go again. But I got it - we were 20 feet from each other and motionless as I was that turkey did not like something. He kept eyeing me. I had one eye closed and a camo net over my face, but still the Jake warned the others and off they moved.
But I whisper to my boy to remain still, be quiet, that the turkey didn't fly off, they simply moved away and they might return. We heard them move up the hill to our right and behind us. After about 15 minutes back on the box call I get. Real soft and short. About 40 minutes later on our left and behind came that same march of the turkey. Or is it? Because at some point what sounded like turkey morphed into a possible human cheh cheh ING along. I have my Remy 870 shouldered, it is feeling heavy, and I still hear the leaf litter noise but sounding more and more like a human walking through the woods! I start thinking maybe a tresspasser is coming for a surprise because the rhythm and loudness is sounding more like a human than a turkey. Due to our previous outings where multiple birds came in but flew off after putting I refused to move and turn my head in an attempt to see what or who was coming. Whatever was making the noise was approaching ... Wait for it ... a Jake! Okay so 1 Jake is in front of us. And then another bird comes in from the left. .. a Tom! Nice bird. Now we are talking! I hear 2 more birds to our left. Decision time. Take the Tom 25 feet before me, or wait to see what is around the corner (of our blind)? I hear my boy ask if that Tom is ours, and that is all I need. BAM! And down goes our Tom! First thing I hear is "Papa! That thing shook the ground!" He said he felt the Remy 870 on the ground. LOL. Seeing the look on my boy's face as he looked at our downed Tom was awesome. He appreciated the colors on the feathers and the sharpness of the spurs. We walked our land carrying our bird together ... we will likely go sit in the woods again before the season ends to listen and watch for turkey. And just enjoy being there together.
Collecting our bird and talking about the hunt as well as our season was just as awesome as pulling the trigger. These adventures are numbered I am very aware. I try to be the best sponge I can and soak it all in every time.
