My first turkey

[new57]

drewga11 congrats! Thank you for sharing. I hope you still plan on making your tail fan. The missing feathers will add to the story!

 

[olerambler]

I went turkey hunting yesterday for the first time this season. It was also only the 5th day of turkey hunting in my life. It didn't start off well as I overslept a bit and didn't get to the woods until almost 7am. Spooked some deer getting to where I wanted to set up and some of them ran through the field where I was expecting turkeys to be. I made it to the edge of the field just in time to see a turkey heading the other way already halfway across the field. I tried calling for a little while with no luck and then moved to various spots around the property with same results. Never saw another turkey and no gobbles at all.

Fast forward to the afternoon, I headed back out around 3pm. I went and setup in the same place I started the morning. A fence line between a field and an overgrown pecan orchard. Right as I got set up, I started hearing thunder. I started doing some calling with a slate pot call and after a little while of nothing happening, I thought maybe I should find another spot. Before I moved, I decided to pull out my glass pot call and see if it might make a difference. And it did, after one short series of calls on glass, I heard a gobble a couple hundred yards away in the orchard.

The grass in the orchard was 2-4 feet tall across the whole thing so I knew I wouldn't be able to spot the turkey from a distance. So I stayed on the field side of the fence line and made my way toward the corner of the orchard. I called again further down the fence and got another gobble from the same area as the first and thought I had a good idea of where the turkey was.

There is a little finger of hardwoods that juts out into the orchard a hundred yards or maybe a little more north of the fence line I was on. I walked as quietly as I could across the orchard through the tall grass until I reached a little stand of chinaberry trees about 70 yds from the woods I thought the turkey was in. Keep in mind the sky is darkening and thunder is getting louder and more frequent this whole time.

So I setup by the chinaberry trees and called again and the turkey responded with another gobble. I couldn't pinpoint his exact location, so I crawled on hands and knees about 30 yards closer until I was behind a large pecan tree. I did a series of short, soft calls and the turkey gobbled again. At this point I was pretty sure I was within range of the turkey and was hoping to draw him into sight with my calls.

After a couple more series of light calls with no response, I decided to peak around the tree and see if I could spot the turkey. When I first saw his head and neck above the tall grass, I wasn't completely sure it was the turkey, so I slowly stood up to make sure I was seeing what I thought I was seeing. Once I was pretty sure it was the turkey I was looking at, I threw my gun up and fired. I was in such a hurry I don't think the bead on my barrel was even on his head when I pulled the trigger, but it was close enough to get the job done.

The turkey immediately went down and started flopping. Unfortunately it flopped so much before I could get to it, that he ruined his fan. The shot was around 30-35 yards. Right after I got to the turkey, the rain started. I didn't have a way to weigh the bird, but he felt pretty dang heavy carrying him back to my truck 1/4 mile away through 3-4 foot grass. I was drenched by the time I made it to the truck, but didn't care at that point.

Beard was 9 3/4 inches and spurs were about an inch long assuming I measured them correctly. My pics aren't great since the bird was absolutely drenched by the rain and about half his fan ended up missing. I was informed after the fact that I should have ran to the turkey and snatched him up by the neck to keep him from flopping his fan feathers out like he did. But I couldn't be happier, I managed to get my first ever turkey completely by myself and managed to get it done before the rain started. Gun was CZ920 with #9 TSS shells.

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it can become a addiction

 

[BIKER13]

Congratulations and a great bird

 

[24on48hunting]

Congratulations on getting your bird! Save the feathers that came out.
You can still put it back together to display the full fan.

 

[drewga11]

Congratulations on getting your bird! Save the feathers that came out.
You can still put it back together to display the full fan.

Thanks, but too late now. Left them in the woods. Wasnt really thinking about it at the time.