Disappointing outcome!
Posted: April 17th, 2007, 9:29 am
My younger brother is the AG teacher at Cook County High School in Adel, GA. One of the school board members has some of the most beautiful turkey hunting land in the county and gave my brother exclusive hunting rights. Todd (my brother) has never killed a turkey; he's been on hunts when turkeys were killed but never by him. He called me Friday night and ask if I would call for him Saturday morning. Of course I said yes for two reason. First, he's my brother and second, I never pass up an opportunity to go turkey hunting. It's my addiction.
We get to the spot were the land owner saw a big gobbler the afternoon before. It's a small freshly plowed field just on the back side of a large corn field. We got out of the truck and start getting our gear together. At this point my brother realizes he's forgotten his shells. I tell him it's no big deal he can just use my gun.
We were there in plenty of time. We moved around the edge of the field until we got to were my brother had pick two trees for us to set-up on. We put out a couple of decoys, hen and a jake. When we sat down I was to the right and just behind my brother. I had a low limb blocking a lot of my view to the right but that was ok because the birds that had gobbled so far were across the field in front of us. As it got light enough to see good we saw five deer at the other end of this little field. I guess they were maybe 200-250 yards away. They must have smelled us because a couple of them started blowing at us and stomping around. We watched these deer for about five minutes.
I was still watching the deer and laughing under my breath at how they were acting. Todd looked over to the right for what ever reason. He whispered, Ashley, don't move. There he is about 75 yards to the right in the field. Of course I had to look so I duct my head so that I can see under the limb in front of me and sure enough a big gobbler standing there looking at my decoys. I called very softly and he immediately started strutting toward us. He's coming in like he was on a string. I put the call down and just sit there watching the show. He's strutting around at about sixty yards doing that little funny side step they'll do some times. I look over at Todd and he's shaking like a leaf. I can actually hear him breathing at this point.
The gobbler circles around behind the jake and starts to approach. He starts to act a little nervous like something is just not right. At this point he is at what I think to be about 35 yards so I tell my brother when he comes out of strutt and sticks his head up again to take the shot. Just at that time another bird gobbles off in the distance which makes our bird gobble for the first time all morning. After the gobble he has his neck stretched out looking things over. I whisper shoot. Todd pulls the trigger and bird hits the ground flat of his back. Hot damn, my brothers got his first turkey. I jumped up and high fived Todd, patted him on the shoulder and I think maybe even through out a woohoo. We turned to walk into the field to go look at the turkey. The turkey stands up runs about 10 feet then takes off flying. Todd and I look at each other like what the hell just happened. That was the last we saw of that damn bird. After we are able to move again we walked out to where the turkey was when Todd shot and instead of 35 yards it's more like 45 yards or better.
We get to the spot were the land owner saw a big gobbler the afternoon before. It's a small freshly plowed field just on the back side of a large corn field. We got out of the truck and start getting our gear together. At this point my brother realizes he's forgotten his shells. I tell him it's no big deal he can just use my gun.
We were there in plenty of time. We moved around the edge of the field until we got to were my brother had pick two trees for us to set-up on. We put out a couple of decoys, hen and a jake. When we sat down I was to the right and just behind my brother. I had a low limb blocking a lot of my view to the right but that was ok because the birds that had gobbled so far were across the field in front of us. As it got light enough to see good we saw five deer at the other end of this little field. I guess they were maybe 200-250 yards away. They must have smelled us because a couple of them started blowing at us and stomping around. We watched these deer for about five minutes.
I was still watching the deer and laughing under my breath at how they were acting. Todd looked over to the right for what ever reason. He whispered, Ashley, don't move. There he is about 75 yards to the right in the field. Of course I had to look so I duct my head so that I can see under the limb in front of me and sure enough a big gobbler standing there looking at my decoys. I called very softly and he immediately started strutting toward us. He's coming in like he was on a string. I put the call down and just sit there watching the show. He's strutting around at about sixty yards doing that little funny side step they'll do some times. I look over at Todd and he's shaking like a leaf. I can actually hear him breathing at this point.
The gobbler circles around behind the jake and starts to approach. He starts to act a little nervous like something is just not right. At this point he is at what I think to be about 35 yards so I tell my brother when he comes out of strutt and sticks his head up again to take the shot. Just at that time another bird gobbles off in the distance which makes our bird gobble for the first time all morning. After the gobble he has his neck stretched out looking things over. I whisper shoot. Todd pulls the trigger and bird hits the ground flat of his back. Hot damn, my brothers got his first turkey. I jumped up and high fived Todd, patted him on the shoulder and I think maybe even through out a woohoo. We turned to walk into the field to go look at the turkey. The turkey stands up runs about 10 feet then takes off flying. Todd and I look at each other like what the hell just happened. That was the last we saw of that damn bird. After we are able to move again we walked out to where the turkey was when Todd shot and instead of 35 yards it's more like 45 yards or better.