Fall Turkey Hunts

September 26, 1998

 
   

My fall season started with a deer hunt and a turkey tag thrown in as a 'just in case' measure. But I soon began watching and getting more excited with the turkeys than the deer. I had ten big gobblers come in one afternoon, -clucking and purring- and it was then that I decided to focus on making '98 my year to get a turkey.

The first thing I did was to solicit some feedback from experienced turkey hunters. Overwhelmingly they suggested purchasing a ground blind. After looking at several models of various convenience, size and cost I decided to go with a blind manufactured by a regular here at the Bowsite, Ron Rockwell of Cutting Edge Products. Ron's blind is six and a half feet tall and the same wide. It comes in various camo patterns or 3-D cloth which I chose. It sets up in no time at all and has many neat features not found on the other blinds I checked out.

I also went out and purchased a few decoys. Including the decoys you tie a string to and bob the head just like a 'real turkey'. It made no difference to the birds and I'd suggest you save your money. You can buy two static decoys for every one with the bobbing head.

A successful turkey hunter I know told me to use a slate during the fall, mainly for purrs. I picked up a slate by MAD calls and all but mastered it in a half hour. I was ready for my first big day.

I set up the blind in the dark and spread out the decoys. The horizon was deep morning blue and the gobblers were thundering around me. I heard several birds close all morning but nothing came in. At 8:05 am, two gobblers appeared at 35 yards. I purred softly and they came in as far as my furthest decoy then hung up. I had a clear shot at 22 yards so I slowly slid down the blind window, picked a spot, drew and missed my first bird. The second bird just stood there, giving me time to miss him as well. Despite my missing two birds by an inch, It was a blast.

Nothing happened the entire rest of the day until 5 PM. I saw a flock of hens approach from my left and disappear in front of the blind. Immediately I heard cackling and then gobbles. A few moments later a flock of 18 big Toms came from the direction of the hens and headed right for my decoys. They fed up the fence line and at one point I had a Tom just 18 yards but I passed him up for a Tom that was feeding up to about an 8 yard shot. As he got closer I shifted positions in the blind and did not pay attention to a third Tom which was in front of the blind. He picked me off in the window and signaled the alarm put. They took off but it was a great day.

So my first day of fall turkey hunting ended with two shots and lots of new experience. This sport keeps getting better!

Some things I did wrong - I had the decoys too far away from the blind. My furthest was out about 20 yards and the two morning Toms hung up four feet from them. Forget about the bobbing head decoys, a gimmick that is unnecessary in my opinion.

We'll be back for our next installment hunt in about a week. In the meantime please visit the Turkey Conference where we will discuss this hunt and future strategies.