Team member Daniel Gunderman got it done this morning! We started working our way down a sewer line heading to a spot we know Wild Turkeys like to roost. Before we could get to where we wanted to, one tom gobbled! We knew we couldn’t push it because they would bust us if we kept going so we set out the Redhead Hen Decoy and dived under a tree. Once we were set up another tom gobbled even closer! We knew we were going to have a good hunt this morning.
We lightly called and they shut up. I was concerned because I know these birds have been pressured by other hunters in the area. I knew I couldn’t push it so I just did a fly down cackle, flapped my hat to sound like a hen coming off the roost and resorted to soft calling and purs. I didn’t want to get aggressive and push them away. When they came off the roost they hit the ground on the wrong side of the creek. Still unsure on what they were going to do we patiently waited for what seemed like an eternity and they popped our on the sewer line silent. They looked right at our decoy and wanted to come but were still checking it out. I knew we had their attention but they were pretty tight lipped. A little purring and a few soft yelps later, one finally gobbled and went into strut. They just couldn’t resist the soft dirty talk from our Bobs Custom Calls! They put on a show for a few minutes then started heading our way.
They came straight down the sewer line towards us then all of a sudden someone started yelling on the highway behind us. I mean crazy yelling almost trying to spoil our hunt. While we were trying to figure out what the heck was going on the birds turned to our left to abort the situation about 70+yds out. This couldn’t be happening! Good thing Daniel toted my Ithaca Mag 10 this morning. I knew it would be able to reach out and touch one if we had one get held up down the sewer line so I made him carry the “Beast of the East”. Both Toms kept checking out our decoy and going into semi strut but they definitely didn’t like all the yelling that was going on. We’re still not sure if it was coming from someone that has been trying to get on these birds or if someone was just goofing off this morning unaware we were trying to bust one of these jokers in the beak.
Once the birds were almost directly to the left of us, I told Daniel to shoot! He was surprise and said “Do what?! That’s too far…” in which I replied “That’s a 10ga buddy, smash em!” and with me insuring him they were in range of the “Beast of the East” he pulled the trigger! BOOM! He hit the bird hard bt he was still trying to check out, BOOM! He gave that thunder chicken two 3 1/2″ Turkey Loads through the Trulock Chokes Turkey Choke! The tom tried to get some air under his wings but little did he know there were several holes in them! He went 50yds and crash landed! Unfortunately we couldn’t find anymore Turkey Shells in the TruckVault and since we rarely ever needed two shots we just rolled with it. Without anymore shells we ran back to the truck to get Daniels 12 gauge and headed towards the last spot we saw the tom. We almost stepped on him before he tried to check out and Daniel quickley dispatched him with one final shot. What a hunt!
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