2:45 came early Saturday morning but man was it worth it. After jumping in the shower and loading the truck I was on it, burning up the roads trying to get to Greensboro by 5 to meet up with a few 
buddies, Sandy and Art. The plan for the morning was to split up on two properties they hunt and see if we could get on a few birds first thing in the morning. Well with that in mind Sandy and I went to a field and Art went to another with high hopes of getting two birds on film.
After pulling off the main road and driving down an old dirt road for a mile we were ready to get out and see if we could get some birds to respond to our owl calls. Fields to our left and woods to our right we got out and discussed the possibilities. Little did we know we had driven right underneath a bird roosted in an old oak tree that over hung the road. As Sandy threw the first call out, gobbbbbllllleeeee-gobblllee, we looked at each other, eyes wide open 
and both said “is that coming from that old oak tree?” Sure enough, it was, as he responded several more times and we pin pointed him. Excited and ready to go we had to figure out a way to get the truck off the road without cranking it and taking the chance of spooking him off, after all he was only about 100 yards at most from where we were standing. So Sandy put the key in and threw the truck in neutral so we could push it down around the corner and out of sight.
Walking back around the corner Sandy hit the owl call one more time and set the gobbler in the tree off again as well as two others across the field. It was fixing to be on!!! We snuck down the road and got about 75 yards from the tree where I climbed in a briar thicket as Sandy got the decoy set up and ready to go. After getting everything set and running the string to the decoy Sandy hit the owl call one last time letting us know we didn’t spook him and that he was still in the roost.
As the sun came up over the tree line we heard the bird hit the field. Calling to him lightly, Sandy finally got him interested and headed our way. As he came across the field we stopped calling and let the decoy do the talking. As soon as he noticed our decoy he was on his way, strutting and making sure he was 
noticed. As he came closer and closer we realized he was committed to coming all the way in so we waited and got some good footage of him strutting in to about 20 yds were I let the lead fly and harvested my first bird! What a great experience and morning in the woods, and the best part was we got it all on film!
The bird ended up with a 10 ¾” beard and inch long spurs and we figured him to be around 3 years old. Thank you to Sandy for calling this bird in and videoing my first turkey harvest as well as taking me out. And thanks to Art for allowing us to hunt a great piece of property they had watched several birds on. Without the friends we make in the woods and in God I wouldn’t have had such a great opportunity!
Be watching for the video on our website 704Outdoors.com or on a webisode coming soon.
This picture shows were the bird was shot and the road we came in on.
The tree over the road is where this bird was roosted.
Add comment