Spring Turkey Contest!!!!!

At the end of two 15-hour days of chasing turkeys, Jr. and I were still having fun, but exhausted and running short on time. We had seen deer, coyotes, wild dogs, turkeys, all manner of waterfowl and tweety birds, but had yet to fire a round.

Friday we had two gobblers just out of gun range, strutting and gobbling - and Jr. reported later that he "nearly peed his pants." That night we put 3 gobblers to bed, planning to come back in the morning and finish the job.

Saturday we returned, but alas, two pickup trucks were parked nearby, so we went to "Plan B". Plan B was pretty much made up as we went, approaching an area we had heard a gobbler in the day before, but which I hadn't been through in over 15 years. The alternate plan found us nearly scoring, but again - as is often the case - 3 hens drew our gobbler away before he came into range. The remainder of Saturday found us trying to avoid the weekend crowd of hunters, then playing cat and mouse with 3 gobblers. As darkness fell we sat listening to them go on roost, hopeful, yet tired and just a little discouraged....

Our sleep time on Saturday night amounted to a 5 hour nap, and then we were up and back at it in the pre-dawn darkness of Sunday. The fog was heavy on the prairie at the base of the Hills, and we slipped quietly into position as the sky lightened, trees became more distinct, and the turkeys we had followed the previous night woke up in their roosts and started gobbling.

From a mile away, I called and called and called. Then called some more as the turkeys gobbled excitedly, and finally the sound of their wings beating as they left the roost trees drifted through the fog. One went away from us, but one landed several hundreds out in the tall grass, where he gobbled once - I answered back - and then quiet descended, broken only by the cackle of rooster pheasants and the songs of the robins, doves, and the occasional squeal of a wood duck.

Behind me, I heard another turkey fly down, and saw him materialize out of the fog like a jumbo-jet, landing in the field behind me and then running into the tree line we were hiding in, about 100 yards away from my position. We were surrounded when a 3rd turkey landed in the field to my left, several hundred yards out.

From the tall grass came a faint "cluck", I answered softly, and a large gobbler materialized out of the fog about 60 yards from Jr., angling past him directly towards me. As the gobbler passed Jr., I prayed silently..... "take the shot, take the shot, take the shot, take the shot", realizing that the turkey was right at the edge of Jr.'s range. I clucked softly on the mouth call - the gobbler's blue and red head stuck straight up as he stopped and looked at me - a thunderous shot split the silence, and the gobbler crumpled in a heap as his head smacked into the dirt.

It was 6:45 am on our 3rd day, and Jr. had gotten his first turkey. A very nice adult gobbler with 1 inch spurs, a 7 inch beard, and weighing a tad over 20 lbs. Pictures were taken, we headed back to my buddy's house, loaded up our stuff, and headed back to Minnesota.

Jr. slept most of the way....

turkey.jpg
 
Ok Guys, Thats it! Today is the cutt off for the contest!

Thanks to all of you that posted up Pics of your turkeys, there are some great pic's here!

We will get the voting started today and I will post the winners as soon as I get all the votes in!

Thanks!

Brent
 
Jackpine,
that one hell of a photo,
congrats on a good turkey also.
keep up the good work /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif
 
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