Friday was a crazy day for me, having to attend the AADE sporting clay shoot in Evangeline. The plan for the wife and I was to leave home after supper and head to the camp since we both had late work days Friday. Well, we had a litter of puppies on Thursday and by the time I finished at the shoot, got home and loaded, then ate a huge plate of crawfish, I surely didn't want to drive 2 hours to the camp.
After not having much luck so far this turkey season, I came very close to not going. However, I have got to get my son on a turkey this year, and just knew deep down that I would have more luck this weekend getting on some birds since I have been eliminating tracts of land that are not holding them so far. We covered alot of territory the last weekend, but the birds were not cooperating. By the time I got to Colfax, I was really wondering if I could make the rest of the drive, literally thinking about pulling over a getting some shut eye, but we continued on and got to the camp around 9:45, unloaded and crawled out the shower and into bed. The sleep was well needed and I awoke fresh and ready to go Saturday morning, sneaking out the camper w/o waking the wife. I had a cup of coffee, and decided I would return around 9:30 or so, cook her breakfast, then hit the woods again. I got to my first spot to check on a pipeline and didn't stay but maybe 5 minutes. As I am gathering my stuff, it just didn't feel right. I can't explain it, but something told me not to waste my time. I jumped back in the truck and headed to another spot on public land that I had marked on the GPS that I wanted to check out. I stopped 600 yards from my spot on a trail in the government land, which lead to a deep oak bottom. I had never turkey hunted there, but it looked very pormising from early trips, but never had much sign. This whole tract had been control burned about a month ago from the forest service and it was looking very "turkey".
I grabbed my gear and left the decoys in the truck since Duckaholic had reported some guys have been having birds shy away from all types of decoys over the last week or so. I headed out on my 3/4 mile walk to the bottom and I thought I was too late to hear any gobbles since it was breaking daylight. Far off, I hear a faint gobble and stop in my tracks. A minute later, a owl sounds off and the gobble cuts the air again. Man, I am pumped at this moment. This is the first gobble I hear on the roost this year, bumping a bird earlier this year that sounded off on the ground. I make my way to the bottom and get set up in my turkey chair, and the show begins.
The bird gobbles one more time after I am set up, but I had heard a turkey fly down and realize he is in the tree, and the bird I heard fly down was a hen. Naturally, he left out away from me with the hen, since I clearly heard him fly down and scare the living daylights out of me. I was licking my wounds and planning my next move to get ahead of him when I hear the distinct sounds of a hen yelping behind me. Since this area was burned awhile back, cover was very thin and I decided to turn my gobbler lounger around to see that area and keep the limited camo I had. After sitting down and getting set up, I hear this hen again only this time it is different. This hen has cut the distance betweed us in half and is now, cutting and getting real sassy.
I have been busted by hens so many times in the woods, I decided today was my day. The woods were clean enough where I could see her coming a long way off, so I decided to turn it up a notch. I was going to play with her and see what would happen. I got my Pittman slate call in my lap and started with soft purrs then went to a hard cutting series that sent her over the top. I have heard stories of hens getting aggressive, but this was crazy!!!! She went nuts!!!!!! Before I would finish a sequense, she would start, and this went on and on! I knew she would be looking for me, so I made sure not to move, but the sounds were so loud that I figured if there was another gobbler in vicinity he would have to hear us. When I thought she had left, I would let out a soft purr that I could barely hear, and she would immediately cut me off with her "slut tone". It was like a bad night a the bar on the wrong end of town. I had people tell me stories of this, but never heard it in the wild. When I would think she is only 50 yards away, she would fire off again even closer. I knew she would show herself now that 20 minutes has passed and she keeps turning up the heat. By this time I am wondering where she will pop out at and who is with her. It wasn't long before I see that head cross a hill and then she stops 30 yards from me. She knew where that sound was and she was pi$$ed.
I freeze and said to myself "not this time"!!! As this is the first time I get to bust a hen instead of the other way around. She doesn't move, not a feather. She knows something is up when she doesn't see another girl there, but can't figure it out. She is close enough to me that I can see her eyeball moving, but her head stays perfectly still. After what seemed like 10 hours, and was probably 3 minutes, she started walking again passing within 10 yards of me. Once she got behind the tree I was sitting under, I turned my upper body to watch her come out the other side, and that's where all hell broke loose!
As I am looking to the right for this hen, I hear what every turkey hunter dreads........the putt!!! It was on top of me and turn to the left to see a big red headed turkey only 15 yards from me running away from me. The whole time he is running he is "putting" trying to sound the alarm, he had busted me moving when I turned to watch the hen. I was so focused on her and her "attitude", I never saw him trailing off to the left of her. After not getting a turkey last year, I had a "itchy" trigger finger and threw up the Browning Gold with the fresh camo dip. As he is trying to decide how he is going to cross a little creek at 35 yards, I cover up his head and let the 3.5" turkey load fly. He is flopping on the ground and the hen goes airborne back the way she came.
I get my bird out the creek to see he is only a jake, but after the show she put on, it will be a hunt I never forget. On another note, on of the spots that I was hunting had a big old bird in it that me and another guy knew about. He is a full time employee of N*** and a great guy. He tells me he roosted the bird Friday night and asked if I was going to hunt that track. Of course, I told him absolutely not, go kill that SOB. He then tells me that he has his nephes who has not killed a bird after hunting with him for 3 years. At 7:49 Saturday, only minutes after dropping my bird, I heard that 20Ga bark. I could not get out the woods fast enough and sure enough, that young man killed that monster bird and his dad has agreed to get a full body mount for him. His bird went just a hair of 20#'s, had a 10.5" beard that was super thick, and 1.25" spurs. A real trophy!
All in all, it was a great day - just wish my boys or my turkey hunting buddy could have been there to hear the hen acting the fool!!!!
03-28-2011, 08:27 PM
One tag gone! - (Long read)
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