Tale
of the Hunt
A co-worker of mine, Mike
Marks, asked me if I would be interested
in going out for a spring turkey hunt.
He had hunted the first 13 days of the
season and finally killed a longbeard
and was looking for someone with a tag
that he could call for.
We arrived at 5 am sharp on a farm Mike
had hunted and carefully scouted a large
mixed group of birds, which included
at least 4 jakes and one nice longbeard.
Knowing where the gobblers had roosted
several days before, Mike led me to
a setup near the top of the hill just
inside the woods line. He was confident
that the birds would go to the field
early and felt this was a location that
they would come to off the roost. As
daylight broke, five gobblers sounded
off within 200 yards. Hens joined in
from several directions, and Mike added
his calling to the conversation.
About 45 minutes later
the turkey quieted down and we had a
hen come in and feed around us at about
20 yards for at least 10 minutes before
the flock arrived. She clucked and yelped
while Mike called softly to her the
whole time, which got the gobblers fired
up. Then several more hens, 4 jakes
and the longbeard showed up. Talk about
being pinned down, we had birds in three
or four different directions all within
50 yards. There were way too many eyes
on us at the same time, and having setup
on the edge of a field gave us almost
no cover. All we could do was sit perfectly
still and hope to get a shot opportunity.
The longbeard strutted, and the 4 gobblers
gobbled simultaneously at about 40-50
yards. Mike saw the longbeard turn and
fan his tail at us, obscuring his head
and offering an opportunity to line
him up and whispered in my ear to “get
your gun up and shoot him.” At
the same time another Jake and hen showed
up right in front of us at about 8 yards
staring directly at me, and shortly
sounded an alarm putt. Sensing a final
opportunity Mike again whispered several
times, “Shoot him, Shoot him”
but I couldn’t yet see the longbeard
who was obscured behind a small bush.
Now the longbeard sensing something
wasn’t right began a run for the
woods and I made a nice shot on him
at 25 yards. He rolled into the edge
of the woods and fell silent.
My first spring gobbler. An incredible
hunt I will never forget!
