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Quiet Morning Kill

huntn2

Senior Member
6,090
157
Hudson, OH
Approaching Spring Turkey this season I was questioning whether or not to buy a tag. As many here know, my work schedule has been very challenging the past year. The demands of work have impacted family time and as a result, I was uncertain what time I would be able to/want to spend in the woods this spring. As it turned out, I couldn’t avoid the urge to here thunderous gobbles rip through the pre dawn spring woods.

My 1st chance to get out was the first Saturday of season. I haven’t had a chance to do any scouting this year so I was flying blind. I spent my first morning on a new property that I had never stepped foot on. I was absolutely shocked to not hear a thing as it looked so very promising from areal maps and this property and 3 neighboring allow no hunting. I decided to hit a different property the following morning. Again, not knowing anything from pre-season scouting, I made my way to a good fairly central spot well before light with anticipation of making a quick move depending on any gobbling. A bird finally sounded off and I was off to cut the distance.

I set up along a field edge as the bird was across the field in a woodlot I didn’t have permission to hunt. The bird shut up when he hit the ground and I figured it was a waiting game as he more than likely was roosted with hens. About 6:45am a hen crossed the field and 20 min later a 2nd followed suit. The bird was now hammering back on anything I threw at him and before long I see him nearing the edge of the woods he is in. He hits the field and is heading my way strutting and gobbling the entire way across (250 yards or so). He is angling in to my setup from my right which included 2 decoys off to my left side. Figuring he was going to cut right in front of me I didn’t adjust my positioning at all and was being patient. This backfired as he decided to cut into the woods I was setup along 40 yards to my right and I was left shaking my head. With work and the locations of my hunting properties, I am limited to being a weekend warrior. It was a painful week as the one landowner sent me almost daily texts’ indicating the bird was strutting in the field each morning.

The 2nd Saturday was met with high expectations based on the landowner texts all week. As I am waiting for day break and the bird is hammering from the roost, I catch movement. Another hunter is walking the neighbor’s field edge and he cuts in right were the bird is. Not much I can do as I don’t have access to that property. The bird shuts up after the guy entered the woods and the morning was a bust. I went right back Sunday morning and the bird was vocal once again. Cutting me off almost anytime I made a noise. All was fine and dandy but he wouldn’t hit the field. He was hung up inside the woods and I was left to watch him in binoculars. He gobbled well over 100 times this morning.

The past week went by with less frequent landowner field sightings but I knew the bird was still around as of Wednesday. I dragged myself out of bed yesterday morning at 4, and by 4:15 was in the truck for my 1 hour drive to this property. I am setup in the cold misty/foggy morning along the field edge with hopes that the bird will cooperate. The low cloud ceiling prolonged the cracking of light and I waited and waited and waited for this bird to gobble. Before I knew it, it was daybreak and I had no audible sign of any turkey’s being around. I decided to just hold tight on the field as it was a good point where 2 fields made a “T”. I still had high hopes of birds hitting the freshly disked fields given the overnight rain and misty morning. As time passed, I started to wonder if the hunter I had seen the previous Saturday had found success or perhaps he had bumped the bird hard enough to push him across the road?

As I was nearing that uncomfortable feeling of sitting on tree roots, I heard a noise to my left. I cautiously looked to the left and sure enough, without ever making a gobble, here comes the bird spitting and drumming down the field edge. Being burned by him 2 weeks prior, I wasn’t being patient. I eased my gun up, settled my bead and squeezed the trigger. The 870 Super Mag barked and the 3 ½” Winchester Supreme #5 brought him to a stop about 8 yards shy of reaching my decoys.

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This was the 2nd rainy morning bird I have shot that never made a peep. I will honestly say it is almost bittersweet shooting one that never gobbles… I soaked it in for a few minutes before taking some pictures and making my way to the truck. Perhaps better than actually harvesting the bird was my conversation with my 3 year old Landon once I got to my truck. Landon asked, “Dad, is he going to go on the wall in the basement?” With absolutely 0 plans of mounting this bird, I told him he was going to have to ask his mom about that. He does and I hear Alyssa say, “absolutely not” in the background. Without missing a beat, Landon screams, “She said YES Dad, she said Yes…” I was dying with laughter.

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