Welcome to TheOhioOutdoors
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Login or sign up today!
Login / Join

Woods on FIRE!

Big H

Senior Member
4,104
151
Medina
My turkey time this year has been limited by a very sick wife, work, 3 teenage daughters (2 on the varsity softball team and 2 playing AAU basketball every weekend) and basically complete exhaustion at times from trying to do everything that needs to get done.

Up until this past Tuesday, I had only been able to get to the woods twice. I rolled out of bed at 3:45, made the drive to the property and was finishing a cup of coffee in the truck at 5:30 "up on the hill" in Jefferson County. My plan was to stay all day and the next morning. I had told Donna that if the birds weren't cooperating, at least I would be able to catch up on some sleep.

I gathered my gear and walked down the field edge, heading to a spot I like to listen for gobbles and had just stepped into the woods onto a logging road when I heard the first gobble of the morning. He was across the road, but his gobble set off a chain reaction and I heard another bird light up a few hundred yards across a hollow from where I was, and then another bird sounded off about 150 yards from where I was standing in a section of our woods that I usually walked past to get to a higher listening spot towards the back of the property and had only killed a few birds in that area over the years.

SWEET! He was still on the roost and gobbling , so I slowly moved down the logging trail to a spot where it intersected another trail and was trying to figure out exactly where he was roosted. I made a couple soft tree yelps at him and he came unglued. Then it was like he and the bird across the valley decided to have a gobbling contest and they were both just lighting the woods up! By now it is almost 6:00 am, I am set up, have given him a few more soft calls and I am trying to decide if I can move another 20 yards up the hill to a bigger tree, when I hear him fly down. He hit the ground gobbling and the bird across the valley has not stopped either! I was hoping he would come down the logging trail that runs along the side of the hill, but I could tell he was angling up. He really liked it when I gave him a few purrs with the mouth call and scratched some leaves. It was still kind of shadowy and I could see him walking through the trees above above me, and then he got in between me and the big tree I had wanted to get to and started spitting and drumming at about 50 yards. I knew I should have set up there dammit, it would have been a 25-30 yard shot! Between him and the bird across the valley, they had gobbled at least 150 times already! My gun was up, and I made a few soft clucks and purrs, and he started moving my way, looking for the hen he thought was there. He stopped and put his head up, looking and I smoked a tree limb that I didn't see in the shadows! He clucked and took off flying! I couldn't believe I had just blown it. WTH? I walked up to where he was standing and nothing other than a BB riddled branch and a small tree that had obviously broken up my pattern. :smiley_blackeye: I was cussing myself out and all pissed off because I had been stupid enough to rush the shot, he wasn't spooked and I am sure he would have gotten closer, but I have killed plenty of birds at 40 yards with this gun and load, and my nose hurt, I must have been too into the gun. LOL 6:15 am and I had already missed a good bird, TBC....
 
Last edited:

Big H

Senior Member
4,104
151
Medina
Still talking to myself about being an idiot and blowing it on the bird off the roost, I decided to head towards the back of the property and see if I could get something else going. At the back of our property, there is an intersection of 4 logging roads and several hollows come together right there also. I threw some some yelps down the one hollow, listened, heard nothing and then walked over a small rise to call down into the other hollow. Then I thought I heard a gobble, but it was very faint. I walked back about 50 yards and made some excited yelps again and got cut off by a gobble, but he was still way in there, but it seemed a little closer. By this time, it is now 7:00 am. I hit him with a mouth call and he immediately answered and I could tell he was coming! I was about 200 yards off of a field edge and found a tree to set up next to with a good view of the intersection of the logging trails. Then I heard him up close to the field and gave him a few clucks and purrs and scratched some leaves. He double gobbled, then a few crows flew over and he was gobbling everytime they crowed. I nested in and made a couple of purrs on a mouth call and rustled some leaves again, then never called again. Here he came trotting down the logging trail, stopping to drop into a half strut and spitting and drumming, gobbling, and looking for love. I had the gun on him and kept telling myself, closer, closer... At 20 yards, I couldn't take it anymore and gave him a facefull of 5's when he dropped out of strut and stuck his head up. He did the backward flop with his feet in the air and barely twitched! I looked at my phone, and it was 7:20. He is a nice bird, beard stretching to 10 1/4" and 1" spurs, I am guessing he is probably a 3 year old, maybe an early hatch 2 year old since his spurs are fairly sharp. His fan was pretty beat up and he weighed a little over 19 pounds.

It was an extremely exciting morning, and I would bet I heard well over 200 gobbles between the several birds. BTW, this bird was definitely not the bird that was having the gobbling contest earlier with the bird I missed.
 

Attachments

  • 2013 gobbler pic.jpg
    2013 gobbler pic.jpg
    274.4 KB · Views: 155