Tagged Out
05-03-2009, 08:48 PM
#6
Fork Horn
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Join Date: Jul 2007
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Posts: 418
RE: Tagged Out
This is the long beard that I was speaking of the other day. He has been strutting at the end of a long dirt road with canals on both sides but we had no way of crossing the canal to get set up on him. I did find a small sunken area on the ditch bank and was able to clean it out so that we could attempt an ambush. We crept up to the curve in the road to make sure that the bird was there on Friday afternoon but he was no where to be seen. I had this gobbler's number but he wasn't home[
]. I had no idea where he could have gone to unless......someone had beat us to him. I really started to worry because my son can only hunt on Saturdays and we had only 2 days left so the pressure to get him a long beard was on. We went to another area not far away and saw 2 redheads in the field but they were too far away to tell if they were jakes or toms so we stayed back and watched them fly up to roost anyway. Once roosted, we headed home in an attempt to get some sleep. 4:30 came early as we headed for the field where we had roosted the two birds. We put a hen decoy out in the field, got set up in a hedge row and waited. Shortly after day break, I heard the unmistakable clucking of a spooked hen and soon watched as she skirted around the decoy and went on her way. Being a rookie turkey hunter, I didn't know if the decoy would spook the male birds like it had spooked that hen but sneaking out to retrieve the decoy at fly down time seemed too risky to me so we just stayed put and hoped for the best. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of a turkey coming in for a landing about 100 yards from our position but as they approached the decoy they turned out to be 2 big jakes. I had them at less than 10 yards but as my boy said before the hunt, it was going to be an ole long beard or nothing at all from here on out so he let them pass. We sat there until about 9:30 without hearing or seeing anything else so we packed up and heading to the truck. After meeting a buddy that was hunting the same area we started talking about the long beard that had disappeared and he suggested that we ride over to where we had been seeing him and see if there was any sign as to what could have happened to him. When we got to the last curve in the road, I got out with my binoculars and peeked around the corner and there he was
, in full strut about 300 yards away. After a quick meeting of the minds it was decided that my boy and my buddy would cross the canal at a culvert pipe and walk down the side of a new cut over that paralleled the road and I would stay behind. Due to my disability, there was no way for me to get to where the bird was. We met at the tailgate as we always do for a word of prayer and the hunt was on. I took a minute to explain to my young son that it would be best if I stayed back but I would be right there with him in spirit. 15 minutes went by and I hadn't heard a peep. I'm sure that I was just nervous as the two of them were as they made their way closer and closer to the big bird. I sat in my truck and read some junk mail that had accumulated. It wasn't long before the silence was broken by the sound of my buddy just hammering away with his slate call. I knew that the bird had to be close with him calling that aggressively and it wasn't long before I heard the blast from my boy's 20 ga pump. I cranked the truck and floored it. It wasn't long before I pulled up next to my boy's first adult male and could hear the screams of celebrations coming from the cut over. By the time I turned the truck around they were already back in the road where they has started! Man what a bird. He will definitely be going to the taxidermist. My eyes teared up with as my 12 year old knelt down at the gobbler to give thanks for the blessing that God had just provided. I said before and I'll say it again, I'm a blessed man.
]. I had no idea where he could have gone to unless......someone had beat us to him. I really started to worry because my son can only hunt on Saturdays and we had only 2 days left so the pressure to get him a long beard was on. We went to another area not far away and saw 2 redheads in the field but they were too far away to tell if they were jakes or toms so we stayed back and watched them fly up to roost anyway. Once roosted, we headed home in an attempt to get some sleep. 4:30 came early as we headed for the field where we had roosted the two birds. We put a hen decoy out in the field, got set up in a hedge row and waited. Shortly after day break, I heard the unmistakable clucking of a spooked hen and soon watched as she skirted around the decoy and went on her way. Being a rookie turkey hunter, I didn't know if the decoy would spook the male birds like it had spooked that hen but sneaking out to retrieve the decoy at fly down time seemed too risky to me so we just stayed put and hoped for the best. It wasn't long before I caught a glimpse of a turkey coming in for a landing about 100 yards from our position but as they approached the decoy they turned out to be 2 big jakes. I had them at less than 10 yards but as my boy said before the hunt, it was going to be an ole long beard or nothing at all from here on out so he let them pass. We sat there until about 9:30 without hearing or seeing anything else so we packed up and heading to the truck. After meeting a buddy that was hunting the same area we started talking about the long beard that had disappeared and he suggested that we ride over to where we had been seeing him and see if there was any sign as to what could have happened to him. When we got to the last curve in the road, I got out with my binoculars and peeked around the corner and there he was, in full strut about 300 yards away. After a quick meeting of the minds it was decided that my boy and my buddy would cross the canal at a culvert pipe and walk down the side of a new cut over that paralleled the road and I would stay behind. Due to my disability, there was no way for me to get to where the bird was. We met at the tailgate as we always do for a word of prayer and the hunt was on. I took a minute to explain to my young son that it would be best if I stayed back but I would be right there with him in spirit. 15 minutes went by and I hadn't heard a peep. I'm sure that I was just nervous as the two of them were as they made their way closer and closer to the big bird. I sat in my truck and read some junk mail that had accumulated. It wasn't long before the silence was broken by the sound of my buddy just hammering away with his slate call. I knew that the bird had to be close with him calling that aggressively and it wasn't long before I heard the blast from my boy's 20 ga pump. I cranked the truck and floored it. It wasn't long before I pulled up next to my boy's first adult male and could hear the screams of celebrations coming from the cut over. By the time I turned the truck around they were already back in the road where they has started! Man what a bird. He will definitely be going to the taxidermist. My eyes teared up with as my 12 year old knelt down at the gobbler to give thanks for the blessing that God had just provided. I said before and I'll say it again, I'm a blessed man.
