Sorry for being long winded but...It is turkey hunting!

SM Jr. and I went down Friday after he got out of school….started raining on us about Bluff Dale….started raining hard and steady about Stephenville….great! Woke up Saturday and still had hard steady rain…waited and the rain let up to a mist about 7:30 so we head out. No gobbling…no turkey sounds. Set up under a good tree in an area the birds like. Rain starts again about 8:15 and doesn’t stop until 10:00 and the sun starts breaking thru the clouds. Despite rain gear we are SOAKED! Still have not heard one turkey sound so we switch into Run Gun mode to try and find a bird that will work….hell to try and find a bird period! I felt like Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph the Red nosed Rain Deer…….every time I blew a locator call or yelped or cut….NOTHING! I can tell SM Jr. is getting tired and frustrated so at 11:40 we start working our way back to the 4-wheeler and I tell him one last call series and we’ll go get some lunch. I give one last long drawn out series of yelps as loud as I possibly can and Bam! Two birds sound off a couple of hundred yards from us. After figuring out what they were doing (Moving away from us) we get after them. Several moves and set ups later, we have multiple birds answering from three different directions. Oh boy…we’re in the chips now!! White head bobbing thru the broom weed….Drumming….Full fan…one, two, THREE, FOUR!!!! A total of 5 long beards (REALLY long beards) are in this first group that shows up. Birds are now so fired up they are all gobbling and double gobbling in unison at every cluck and whine I use to coax them from the 40-45 yards to 30-35 yards so SM Jr. (and I) can uncork some 5’s at their patriotic colored heads. Doesn’t happen…they skirt us to our left…still gobbling their heads off! I’m still thinking these birds might come back around or at least one might peel off from the group but it doesn’t happen. Hey…this doesn’t happen to me! I’m a “Turkey Closer”! Another couple of birds have been working closer to us during this entire episode from a creek which is about 150 yards from us. After 20 more minutes of talking to these, we determine they are on the other side of the creek from us so we decide to circle around and get position on them on the same side of the creek they are. Well, we slipped, slid, fell and wallered in the sticky, muddy, STEEP banks of that creek as we got repositioned. We get to about what I think is 200 yards from where I last heard these bird and I give a hard crow call and they shock gobble. Set up right there and just start clucking and purring and they start moving our way. About 75 yards out I see 2 blue heads. They gobble and strut for 20 minutes and then wander off. Not again!!! WTF!!!! Hey MFr’s!!! Don’t you know I’m the Mariano Rivera of “Turkey Closers”??? Daymit!!!! Nope….unknown to good old Dad at the time, but I had crossed the creek and set us up in between branches of the creek….. and the birds were on the other side of the branch!!! It’s now after 3:00 as we slog back across the creek and trudge back to the 4-wheeler…. wet, tired, muddy and HUNGRY! Talk about beat! After going to have lunch…ugh dunch at Jerry’s Burgers and Shakes, we half heartedly went out late that evening and had no luck even hearing a bird as it started drizzling again.

Sunday morning woke up to a steady drizzle and in the limited time we had to hunt before we had to get on the road home, we had one bird work us but a hen came into our set up cutting and aggressive purring her heart out all pissed off that some beeach was in her domain……and then she moved right into the direction that the gobbler was coming from and at about 80 or 90 yards she must have reached him cause he shut up and we never saw him.

I love every turkey hunt I ever go on regardless of the outcome but don’t get me wrong….I like winning and absolutely hate when these pea sized brain birds beat me. Sooooooo ……..what are vacation days for anyway? I leave yesterday morning at 3:00 and get to the lease gate at 6:15. Get to a spot to listen and the first bird to sound off is only 100-150 yards away. I move a grand total of 10 yards backwards and set up. Another bird is with this one. When I hear them fly down I give them some really light stuff and they start coming my way….spot them and lead bird is in full strut and the other (subordinate) is simply following along behind. Closer, closer, closer…..they start to skirt the set up to the right…NOT AGAIN! I AM THE MARIANO RIVERA OF TURKEY CLOSERS…..DAYYYYMIT!!! At 39 yards I get on the trailing birds head with the bead of the Benelli and send the 5’s down range and I guess the golden BB found its mark as he went down in a heap.

Back to the camp house, change clothes, take my first ever picture using an automatic timer (I think it came out pretty darn good too!). I am back on the road home by 10:30.

Turkey hunting…..some days a diamond….some days a POS. And I guess this year I’m the “Late in his career John Rocker of Turkey Closers”!

Cheers!

Way to stick it out buddy! Congrats.......
That story is turkey hunting in a nutshell .
Time to....



..... Celebrate ... Drink heavily SM

I know what you did wrong you were wearing crocs and not croc flip flops

laughin' my freagin' ars#$ off! Another classic from Smiling Mallard! Tell JR I'm just as snake bit this year! Except I'm a little better as a starter this year and not a mariono rivera! I'm workin' every bird in the world right off the roost gettin' em' to 60-70 and they just wonder off! We'll get em'!

westtex75: You know that I did...once I got home!

Txvarminter: Camo Crocks and flip flops....footwear for the discriminating hunter!....at least for the drive home!

Keith: I've got to where I don't even give them so much as a "Ooooo..me so horny!" call while their still on the limb. Wait till they hit the ground before I do anything. Of course the main reason I don't call to them while still on the roost is because I'm still on the roost trying to shake off the effects of the previous nights libations! Just kidding.

haha just kiddin' but seriously haha! Nothin' like sleepin' it off in the wood's waitin' for the bird's to fly down! lol! yeah I stay really soft while there on the limb kinda just enough to let them know which direction I'm in so hopefully they will fly down my way and close some distance before the -come get it big boy start's! Just having some serious commitment issues these bird's! Kinda like Tiger Wood's bird's! oooo

good story mallard you need to submit that to my blog..

Nothin like smiiling mallards stories. Gotta love em!

Good work. I experience some of the same rain and mud but could not close the deal last weekend but had alot of fun anyway.