Turkey hunting may have become my favorite of the hunting endeavors…..at least for now! It is interactive, you get to use decoys, the weather tends is nice, the fields and woods are awakening after winter, and the prey is fascinating. This season was especially fun for me because Jeanette asked to come along. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance to help her pick out camouflage and a comfortable seat. I did draw the line at the ubiquitous pink trim that must be required on all female hunting clothing. The compromise we came to was covering the pink lettering with camouflage duct tape (yet another use for duct tape).

Our good friend Al had already managed to harvest a nice gobbler off the properties so we were full of anticipation the first evening we sat. After placing our David Smith Decoys, we found our spots under some trees along a field edge. The decoys look so real that I startled me every time I looked in their direction thinking some real birds had sneaked in when we weren’t paying attention. For most of the evening, the real turkeys avoided us. We did however see a variety of other winged fauna including pileated woodpeckers, vultures (both black and turkey), numerous crows, a red-tailed hawk, and a barred owl. Finally a single hen appeared at the far end of the field and painfully slowly made her way to our decoys. She walked within about 10 yards of us. She was so close that you could hear every cluck and purr. Jeanette loved it. No gobblers. As we were packing to leave, a group of coyotes responded to a distant siren with a serenade of their own. This was another new experience for Jeanette. They were right behind us. Perhaps that explained the lack of gobbler sightings. The evening provided a fantastic demonstration of how there is so much more to hunting than the killing!

The next time we got to go out was early on a Sunday morning. NC has recently permitted Sunday hunting. We were out well before sunrise and set up our decoys on a beautiful clover plot I have worked on for a couple of years. The temperature was perfect and the air was dry. While we did hear some hens far away, we could not elicit a gobble. After listening and watching as the night turned into day and not hearing any turkey love, we decided to move. We picked up a single decoy (a feeder hen) and headed off to check out some other areas. The last area we planned on checking was a recently plowed 25 acre field on the parcel we were closing on in a couple of days. There had been a lot of turkey sign in the fresh dirt and Al had shot his gobbler on the north end. As we poked our heads around the corner, shielded from the field by some trees, we saw some dark shapes. The binoculars revealed the shapes were turkeys. Most importantly, one of them was a gobbler and he was aggressively trying to impress his two lady friends. They were about 250-300 yards away but were right out in the middle. There was no way to enter the field without being seen. We would need to coax him to come our way but it was doubtful he would leave the ladies! To increase our chances, I got on my belly and crawled around the corner a bit to place our lone hen decoy where I hoped she could be seen (and hoped I couldn’t). Then we squeezed our way into the middle of the clump of trees.

The hens just ambled about, eating here, staring there, and generally paying no attention to tom. This was despite his best attempts to impress them with his strutting and gobbling. He was clearly smitten and was not going to leave his love interests. He gave us about a 40 min show, but it was a long distance show. Jeanette was watching with the binoculars and could see everything. Periodically I would yelp, cluck and purr. The hens would lift their heads and look our way but then go back to their turkey business. Several times I thought the hens would lead him off the field and our hunt would be over.

Then it happened! One of the hens saw the decoy! Who was this interloper? While she didn’t seem to want tom, she also didn’t seem to want anyone else to have him either. The ambling about stopped and first she, and then hen #2 headed straight down the field in a brisk walk.  I don’t think tom turkey knew what was going on other than his girlfriends were leaving. He immediately started to follow. Now was the time to hold real still. It was hard to breath. I said to Jeanette in a whisper, “I think it is going to happen.” When he started to get close, I asked her to make sure she had her hearing protection in….of course she did. This was my clue to her that it was time. A few more steps…head up…neck out..red dot on where skin and feathers meet…..bang!  Turkey on the ground. All that preparation, all that time, all that anticipation, now done in a blink of an eye.
When we stood up, we hadn’t realized it but the hens were still there and they had beaten up the decoy. We didn’t see the fighting but Jeanette had heard. She was afraid to turn her head and look. They took off in a run. Hopefully they were heading to their nests to work on the next generation.

Tom was heading off for dinner. Ours!

Next year perhaps it will be Jeanette behind the trigger!