I was able to harvest a gobbler this past Saturday. Cody and I headed out to some 14,000 acres of state game lands, which is surrounded by 1,000's of acres of state forest. I knew the birds were in there from some preseason scouting and trail camera pics in the fall. I have been there before and have heard plenty of action in the early morning hours. As you all know, as the season has progressed, the birds seem to be keeping quiet all of the time for some reason.
The whole area was hit with a solid rain fall the night before causing my stone bridge I built at the bottom of the mountain, to be under water. So Cody and I made our way across the stream and through the heavy fog and eventually ended up on top of the mountain. We are standing in a saddle on top of one of the mountains watching the fog roll over the mountain top. One minute you can see down the whole saddle, the next it was covered in thick heavy fog.
As the darkness started to fade and the sky started to cut red, Cody gave out an owl hoot. We had an owl answer us across the hill. As the minutes went by, the owl slowly started to make his way closer to us. He would call every so often to make sure we were still there and of course we would answer him. After ten minutes of this, we decided to try a different locator call. Cody let her rip and right in front of us no more than 100-150 yards was a gobble. This was no ordinary gobble. It sounded as though this bird wanted to let that gobble out for a week. It was loud and very demanding. Now all of a sudden Cody and I were worried if we move, we would scare this bird. We had no choice but to get set up and hope we did not spoke him. I really think the combination of the heavy fog and the leaves sprouting on the trees allowed us to get setup properly. The situation could not get any better.
So Cody and I both sit down in front of big oak trees and I let out a nice calm and inviting diaphragm yelp to the gobbler and he hit it right away. So I kept it the same while throwing in some cuts to let him know I was very interested. Cody would throw in some light clucks and purrs and before long, he was on the ground and on his way over to us.
On his way over, it sounded as though he was coming from the thick heavy underbrush to the right of me. All of a sudden he gives out a gobble right in front of us and he started to walk quickly past the decoy and across the saddle. So I gave him a light yelp to let him know where the decoy was set up. He turned, gobbled and headed right to the decoy set up 10 yards in front of me. Once he saw the decoy, he became really cautious as to what he wanted to do. He strutted about 7 or 8 feet from the decoy. Could not get any better at this point. All I had to do was wait for Cody, who was filming the hunt, to give me the ok to shoot. The gobbler continued to strut and gobble in front of me for about 5 minutes and I am still waiting for Cody to give me the ok to shoot. At this point, the gun is getting heavy and I need to shoot. Finally Cody gives me the ok the shoot...I already have the iron on him and I pull the trigger and all I hear is "CLICK." That's right "CLICK." NOT BANG....BOOM....WA BOOM...."CLICK." I could not believe it. After all the work I put into every turkey season it comes down to "CLICK."
So, after the malfunctioning click, I am now trying to figure out what's wrong with my gun while this gobbler in still strutting in front of me at 12 yards. I check the safety, its all the way forward. And finally after about 15 "CLICKS" of the trigger, I finally think well maybe the slide is not pushed all the way forward on the gun. So I slowly and gently push the slide forward and it "CLICKS" shut. All you hear on the film is, "Cody, you ready..I am going to kill him now." Cody gave him a little yelp to get him to turn back towards me and "BOOM" down goes my 2009 gobbler. The best thing about the hunt is that I learned one more thing to help make me successful in the woods and I was able to harvest a very nice Gobbler.
Date: May 9, 2009
Time: 6:15 am
Beard: 9 1/2 inches
Spurs: 3/4 inch
Weight: 19 lbs.
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