Turkey Stories

[Covehnter]

With the waterfowl season ending for me this Saturday i am really beginning to have gobblin birds on my brain. I want to hear some of you turkeys slayers favorite stories. . . post up a few of your heartbeating memories and i'll put up some of mine. . . i am really forward to this. . . i have some good stories!! Also, feel free to post up some of those heartbreakers too! ;D

[flhuntress]

my favorite hunt was callin' in huntnma's first bird...she had been huntin' for 4 years with no luck so she went to the freak zone with me...we were hangin' out in the blind when we heard a gobble not far behind us...next thing you know this bird is basically on top of us...it stood a yard away from hm and gobbled 3 times..maybe twice...then started headin' off...we were freakin' out but i finally got him to turn and he came back...she proceeded to nail him...nice gobbler.
it was more intense than any show i've seen.

there was my first longbeard too....i had only got a few jakes and when hm and i decided to hunt together we made the agreement that she would get any jakes that come by and then if a longbeard came from the left it was hers and from the right it was mine...we were in the blind lightin' a cigarette when i looked up to see mr.longbeard starrin' back at us...thankfully there was some palmettos he went behind and when he came out i nailed him...we were back to the truck by 9...popped open a celebratory beverage and relived the moment over and over...by the time we got the check station there was an audience and the guy from the newspaper was there...he interviewed us and took tons of pics....then we were off to my mom's house to rub it in our uncle's face....he was here visiting from england and said we couldn't get one....showed him...it was awesome.

[Covehnter]

Okay since someone has broke the ice i'll post up one of mine. . . ;D

Lets see i'll start with the first bird i killed last year. It's an awesome story. Had patterned birds since the beginning of March and had 5 locations that i felt comfortable w/ killin a bird. . . i took my dad w/ me b/c last year i was really tryin to get him into turkey hunting. Well we go to my club and wouldnt you know both birds that i had patterned were'nt talking. So i'm not the one to sit and wait so we hit the road, looking, no luck, had one bird shock gobble a long ways off but not worth messing with. My dad had to leave to go to my lil brothers ball game so i went to a farm i had permission on that i had been watching a huge flock of birds w/ several gobblers in. . .only problem was they were still bunched up. Well i went to the farm alone now, and checked the fields . . only one hen, well there is a hardwood ridge the wraps around the fields and i figured the birds were there somewhere. . .i was going to set up and blind call. I was sneaking in really really slowly and heard turkeys in the leaves. So i hit the ground and there i was, first two hens popped over the ridge. . .and then about 30 more followed, no gobblers. I was confused the whole month there was several gobblers w/ this flock and now i was in the middle of it and no toms? Well some of the hens came up as close as 10 yards and never saw me, after about 2 hours the hens worked passed me over the ridge and i was scratching my head wondering. . . where the hell are the big boys when. . . .blam. . . on top of the hill where the hens came from he sounded off. . . his girlfriends had got a lil too far off for comfort. Well i was tryin to find a way to have him get to me w/out see the hens b/c i knew if saw them it was over. Well i tried to let the hens move as far away as possible then turned my head away from the girls and floated a few soft yelps, he cut me off! Then i saw him on his way straight toward me off the hill, i clucked a couple times and he roared again, all was well. He walked to the bottom of the hill and saw the hens and thats were he went. At that time i figured well its all or nothing, I started hammering the flock w/ aggressive yelps and cutts. He was gobbling his brains out and the boss hen was gettin pissed. She was griping and was yellin back at her and he was loving it. Well i could hear the birds coming back over the hill and as soon as they top the hill they are 35 yards, at this time all the birds are 60 yards just over the hill. I hear the birds coming, the hens raising hell and the gobbler matching us both. Suddenly, a redhead pops over the hill, i had my bead centered on the wattles . . . is the the big boy or another bird. . . i waited. He was froze for a solid 30 secs and so was i. . . not wanting to shoot a jake. Finally he turned and sure enough, it was a jake WHEW, man the would've hurt! He ducked back over the hill and i picked the calling back up. . . he showed up again and walked across the top of the hill 30 yards away. . i cut my eyes back to see a full fan. . . there he was. He was following the jake and entered an opening at 32 yards. . . one cluck and a soft yelp moved his head far enough away for the #5' s to do their work. It was opening day. . started the episode at 10 am and the shot was fired at 12:30 and that 2 and a half hours will be etched in my memories forever. Bird weighed 21.5lbs, had 10 inch beard, and 1 1/4 inch hooks.

Sorry it got so long guys, i get caught up in the moment and ramble on. ;D

[yoopertine]

I have a few good stories,So here is one
It was my son's first year hunting Turkey's.(He carried a gun)
The weather was not in our favor,It had snowed the night before so I packed everything in the truck(Coverall's,heavy pants and coat's)
I told him when I picked him up from school,I wasn't sure how the hunt would go.
We got over to the small feild we were gonna hunt.
We snuck down to the edge of the feild thru the woods
There were some bird's on the far side,there was a slight rise in the feild so I belly crawled out and set up a couple decoy's.
I started with a few clucks and purrs.
I had told my son that if by chance Two Tom's came in together He would shoot the one on his side and I would take the one closes to me.
As Luck would have it we had three tom's come in after some coxing.
I had my gun waiting for my son's shot then I would reply with my own .
I wispered to him whenever he was ready take him,He shot and I was right behind his.
We had two nice Tom's laying on the ground.
My son's bird sported a 6 inch Beard
My bird had a seven inch Beard.
Man What agreat day that was.

[deerslayer11]

I hunted alone and killed a jake one morning, I had never dressed one before so I went to jamies to get him to show me how to do it. After we got it done he asked if I wanted to shoot black birds off his grandma's garden, she had been complaining about them for a week or so. We shot a few we jumped out of the garden and decided to walk up on some that were on the powerline that runs through thier pasture. There is a dirtmound at the fence and we thought we would use it to lean on and try to shoot the birds off the line. As soon as we leaned on the mound we saw 4 gobblers and a hen on the opposite woodline across the pasture. We snuck back out and to his house. We got all our Turkey stuff and rode the 4 wheeler to the right side of the pasture. We snuck in to about 150yds of the birds and put the dekes out. He called them to about 65yds, but I dont think they could see the dekes. We had them on our side of the fence, and I think the Grass was keeping them out of view from where the turks were. The turkes followed the hen back down into the pasture and we snuck back to where the 4 wheeler was. We went to the opposite side of the field and climbed under the fence. Jamie crawled out into the field and put up the dekes while I found a tree big enough for both of to lean against. The way the pasture was we were down hill from the dekes which were right under the crest of the hill. Jamie called 3 of the gobblers in, but they hung up about 50yds out. He told me to shoot the one that was strutting. He fell over when I shot, and the other 2 ran off. Jamie started cutting really agressively and the other 2 came back in and jumped on the one I had killed spurring him. Jamie shot killing both of them!

I have pics in the photos forum under multiples on the 2nd page, I would post them here, but Hunt101 isnt working right now.

[deerslayer11]

I have been trying to get a turkey kill on video, opening day of 01? I had all my video stuff with me. Turkeys were gobbling all around me, I bet there 5-7 different gobblers talkin back. None of them would come in. after about an hour of hearing them gobble and none closing the distance I decided to go after the closest bird. I turned the camera off and headed out. I stalked and called it in to about 70 yards, but I also called in a hen that took him over the next ridge. I sat there trying to figure out what to do next. I decided to go back to where I had been and see where the others were. I purred overy few steps on the way back. I sat down and did one series of calls trying to relocate them. I didnt enen have time to turn the camera back on when a longbeard and jake stepped out at about 15yds. I shot the longbeard, the jake ran out to about 50yds stopped and looked back. He dropped on the spot when the gun went off. I think those were the last 2 birds Ive killed. I have been better/luckier at turket hunting than deer hunting, so I decided to only hunt while videoing. Ill get it all together one day...

[Covehnter]

I gotta another story involving videoing but it'll have to wait a lil bit. . . gotta get some sleep. ;D

[Covehnter]

Okay this story happened about 3 years ago now.

I was heading out for an evening hunt (that is legal in GA) on some property i had permission beside my house. As i was walking out of the door, gun and vest in tow, my lil brother stops me and wants to go, he's had never killed a turkey and i killed one the first day of the season and this was the following friday so i told him to camo up. He walked out w/ his lil 20 gauge and i replaced it w/ my Mossberg and i grabbed to video camera and we were off. We set up in the woods about 40 yards behind a long green field that was on top of a hardwood ridge, facing into the woods b/c i knew the birds roosted there ( that's where the bird i killed just days before was roosted). We set up for some blind calling after a bird wouldnt shock gobble, hoping birds would show up to roost in the same location. After a couple hours of soft calling, i had a hen come up to investigate. . . she eventually saw something she didnt like and eased on. My lil brother, 13 years old at this time, was getting restless so i figured it was time to call it for the evening. We were slipping back around the field in the woods when i saw 2 strutting birds around a bend in the field, about 200 yards away. Well we slipped around to the field edge and my little brother set his back against the same tree i killed my bird off of, i crawled out and put a jake and 2 hen dekes out and set up just over his shoulder w/ the camera. A series of loud yelps is all it took to have the group coming our way, around the bend they came, at 80 yards we had 3 big toms on a string. I was over lil bros shoulder w/ the camera and gave him the orders not to shoot until i said so. They worked in ever so slowly, strutting and showing off for the decoys. I peeked over the camera to see the birds were about 40 yards now. . . back to the viewfinder i went and i let the bird take another 8 steps, checked him again, 35 yards. . . it was time. I cutt at the bird and up went the his, "shot'em drew, shot'em!" BLAM, and the tom was on his back!! He ran to get on him where he found that gettin on that flopping things head was harder than it sounded, i ran to snag the bird and high fives and hugs followed. It was my brothers first turkey, off the same tree that i killed a bird off of 4 days before, and it was all on video. The bird weighed 21lbs, had a 11 inch beard, and sported 1 1/8 inch spurs. . . which was bigger than any bird i had killed at the time. ;D

[WR]

Well here's my first bird story !
Me and my uncle was set up back bout 5 yards in the woods on side of a field . Turkeys on the ground gobblin all over the field . Seemed like every corner but ours , so i crawled out to the egde to see what was going on , and there ol big boy was coming my way from the right . ;D The excitment got the best of me so i set up like i had been all morning with my gun pointed to the left . Well he came in so close i could not get my gun round on his ol tater .. He almost steps on my uncle , and lets out a couple of putts ,and starts off the other way real fast ...My uncle yells you better shot , you better get em , And the big ol goofy thing just starts off flying right by me ... "Boooyalll" I put his landing gear back out . ;D

24lb .... 11 half in beard....1 & 3/4 in spurs ;D I was chessin all day long , and everytime i see him on the wall i just grin some more . ;D