Yes, it's blurry but you'll see it better on the video

After the showing we had yesterday, we all felt like we couldn?t do any worse if we went back out again today.  Though, after we hunted yesterday, Adam went and bought a new slate and a diaphragm call.  He was pumped up about practicing calling birds in and I think he even went hunting yesterday afternoon just to see if he could get one to talk back to him.  Adam is pretty driven and when he gets something in his mind to do, then he usually works at it until he gets it done.  I have no doubt that he?ll be a good turkey caller before too long and his efforts today yielded some pretty impressive results. Keep in mind that this was his first time turkey calling without a deer antler. 

We all met early again over at my place and headed out.  We didn?t drop the striker for the slate on the way in this time so already it was a success in comparison to yesterday?s hunt.  This morning we didn?t hear many turkeys gobbling from the trees in the dark like we did yesterday.  We got set up and had our two decoys out in front of us.  We sat and waited and could hear one turkey gobbling way off in the distance to our left.  He was very talkative, but remained at a distance and didn?t seem to get any closer as a response to Adam?s calling. 

In time, the sun had risen and was up really high and we still hadn?t seen a turkey.  We were a little frustrated at the lack of action, especially since we actually brought the slate striker today!  We talked a little in between ourselves and even thought about leaving.  Then Adam looked at us and said ?Hey, patience kills turkeys? (referencing to a quote that Mr. Puette told me only a week earlier).   I said, yep ? you?re right and we decided to stay in another hour just to see what would happen. 

We sat and sat and the temperature started to warm up some.  Due to their positioning, Will and Adam couldn?t see as well as I could.  I had a better perspective so I was constantly scanning the tree line looking for any movement.  After a while, I saw something directly across the field from us that looked like the shape of a turkey, but it was so far away that I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me much like they do when deer hunting.  I ?whisper-yelled? at the guys and said ?Throw me the binoculars? and they reached to get the binoculars, but before they could grab them I saw the turkey move.  I repeated ?there he is, there he is, can you see him?? and they immediately perked up.  I could clearly see the turkey, but it took a few minutes before he came into Adam and Will?s view.  Adam was randomly hitting the slate call and I told him to talk to the bird.  He started slowly ?purring? at the bird and instantly the turkey puffed his feathers up.  I whisper-yelled again ?Can you see him? and by this time they had him clearly in their line of sight.  We were all excited and the bird was headed our way.

Adam kept lightly striking the slate call ever so often as the gobbler slowly strutted his stuff across the field.  It was awesome.  He would walk for a bit, then puff his feathers up and walk some, then like deflate and then puff up again.  It was like a cycle that he went through and he did this 3 ? 4 times within the minutes that he strutted across the field.  There was no doubt that this turkey was hearing what Adam was doing and responding to it.  Even once the turkey stopped and gobbled real loudly in response (and you can hear it on the video if you turn the volume up).  We were all glued to our seats as this big boy was strutting in the field like he owned it.  The bird was coming closer and closer. 

As the turkey got closer I noticed that I started getting some shakes going on ? the same kind of rush you get when a big buck walks out in front of you.  My heart began to beat more as the turkey responded and kept drawing in closer to us.  It was neat to watch this bird come out from about 200 yards away and come directly towards us.  I really thought that we were going to get some great footage of a kill shot. 

Finally, the turkey got close enough to us and he stopped and perked his head up.  He saw our decoys and when he saw the decoys his whole demeanor changed.  The turkey came up from the other side of a small hill.  It wasn?t until he topped the crest of the hill that he could see the decoys.  As soon as he saw the decoys he started walking differently.  He seemed to be more in a hurry and then he went hard to the left and was seemingly pacing back and forth for a minute or so.  He did this twice and then made a b-line for the trees.  As rookie hunters we really have no clue why the turkey did this, but our current theory is that when this turkey saw the decoys he felt that the male decoy was larger than him and got intimidated and immediately fled the scene.  The turkey we were calling had a beard, but it wasn?t a huge one.  This is what makes us believe this notion.

After the turkey went back into the woods we were all just sitting there deconstructing what had just taken place before us.  We were all pumped and excited and we all felt that same rush.  It was a pretty intense few minutes for some novice turkey hunters.  Again, we sat for a little while and then two more birds came from the corner.  I spotted them and then we went back into stealth mode in the woods.  Though, these two birds were just feeding and were hens.  They came out in the field and worked their way past us.  This was fine with us and we tried to give them time to leave, but we were ready to go.  We got up and I interviewed Adam and during the interview Will saw the hens working back down.  We paused the video to try to get closer and call them in, but had no luck. 

All in all I think it was a much better hunt than yesterdays.  To see the turkey blow his feathers up like that and come across the crest of that hill was a neat scene for me and one I won?t forget.  I hope to see that again in my life!  We headed back to the truck and yet again to Bojangles.  I don?t know if it?s a good thing to tell the wife-to-be, but I think I may have caught turkey fever! 

You'll best see this video if you blow it up to full screen and watch in 720p, but give it time to load

Regards,

Clint