Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

Turkey hunting has been in my blood since the early 70’s when I first hit the woods in pursuit of the long beards.

Over the years, I’ve managed to take over eighty birds bagging every species in the U.S.  except for the Osceola of Florida.

As spring approaches, my excitement builds and as the season begins to draw down, I feel as if something will soon be missing from my life.

This year it was different, as I had tagged all three of my Nebraska birds early in the season, two in northeast Nebraska and one in the southeastern part of the state.

I’d also called had the opportunity to call in a couple of birds for Team member Larry Myhre while we hunted together.

Since I’d tagged all of my birds and there was plenty of time left. I decided to give my cameraman Kyle Nickolite, Yankton, the opportunity to shoot his first bird.

Kyle had been on several turkey hunts with me, but he was always on the other end, running the camera.

His first filming in he field had been a spring turkey hunt where a Tom came in behind him without making a sound, startling both he and I.

This is one of those things that will either scare the heck out of you or hook you on turkey hunting for life.

As most turkey hunters do, on our first trip, we headed out long before the sun rose and set up where we thought the birds would be traveling from the roost.

Sometimes, turkeys and other wild creatures don’t do what “We” think they should do and this was the case on our first hunt.

We’d set up in the dark up against a downed tree with the sun at our back.  We were well camouflaged and knew the birds were roosting in adjourning property to the west.

I began my calling as I always do soft and subtle, as a hen in the roost would as she awakens.

No response, only silence, so I called again and after a short pause again, no response.

As the sun rose farther in the eastern sky, I increased the volume of my calls, switching from my Roost’em box call to my slate and my diaphragm call.

Nothing, not a peep and at that point, I was beginning to wonder if the birds had moved their roost.

Just then, Kyle whispered on the ridge. There they were, one Tom, a small Jake and eight hens, not good as no Tom in his right mind would leave eight hens to come to one or two others, no matter how sweet they sounded.

It just wasn’t going to be our day to tag Kyle’s first bird.

We tried it another early morning, calling in one hen and a Jake that was so close that we could have reached out and grabbed him.

Permission had been given by the landowner across the road, so we headed that way, walking into a hen that was being followed by a Tom, unfortunately the hens sharp eyes pegged us before we could get set up.

After two early morning excursion and the close of the season rapidly approaching, I think Kyle was beginning to wonder about turkey hunting.

We decided to give it one more go, an after work hunt in an area we’d seen birds earlier in the year.

As we always had we glassed the area from a hillside prior to heading in to set up.

We spotted one Tom right where we had planned to set up, so a new plan or Plan B had to be quickly thrown together.

The plan would be to drive to the far end of the trees, put a sneak through the trees growing along the south side.

As we headed into the trees, a Tom gobbled off to the west.  With Kyle in the lead, we quietly approached the area we’d hoped to set up in.

Once we reached the tree line, I noticed that there was a slight rise about thirty yards in front of us, which didn’t give us much time to get on the bird as he popped over the rise.

Since we had no choice, I set the decoy in a low mating position just this side of the rise while Kyle set up our turkey fan off to his right.

Our fan came from one of last year’s birds and cut off where it attaches to the body. After dusting the tail section with Borax to help preserve it, it’s spread out and nailed to a board until it dries in a natural position.

We’d used fans years ago while hunting in central Missouri and since no one else was allowed to hunt this property, I felt it was safe enough to use the fan.

Note: The use of a fan can be dangerous if others may be hunting the same area, as a mature Tom’s fan can draw gunfire from some individuals.

Once again, I started with my Roost’em box call and then went to my slate call, giving the impression that there were two different birds calling.

And then, no response, which late in the season isn’t unusual as the breeding season is coming to the end and there is less talking going on between the Toms and hens.

We’d been on site about five minutes when a red head, no two red heads appeared on the rise as a Tom and Jake walked into full view.

I whispered to Kyle that the mature Tom was in the lead as he brought his shotgun into position.

The big Tom, noticing the hen decoy, turned in that direction and noticing the turkey fan quickly turned to face it and started moving slowly in it’s direction.

As I was giving the warning putt to get the Tom to raise its head, Kyle fired, dropping the big bird in its tracks.

Kyle’s first bird, weighing 20 plus pounds with a 10” beard and ¾” spurs a good bird, especially for the first one.

As I set here, knowing the season has ended, longing for next spring season, I have many memories from this spring, one stands out and that was where I introduced another to his first turkey hunt during our final hunt of the season.