Larry A. Smail's Blog

Wednesday morning found Bob and I going separate ways again with hopes of hearing turkeys on the roost. We both failed! I began a call and walk approach to try to locate birds. The winds were not as bad, but enough of noise was present to make hearing far away birds impossible.

Notice the strong white bars on the tail feathers.

I slowly approached a crest on a hill to observe the back side and was disappointed to not see any turkeys. I then walked downslope  and walked below the hill’s rim and, later, as I came back up over I quickly noticed a turkey’s head drop and I immediately began to charge towards it. Five turkeys were in a mad dash up the slope as I hollered. I managed to get a slight break. Three birds went to my right and two went straight ahead. I couldn’t be positive of their gender, but, at least several appeared to be big birds.                       

I walked around looking for a good spot to set and call from. Tree tops littered the forest floor. No matter where I set I would only be able to see  in a few directions. I waited and later began calling loudly to overshadow the noise the best I could.

Forty-five minutes later I heard the loud “woody-like” putt of a gobbler. The turkey, you guessed it, came in  directly behind one of those tree tops. He was only about 15 yards from me and I just couldn’t get a shot. I decided to raised up and try to connect. The gobbler wouldn’t have anything of that blob against the tree (ME!) and soared off down the hill.

I remained another forty minutes or so calling. I began to get chilled from inactivity and the wind. Also, I wondered about Bob and decided to hit the brush and find him and, also, get warmed up.

I stood up and when I walked behind  to go over a slight rise in the terrain….you guessed it!  A second long beard took off. Neither bird uttered any sounds as is typical of older birds. They sneak in and watch. This bird was around 35 to 40 yards at most from where I had been calling from!!!!!!

I located Bob and we decided to go to another place for a short time before going home for leaf mulching. We saw another turkey fly across the trail. I saw deer and squirrels.

This morning I elected to hunt close to my homestead. I intended to make our family tradition of having breakfast with my mother, step father, Bob and my sister Ruthie. I hunted to after 8:00 while being blasted with rain. I saw a number of deer and squirrels and an owl, but I didn’t hear or see any turkeys.

After breakfast and my clothes in the dryer, I just couldn’t stand setting and off I went again to see if I could locate a nice bird. I returned to where I had hunted the day earlier and began a walk and call strategy.

About an hour into the hunt I came upon some fresh turkey scratchings. I walked some more and peered into a field and saw ten deer feeding.  A short distance further I saw turkey heads moving out in an area with pines and multiflora rose. I started into this mess to break them up and had to stop. I noticed several birds within range beginning to run and I had my 2014 fall gobbler. The tom was a gobbler of the year with a short beard.