bowtroll's Waterfowlin album on Photobucket

Sunday, April 29, 2012

And More Turkeys!!!






I have now stumbled into my best Turkey season ever by the numbers...


Today makes 2 doubles for Paul and I in the last 6 days and 3 in the last 2 seasons...

I really dont know where to begin...Im exhausted....cant wait to sleep....but will be back behind the camera tomorrow Am and the next day and the next....................

Paul had been watching his bird for weeks....he has footage of him strutting numerous times...I would hear about him daily...We knew he was a good one...We knew where he should end up after fly down....Paul called sparingly but the bird was a no show....or so we thought...maybe hunting preasure around the area  shut the gobbler up as Paul ran two jackaloons off of the farm two days ago...Luckily they were on the other side of the farm but today all was silent after the birds feet hit the ground....

Patient Paul actually got up to creep over and see if he was strutting over the rise....I took the opportunity to take a whiz...I zipped up and turned around just in time to see a hen cresting the hill less than 15 yards from Paul who was now crawling up the hill.....I whistled and motioned frantically for Paul to bail out....he dove in a ditch and scurried back behind me as the birds came over the knoll.....Their view obstructed by brush and the swale that Paul had run down in to....Paul could not get back to his original spot in front of me so I grabbed his gun and pushed it back to him...I readied the camera and plugged my left ear with my finger as the gun was right beside my head now and we had no other choice........





The bird made his way into view and did something I had never seen....got all the way to the decoys and kinda freaked....he putted and turned around....I heard Paul swing left and I let go of the cam.....Boom......Dusted....Im pretty sure the wad went through its face..............






We quickly went in search of another bird........

I really thought the chances of another double were slim to none but we were gonna give it hell.....we slapped a high five when we spotted a strutter in a field and quickly formulated a plan....we got a jake fan out of the truck and proceeded to run...crawl...scurry...climb...call...belly crawl...sweat....huff and puff.....and call some more...for an hour....This stud had a hen with him and they put on a show....we got cool footage of the most awesome mating ritual....including this ole boy dry humping the ground in front of the hen after he bred her as if to show her what he had just done to that thing!!!!



Paul threw a super raspy call at the pair and the hen freaked......he ran after her but kept stopping to strut...he was lovesick and confused...
I put a final stalk to within 35 yards of him with the jake fan....Im pretty sure his mind was blown....he seemed to hide in the grass....



I handed the fan to Paul and told him to hold it up and distract the bird...we rose up together with cam and gun....and we finished the day with 17 minutes left!!!!






Unreal end to an unreal day!!!






And then to top it all off....Andy finally scores on a dandy....After repeated attempts and numerous people trying to help call to some of the most unkillable birds on the planet...Andy packed it up and headed to a farm where he has had great  success in the past...He and Paul capped off a great weekend of Turkey hunting with this big old Gobbler!!!