Man I truly think that killing a turkey is harder than killing a deer.
I've been trying to find the turkeys for two weeks now. I finally got lucky this morning. Got out of the truck just as daylight was breaking and hadn't taken five steps when I heard a turkey "gobble" I sneaked the next couple of hundred yards to the old shooting house next to one of my food plots. The whole time the Tom was gobbling his fool head off. It finally got full daylight and a flock of geese flew over head honking like crazy, the woods came alive with gobblers, I could hear three different turkeys gobbling.
Finally the bird closest to me flew off the roost, instead of coming my way he was headed for the next ridge. Try as I might I just couldn't turn him my way, I sat frustrated as his gobbles melted into the distance.
Around 9:30 I heard somthing coming down the ridge to my right. Three does stepped into the food plot, one of which was obviously pregnant. I thought to myself "well at least I saw somthing." The rest of the morning went by without any more excitement untill around 10:45 when I heard movement to my left, four more deer. As I was watching them make there way to the food plot I glanced in front of me, standing not 30 yards away stood a hen turkey. She watched the deer for a moment then decided that they were making way to much noise for comfort and she quietly walked back into the woods. I again focused on the deer, three of which had by now entered the plot in front of me. All of a sudden they stopped feeding and were staring into the woods to my right. I saw movement and could tell that they were turkeys, three hens came out but I could see two more standing in the brush. All of a sudden the two turkeys still in the woods went into full strut, man my heart was pounding. They were too far and it was just too thick to risk a shot. The hens were feeding away from me and I figured the two Toms would follow them. But after what seemed an eternity they both stepped out in front of me. They were a bit far, [45 yards or so] but I knew the old Remington 12 gauge Mag with the extra full turkey choke was up to the task. As one of them stuck his big red head out to gobble I let loose with a 3 inch charge of #5 shot. He fell in his tracks. All hell broke loose then with deer and turkeys going in every direction. To my amazement the other Tom just stood there looking at his buddy. Unfortunatly the limit on turkeys here in Tn. is four per season but only one a day. I'll save this bird for someone else, any volunteers Lon?
Here are a few pics of todays hunt, I wish I had taken a picture of the bird after I shoot but with all the excitement I forgot.
Heres a pic a couple of min. before the shot.
