My son and I took some time off for our season opener this past Thursday. Temperatures were in the low teens and we wanted to get a early start because we knew it would be bright with cloudless skies and a full moon. We tried to set up our blind in our usual spot and busted a couple turkeys off the roost almost right above us. Move to a new location about 100 yards away and start to set up our blind there only to bust several more turkeys above our new set up.Figured we were in for a long sit before anything came back, but shortly after daybreak we spot a lone silent Tom slipping into the field we're on about 150 yards away. He come straight into our decoys silent but strutting and my son drops him at 6AM Note the hole in the fan. The Tom was facing us and just started to strut when my son shot We decide to sit a little while longer because this guy was alone and we hadn't spooked anything else. A few minutes later we spot a gobbler heading up the hill about 300 yards behind me in the picture below. He strutted and gobbled on the top and was soon visited by a flock of hens and several jakes. A second silent Tom shows up and starts down the hill towards our decoys and calling. He makes it about half way to us before the gobbler from the top of the hill comes running and runs off the silent Tom. This Boss Tom struts and gobbles continuously as he closes the couple hundred yards in just minutes. I take him at 6:30AM. You can still see the jakes on the top of the hill right of my left shoulder. We went from figuring we weren't going to see anything after busting several turkeys off the roost, to having one of our single best turkey hunting day to date. My son's Tom is actually larger than mine. Slightly longer beard and spurs. Friday (day 2) we decide to run and gun at our cottage. We go in blind not knowing where or if any turkeys were in the area. We dress and listen for a few minutes. After hearing a distant gobble at day break, we devise a plan and move to setup on a ridge above the gobbler. Long story short, we spend about 2 hours with this Tom, four jakes and several hens within about 50 yards of us but never giving my son a shoot. My son would go left, the Tom came in on the right. My Son would go right and Tom would circle and come in on the left. At one time we figured he was about 60-70 yards away which would allow us to reposition our selves. I got to all fours facing the tree and my son trying to stay low rolled onto his belly to crawl to the opposite side of the tree when the Tom heard us rustling and likely thought we were a hen scratching in the leaves and came back We had to stay like this for about 15 minutes while the Tom circled us and strutted a few yard behind me. I had done almost no calling after I got his attention a couple hours earlier hoping he would eventually move off so we could reset but that took almost 2 hours of him and the others circling us. After he finally moved off a bit we were able to move and reset up about 80 yards down the ridge. It didn't take us long to strike him back up and bring him into about 20 yards on the proper side of the tree my son was sitting at. I could have shot this guy a couple times but wanted my son to shoot. This is his first year filling both tags. I am holding onto my second tag to take my wife out in a couple weeks. She doesn't like the below freezing mornings.
Only allowed 1 here. I don't hunt turkeys so let some folks in to hunt. 5 were taken so far. A hundred or more taken would be nice.
