So we went to the woods early. Had a place picked out where we had heard a tom a few days before. Set up about 15 yards apart with me behind facing where we expected the turkey to come from and a decoy out front.
Called intermitently for about a hour....nothing.
Picked up and went to another spot where we'd heard a gobble 2 days before. Called for about 30 minutes with no results.
Spent about a hour or so trying a couple of random spots with no results. As it was now almost 11 and getting warm we decided to head back to the house.
On the way out we go right past the first spot we had set up earlier in the morning and as we do Louann says "Let's go try it for a few minutes".
We get back into EXACTLY the same spots we had started the day out in, the only difference is that Louann sets the decoy much closer to her than before.
Even before she is fully settled I hit the call. And mind you I DO NOT have any idea how to call turkeys! Well as soon as that call goes out he gobbles out in front of us someplace. I wait maybe a minute and scratch the slate again.
And "scratch" is the right word because it does not sound like any noise I have ever heard a turkey make, not even one of our pinned birds. But I guess that tom was all worked up because he putts in responce......and he's now close.
I know Louann has heard him too because I can see that she has her gun up resting it against a small tree pointing in the general direction of the putt.
Now this is thick woods, actually swamp with some water, so we can't see far. That being the case the turkey is not 25 yards out before we can see him coming......and he is BIG......and very black.
And it's obvious from that point that he has seen the decoy. He makes a beline for it.
Now from the moment I see him I'm yelling to myself "Shoot him! Shoot him!".
But there is no shooting. Why? Upon looking hard at Louann I can tell that her shotgun is on the wrong side of the tree it's braced on and that as he is coming straight for the decoy, which is about 20 feet in front of her, she can not move to get him lined up.
He comes right on in, getting to within a foot of the decoy. Once he is that close he realizes something is wrong with that hen and steps off about 10 feet to the right. This puts him behind a BIG cypress tree and gives Louann a chance to move her gun, which she does.
And when he steps back out from behind the tree, now only 15 FEET from her, he sees her. He putts and just as he ducks down to fly off she pulls the trigger.
For a moment he freezes, as the whole load of shot, probably not more than a couple of inches in diameter at that range, pass over his head. And then like a giant quail he bolts for the sky and in a moment is gone.
As he clears the canopy Louann, who has been rolled out of her chair into the swamp by the recoil, comes up screaming and cussing. She rips off her mask and gloves, grabbs her chair and starts beating it on a tree and procedes to YELL that she hates turkey hunting and that I can get the decoy and the shotgun as she is through!!
As she stomps out of the swamp I can hear her cussing and yelling and beating the chair on more trees for some distance.
After collecting everything I followed her out....at a safe distence.
Never did find the chair.......but then she said it was not worth finding.
Irish women.......you take the good with the bad...............
Called intermitently for about a hour....nothing.
Picked up and went to another spot where we'd heard a gobble 2 days before. Called for about 30 minutes with no results.
Spent about a hour or so trying a couple of random spots with no results. As it was now almost 11 and getting warm we decided to head back to the house.
On the way out we go right past the first spot we had set up earlier in the morning and as we do Louann says "Let's go try it for a few minutes".
We get back into EXACTLY the same spots we had started the day out in, the only difference is that Louann sets the decoy much closer to her than before.
Even before she is fully settled I hit the call. And mind you I DO NOT have any idea how to call turkeys! Well as soon as that call goes out he gobbles out in front of us someplace. I wait maybe a minute and scratch the slate again.
And "scratch" is the right word because it does not sound like any noise I have ever heard a turkey make, not even one of our pinned birds. But I guess that tom was all worked up because he putts in responce......and he's now close.
I know Louann has heard him too because I can see that she has her gun up resting it against a small tree pointing in the general direction of the putt.
Now this is thick woods, actually swamp with some water, so we can't see far. That being the case the turkey is not 25 yards out before we can see him coming......and he is BIG......and very black.
And it's obvious from that point that he has seen the decoy. He makes a beline for it.
Now from the moment I see him I'm yelling to myself "Shoot him! Shoot him!".
But there is no shooting. Why? Upon looking hard at Louann I can tell that her shotgun is on the wrong side of the tree it's braced on and that as he is coming straight for the decoy, which is about 20 feet in front of her, she can not move to get him lined up.
He comes right on in, getting to within a foot of the decoy. Once he is that close he realizes something is wrong with that hen and steps off about 10 feet to the right. This puts him behind a BIG cypress tree and gives Louann a chance to move her gun, which she does.
And when he steps back out from behind the tree, now only 15 FEET from her, he sees her. He putts and just as he ducks down to fly off she pulls the trigger.
For a moment he freezes, as the whole load of shot, probably not more than a couple of inches in diameter at that range, pass over his head. And then like a giant quail he bolts for the sky and in a moment is gone.
As he clears the canopy Louann, who has been rolled out of her chair into the swamp by the recoil, comes up screaming and cussing. She rips off her mask and gloves, grabbs her chair and starts beating it on a tree and procedes to YELL that she hates turkey hunting and that I can get the decoy and the shotgun as she is through!!
As she stomps out of the swamp I can hear her cussing and yelling and beating the chair on more trees for some distance.
After collecting everything I followed her out....at a safe distence.
Never did find the chair.......but then she said it was not worth finding.
Irish women.......you take the good with the bad...............
!!!