As in past years, I will post a commentary on my season. My laptop is down and working from a tiny notebook, my narratives may be brief till I get a better keyboard with which to work
1April, first day, first bird.
Changes to the season this year regards dates, decoys. Opening morning in early on the middle ridge of a series of three aligned in parallel. At dawn turkeys gobble from the adjacent ridges, none on the ridge where I am! Burn over to the North Ridge on the ATV, arrive about 0630. Ease out of the pine plantation into the hardwoods, I can hear turkeys yelping and scratching 100 yds or so to my front. Slide in against the trunk of a giant chestnut oak and begin to call periodically on my treasured slate. Some 20-30 minutes pass with no responses, but when it starts, things happen quickly. About 1/4 mile a bird gobbles on his own. I answer, though too far to anticipate a response. What I get is a gobble from a second bird about half the distance! I yelp back , no answer , but in a few minutes get a gobble from that direction, now about 100 yds. Again I run the slate past him w/o results, but minutes later gobble just out of sight alerts me he's very close. I ditch the slate and mount the gun, mouth call from this point. In a moment I see the fan. 60 yds and closing. Then, more movement, there's birds between us. A cluster of Jake'sweeps like bird dogs in front of the strutter, and their closing fast. I lose track of the strutter, and now have 6-8 Jake's in my lap the closest inside 20 yds. This could go south in a hurry!.
When one presents a shot at 35 yds or so I take it and he goes down aflutter. Mayhem, and I'm aware of two shock gobbles from birds close by but out of sight. I'm covered up with gobblers!
2April
Grey, cold and overcast. The same Three Ridges location that yielded so many birds and gobbles the day before is dead silent, By 0930 it begins to drizzle and I'm gone.
3April
Three Ridges again and a prettier morning. Birds gobbling on the point at the end of North Ridge, and I close down as close as I dare. By the time I arrive, a lone bird gobbles steadily from the crest at the very end. I set up, begin calling. He answers periodically, comes in to where I can hear him drum, then retreats back out to the point. This goes on for 2 hrs. I can't move, the woods are far to open, no leafs yet, and he's not coming any closer. At 0900 he gobbles for the last time. I stay glued in place for an hour, but he's gone.
I'm on my way out when two different gobblers start up adjacent me on Middle Ridge. I drop into the hollow, clamber up to about their level, and call. They gobble a few more times, but no hot responses, and after an hour of silence I give up on them too. It's A long way back to my old Bronco. I manage to spot a small there point she'd antler and the walk out is a bit easier as a result. Second one I've found this spring.
4April
3 Ridges/North Ridge again This morning I elect to try and beat the point bird to his strut zone out on the end of the ridge. I almost make it, but get caught about 100 yrs short of where I want to be. But I am not going to have a repeat of yesterday. When he gobbles announcing his presence, I drop onto the side of the ridge under him, then scramble through the rocks out on the point, to come out behind him on the crest. This takes a while as I time my moves with traffic on the highway below and his tendency to drift from on see of the crest to th other. When he's "away", gobbles at a passing vehicle, I creep a little closer. At 50-60 yards, just out of sight over a slight rise, I ease in against a tree trunk, settle, and risk a call. He won't have to come far....just enough to offer a shot. He doesn't answer but eventually gobbles again, continuing his back and forth parade on the crest. I try the mouth call again, and again he clams up, but he is very close, in range, but out of sight. When he gobbles next, it's deafening, right in front, just there, he's ceased his parade and locked up just over the rise. I risk raking the leaves with my hands, another ear splitting gobble, then the tips of his fan appear., and then his noggin. I've got you now! I consciously tell myself to wait for a better presentation, he takes a few more steps and pulls out of strut....NOW! Pull the gun out of recoil, no flopping.......He flushes left and away in an instant.......how's that possibble? I was ON him, waited, steady.......???? It's 33 paces over to the spot, duck soup.....???
I ponder,........Then a sinking feeling, I rapped the scope pretty hard getting out of the Bronco......enough to miss? My misery is not over. Walking out, I blunder into another gobbler, and listen to two others over on Middle Ridge, but am reluctant to continue w/ the gun suspect. At home tired or not, I put the gun/scope on paper. my suspicions are confirmed. At 25 paces, the pie plate size pattern is several inches low and left, enough to miss a noggin if that's all you had to shoot at. The scope has been a real asset in the past, but it ( and my clumsy, hurried gun handling at the truck) cost me that bird. Arrgh
