# First Turkey



## polarbear (Aug 1, 2011)

I have to admit I've had a hard time talking myself into buying a turkey tag, especially since I can buy a tastier, bigger turkey in the grocery store for less than the price of a tag. I know, hunters shouldn't be rational or economical or else they might quit altogether. Anyway, with my wife's encouragement I decided to give it a try this year. 

There's not a lot of turkeys in my part of the state especially on public land. The few that are out there are tough to find. So I picked a point on a map that looked good and decided to go have a look around yesterday. I showed up in the afternoon (not ideal) and called a couple times. By a pure stroke of luck I got a response gobble but that's all I got. I decided to try again this morning so I got there before dawn this time and immediately heard a faint gobble in the distance. I started working towards it, stopping and calling periodically. After about a mile of that with no response I was beginning to lose hope. I couldn't help but notice all the coyote tracks, and my mind started to wander. I figured if the turkeys wouldn't talk, maybe the coyotes would, so I stopped on a ridge and gave a coyote howl with my mouth. I immediately got a howl back which made me forget all about why I was there in the first place. I began to glass in the direction of the howl and accidentally glassed up some turkeys about a half mile away walking over a ridge and dropping down into the creek bottom. "Oh yeah, turkeys". I remembered why I was there again. 

I hurried over to where I saw the turkeys, using terrain as cover. When I got where I wanted to be I was kinda disappointed to see them now on an open hillside moving away from me. There were 4 toms in full strut following 2 hens. I had nowhere to go without getting spotted unless I dropped down into the creek bottom and went a half mile out of my way... so that's what I did. I went around a big bend in the creek keeping a hill between me and the turkeys. I got around the edge of the hill and glassed up the turkeys again. They were up on a bench following the rim above the creek. When they went behind some rocks I made my move. I darted across the open creek bottom trying to get ahead of them. I picked a small side canyon about 400 yards ahead of the turkeys and slowly crawled up the side of it, trying to be as quiet as possible. 

When I got to the top, I slowly peaked over some rocks expecting to see the turkeys still about 100 yards away where I could try to call them in. To my surprise there was a head peaking over the rock right back at me about 10 yards away and 3 more heads behind that. I knew they were all Toms, but I told myself to make sure I saw a beard before I shot. I dropped back down behind the rock, shouldered my gun, and slowly peaked back over. It was obvious they were on to me. The closest one made the mistake of peaking around the side of a rock long enough for me to see a beard. I pulled the trigger, and my old single shot 12 ga. did the trick. After sending some bragging texts I began the pack out. Three miles to the truck. That turkey got pretty heavy by the end. He had an 8" beard and 1 1/4" spurs. Not sure how that measures up, but I'm happy.


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## USMARINEhuntinfool (Sep 15, 2007)

Nice bird man, that is awesome. No small feet.


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## Mojo1 (Sep 8, 2007)

Nice Tom!!! Killing them that way is harder than buying one at the store, but...............

He will far better tasting than those old store bought butterballs!:mrgreen:


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## jimmygotagun (May 5, 2013)

That is awesome I am still looking to get my first one. Congrats.


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## ridgetop (Sep 13, 2007)

congrats. That just shows that turkeys can be found anywhere.


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## polarbear (Aug 1, 2011)

Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm already looking forward to next year.


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