May 10, 2024
I thought I would fill a tag! The first gobble I heard was at 5:25 A.M. The thunder was behind me, and I quickly made a move to locate the gobbler. I would soon hear a second gobbler. I worked to around a hundred yards maybe less.
Finding a good calling site was difficult. A number of trees had come down years ago so possible hang ups could be possible. I chose a site where I could watch a grassy gas line road. The one bird was roosting just upslope of the gas well. Rain was an option I didn’t care to deal with, but rain has been common this May. I would become quite damp during this standoff.
Across the road is an open wood. I feared trying to move into it but I should have tried with hindsight. I later saw the two gobblers at eight-four yards. (I would return the next morning and used a rangefinder.) The birds were right there about ten yards from the grassy road. I felt some confidence! However, as with turkey hunting always is, the birds do unexplainable things. These two were no different.
They crossed the road and entered into the open woods previous mentioned. There is a gulley there and there is where they made the stand. To the side of the grassy road is a fifty or so feet area of Multiflora Rose. I could not see them due the rose brambles and the contour of the terrain. They gobbled and gobbled. I tried various calls and patient waiting with silence. Nothing worked and after three hours in totality they quit and wandered off. I left at almost nine o’clock, wet, cold and cramped. By the way, using the range finder I learned these birds hung around the thirty-five-to-forty-yard distances. And they stayed in that gulley for over an hour!
One question for me is why they did not use the grassy road? The two birds were right beside it. The second question is why they didn’t simply walk around the multiflora rose area? That is why they call it hunting and not getting, I guess.
May 11, 2024
I knew entering the woods this morning my hunt would be short. I had commitments in preparation for the Sunday, Mother’s Day cook out at the house. Of course, if I gobblers came in front of me, I would stay out longer! I was disappointed upon hearing gobbling deep into posted property. The first gobble was at 5:18 A.M. I hung around listening and calling in the area until nine o’clock. I did see deer, a Fisher and a Racoon. We would have a nice Mother’s Day get-together on May 12.
May 13, 2024
What a turkey day this turned out to be buy yet I didn’t see any turkeys so, apparently, I didn’t harvest a bird. How does this happen?
There was no turkey activity on the property I was hunting, however I could hear several gobblers far off into posted lands. Around 6:10 I could hear a gobbler on the same hill as I was hunting but in the posted land. But, he was on the flat of the hill. I elected to hunt below the posted land and try to call loud enough the gobbler might respond. It worked!
Although I failed to check the time, I surmise I heard the reply around 6:40 or so. The bird circled my position and was joined with a second gobbler. The gobblers dropped over a contour on the hill. I moved in and called. I received many answers. Throughout a few hours the gobblers came almost to the point where I would be able to get a shot, but for some reason they wouldn’t commit.
After ten, the birds quit, and I suspected one may have been viewing my movement to relive a potential Charlie Horse. Just as I believed I had been spotted the birds gobbled again farther to the right. I tried maneuvering tactics to get below the birds and below that hill contour.
I tried many position changes and various styles of calling. I would get an answer or two then silence. I’d wait a few minutes, call again and hear the replies only to become silent. I tried the silent treatments on the turkeys, too, but to no avail.
Larry A. Smail's Blog 