I have a confession to make.

[tongueincheek]

My name is Brian and I am a dirty jake killer. There I said it and finally got it off my chest and I feel a lot better about myself. I knew the ramifications of shooting him when I pulled the trigger but at the time, I really did not care. Now my season is over and I am regretting the decision but it is what it is. You see I have a group of jakes on my property that like to hang out in a section of thinned pines and I like to call them The Googans.(an old fishing term). There also happens to be a gobbler I am (was) after that loves to hang out in those pines as well.

There is a little bowl in these pines that all the turkeys in the area like to go to. The first morning I fooled with this gobbler he was roosted across the paved road and quickly made his way into the pines. He had several hens with him so I knew it wasn�t going to be easy. I sweet talked this gobbler for hours with him being right above the bowl and just out of sight. A few hens filtered in and out of the bowl during the morning with him up above me gobbling his head off. Around 11 am he shut up but I knew he was still around. I sat there patiently until 1 pm and a couple of jakes showed up. This was the first time I had met The Googans and I noticed right away there was a big black one that was a little bit bigger than the rest of them and seemed to be the Boss Googan, which I named Blackie. I watched them for a little while in the bowl just milling around. All of a sudden a couple of hens walked down from where the gobbler had been and started scratching around with the jakes. A few minutes went by and I heard the unmistakable sound of spitting and drumming and I just knew this was about to happen. I finally put eyes on him and he is sitting on top of the bowl all by himself just spitting and drumming up a storm. I watched him ever so patiently for over an hour and he was just not interested in coming down there in the bowl with the others. Around 3:30 I have been sitting up against this tree now for about 9 hours and I was starting to get impatient. I guess he was too because he finally broke and started down the hill towards me and, The Googans. That�s when I found out why he was so reluctant to come down there. Blackie and his Googan cronies immediately perk up and start up the hill to him. Upon reaching him those dirty Googans jumped on him and all I could see was wings flapping and huge mass of turkeys in an all out brawl. This culminated in my gobbler and The Googans running through the pines out of sight and the hens running in a different direction. I was disappointed and got up and left empty handed.
Fast forward to the next weekend.

While I was aggravated at the scenario, I killed a turkey between the next time I would encounter The Googans, so it was somewhat out of my system. I got a rare opportunity to go by myself and I decided I was going to put an end to the Pine Bowl Gobbler. This time I go in the thinned pines and find my little makeshift blind that I had made the previous weekend with dead pine limbs. When I get there it�s just cracking daylight and inside my little blind there is a pile of pine straw with turkey feathers all in the straw. My first thought was that a poacher had come in during the week and killed the Pine Bowl Gobbler and put me some straw and feathers in my little blind to be a smart alleck. I sat there and thought about it and got aggravated because this wouldn�t be my first go around with a poacher on this land. I decide to leave and go someplace else and was steaming as I walked to the truck. I got back to the paved road and I heard the Pine Bowl Gobbler let out a thunderous gobble about 80 yards from where I had been sitting. I make a mad dash back in there and I don�t make it in time. By the time I get back to the bowl he�s already flown down and in the dirt road that separates the pines from the swamp. I knew he would come to the pines because that�s what he always does. Ha�� you would think after hunting these bastages for so long it wouldn�t surprise me when one does something so out of the ordinary, but after all these years it still indeed surprises me. Instead of coming into the pines, he goes directly into the thickest nastiest swamp you can imagine and proceeds to gobble his head off at anything that made a sound. If years and years of turkey hunting have taught me anything, it�s taught me that turkeys may not always do exactly what you think right then but I knew before the day was out that joker would be in those pines. I went back to my little blind in the pine bowl prepared to sit a spell.

Now if you remember in the last paragraph I had found the straw/feathers piled up in my makeshift blind. As I�m heading back up the hill to my little blind in the bowl I run up on another pile of straw and feathers about 15 yards behind my blind. I eased up and kick it and feel something solid. I pushed the straw over and lo and behold there is a turkey underneath it. I flip it over and it�s a dead and half eaten hen. Bobcat kill! I immediately felt better about my �poacher� situation, and with renewed enthusiasm I sat down for the wait.

I sat there from 6:30 until 10 listening to the Pine Bowl Gobbler raise sand in that swamp and then all of a sudden he went quiet. That long drive and only getting a couple hours of sleep was wearing on me so I decided to take myself a little siesta so I closed my eyes and drifted off. Around 10:45 I was laying there using my vest seat as a pillow when I was awakened by what seemed like the loudest gobble I had ever heard. I instantly jumped into position and knew he was right on top of me. He couldn�t have been but 40-50 yards from me when he turned that last gobble loose. Finally I look and I see him walking through the pines towards the upper terrace about 90 yards away. He just basically made himself a big wide circle around the bowl. A few minutes later he took his place on top of the bowl and two hens slid in there from behind me. One of the hens was feeling it and started cutting and yelping and the Pine Bowl Gobbler commenced to losing his mind. It wasn�t but a minute and he broke strut, dropped his head and started into the bowl. I knew this game was about to be over as he steadily made his way to me. I bumped the safety off when he got to 65 yards and all of a sudden he stopped and went into full alert. I hear purring to my left and I turn my head and here comes Blackie and the Googans. His gang had grown since the last time I saw them as this time there was a total of 9 of them. This literal mass of yearling turkeys storm past me with their heads twisting around the others to see who�s going to beat who to the Pine Bowl Gobbler. All 9 of The Googans jumped him and it looked like those old Loony Toons cartoons where the characters would fight and you would see a tornado of dust with arms and legs coming out of it on occasion. All I could see was dust and pine straw flying everywhere with the occasion wing coming out of the fray. As I watched the Pine Bowl Gobbler get beat down and then take off flying I literally could not believe what was happening. I began to seethe in anger but there was nothing I could do. I just sat there in shock and disbelief and then I see a turkey walking down the hill to me. I look closer and guess what���. It�s Blackie. Then I see his Googan cronies filtering through the pines out in front of me. Blackie is taking a route that�s going to put him around 18 yards from me. That�s when I decided that a lesson was going to have to be administered. I let Blackie come down the hill and he beat the other Googans to the bowl. I wanted them to be able to see this lesson being administered, so I clucked on a mouth call to stop Blackie in front of me. Every time he tried to move I would cluck and he would stop and raise that head. When every one of them were in that bowl and in plain view where they could get the full effect of what was about to happen�.. I put that bead on Blackies eye at 18 yards and decapitated him. Then I stood up and fast walked at the Googans so they would fully understand what had happened. As I stood on Blackies neck and the pile of mush which used to be his head, I watched his buddies run through the pines in a mad dash. Mission accomplished.
I was simply sending a message but in the process I punched a tag. Now I sit here wishing I could hunt and looking at that punched jake tag. Sigh.

[/tongueincheek]


BC

Great story man!

Good story. Wish we had 9 Jakes! Sometimes you just got to teach them a lesson

Good stuff

Great read!

Nothing wrong with that. Congrats. Wish the gobbler would have seen an come thrash the jake you shot.

I'm in a similar predicament on my property where I usually kill 3 or 4 birds. Now you cant even find a gobbler on the place. One super jake (The one from my jake or gobbler post before the season) and his 6 comrades. I've given them the pass enough now I don't think I'm going to kill one. But, they may twist my arm and wind up getting shot.

Good read. Thanks for sharing.

Everything points to a justified execution. Congrats and I hope you get the big gobbler next spring.

Good read brother!

Great read! Makes me wanna break up a pack of jakes!!

Good read BC! Congrats on the limit!

Good read BC! Sounds like Blackie got what he had coming!!

Good job BC!

Someone has to make a stand to end BULLYING!..I saw a commercial about it on tv. They even have a new emoji for it.

Sounds like you put an end to bullying and stood up for that poor bullied lone gobbler!

Hashtag @ stopbully jakes

LOL

That was a good one, I believe if I had that problem I would act accordingly

lol

I'm glad y'all enjoyed that. I started not to post that thinking it might be taken as lame more than humorous as intended.


Don't feel too bad for me though. I still got to go down this past weekend and guide my son a little and hang out with great friends like Bowhunter84 and BC_Reb and his buddy on Sat night and tell turkey hunting stories on the porch. Darryl even tried to blow me up with his tractor on Sat and I got a cool new battle scar on my chin. Good times.

Man I love turkey hunting.

Great story! I don't blame you for blasting him. You oughta have some great hunting next year.

Best read of the season! I was right there with ya!

Dr. B

I enjoyed it.