Our season has been really strange. Gobbling has been a portion of what it typically is up this way. Not to mention I didnt get to go a time between March 31 (my last kill prior to yesterday) and April 12 which was a span that apparently produced at least a few decent hunts for my friends with some birds killed.
April 12 (Thursday)
Rewind to March 30. Prior to that date, I had not heard a single gobble on my club. Me and friend went on his place that morning and heard a bird we couldnt go to and that was it. We finally made it over to my club around 9:00 and when I opened the truck door there was a turkey gobbling good low on the mountain. We fooled with him until around 11:00 and just like most days this spring....a freezing north wind started blowing and clouds rolled in. He was done for the day. I went back on April 12 finally and heard a turkey gobbling good on the limb and went to him. It was shaping up to be a classic off the roost hunt when the turkey that eventually became simply known as “Crazy” showed up behind me and the turkey coming on a string from the other direction left the country only to be heard one more time WAY up the mountain. I spun around on the tree eventually and went to work on ol Crazy. He gobbled like WILD at every noise I made so I put my calls down and figured I had about an hour before I needed to go to work. He never budged so in desperation with only a few minutes left and the earlier turkey in mind, I gobbled at him and he came unglued gobbling about 6 straight times and then shut up. I went ahead and clicked my safety off and the next time I heard him he was 200 yards away headed toward a familiar hollow. I ended up walking up on him while going back to the truck via the road and he was steady walking away strutting and drumming toward that hollow. I slipped out and went to work.
April 13 (Friday)
The next morning I was back and heard two birds gobbling great on the limb. I was about to leave my truck and I was almost positive I heard a different turkey gobble one time in the hollow he was headed toward the previous morning. I headed up the mountain and was dying to walk through that hollow and to the other two turkeys but I just couldnt do it because I just knew that bird was there though he hadnt said another word. I was standing in a logging road waiting on flydown time and was almost sure I could hear the one timer drumming in the tree. After it got flydown time, sure enough he started gobbling great in that hollow and the other birds shut off immediately. I eased up and sat down off the road and was lightly scratching leaves as I made it to my tree. He was coming unglued gobbling. Once I got sat down I decided to play him very gentle this time around. I clucked a few times super soft and barely scratched leaves and he was losing his mind. In just a minute his drumming got way louder and I could tell he had made it to about 70 yards where he would stay for the next hour or so just over a little rise. I was against the clock with work again finally and decided to purr and cluck one last time and he answered and then shut up. I clicked my safety off and never heard another peep for the next 20 minutes until I heard him gobble way down the mountain, sounding like he was trying to crawl up in the landowner’s barn. WTH happened? I had to head down that way to head to work anyway and he got to gobbling good in a familiar place. I belly crawled to a crest in the pasture and saw him strutting right by my damn truck and about 25 cows. Not a hen one with him. Again. I was able to stick up a hen decoy on that crest and started calling to him softly with ny mouth call. He started gobbling like wild again and then shut up. I laid there another 20 minutes thinking he would come strutting up that hill any second and I still don’t have the first clue where he went. Just vanished. This turkey is making me look like a fool! More on him tomorrow. Got to hit the bed.
Last edited by JUGHEAD; 05/01/18 09:41 AM.
