April 20 (Friday)
Me and my pal t123winters had hunted together one evening early in the season and I had told him I would love for him to come hunt with me at some point as he had only ever been on my places when he was the caller on a youth hunt. Like everybody in Jackson County, his hunts had been terribly quiet and he was excited about the prospect of fooling with a turkey that would most likely gobble great. We were both off work that day and he had a wedding to leave for around 11:00. He follows me in with the intent of heading out when he needs to and I’m gonna give ol Crazy my entire day if I have to. We have no idea where he will be so we just stand in the pasture enjoying some fellowship and wait for the spring woods to come to life. Ol Crazy gobbles a few times on the creek and pitches out in the big crop field and starts gobbling good. We start to make a move to setup on him and we look with binocs again and he is gone. We finally spot him and he is running wide open to get to the spot where he was on the previous day with Haybale. We get in the truck and drive way past him this time and make a much bigger loop to avoid spooking him. He gobbles like wild the whole time and we make it to the hedgerow in great shape about 120 yards from him. I crawl up and get hid and Chilibowl stands behind a big hackberry so he can watch him while calling to him (he can run the hell out of call by the way). In just a minute he tells me he is coming and to get ready. I catch a glimpse of him around 90 yards angling toward us and we eventually lose him in a patch of tall flowers. We wait and wait and wait. Nothing. We finally see him again and he is 200 yards away moving toeard the creek and the mountain on the other side of it. We dont hear him for a bit and then finally hear him low on that mountain about 250 yards away. WTH!?!? We are beginning to believe that maybe this turkey wants to be called to a bunch. Chilibowl starts getting aggressive and gets a hen on that mountain wound up. This turkey is losing his mind gobbling. Chilibowl gobbles at himself with his mouth (unreal how real it sounds) and he starts coming toward us and the other mouthy hen. We deduce he gets hooked up with her and he goes silent for a while. This is a rare morning where we actually heard 4 or 5 turkeys so we get in the truck and drive across the creek to go get in between where we last heard Crazy and another bird. We walk up the mountain and get sat down to listen a while eventually. We hear nothing for a while and Chilibowl finally calls again and ol Crazy cuts him off way around the mountain. We get up and head to him and find him in a fresh cutover with several rises in it. We cover lots of ground toward him in a hollow on the far side and Chilibowl stays back while I slip up to about 100 yards from him and get hid. He starts calling to him and he gets wound up again. He shuts up on him multiple times and eventually he shuts up himself and I am expecting to hear him drumming any minute. He finally gobbles again and he has hauled arse straight away from us again. I take Chilibowl to his truck (almost 11:00 by now) and he wishes me luck....with that look in his eye that I’m gonna need it. Lol!
I never hear or see him again that day and we all evetually deduce he is traumatized 2 year old given he never has hens. I am leaning that way myself but some of the events that transpired kinda make me think he is the boss and loves patrolling that whole area. Regardless....he needs to die!
Last edited by JUGHEAD; 05/01/18 04:39 PM.
