KThompson
Active member
Well, I've been trying to keep from talking too much turkey except via emails to Sutton and texting pictures to J. Russell & Brian Story but this was is just too good not to share (a.k.a. brag) with the duckboats.net masses. Sorry in advance for the unedited, long-winded story so skip to end for pictures if you have a life. 
Got invited to hunt some private land with a buddy from high school who I recently reconnected with after moving back to my hometown. We started off the morning with a hike up the mountain to try and get as close to a gobbler that we heard one time... but not get too close (you know the routine). We stopped in an area where we felt comfortable enough that he should be able to hear us but not too close as to bump him off the roost. When it got to be time that I thought turkeys should be hitting the ground, I made a couple series of very soft tree yelps with a friction call a friend from MS made and then used a dried wing to mimic a flydown. After that I started some soft clucking and leaf scratching and not 1min later I heard a bird hit the ground, followed by seeing another bird pitch down out of a tree on the bench below me at about 80-100yds away (was that the gobbler?... sure looked like it). I moved my head to the left to give a "we got him" look/thumbs up to my partner and noticed two turkeys cupped up like a pair of geese coming to land near us, no decoys though.
They hit the ground about 20yds from us... turkeys are everywhere! He was about a half bench higher than me and could see the flat they landed on so I didn't get to see anything but the heads peeping over the hump. It was very low light still but they were headed my way and looking for the imaginary hen that woke everyone up and I couldn't make up my mind of they were hens or jakes but hoped there was a gobbler on the ground behind them. Next thing I know they are 15yds away from us and starting to "PUTT PUTT PUTT PUTT...", which is the absolute worst sound a turkey hunter can hear, and we knew it was over for this setup. He said, "I'm going to shoot" and I didn't know if he meant at the jakes, which I could plainly see at 15yds, or he was shooting at a gobbler I couldn't see.... 2 seconds later, 1 shot rang out and no dead bird! Dang! What a heartbreaking few minutes realizing we would have had a good chance at working that gobbler but were busted by a couple of younguns.
We moved to a different area of the property with some of the most beautiful “old growth” hardwoods I’ve ever had the privilege of hunting… typed in quotations because you guys in different parts of the country might laugh at what I consider old growth but it seems everyone down here in AL has logged property within the past 40yrs if they could make a couple of bucks. We saw a ton of sign and had a bird answer but once we closed the gap to where he should have been, he had already moved down the mountain and let us know with one more gobble… I like to assume it was hens taking him away and not terrible calling. ha!
Since things were quiet, we drove to a different property he leases to try and strike up a gobble. When I opened the truck door and my feet on the ground, I thought I heard a bird gobble in the distance (only 4th gobble of the morning and it’s 8:30AM now)…. Too good to be true? Maybe I’m hearing things?... stop over-thinking it and just go hunt I say to myself. We start out over a ridge to get within view of an overgrown cut corn field turkeys use fairly regularly and I saw a bird in full strut and another turkey a long ways off, maybe 450-500yds. Fortunately he knows the property well so we fast-walked through the woods out of sight (and sound since we had a light 3-4mph wind to keep things moving) of the two turkeys in the field. We get close to an area that would put us 100-120ish yds away and not close enough to bump any ladies he might be showing off for inside the woodline.
We take our vests off and I get one friction call and mouthcall and we crawl to a rock that should give us good sight of the strutter…. Oh yeah, he’s still out there showing off. We can even hear one very loud hen in the wood yelping like a public land hunter that just learned how to use a push-button call. It was unreal to hear unpressured turkeys talk/communicate like I think they should… she’d let him have it with about a 10series yelp, he’d gobble, she’d let him have it with another long series of yelps, he’d gobble, then another hen would pipe up with a deeper/raspier sound, he’d gobble… then I could swear I heard a jake or gobbler yelping as well… it was a dang NWTF convention (minus the drunks and auctioneers) going on in this field and we got to observe and be a part of it!!! I eventually yelped, cut, yelped, hit him with series of cuts that weren't super agressive to get his attention and it worked!
He broke from strut and periscoped that neck up as high as possible to see who wanted to join the property but he wouldn’t budge from his position. After a few minutes of this, I did the latest controversial thing in turkey hunting and pulled out a fan and crawled about 5 yds into the very overgrown field to see if that would trigger a dominance response with Mr. Strutt (btw, the other turkey with him was a gobbler as well… only one went into half strut two times in the nearly 1hr we observed them). He then started going between full strutt to periscoping but wouldn’t come much closer. I started mimicking the most vocal hen in the woods to see if I could call the out-of-sight birds closer or get them worked up and she responded. It sounded like I had worked her up enough that she was moving in our direction, out-of-site in the woods and I swear there was a gobbler yelping with her as well. I started cutting off her calls with an aggressive cutting series and the ol boy couldn’t stand that and decided to start moving our way. He covered a lot of ground pretty quickly and when he got within 18-20yds of my partner, he shot but missed and the turkey immediately took flight. It flew at an angle towards me and I pulled up and shot like I was waterfowl hunting and it was neat to see a turkey fold up like a greater Canada goose… ha! That was a first for me and the celebration that ensued after that bird dropped was legendary as well, glad we didn’t have it on camera, ha! When I got my foot on the ol boys neck, he left me with a parting gift as I looked down and noticed his record sized hooks had sliced into my lacrosse rubber boots…
Both the spurs and weight are personal best for me. Measurements: 10-3/4” beard, 1-1/4" & 1-5/16" spurs, and 24.5 lbs! Weight beats my biggest bird which was 21.5lbs about 17-18yrs ago. I’ve heard there have been some really heavy birds killed this year due to the incredible mass crops produced in the woods and that was true of deer as well. Guess this guy was really eating his Wheaties… err acorns. Here’s a couple of pics of my once-in-a-lifetime AL gobbler… I can’t thank my buddy enough for letting me go on that hunt and have the experience of lifetime (relative to the turkey woods).
Got invited to hunt some private land with a buddy from high school who I recently reconnected with after moving back to my hometown. We started off the morning with a hike up the mountain to try and get as close to a gobbler that we heard one time... but not get too close (you know the routine). We stopped in an area where we felt comfortable enough that he should be able to hear us but not too close as to bump him off the roost. When it got to be time that I thought turkeys should be hitting the ground, I made a couple series of very soft tree yelps with a friction call a friend from MS made and then used a dried wing to mimic a flydown. After that I started some soft clucking and leaf scratching and not 1min later I heard a bird hit the ground, followed by seeing another bird pitch down out of a tree on the bench below me at about 80-100yds away (was that the gobbler?... sure looked like it). I moved my head to the left to give a "we got him" look/thumbs up to my partner and noticed two turkeys cupped up like a pair of geese coming to land near us, no decoys though.
They hit the ground about 20yds from us... turkeys are everywhere! He was about a half bench higher than me and could see the flat they landed on so I didn't get to see anything but the heads peeping over the hump. It was very low light still but they were headed my way and looking for the imaginary hen that woke everyone up and I couldn't make up my mind of they were hens or jakes but hoped there was a gobbler on the ground behind them. Next thing I know they are 15yds away from us and starting to "PUTT PUTT PUTT PUTT...", which is the absolute worst sound a turkey hunter can hear, and we knew it was over for this setup. He said, "I'm going to shoot" and I didn't know if he meant at the jakes, which I could plainly see at 15yds, or he was shooting at a gobbler I couldn't see.... 2 seconds later, 1 shot rang out and no dead bird! Dang! What a heartbreaking few minutes realizing we would have had a good chance at working that gobbler but were busted by a couple of younguns.
We moved to a different area of the property with some of the most beautiful “old growth” hardwoods I’ve ever had the privilege of hunting… typed in quotations because you guys in different parts of the country might laugh at what I consider old growth but it seems everyone down here in AL has logged property within the past 40yrs if they could make a couple of bucks. We saw a ton of sign and had a bird answer but once we closed the gap to where he should have been, he had already moved down the mountain and let us know with one more gobble… I like to assume it was hens taking him away and not terrible calling. ha!
Since things were quiet, we drove to a different property he leases to try and strike up a gobble. When I opened the truck door and my feet on the ground, I thought I heard a bird gobble in the distance (only 4th gobble of the morning and it’s 8:30AM now)…. Too good to be true? Maybe I’m hearing things?... stop over-thinking it and just go hunt I say to myself. We start out over a ridge to get within view of an overgrown cut corn field turkeys use fairly regularly and I saw a bird in full strut and another turkey a long ways off, maybe 450-500yds. Fortunately he knows the property well so we fast-walked through the woods out of sight (and sound since we had a light 3-4mph wind to keep things moving) of the two turkeys in the field. We get close to an area that would put us 100-120ish yds away and not close enough to bump any ladies he might be showing off for inside the woodline.
We take our vests off and I get one friction call and mouthcall and we crawl to a rock that should give us good sight of the strutter…. Oh yeah, he’s still out there showing off. We can even hear one very loud hen in the wood yelping like a public land hunter that just learned how to use a push-button call. It was unreal to hear unpressured turkeys talk/communicate like I think they should… she’d let him have it with about a 10series yelp, he’d gobble, she’d let him have it with another long series of yelps, he’d gobble, then another hen would pipe up with a deeper/raspier sound, he’d gobble… then I could swear I heard a jake or gobbler yelping as well… it was a dang NWTF convention (minus the drunks and auctioneers) going on in this field and we got to observe and be a part of it!!! I eventually yelped, cut, yelped, hit him with series of cuts that weren't super agressive to get his attention and it worked!
He broke from strut and periscoped that neck up as high as possible to see who wanted to join the property but he wouldn’t budge from his position. After a few minutes of this, I did the latest controversial thing in turkey hunting and pulled out a fan and crawled about 5 yds into the very overgrown field to see if that would trigger a dominance response with Mr. Strutt (btw, the other turkey with him was a gobbler as well… only one went into half strut two times in the nearly 1hr we observed them). He then started going between full strutt to periscoping but wouldn’t come much closer. I started mimicking the most vocal hen in the woods to see if I could call the out-of-sight birds closer or get them worked up and she responded. It sounded like I had worked her up enough that she was moving in our direction, out-of-site in the woods and I swear there was a gobbler yelping with her as well. I started cutting off her calls with an aggressive cutting series and the ol boy couldn’t stand that and decided to start moving our way. He covered a lot of ground pretty quickly and when he got within 18-20yds of my partner, he shot but missed and the turkey immediately took flight. It flew at an angle towards me and I pulled up and shot like I was waterfowl hunting and it was neat to see a turkey fold up like a greater Canada goose… ha! That was a first for me and the celebration that ensued after that bird dropped was legendary as well, glad we didn’t have it on camera, ha! When I got my foot on the ol boys neck, he left me with a parting gift as I looked down and noticed his record sized hooks had sliced into my lacrosse rubber boots…
Both the spurs and weight are personal best for me. Measurements: 10-3/4” beard, 1-1/4" & 1-5/16" spurs, and 24.5 lbs! Weight beats my biggest bird which was 21.5lbs about 17-18yrs ago. I’ve heard there have been some really heavy birds killed this year due to the incredible mass crops produced in the woods and that was true of deer as well. Guess this guy was really eating his Wheaties… err acorns. Here’s a couple of pics of my once-in-a-lifetime AL gobbler… I can’t thank my buddy enough for letting me go on that hunt and have the experience of lifetime (relative to the turkey woods).
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