I had another interesting day in the field this morning. I knew that I would not be able to stay out too long, but I still wanted to get out while it was nice. I was walking under the moonlight to my blind at 5 O'clock this morning, an hour before sunrise, and had everything for the hunt set up by 5:30. Not long after I heard the morning's first gobble and they never stopped after that. Everything seemed pretty ordinary as the morning progressed but as I was putting one of my calls down I noticed something a little ways behind my decoys on the other side of the fence. A hen turkey had come in from behind the hill and was feeding about 50 yards away. I suddenly had a great feeling about today. I continued calling and I peeked out the back of the blind to see two turkeys a couple hundred yards away in the field. Even with the binoculars they were too far away to determine whether they were male or female. I sent out a couple calls their way and immediately got a response but not from them. The gobble had come from in front of me not far away. I gave out another series of calls and saw a red head in between the old corn stalks. With ever call I made the bird gave a gobble and took a few steps closer. My heart was pounding. Every once in a while he would put his fan halfway up and continue walking towards me. I realized that from his angle he would have no way to see my decoys when he was around 50 yards away he refused to come closer. After a little while he started walking away and my mind raced with all of the things I could have done differently.
After pondering my mistakes for a while I started getting my head back into the hunt. At one point I looked back again to see the two birds that were behind me (which I eventually realized were hens) and one was chasing a crow across the field. A few minutes later I saw a couple male birds appear from the grass by the river. I continued calling and suddenly started hearing responses to the North where I had not seen birds before. I was preparing my next move when something else appeared where the tom had been before. One after one five year old jakes appeared with their short beards. They acted like they were looking for the source of the calls but once again my poor decoy placement sent the birds off in confusion. I knew I did not have much time, the birds would not stop gobbling this morning it was pretty incredible to hear the birds all around. As I was packing up I saw six more birds by the river and in the field. It was hard to have to walk away with so much activity so close. As I was walking along the edge of the woods I had another tom jump up in front of me around 30 yards away and run off. I should be able to get out again tomorrow with hopefully a little bit more luck.
I assume that is a picture of your blind? Can you describe the reasoning behind using a blind? Do you set it up or was it already on the property? What do you use for your calls?
ReplyDeleteThis here is actually a picture of a tree stand that I took from inside my blind. I thought that it presented an interesting photo. I set the blind up. The blind gives you some protection from being spotted by the wildlife. Also it can give you protection from the elements. I set the blind up mainly because when I was bow hunting, it takes a lot of movement to draw the bow back. The blind would give me some help from being spotted. I have about five different calls that I use, I use two in particular. One is a slate call, and the other a box call. I use both to make the same calls, but they have very different tones.
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