It is 8:50 AM, already home, it was do rather than die
Haven't really been out this week other than one evening for 2 hours. Decided to go to an area where birds had been last week. Due to dry conditions I got in good and early, well before daylight. I had planned to sit put all morning and see if the birds fed through. Even walking in with it dark I could see the area was scratched up pretty good. I hit a gas line where I intended to sit, found a good tree and hit the ground, looked at my watch, 6:25 AM.
At 6:40 I hear a soft yelp and a few more as the minutes passed. I had got in to less than 100 yds from a roosted flock. I was grinnin ear to ear, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. At 6:50 they flew down, there was about 15. Uhh, they went the other way and flew UP hill to an oak flat above me. What to do?? With all the scratchings around and the dry conditions I stayed put. There was pretty much no way to get close and bust 'em. I also thought I had heard birds fly down on the hill behind me about 200 yds away. The birds closer to me weren't shy about raising he!! this morning. They all cackled as they flew down and once they hit the ground they were cutting, yelping, whistling. It was like a symphony, quite enjoyable to listen to.
I joined in
Along with kinda sparse calling I scratched in the leaves (which I believe is deadly in the fall in conjunction with "flock talk" calling).
To my sheer suprise, the entire flock came down the hill to me. I didn't see them all due to a large tree very close to me but I could hear them walking and scratching, purring and clucking. Boink.....one pops out at 30 yds in the open to the left of the big tree, boink....number 2 is right behind.....boink number 3 and so on.
I already had my TruGlo on the birds and my T/C Encore hammer was back. I picked out a decent sized bird, centered the red dot on her neck and cut it loose....promptly saw her flopping. The 2 others I could see just took a few steps and stood there. I stood up and now I could see the whole flock, they then took off heading back up the hill, some flushed, some ran.
I walked over to my bird, thanked the good Lord above, glanced at my watch (7:05 AM). I friend who is archery hunting close sends me a text, "was that you? did you get 'em?. I reply that I did, fill out my tag, and as I do so he texts me that he just had a shooter buck at 60 yds, nose to the ground but he couldn't get it to come in.
The only thing I'm disapointed about, it kinda happened too quick, LOL.
Getting ready to clean the bird, gonna marinate it all day and grill it for dinner. This turkey is the first dead one that I showed to my 3 yeard old daughter. She is so excited, her first question was when could she go?
Good luck to anyone else still chasin 'em!
post edited by ready2fish - 2009/11/13 09:25:40