No Fall Turkey Hunters on Here??.......
...So I'll get it started. I am basicallly a novice turkey hunter, but a few years ago I got invited to fall turkey hunt with a some friends at a camp up around Plesantville and have loved it ever since. The area we hunt normally seems to hold a number of birds, but I have yet to get one, and unfortunatly the first day this year proved no different. Woke up late the first morning to off and on rain showers. As my buddy and I started our hike into the woods we ran into another from our camp comming in for the morning. He said he had a couple of birds work up toward him, but they got spooked and moved off. As we made our way into the woods it was clear from all of the fresh scratchings that the birds had made pass through earlier in the morning. After hiking around the mountain top for a few hours we had yet to locate any birds and the rain was beginning to pick up, so we began to make our way back to the camp. I made my way straight down the mountain as Mark circled around. As I was standing on the ridge above camp waiting for him to finish the loop a shot rang out close by, followed by another. As soon as I heard him start calling I grabbed a seat beside a tree and threw the camo on. After about 10 minutes I saw a hen go by a little ways out and it was headed straight at him. He made another shot, but when I saw the bird fly off through the treetops I realized it was another miss.
After regrouping at camp for a few minutes we headed back up to the ridge to work on calling in the busted flock back in. As soon as we sat down and started to call there were birds answering us left and right, literally. I've gotta admit that when there was 6 of them going all around us my blood was pumping. Hearing a few responses off to my left I worked around the tree and got into position. Mark could see the boss hen off to his right, but she hung up about 60 yds out. Suddenly, I spotted a glimpse of a head comming up the ridge. As I waited for it to come over the ridge fully and show himself for a shot, another bird hopped up on a log 20yds away, but his head was hidden behind a tree. With birds still going all around and the bead of my gun waiting on the other side of the tree for that turkey to take one step foreward my heart was really going. After waiting what seemed to be forever, wouldn't you know it, that bird walked straight back down the hill and I never did get a look at a head shot on him. Shortly after, they all shut up and seemed to just dissappear into thin air. Crafty little shats. No birds were bagged that day, but it was a great hunt.