Posted By: aimlow
2014 Turkey - 04/24/2014 07:36 AM
Well my string of fast success continued yesterday evening. I checked the time on my cell phone when I got set up and it was 5:36 pm. I waited for about 15 or 20 minutes before I started to call. All did did was about 4 or 5 series of yelps and clucks on my Mojo glass call and never once got a response. In fact I didn't hear a gobble the entire time I was out. Anyway, I set up in a spot where I knew they were hanging out and I heard a tom gobbling from the roost in that general area Tuesday evening while scouting.
I was in the corner of a picked corn field and to my back and to my left there was a drainage ditch about 5 feet wide. I wasn't sure if the turkey would cross it or not but there were tracks in the field on my way in so I knew they were getting into the field somehow. After calling off and on for about an hour I stopped calling and just waited. In fact I was playing a fishing game on my cell phone just listening to the woods to pass the time. Sometime around 7:00 I started hearing a lot of leaves rustling around back in the woods so I thought it was either deer or turkey and they were either going to cross the ditch or not but I decided not to call. Just sit quietly.
As the rustling got louder I put my phone down and grabbed my 12 gauge. Sure enough, turkey started popping out of the woodline like popcorn in groups of 2's and 3's. The first group of jakes about 6 of them total saw my decoys and immediately went straight to my jake decoy completely ignoring my hen decoy. I kept watching and looking for a tom but there wasn't one in the group. In total there were 14 jakes in this flock.
I waited for one of the jakes to separate himself from the group and at 35 yards I dropped one of them. My jake weighed in at 17 lbs which isn't too bad for a jake. I checked the time after the rest of the flock left the field and I got up to get my bird. It was 7:12 pm. After I shot the group of jakes never spooked, they stared at my dead bird flopping on the ground probably thinking, "What's wrong with this guy?" Then they just slowly started feeding away from me so I let them move on before I got up so I wouldn't spook the rest of them. Conservatively that means I probably shot my bird around 7 pm which means I was only hunting for about an hour and a half. If I'm going to kill a bird it's within the first 2 hours of my first hunt of the year. I've killed all 4 of my birds that fast and I'm not picky about waiting for a Tom because I usually don't have much time to turkey hunt and in fact I didn't even get to hunt turkey last year other than two mornings of the last weekend of the season. Just not enough time in my schedule. Anyway, some pictures below. I managed to get a photo of the flock of jakes while they were still in the field. You can see my dead bird next to my decoy in the foreground of the picture. I'm happy with it but I think next year I will hold out for a Tom. :-)
![[Linked Image]](http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x350/timstickler/turkey12014.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x350/timstickler/turkey2014.jpg)
I was in the corner of a picked corn field and to my back and to my left there was a drainage ditch about 5 feet wide. I wasn't sure if the turkey would cross it or not but there were tracks in the field on my way in so I knew they were getting into the field somehow. After calling off and on for about an hour I stopped calling and just waited. In fact I was playing a fishing game on my cell phone just listening to the woods to pass the time. Sometime around 7:00 I started hearing a lot of leaves rustling around back in the woods so I thought it was either deer or turkey and they were either going to cross the ditch or not but I decided not to call. Just sit quietly.
As the rustling got louder I put my phone down and grabbed my 12 gauge. Sure enough, turkey started popping out of the woodline like popcorn in groups of 2's and 3's. The first group of jakes about 6 of them total saw my decoys and immediately went straight to my jake decoy completely ignoring my hen decoy. I kept watching and looking for a tom but there wasn't one in the group. In total there were 14 jakes in this flock.
I waited for one of the jakes to separate himself from the group and at 35 yards I dropped one of them. My jake weighed in at 17 lbs which isn't too bad for a jake. I checked the time after the rest of the flock left the field and I got up to get my bird. It was 7:12 pm. After I shot the group of jakes never spooked, they stared at my dead bird flopping on the ground probably thinking, "What's wrong with this guy?" Then they just slowly started feeding away from me so I let them move on before I got up so I wouldn't spook the rest of them. Conservatively that means I probably shot my bird around 7 pm which means I was only hunting for about an hour and a half. If I'm going to kill a bird it's within the first 2 hours of my first hunt of the year. I've killed all 4 of my birds that fast and I'm not picky about waiting for a Tom because I usually don't have much time to turkey hunt and in fact I didn't even get to hunt turkey last year other than two mornings of the last weekend of the season. Just not enough time in my schedule. Anyway, some pictures below. I managed to get a photo of the flock of jakes while they were still in the field. You can see my dead bird next to my decoy in the foreground of the picture. I'm happy with it but I think next year I will hold out for a Tom. :-)
![[Linked Image]](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/timstickler/media/turkey12014.jpg.html)
![[Linked Image]](http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/timstickler/media/turkey2014.jpg.html)