I've had a short yet hectic season myself. Started out heading down with a good friend of mine to a farm owned by a friend of his just outside of Montgomery, AL. 2000 acres so it sounded promising. We roll into hunting camp Friday March 22 sometime before lunch. 6 guys total in camp, 2 have killed one bird a piece and the others have never killed turkey before so I elect to just call and help out with the other guys in hopes of getting them their first birds and getting in good with a new group of guys in hopes for a repeat invite this next fall for deer season. We had one heck of a weekend, frying the birds each night as we killed them for dinner. One guy killed his first, second, and third bird that weekend. Two more killed their second turkey ever. Few jakes and a few longbeards but everyone was stoked. I enjoy calling em in and watching em die as much as killing them myself now that I have a shoebox full of beards and spurs just collecting dust in the closet lol. Two of the five killed second weekend of season in AL. Back to Birmingham and the school grind after having met some great new hunting buddies, and I again sneak away from work for another weekend come April 12th for Kentuckys opening weekend. Tough hunting the first day or two with many close calls, and end up taking a bird late Sunday evening. Came in running, gobbling his head off, and bright red head peaks around the tree at 35 yards. Boom, flop, game over. Run over to him to discover a Jake Oh well, he will eat as good as the rest of them. Back to school again, thinking the season is over for me. I luckily get a text inviting me back down to the Macon County farm to hunt again...only this time he insists I buy a tag and hunt myself. Knowing the tags expire before deer season (opposite of Kentucky), I elected for the $125 3 day license...hope it pays off for that many bones. Just 3 guys in camp this time. We go out the first evening and set up on about a 200 acre field. As I am calling in a tom for John Ward, we hear Dave's gun go off across the field and smiled. Excited to have pulled the old tom from his hens to within 100 yards at 6 pm, I thought for sure we would soon have a dead turkey. No dice, his hens leave the field and he sprints to catch up. As we sat there not 15 minutes later, another tom steps out at 85 yards. Bingo, I call once hiding behind a HUGE oak tree out of sight as John Ward has his gun up and at the ready. We were surprised to get not one but TWO gobbles back, as a second tom steps out with him and both come in as if I am reeling them in on a string. Purring and clucking them into 40 yards, we count off to three and quickly have two more toms laying dead. Three toms in the SAME field, within 20 minutes of each other...all having 10 1/8" beards, 1 1/8" razor spurs, and all weighing within 1 lb of 18 lbs. Literally triplets. The best part was that I watched where the original tom I was working left for roost, and was fairly confident we could set up with decoys in the morning and kill him as well. Fast forward about 10 hrs and we are heading back out in hopes of attracting in the fourth tom. He was a very old bird and cautious, as he literally didn't gobble a single time on roost. I was convinced he must have left the area before roosting, and nearly got up to leave on multiple occasions to go after the freakin orchestra of two year olds gobbling their heads off in the distance. We waited, and it paid off. The tom steps out about 1.5 hrs after daylight and was all by his lonesome. Dead bird walking. He put on the classic strutting, spitting, drumming show for over 20 minutes as he worked from over 150 yards into 25 yards not able to resist the purrs of a slate call. He then saw something. I don't know if a coyote was out in the field beyond the decoys that he was glaring at (half strut jakes get no love from old toms).. but he left strut and the color drained from his face as he turned to run. I was waiting for John Ward to get a shot but he whispers take him since he was still behind brush from him, so I spin and dump the bird walking away at about 40 yards. Another near identical old tom weighing around 18 lbs, 1 1/4" spurs, only he was a big thick double beard with the longest at 10.5". These southern pine plantation birds are much smaller than the midwestern cousins I am used to hunting...but they sure are fun to work with later in the season (near full summer foliage already in the area). My favorite hunt to date. IDK how many gobblers this makes for me, (20ish?) but it still never gets old as I nearly had a heart attack watching him work in. Picture at the kill site... And the total damage for the 2 day trip we made... still on cloud nine. (The three were already breasted out the night before to not ruin the meat for those wondering) All in all, Got to be a part of 9 turkeys deaths and made several new life long hunting buddies to boot. I've already been extended a solid invitation in for deer camp next year so maybe I will get to add an Alabama deer to my list to boot. The best part is that I have to be back in Kentucky for my Sisters graduation May 3rd and the Kentucky Derby the next day...just so happens Kentuckys last day of season is May 5th that sunday, so I will get one last shot at filling my second tag up there. Been a heck of a year regardless, but maybe I can dump one more.... and this is what turkey hunting is all about, dinner from last week for a bunch of non hunting class mates to introduce them to how tasty wild game can really be.
Congrats Trevor! Sure sounds like fun. We baked up some turkey this weekend in BBQ sauce...wasn't bad.
Hahaha yeah I love me some vegetables. I atleast off set it with potatoes, onions, and fried turkey.... And a watered down beach beer, which is a classic college kid beverage...
