Story of the Hunt

The evening before the hunt, I put a nice gobbler to bed along the edge of our big woods. He was very vocal just gobbling and eating in the bordering CRP field. I watched him for about an hour walking around the field until he reached the woods at sundown.

I came back the next morning and set up along the edge of the woods in a grove of sapplings. I was fairly close to where he went in but I was on a little hill so my decoys could be seen from farther away. I set 2 hens and a jake decoy out at about 25-30 yards in front of me.
I waited and started with some soft purrs on the box call. That tom was just as vocal as the night before. He couldn't have been more than 100-150 yards away from me through the woods. I didn't call too loud until I heard him fly down. Then I started my mouth call and box call together.

The tom was getting closer and gobbling probably every 30 seconds. I saw him come out of the woods about 75 yards to my left. He saw the decoys and was strutting and locked on them. I readied my shotgun and continued with my diaphragm call. He came right up the field road and his eyes never left the decoys. He came to what I paced off later at 26 yards and I fired.

I looked at my watch. It was only 6:00 am! What a great hunt. In Western MN we are new to turkey hunting. We've had a lottery each spring for the last two seasons and Spring 2003 is when I drew a tag. The birds in the area seem to be doing very well so I'm looking forward to 2004. The season has been extended to 7 days so I may bring my bow out next spring.

Good luck to all!