Story of the Hunt

It was opening morning and I didn’t get out of work until 8:30 am so it was going to be a late start but Jesse Riley was meeting me out at the house for a morning hunt. This was to be his first attempt at turkey hunting. The plan was to get set up and I would call in the birds for him. I had not intended to try and take one myself today so I left the gun at the house.

Still standing by the trucks, I was explaining to him how we were going to set up when several toms cut loose a gobble and they were close, rock throwing close. I gave Jesse a quick look and told him to follow me and we headed into the trees stooped over, running to the side and away from them in a hurry. We got to a good spot when I had him sit against a tree. While he loaded his gun, I dropped to my knees behind the tree and grabbed the striker for my slate then went to calling. I got an immediate response then spotted them moving through the trees about 50 yards in front of us. They moved away to the left but then came in towards us gobbling and strutting.

They came into the open, following a few hens. Jesse got a bead on a nice one and as soon as he came out of strut dropped the hammer on him. The bird fell over hard and fast while the others scattered. Next thing I know, Jesse is on his feet and about to head over to it when I spotted one coming back in. I told him to stand still and we watched it come back to the downed bird and immediately began to jump on it and give it a beating. This was just too good to pass up so I asked Jesse for his gun and I got a bead on the other bird and bang, put him down for a dirt nap.

My bird was a Jake, 15 pounds, small rounded spurs and a 4 inch beard. Jesse’s bird went just over 17 pounds and of all things for a first bird had 2 beards -- 5 inches and 1 ½ inches. From the time we first heard the birds gobble to the time we both picked up our birds a total of 5 minutes had passed.