Tale of the Hunt

The fourth day of the season and I haven’t had much luck. The toms and hens are still separated and toms not responding to the calls. Weather turned cold and rainy just before the season opened, I think this postponed the breeding.

Anyway up at 4:00 am again., I went and let the dog out and turned the spot lights on and it’s snowing. I thought about going back to bed but decided to go for a couple hours as long as I was up. Decided to go back to the power line I have been hunting as I had seen a hen there the last two days and a tom should show up eventually. It was about 5:15 when I got set up.

A couple hoots on the owl call didn’t raise any thunder so I just sat there and listened for a few minutes and not even the little birds were talking yet. Gave a few soft yelps on the Freak but didn’t get any back talk. Even yelps on the box call didn’t produce anything. About 6:00 am the birds began chirping and blue jays screaming. A couple purrs and clucks on the Freak again and nothing, then I did a yelp and I got gobbles from three different birds to my right. I figured they were about 150 yards away.

I reposition myself on the tree and got the new Mossberg up in their direction, now I can see three white heads through the brush and they are coming fast. When they got right in front of me they put the breaks on and started clucking. Jakes they were, I watched them and picked out the biggest and pulled the trigger. Down he went and the other two took flight but only straight up in the air and right back down again. They putted and walked around, came over and checked out the down bird, I suppose wondering what had happened. They stayed right in the area and I continued to call to them and they would gobble and look and look for the hen that had drawn them there. I talked to them for a good 15 minutes then finally rustled around a bit and they took flight.

I went out to inspect the bird I had gotten, it was a 12 pound Jake with a half inch beard. This was all taking place within 20 yards of me. Not the big old tom I had hoped for but it’s a bird. Not going home with an empty vest today. I have not been using a decoy the last couple of days.