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Kansas Hunting

Turkey Tales

 

 

 
Pennsylvania Turkey Hunting Tale

 

 

Name: Mike Stark
Location:

Washington County, Pennsylvania

Time:

May 17, 2005 7:10am

Subspecies: Eastern
Weight:

20 lb.

Beards: 10.0"
Spurs .75" left, .75" right
Distance: 25 yd.
Decoys: None
Calls Used: Dave Tyree glass


Tale of the Hunt

A co-worker of mine, Mike Marks, asked me if I would be interested in going out for a spring turkey hunt. He had hunted the first 13 days of the season and finally killed a longbeard and was looking for someone with a tag that he could call for.

We arrived at 5 am sharp on a farm Mike had hunted and carefully scouted a large mixed group of birds, which included at least 4 jakes and one nice longbeard. Knowing where the gobblers had roosted several days before, Mike led me to a setup near the top of the hill just inside the woods line. He was confident that the birds would go to the field early and felt this was a location that they would come to off the roost. As daylight broke, five gobblers sounded off within 200 yards. Hens joined in from several directions, and Mike added his calling to the conversation.

About 45 minutes later the turkey quieted down and we had a hen come in and feed around us at about 20 yards for at least 10 minutes before the flock arrived. She clucked and yelped while Mike called softly to her the whole time, which got the gobblers fired up. Then several more hens, 4 jakes and the longbeard showed up. Talk about being pinned down, we had birds in three or four different directions all within 50 yards. There were way too many eyes on us at the same time, and having setup on the edge of a field gave us almost no cover. All we could do was sit perfectly still and hope to get a shot opportunity.

The longbeard strutted, and the 4 gobblers gobbled simultaneously at about 40-50 yards. Mike saw the longbeard turn and fan his tail at us, obscuring his head and offering an opportunity to line him up and whispered in my ear to “get your gun up and shoot him.” At the same time another Jake and hen showed up right in front of us at about 8 yards staring directly at me, and shortly sounded an alarm putt. Sensing a final opportunity Mike again whispered several times, “Shoot him, Shoot him” but I couldn’t yet see the longbeard who was obscured behind a small bush. Now the longbeard sensing something wasn’t right began a run for the woods and I made a nice shot on him at 25 yards. He rolled into the edge of the woods and fell silent.

My first spring gobbler. An incredible hunt I will never forget!

 

 

 

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