April 18th

It's opening day of the regular turkey season, but I am still riding a high from the youth turkey season. I was determined to put my oldest son AJ in front of another mature tom this year hoping he would be successful. I scouted 3 days leading up to the season, but was unable to locate them using the areas they normally could be found in this time of year. Fortunately we were able to roost a coupld mature toms the night before. We got settled in to the blind early and they pitched down with a pack of jakes and a couple hens. After an hour of chasing each other all around the field the two toms heading for our setup. Once they got to around 45 yards I got AJ into position. Unfortunately when the barrel of the gun poked out from the blind they saw it move and cautiously walked away. That evening we went back to the blind and shortly before dark I called in a hen followed by a nice tom. I got a little anxious and called to the hen after she was in the field and she didn't like it and left the area. The tom hung around strutting long enough for me to snap a good picture of him with the Nikon DSLR. He never came into shooting range before he ran off looking for the hen he was with. I noticed from the picture he had at least 4 beards.

The next morning we headed back to the same area and upon climbing into the blind the tom fired off a gobble from the roost. Immediately we knew it had to be the same bird. We called only a couple times with the Knight and Hale wet willy call and he pitched down next to the blind. He started spitting and drumming next to the blind and slowly made his way to the lone hen decoy. Once he circled the decoy AJ let him have it. The bird ended up sporting 6 beards!

 I will be out trying to kill a nice bird later this week. I must admit that I am already looking past turkey season now that my boy's tag is filled. I have food plots and big antlers on the brain. I hope everyone has a fun, safe and enjoyable turkey season this year.

This past youth season is one I will never forget!  I didn’t have a chance to do any preseason scouting the entire week prior to the turkey opener, as I was out in Kansas capturing Greater Prairie-Chickens for a five year translocation project to reintroduce the state endangered grouse back to Missouri’s grasslands.  This was one of the most rewarding experiences that I’ve ever had as a biologist.  I returned home late on Friday and didn’t even have a chance to purchase my son Mason’s or my turkey permits.    

So even with no scouting beforehand, I still had a pretty good idea of where I’d found birds in the past.  So after purchasing tags in town and getting Mason (8) and my daughter, Hope (5) dressed in their camouflage, we were off to the woods by 8:45 A.M.

If you’ve ever accepted the challenge of hunting with kids, then you know that you must plan for extra time and be patient.  And it’s very important not to rush them…and when it stops being fun…go home.  With that being said, we were only a few feet from the car, when we heard a gobble only 300 yards down in the woods.  Midmorning or late morning, gobblers are by far the easiest to call in, but only if you take advantage of the situation.  So off we go in the direction of the gobbler.  He was sounding off every minute or so all by himself…he was excited!  I was trying to walk as fast as I could, but wouldn’t you know it, my kids ran across a three-toed box turtle.  My kids love turtles and they already were losing interest in the gobble-happy tom only 150 yards away.  I finally convinced them to follow me to the power line up ahead, where we would set up. 

I placed only one hen decoy in the opening and we were set.  I made one call on the aluminum slate and the gobbler predictably sounded off.  One more call, and he was significantly closer.  Only a few seconds later we saw him in full strut less than a hundred yards away in the woods.

Mason was in my lap; Hope’s off to my left, and the tom is straight ahead and closing in.  Only a few seconds later, Mason sees him coming as well.  At this point, Hope has only heard the gobbler and had not seen him, yet.  Did I mention this guy is gobbling his head off and coming straight at us?  At 47 yards the gobbler steps out from behind a big tree into an opening and that’s when Hope first sees him and in her excitement, finds it necessary to tell me and Mason, “I see him, I see him!”  Mason then proceeds to turn around and says, “Hope, be quiet!”  That was all it took for the gobblers to decide some things just aren’t worth dying over and slowly he begins to walk away.  There is no such thing as a sure thing in turkey hunting. 

Later that evening, Hope and I went out to roost a turkey for the next morning and did we ever roost some turkeys!  We watched three gobblers that evening.  During the night I went back out to set up a blind for me, Mason, and our cameraman for the next morning.  We were all set.

We went in early, though probably not earlier enough, as we still had to act like deer walking across the open field, as to not spook the turkeys that were only 100-150 yards from our blind.  Literally, only ten minutes later the two gobblers fly down and start strutting only 80 yards from our setup.  For the next hour or so those two toms put on a great show, strutting, gobbling, drumming, and breeding hens, but the closest they ever got was 44 yards, not close enough for Mason’s 20 gauge.  Luckily, three other gobblers were also interested in what was going on at our end of the field…and they didn’t have 15 hens to keep content.  One gobbler broke away from the group of three and strutted his way right into our decoys.

I’ll remember the moment for the rest of my life.  The sun had just peeked up from behind a low cloudbank in the east, and the sun was hitting the field just right.  The beauty of the scene is one I will never ever forget.  The way the golden broomsedge swayed in the stiff breeze, the green clover and grass was lit just perfectly by the sun, and the iridescent feathers made of the strutting gobbler.  I took in this wonderful gift for a couple of extra seconds.  Then I helped Mason with the safety of his shotgun and after a green light from the cameraman, Mason made a perfect shot and made this father very proud. 

I’ve had a lot of good turkey hunts in my life, but it goes without saying that this one is my new favorite.      

~ Korey Wolfe ~