Turkey Hunting.. Colder Than Cold Gobblers
IT STILL IS DANG COLD OUTSIDE
and it’s middle of April… We are questioning this concept on Global warming during this turkey hunting season!
My first morning on the 1st season opener in Illinois, showed up with negative temps and high winds. So I thought, as I was drinking my HOT cup of coffee in my warm house, watching the news at 4:30 am with my feet up on the couch all wrapped up in my blanket…. Hmm… Should I get dressed and head out in the freezing temps high winds? And right as the HOT coffee smoothly went down into my belly, warming me up all over, I made my decision that tomorrow will be my first day of the 1st turkey hunting season here at home.
Second day was a no brainer, it was chilly but no 30mph winds nor sleeting. We headed out and get settled in our Ameristep blind. The birds were very active gobbling on the roost and even for while after hitting the ground. They worked towards us, but they just didn’t like the decoy’s this am and flared out and away. We stayed and continued to call and had some response but nothing wanted to work in our favor.
Day 3 of the 1st season, the weather is way better, and after we had the birds flare out we reset and moved the blind and decoys to either have a shot as they came into the decoys or get a shot if they flared out.
They we active on the roost and once on the ground they called but for some reason shut up. We spotted two gobblers that stayed roosted for sometime, it made us think that possibly a coyote came thru and spooked them.
After awhile we could here them getting closer down the draw, so we started calling a little bit more aggressively and sure enough, we could hear them spitting & drumming, then gobbling and getting closer. But they worked to our west and we figured going to come out to the north, so Chad & I quickly rearranged our set up and closed some windows and opened others.
Here they came, 3 strutters & 2 jakes. The first 2 gobblers walked past and then the last one just was strutting his stuff and kept facing away. Finally he turned and I put the dot on his head and let the Browning A-5 do its stuff and my 1st season gobbler hit the ground with vengeance. There was not flopping, just dropping!
Vicki with her cold weather gobbler!
He was a great bird and what a hunt. Now I can sit back and enjoy my warm coffee, on my warm couch while Ralph tries and puts a gobbler down for more fresh turkey breasts of the Traeger.
