Spring Suprise

Due to work and working towards my fishing goals, I had little time to scout for turkeys prior to the season. Most years I only have public properties to hunt, which has led to few spring birds and much frustration. It seems that once I have a bird or several birds "patterned" if that is possible, other hunters or the MDC (prescribed burns a couple of days prior to the season, etc.) do some things that make the birds unkillable such as being on the private land adjacent to the public property. With that history I was contemplating not even going out this spring. It wasn't until my friend whom had purchased land in northern MO told me about the birds that he saw on his farm during the first week. Once he extended the invite and I secured time off, I got my hunting gear together and bought tags. I was able to take three days off last week, but couldn't get up to his farm until Tuesday morning. I hunted out of a ground blind my friend set up using brush about 50 yards from a corner of a field with a small brushy creek behind it. That morning he had three jakes around his decoy at 9:15 am. He had been seeing those birds and several gobblers with hens over several days out of that blind. He was holding out for the gobblers to become more responsive when the hens began leaving to lay and sit on eggs before resorting to shooting a jake. Being retired he has that kind of time to be patient. He also didn't put any restrictions on my hunt. I hunted through 1 pm. I saw several hens and one of the hens came right up to my decoy and was put off by the cold and non-response she received from the decoy and left in a bit of a huff. There was also one gobbler 400 yards out that was not enticed by my calling. It was more turkey action than I thought i would see.

We got out early the next morning to set-up well before first light. I was in the blind again and my friend was about 200 yards behind and upstream from my location. At first light there was distant gobbling off in three different directions. Then there was at least three birds gobbling from the trees around the corner of the field. There was a hen roosted between myself and the corner. I would tree yelp and purr on my slate call every time she was vocal. Even though I could not see her or one of the gobblers, they had flown down into the field corner. I cut her off every time she would make a noise and the gobbler would respond. It seemed like they were coming my way, when I saw a jake coming over a rise about 80 yards in front of me. With him in view I didn’t want to risk him seeing me us my slate call. So I didn’t call much. When I would call, he would look at my decoy but not come in. I think that he was watching the tom and hen as well and didn’t want a fight. Then the tom either lost interest in the non-moving and now not as vocal hen or walked off with the live hen. By his gobbling, I could tell that the bird had moved on towards my friend’s location. My friend told me that a tom came up the rise in front of him and settled into a small area 70-80 yards in front of him and would strut and gobble. The bird gobbled every minute or two for at least 20-30 minutes in front of my friend, but never moved any closer to him.

At this point I had shifted position in the blind with my decoy now nearly over my right shoulder. That meant that I would have to either try a left handed shot or shift 60 to 90 degrees in the blind without being seen to shoot a bird(s) at my decoy. Sure enough, just around 9 am I look over and three jakes had come into my decoy without making any sound. They stood next to the decoy like teen boys at a high school dance awkwardly looking at the girl next to them. I started to slowly shift into position for a shot. One seemed to always be looking in my direction, but I was able to shift around and get the gun up. The next problem is that they were so close together that I would have shot 2 or all 3 in one shot. Finally they split up enough for me to shoot the one closest to my decoy without hitting either of the other two.

View attachment: Dad 2015 Jake (1) Mike's Harris Farm.JPG

After the shot the other two ran out about 10 yards, but turned back to the one flopping on the ground. They looked like they were going to jump on him. So I stood up in from behind the blind and they gave me a look as “who are you”. It took me actually getting out and walking to the decoy and the downed jake before they spooked off.

I was pretty happy with my spring suprise this season. The jake dressed out at 10 pound and made for a great roasted turkey and morel gravy dinner. (my wife and kids found the morels; I found none this year, but that's a different story).

View attachment: Dad 2015 Jake (2) Mike's Harris Farm.JPG

My friend ended up seeing four jakes and three toms from that same blind set-up a couple of days later and shot a 3-4 yr old bird with 1.5" spurs that weighed over 25 lbs. Unfortunately I have not been able to get back out. I may get out this Friday and Sat., but will be back on local public lands. So I have low expectations for tagging out, but you have to be in the woods to have a chance.