My first turkey hunt ever and first turkey

Well, I love to deer hunt (bow and rifle), but have never turkey hunted. I wanted to for the past couple of seasons but haven't been able to go for various reasons. This was my year.

Day before opening season got permission from the land owner and patterned my shotgun at from 20-40 yards out.

I went with 2 buddies on opening morning in Dallas county. We got into the woods about 5:15 am. I setup near a younger hunter who has had experience in turkey hunting. He made a few owl calls but no turkeys sounded off. Right about daylight, he made a hen call and we heard gobblers in directions all around us. They were probably a good 300 yards away though.

We hung out there for about 30-45 mins, but the gobblers got further away and stopped calling back altogether. I prompted my friend to walk down the woodline of a field towards a ridge. We walked about 300 yards and all of a sudden we heard a gobble about 20 yards from us in the woods. We setup and called the tom out of the woods, but he ended up going down over the hill where we couldn't see him. After about 45 mins of trying to get him to come back up the hill without success we decided to sneak up to the top of the hill.

My friend went crouched up about 15 yards from the crest of the hill and called behind a bush. I low crawled about 50 yards through knee-high wet hay until I reached the crest of the hill. I hid behind a little dead cedar laying on the plateau of the hill and looked up over the branches....and there was the big tom. I sat up and he caught my movement and squared up and was looking right at me. He was about 50 yards out. I aimed my 12 ga. and let it rip. 2 other birds flew off, but my tom stood absolutely still. I re-aimed and took another shot and he started to fly off into the woods. My friend and I ran over to the woods and heard a crash.

Down in the bottom of the woods we found my tom! Pretty big bird.

About 25 pounds. He had a double beard...9.5" and 8". Spurs were 1"1/4". We got him cleaned up (left him whole) and in the freezer. Now we just have to decide how to cook him? (bake? smoke? or deep fry?)

I can't hunt again this week, so I'm going out with my two buddies again and going to film them.

Turkey hunting is great! (sorry about the small/fuzzy pic..I used my cell phone camera)

 

Thanks for the positive comments.

I think I'm addicted to turkey hunting. I may be sick, but I'm hearing gobbles throughout the day when turkeys aren't even around.

I can't wait until next week and I can get back out and try to fill my second tag.

-Mark (Maku)