| TURKEY SEASON 2007 |
| April 23, 2007 Piff and I got up early and drove down to Adams Co. for the first day of Ohio’s spring turkey season. After stopping in to chat with the owner, who is an early riser, we got our gear together and headed our separate ways. It was almost daylight by the time I made my way to a clearing at the end of a pasture. I could hear a few hens clucking down the creek a few hundred yards away from my location. Not long after setting up I heard 3 shots from the direction of the hens. I stayed put for about 45 minutes hoping that maybe the shots would spook the birds and that they might come my way. I then headed down to the creek bottom and I jumped a hen on my way down the hill. I set up my decoys and hunted there the rest of the morning while calling softly every 15 minutes or so. Around 10:00 I saw a hen walk down to the creek on the opposite bank. I was hoping that she would have a Tom following her but she didn’t. Piff did not have any action all morning. I did run into another hunter who told me that he heard a few gobbles along the creek just at daybreak. Must have been while we were still back at the house! We need to get in earlier next time! |
| May 4, 2007 My brother-in-law, Craig, and I hunted down in Hocking Co. on Friday morning. He decided to hunt at the end of a ridge while I hunted on top of the same ridge but quite a ways down from him. Craig only heard a few distant gobbles all morning but I on the other hand had some action. I was set up against a tree just off of the quad path that meanders along the top of the ridge. After daylight, I called off and on softly with the push button caller with no response, but when I switched to a slate call I heard a muffled gobble somewhere along the ridge between Craig and me. I continued with the soft calling of cuts and purrs and I got the Tom to gobble again, but this time he sounded closer. Soon I saw him poking his way along the top of the ridge coming my way. When he started to drop down over the ridge I again cut and purred softly and he gobbled again. His gobble did not sound very loud. He then came back up on top of the ridge and walked the quad path towards me. The path makes an S-turn between his position and mine and when he was in the first turn he stopped and stretched his neck out and peered over some debris and looked in my direction. I had him in my sights but he was about 50 yards away and there were some sticks and light brush between us. I needed him to come around the bend another 15 yards or so where I would have a clear shot. After looking around awhile he turned and slowly walked down the hill. I then made some more purrs and clucks but this time he started putting and then he flew across the ravine to somewhere on the other side. I guess he didn’t like what he didn’t see! A short time later I heard him gobble again a few times on the next ridge. I never had a chance to see how long his beard was. Judging by his muffled gobbles I think he was a Jake That was it for the day. |
| May 20, 2007: “I’d Rather Be Lucky Than Good” Piff and I left early in the morning and headed down to Adams Co. to hunt the last day of the season. Piff hunted the back of the property and told me afterwards that he saw around 6-8 Longbeards running together along the fence that separated the owners pasture from the neighbors. Apparently after hearing the neighbor yell at the cattle the herd took off running along neighbors side of the fence and at the same time they spooked the Toms and they ran along Piff’s side of the fence. Piff said that even if he had a shot he could not have taken it because the cattle were in the background of the Gobblers! My morning started off like my first day of last season’s opener. Shortly after 6:00 I heard a Tom gobble in the same location where the Tom that I shot last year was in. He was in a tree at the top of a small ravine in the corner of a pasture. Just like last year, he flew down and hung around the corner of the pasture and gobbled off and on every five minutes or so. He would not respond to my calls so, just like last year, I made my way down the ravine and crossed the narrow creek and slipped up a cattle trail. I stopped about half way up the hill and waited for him to gobble and give away his location. When he finally did I determined that he was a few hundred yards or so out in the pasture. I then eased along the path and slowly made my way towards the edge of the wooded ravine. When I got near the top, suddenly, a Woodcock flushed and not only scared me but two young bucks that were bedded down at the edge of the woods. The deer jumped up and ran about 20 yards and stopped, snorted, and then took off into the woods. Fearing that all the commotion spooked the Tom, I yelped with my turkey calls hoping that the Tom would think that it was just a hen that spooked the deer. I then waited for about ten minutes without hearing the Tom gobble. Finally, I heard him gobble in the next pasture that is on the other side of a narrow tree-covered ditch. For the next two hours I trailed the Gobbler trying to lure him back to me, but eventually he flew across the big creek and I could hear him gobble occasionally on the other side. I then decide to go back to the pasture where the Tom was first located. I settled back in a treeline and planned on waiting out there the rest of the morning. Around 8:30 I caught movement down in the cut in the treeline that separates the pasture that I was in from another. Soon I could make out 3 young bucks. I managed to get a picture of them before they slipped back into the woods. One of them was a Piebald buck with a white and brown coat. It had to be the same Piebald that I saw last year in the very same pasture. At that time he was just a yearling and was running across the pasture with his mother. I got a picture of him then too. |
| At around 10:30 I was thinking about moving over to another pasture and started to pack up my gear. When I looked up at the cut in the treeline I again saw movement. This time I could make out 4 red-headed Gobblers. They were all Jakes, and eventually they came through the cut and started to feed in the pasture in front of me. I called to them but they paid little attention. When they started to turn and get farther away I decided to take aim at the closest one. I fired and the one I was aiming out just stood there and flap his wings while the others scampered away a few yards. I then pump in another shell and fired again, this time he dropped and the others flew in 3 different directions. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time! Season over… |
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