I got to my spot about 1 PM today. I wasn't sure which way I was going to go as the birds could be in any number of directions. I heard a close gobble just before leaving the truck...guess I'll go that way
I start walking down an unused road and I assumed the birds will be on the hillside to my right since there is a brushy creek bottom to my left. Five minutes into the walk two toms are on the left side of the road bed....they tear up the hill..... great. I get up to where the birds were and I spot something coming out of the brush 25 yards up the road. I could'nt discern what it was at first. Then it registered...a bobcat! It flicked its tail and walked into the road, crossing and then coming back across. As soon as it came into the road I started to walk faster, frantically trying to quietly to get my camera out of my turkey vest. I stayed about 30-35 yards from it.....it never saw me until...crunch....I stepped right on a pinecone. It stopped and looked back at me....A few seconds of that and it had enough and ran towards the creek. It looked like it was about a 20lb or so female..Never did manage to fish my camera out.
I set up and called to my spooked toms to no avail.
After walking towards another gobble about 3/4 of a mile away I figure I know where the birds are and I decide I can set up on the ridge and try to call in a bird. The closer I got the more gobbles I heard from this ridge...something didn't sound right. I figured I was about 50 yads from these "birds" I must have heard 25 gobbles.
Alright.... that has got to be someone using a gobbler call.
I decide to wait for fear of being shot at, and then approach the nice folks who were hunting on private land without permission.
The gobbles keep continuing, all the while, sounding a little off. Then the sounds start moving off over this ridge into an area that I knew the average turkey hunter wouldn't go. Birds? I decided to move toward the gobbles.... All of a sudden I can see the fans moving back and forth at about 80 yards or so. I sit down and ever so gently hit the box call.
After a few minutes I can make out two toms through the brush heading directly at me. They decide to move to my to my left which happened to be the only window for a shot that I had.
The first bird came through the opening at about 35 yards and I let him have it. He's down! Yesss!
My day would have been complete with the bobcat sighting. Today the turkey was a bonus!
Not the biggest bird I've shot but a memorable hunt!
