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Author Topic: Sweet Redemption  (Read 1117 times)

Offline CedarPants

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Sweet Redemption
« on: April 26, 2019, 08:38:47 PM »
When I turned 40 nearly 3 years back, my health and motivation took a nose dive for numerous reasons.  Drank too much, ate too much, stopped exercising, developed depression ........ basically I became a slug that didn't do anything but work, eat, and sleep.  Ballooned up to 255lbs, didn't step foot in the turkey woods for the last 2 seasons ........ and turkey hunting has been my passion for 2 decades now.

Towards the end of last year I decided enough was enough.  I needed to find my spark again.  I told my wife that starting in January, I was going to change everything so that I could hit the turkey woods with a vengeance come spring.  I stopped drinking.  I started eating right.  I started going to the gym regularly.  I confronted my depression head on and talked openly about it with my doctor.  It's only been 4 months, but my life has completely changed for the better now that I've started the journey towards mental and physical health.  To top it all off, I've lost nearly 50 pounds as well  :IBCOOL:

Fast forward past my long winded intro to this turkey season.  I was so determined that I secured a 1,600 acre hunting lease south of town to compliment my usual haunts north of town.  Got out sparingly last week in between work and the kids' sports, mostly patterned the birds and was near success a couple times. 

This week, I had Wednesday off as well as this morning.  Wednesday I was in the woods at 430am and a few birds started sounding off not long after that.  After some deliberation with my hunting buddy, we decided to pick one bird that sounded more aggressive than the other birds.  Got within 100 yards of his roost, called softly every few minutes - which he immediately cut off with a double gobble each time.  About 5:20am we saw him fly down towards us and start strutting our way.  He was really putting on a show as he came in, gobbling, strutting, the whole 9 yards.  He went into a little dip in the terrain at about 50 yards, and I figured he'd step out of the dip at about 38 yards and that would be all she wrote.  But, he had other plans and instead stood in that dip out of sight gobbling every 10 seconds for about 5 minutes straight.  He kept this up for a few more minutes and it became apparent from his gobbles that he was walking away from us down into the ravine he came out of.  We made a split second decision to move and try to circle around in front of him.

We went several hundred yards down the field edge and jumped into the woods where we felt we'd be fairly close to him.  Set up the decoys, sat down, and called.  My calls were immediately met with a thundering gobble not 60 yards away and just over the edge of the hill from us.  He gobbled a few more times, and then a couple of hens walked towards us up and over the edge of the hill.  They came and checked out decoys out and then proceeded to spend the next 10 minutes milling around the set up clucking and purring ........ with the gobbler losing his mind nonstop the whole time.  We figured it was a done deal .......... and then, he gobbled repeated as he yet again walked directly away from us and back down into the ravine.  We waited another 30 minutes for the hens to clear out before moving again.

We made another large loop several more hundred yards down the field edge and again popped in where we thought he was close.  Set up the decoys and called.  Nothing.  Called again.  Nothing but radio silence.  Sat quiet for about 5 minutes and we see a hen walking out of the brush towards our decoys.  We watch her for about 10 minutes and she moves off past us.  I look over my right shoulder at my buddy and whisper that was pretty cool.  He immediately whispers back "there is a hen 10 yards behind you".  I sit and listen, then I hear the unmistakable sound of spitting and drumming.  My eyes got big, my buddies eyes got big.  This bird was behind us on the field edge, but I was hoping he'd see the decoys in the tree line below us and come down to us.  I can hear him drumming off to my left and then he goes downhill out of sight.  I call a couple of times, nothing.  Call one more time and that was all she wrote.  Immediate double gobble and up he comes over the hill in full strut making his way right for our decoys.  He only made it another 5 steps before I put him to sleep.

This morning was way faster and pretty much textbook.  Had the birds roosted, snuck in to about 75 yards before sunup, and waited until the birds woke up.  Made a few soft clucks that they responded readily too.  Sat quiet for 10 minutes while they gobbled repeatedly, it was driving them crazy that I wouldn't answer and they flew down and started walking right at me.  3 toms.  I cluck softly a couple times, they all explode into a gobbling frenzy and basically run at me.  I had anticipated them coming in from my right to my left (I'm right handed) and was set up accordingly, but as turkeys often do they decided to buttonhook me and then came in directly to my right.  While they were behind a big pine tree, I quickly shifted my shotgun from my left knee and right shoulder to my right knee and left shoulder.  Just then the biggest of the 3 birds stepped out from behind the tree at about 20 yards, and he went night night.

I couldn't be more thrilled to be 'back' and to have found my passion again.  I'm hooked all over again!  My Wednesday bird was a Rio and this morning's bird was a Merriams, so I'm now networking in an attempt to obtain access on the west side to seal the deal on an Eastern and the Washington Slam.  Pretty hard to gain access over there, but I'm going to work every angle possible.

Thanks for letting me get all this out.  It's been a long time coming and I'm happy to be able to share my excitement.  Enjoy the pics below - first 2 pics are Wednesday's bird and the last 2 pics are this morning's bird:


Offline bobcat

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Re: Sweet Redemption
« Reply #1 on: April 26, 2019, 08:44:51 PM »
Good going! Thanks for sharing!

Offline WaltAlpine

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Re: Sweet Redemption
« Reply #2 on: April 26, 2019, 08:59:05 PM »
Awesome story!!!

 


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