So, I was sitting at home last night round 8:30 when I received a text from a bow-hunter friend of mine. He had a flock of turkeys fly-up all around him last night and he immediately thought of me and wondered if I had a fall permit left. I did, so he dropped me a pin on where they were in case I wanted to go after them in the morning. On an unrelated note, I happened to "not be feeling well" after this text, I think I came down with "turkeysareroostedandshouldbeeasytokillatdaylight-itis" so I knew I needed to stay home in the morninig and take-care of this debilitating issue.....
I got onto a large hill 30 minutes before daylight and got comfortable. As the sun came up I could hear birds yelping and kee-kee'ing all around me. Some with 40 yds, some as far as 100. As is my tactic, I try and be the loudest and most bossy hen in the flock, making sure they know I am in charge and they all need to come to me. After 20 minutes of non-stop yelping, putting and kee-kee'ing on my mouth-call (which is fun BTW!), they all started coming down. I had put a look-out hen in a small opening about 25 yds away. The far-away birds all tried to fly into that opening, but flared-off when they saw her, flew 15-20 feet over my head and landed 20 yds behind me in another small opening. After all the birds had landed, I waited a few minutes and then slowly turned, only to see them about 40 yds back there and they were slowly moving away. With too many heads all together at one time, I waited until they crested the hill and I started making moves to get in front of them. After 3-4 moves, I got within 60 yds multiple times, but could not close the deal. I made one last move to get between two flocks and had them call calling and forth when I heard a deep-loud CLUCK-CLUCK right behind me....
Luckily I had picked a large enough tree and I was able to make myself as small as I could, spin around and peak out on the side without being seen. There stood this guy and his brother. I raised the Franchi and let him have it at 25 yds. Probably my favorite fall-hunt ever!
