Paintbrush

Stories of your favorite gobbler hunts.
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935
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Joined: February 4th, 2020, 5:55 am
Location: NE NC
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Paintbrush

Post by 935 »

The morning of my first encounter with Paintbrush I bumped a turkey off the roost. No way to know, for sure, if it was him or not. But if I was a betting man I’d say it wasn’t him.

I slipped into position at my listening spot before day and was rewarded by an early gobble. Early gobbles are what us pursuers of wild turkeys live for. They give the hunter the chance to get in close to a roosted tom, sometimes. I’ve written before about longbeards seemingly throwing their voices. The gobbling gobbler was what I thought was 150 yards away. In reality he was only about 75. So away he flew while I was trying to close the distance. That left me sucking hind tit with daylight rapidly approaching. Not knowing what to do or where to go I set out my decoys and sat down in the spot where I had shot a tom the week before.

Several toms greeted the morning light with their throaty gobbles. The problem was none were even close to my position. An hour after shooting light I made a move. At least 2 toms had been gobbling from the opposite side of a big canal, so I moved closer. There’s a bridge a half mile away and another about 200 yards away. The closer bridge was on the other side of a 2 year old cutover. Briers, vines, skidder tracks and tree tops. So there we were, the toms on one side, me on the other. I was calling and they were answering back. After 30 minutes of this standoff I made the decision. Through the cutover I went. Using my pruning shears to cut some vines and saplings along the way and it wasn’t too bad. Finally I eased up to the mowed path by the bridge and there standing in clear view was Paintbrush.

It ain’t easy belly crawling across a bridge made of logs and oak boards, but I did it. Then I crawled on my hands and knees to a patch of better cover. That was when I saw the other two toms, both strutting. I was thinking “this should be a slam dunk, 3 longbeards and no hens.” And then I saw the hens. Paintbrush was almost straight in front on the edge of a wheat field and the other two gobblers were to the left, in last year’s cornstalks.

None of my sweet sexy hen talk would even draw a gobble, Paintbrush stood stone still and the other two just continued to strut. After about 10 minutes I noticed the strutters were angling my way. They made it to about 70 yards but then drifted back to the middle of the field. Over the next two hours this scenario played out two more times. Then I noticed and or figured out what was happening. Paintbrush would leave the wheat field and strut a little and every time he did the two would head his way. When he went back into the wheat they would turn and resumed strutting. All of a sudden I heard PUTT, PUTT, PUTT, PUTT “oh crap a hen has busted me.” Then I saw the hen, she was putting for all she was worth and running straight to me. A hawk was swooping low over the hedgerow with several crows hot on it’s red tail.

I’ve sat and watched field turkeys strut before, most times the outcome doesn’t favor the hunter. No way to sneak closer and no way to call them away from live hens. Something like a Mexican standoff. All a hunter can do is wait for the birds to make a move and then try to head them off at the pass.

Paintbrush had disappeared in the wheat and the two seemed to be headed in the direction I needed to go anyway. So thinking this might work out after all, I packed up my calls, strikers and assorted gear. I only got off the path, not much of a path, I had made through the cutover once and fell down, feel tangled up in vines, only once. Standing in the edge of the cutover looking out over the back field the two toms could be seem crossing the big open area way out in front. They had beat me.

On the drive home I thought about Paintbrush. Standing stoically in the edge of the green wheat, he seemed to have character. This week, I’ve heard gobbles on two different scouting trips from in back of Paintbrush’s wheat field. Not that I’d pass on the opportunity to take one of the two or another longbeard. But, with two Saturdays left in NC’s turkey season, I’m gunning for Paintbrush.
Thank you Lord for creating these wonderful birds and allowing us to chase after them.
quavodus
Posts: 287
Joined: April 1st, 2021, 1:19 pm
Location: Moss, Tn.

Re: Paintbrush

Post by quavodus »

You had a good hunt, even if you didn't kill one. Keep at it in that area and eventually one of them will slip up.
"I live in America, why do I have to press 1 for English?"
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soiltester
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Joined: March 31st, 2015, 8:04 am
Location: Gaffney SC

Re: Paintbrush

Post by soiltester »

Keep after em' as ya' got his pattern figured if he's in that spot again :thumbup:
ever wonder where the white goes when the snow melts??
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