Harry H. Joins Bob and Ray'S Hunt Today

It doesn’t get any better than this! Now Ray and I are naming the Toms we are chasing just like he names his dairy cattle. This morning we named two of them. The one he missed on our second hunt we now call Lucky and the bird we encountered today we are now calling Harry H.

I met Raymond again this morning in the milking parlor at the family farm at about 5:15.
The cloudless sky was already telling me we should be setting up already but he has responsibilities. His Dad, Mark, noticed my uneasiness about the lightening sky and called Ray over and told him he’d cover his part of the chores and he should just go. That was the quickest I’ve seen this big farm boy move since I met him.

Loaded up and driving over to our hunting grounds a mile and a half away. Ray told me what he wanted to do. “Let’s go over to where we saw that Tom in the rain yesterday and wait for him to come out then I’ll shoot him. We can set back in the pines behind that old farmhouse. Fine but if I owl hoot at him and he doesn’t answer we are off to play the game with one that will.

We got there, I hooted… nothing. I hooted again and a bird gobbled a quarter mile away on a finger of woods that jutted out into the recently planted corn and bean fields. We knew exactly where he was. We had had a close encounter with some hens I called in over there on our second day hunting together. We looked each other in the eyes and said together…”The woodpile.” It was so cool for me to see that the student was beginning to think like his mentor. He gobbled once more as we traversed the field to sit at the woodpile we had only recently discovered. The last thirty yards were critical to our success and I firmly let Ray know that we were in stealth mode. No talking…no noise. The gobbler was roosted no more than 70 yards from the woodpile and with darkness giving way to a reddish sky in the East. This would be a test for us, a real gamble to try to get that close.

We did it and for the next 40 minutes the bird we would later name Harry H. sat on his limb and gobbled over 50 times. We observed that he was not alone. Two hens directly in front of us maybe 50 yards out awakened to the day putting away their identity and location. I joined in with them and for a few moments I thought everything in the turkey woods today is as it should be. The viewfinder in my video camera stopped flashing low light. I did a fly-down with my hat. Thirty seconds later both hens pitched down and to our right. Harry H., left of center would probably either come to my calls or land in front of us and follow his harem. At 6:08 he flew down and came right at us. I saw him lock his wings to land and hit the ground. He walked a couple of steps straight at us and I whispered to Ray, “ He’s on the ground right in front of us 40 yards out do you see him?”

“No, not yet,” Ray answered his voice sounding a little stressed. “Take a deep breathe and relax it’s just a darned turkey,” I whispered. He chuckled under his breath. “He’s moving from left to right just this side of that little stream. The birds white head bounced up and down twice as I watched. The video camera on pause too long shut itself down. I let it go. Ray said,” I don’t see him where is he?” I don’t see him now just wait he must of stopped behind a tree. We waited and there was no bird. Where did he go? Another bird flew down further to our left and forty minutes later nothing. He never gobbled on the ground neither of us saw him leave. “I don’t know what to tell you Ray other than we just got Houdinied! We named that bird Harry Houdini after the great magician. I’ve had that happen in the whitetail woods before but never with two sets of eyes. I do not know how that bird did it but then again I couldn’t figure out any of Houdini’s stunts either.

We spent the rest of the morning observing six nice toms and several hens doing their thing in the neighbor’s wheat field. They were across the road, 300 yards away. We watched them through our binoculars.
Later in the day I let Ray try the slate call and let him blow through his diaphragm mouth call several times. No birds showed up but that was today. We discussed the thrill of the mornings hunt and the names we would use to refer to these two gobblers that have brought us so much joy so far in the season of 2008!