My Hunt This Morning

First off let me say that this is my first season hunting for thunder chickens and I said from the beginning that I will only get one with my bow. I recently got some permission to hunt some land that I know holds about 10 birds or so. Today was the first day I actually hunted it. 3 days ago I noticed a large flock on the property to the South headed toward my area right before sundown. I went and asked permission from the land owner and luckily they agree. I woke up at 3:30 this morning (to a gobbling ringtone on my phone) Got dressed and headed on out. I arrived on scene and started treking through this open flooded field as it was raining. I never scouted the woods yet but I did check them out on google earth and had a good idea of where I was going to go. The woods were way thicker than I thought but I quietly went through stopping every 20 yards to look up for roosted birds. I come to an open area and started heading to cross this small creek and GOT BUSTED. This awnry hen just started clucking at me. I looked up and saw 4 black blobs in that same tree. CRAP! Hunt is over!. Not just yet, I backed off about 30 yards and got my decoys out and set them up in the pitch black dark. I got my stool out and sat with my back against a large tree and an arrow nocked. I sat there thinking about what was going to happen. For a second I thought I would just hang out till light when they flew down and just run and bow them like some rambo of the woods. It took me about 20 minutes of sitting there to realize that this was a horrible idea, as I was dressed in all black. I made the move to setup my blind and as quietly as possible I finally erected it in a perfect location. I sat there to let things calm down for an hour or so. When I heard a few small birds start chirping and singing I let 2 very light purs out on slate just to get their attention. I sat there about 15 minutes and repeated it but on the glass side. After about 5 minutes, my enemy hen, the one who busted me, was my new best friend. She let out a soft yelp for attention. I picked up my call and just repeated after here. We went back and forth a few times and she was starting to sound aggressive. No stinking way she is gonna beat me. I let some of the best sounding cutts I have ever made out of my call and followed by a nice cadence of yelps. She stopped for a minute and then started back up again, but I interupted her with a few cutts and another faster more agressive yelp. We were both talking for about 10 minutes to each other and finally it came, what I have been waiting for since April 22nd. The most thunderous gobble I have heard in my life. Turkey hunters aren't kidding when they said how much they can roar. I was a deer in head lights. I immedietly lost function of my fine motor skills as I answered his gobble with a few cuts that sounds like I was banging my slate on a log. I noticed I have a death grip on my striker. That gobbler really messed me up. I gain composure back and all 3 of us are talking back and forth. Everytime he gobbled it was closer to me, 50, 40, 30 yrds. Then the vocal hen took off and flew towards him. I called just a little and he gobbled back. The rest of the crowd got off their roost and went to the gobbler. I just sat there thinking "I know its gonna happen, I'm gonna contect with one today" "This is my day, I will bring meat home"

Here they come, 1 gobbler, 2 jakes, and 4 hens all in a pretty little row walking parallel to the creek where I was busted previously. I went to draw my bow and I decided they were just a little TOO far out of my comfort zone. I decided to try to get them up to my decoys, so I unhooked my release and went for my striker and pot. As they walked by, they peered up and looked at my decoys but soon put their heads back down and kept a steady pace towards their feeding area. So no bird for me this morning. I still consider this a successful hunt though. The reason they were turned off by my dekes. When I CARELESSLY set them them up in the pitch black, I forgot to pop one side of my hen out and she had a huge dent in her wing.

tomorrow it is on
I'm bringing my video camera.

scott