Remembering the first turkey!
Mar 13, 2023 15:39:34 GMT -5
featherduster, scrub-buster, and 11 more like this
Post by HighCotton on Mar 13, 2023 15:39:34 GMT -5
I've been telling my grandsons about turkey season and the accompanying details of various hunts. I figure it might be cool to read about other stories here.
And I realized 2 facts as I tell them my stories.
I've learned a lot in recent years. And I still have a lot to learn!
Here's the story of my first turkey:
I took my first Gobbler in Parke County, Indiana on the morning of April 29th, 2004.
But, the story started a lot earlier. Without much of a clue, I watched as many videos as I could get my hands on. Whenever I attended anything similar to a hunting expo, I asked a ton of questions. At Galyan’s or the Outdoorsman, I peppered the staff for more information. I decided that I needed to get a decent turkey gun so I picked up a 12 gauge, black Benelli Nova fitted with an Undertaker choke. I also purchased a few boxes of Winchester, #5, 2-3/4” shells which I patterned out to 30 yards.
Meantime, as I was racing and restoring motorcycles at the time, it so happened that I high-sided a bike and broke my collarbone on the right side. This was just a month or so before turkey opener so I was practicing, left handed with my non dominant eye since my right side had not yet healed enough to handle the recoil.
My first chance arrived and I’m stoked. Unfortunately, my buddy, whitetail1 couldn’t join me so I was solo. As I walked to our 2 man trail, I hit the crow call as a locator and got nothing. So there I stand wondering where I should go. A few yelps on the mouth call and I stood waiting forever and all I got was complete silence. I switched my gun from one hand to the next and that crazy, noisy Nova fore end gave a rattle and a clatter. All of a sudden, a gobbler sets off somewhere in the woods to my northwest. I set a plan in place and headed to our 2 man stand. Why I chose to climb a stand for a turkey hunt, I have no idea. Just a greenhorn I guess. I set out a few hen decoys. Then I strapped my Woodswise push-pin call to the bottom of the ladder and hooked up the utility, pull rope, thinking this would allow me to imitate a hen at the bottom ground by gently pulling the rope with my little finger from atop the tree stand. I was in the stand by 5:30 am. Lo and behold, my calling worked well. In came 3 hens at around 6:00 am. They slowly waltzed off and it got quiet. I yelped a few times on my Mystic slate call. I hit the diaphragm call a few times. Got absolutely nothing. At 6:15, I thought I saw something like a white glove pop over the underbrush some 80 yards away. I did not realize that a gobblers head could turn any color except red. I figured that I must be imagining things and just sat quiet for a good bit. A few minutes later, I looked that direction again and thought, “What the heck is that big black thing that looks like a kettle doing in these woods?” That’s when I realized it was actually the gobbler I was hunting. That crazy bird had not gobbled one single time since I had slipped the fore end of my gun, earlier on the walk to the trail.
About every 10 minutes, I would softly purr on the call strapped to the bottom of the stand. For the next half hour, that gobbler would take a few steps, go full strut, stand forever and slowly zig zagged his way toward me. I couldn’t believe how slow he was easing my way. And he never gobbled once. Finally, when he got to within my guess of 30 yards, I put the bead on him and let the lead fly. That dude flopped like crazy and I shimmied down the stand as fast as I could. He ended up flopping all the way down to the bottom of a deep ravine. I did a stumbling, butt slide following close after him until I could put a boot on his head!
I was jacked as all get out and let out quite a whoop and holler. It took me a bit but I finally found a branch that worked fairly well to keep his tail feathers fanned out for a photo. Shortly after that, I met up with whitetail1 for a quick celebration. And since this was my first turkey, I had no idea how to dress him out so he schooled me in that process!
I had purchased a special tube to measure the spurs and they both came to 25 mm, just a little short of one inch. He had a 10 inch beard and he weighed 21 lbs.
I had heard that it was good to marinate the meat in buttermilk and we did that overnight. My wife made a cream cheese style lasagna which we all devoured the next day after church!
And I realized 2 facts as I tell them my stories.
I've learned a lot in recent years. And I still have a lot to learn!
Here's the story of my first turkey:
I took my first Gobbler in Parke County, Indiana on the morning of April 29th, 2004.
But, the story started a lot earlier. Without much of a clue, I watched as many videos as I could get my hands on. Whenever I attended anything similar to a hunting expo, I asked a ton of questions. At Galyan’s or the Outdoorsman, I peppered the staff for more information. I decided that I needed to get a decent turkey gun so I picked up a 12 gauge, black Benelli Nova fitted with an Undertaker choke. I also purchased a few boxes of Winchester, #5, 2-3/4” shells which I patterned out to 30 yards.
Meantime, as I was racing and restoring motorcycles at the time, it so happened that I high-sided a bike and broke my collarbone on the right side. This was just a month or so before turkey opener so I was practicing, left handed with my non dominant eye since my right side had not yet healed enough to handle the recoil.
My first chance arrived and I’m stoked. Unfortunately, my buddy, whitetail1 couldn’t join me so I was solo. As I walked to our 2 man trail, I hit the crow call as a locator and got nothing. So there I stand wondering where I should go. A few yelps on the mouth call and I stood waiting forever and all I got was complete silence. I switched my gun from one hand to the next and that crazy, noisy Nova fore end gave a rattle and a clatter. All of a sudden, a gobbler sets off somewhere in the woods to my northwest. I set a plan in place and headed to our 2 man stand. Why I chose to climb a stand for a turkey hunt, I have no idea. Just a greenhorn I guess. I set out a few hen decoys. Then I strapped my Woodswise push-pin call to the bottom of the ladder and hooked up the utility, pull rope, thinking this would allow me to imitate a hen at the bottom ground by gently pulling the rope with my little finger from atop the tree stand. I was in the stand by 5:30 am. Lo and behold, my calling worked well. In came 3 hens at around 6:00 am. They slowly waltzed off and it got quiet. I yelped a few times on my Mystic slate call. I hit the diaphragm call a few times. Got absolutely nothing. At 6:15, I thought I saw something like a white glove pop over the underbrush some 80 yards away. I did not realize that a gobblers head could turn any color except red. I figured that I must be imagining things and just sat quiet for a good bit. A few minutes later, I looked that direction again and thought, “What the heck is that big black thing that looks like a kettle doing in these woods?” That’s when I realized it was actually the gobbler I was hunting. That crazy bird had not gobbled one single time since I had slipped the fore end of my gun, earlier on the walk to the trail.
About every 10 minutes, I would softly purr on the call strapped to the bottom of the stand. For the next half hour, that gobbler would take a few steps, go full strut, stand forever and slowly zig zagged his way toward me. I couldn’t believe how slow he was easing my way. And he never gobbled once. Finally, when he got to within my guess of 30 yards, I put the bead on him and let the lead fly. That dude flopped like crazy and I shimmied down the stand as fast as I could. He ended up flopping all the way down to the bottom of a deep ravine. I did a stumbling, butt slide following close after him until I could put a boot on his head!
I was jacked as all get out and let out quite a whoop and holler. It took me a bit but I finally found a branch that worked fairly well to keep his tail feathers fanned out for a photo. Shortly after that, I met up with whitetail1 for a quick celebration. And since this was my first turkey, I had no idea how to dress him out so he schooled me in that process!
I had purchased a special tube to measure the spurs and they both came to 25 mm, just a little short of one inch. He had a 10 inch beard and he weighed 21 lbs.
I had heard that it was good to marinate the meat in buttermilk and we did that overnight. My wife made a cream cheese style lasagna which we all devoured the next day after church!
