General Stories About Hunting

1. The Beginning

2. Can't Wait But I Have To

3. Opening Day

4. Season Ends

5. Bo's

6. The Doemaster

7. The Gobblemaster

1. Three Fingers

2. Big Bad Mama Jama

3. Back To Where It All Began

4. Christening the Crossbow

1."If You Have Him Hollerin' Don't Start Follerin'."

By daybreak I had worked my way to a greenfield that was heavily visited by turkeys. I had scouted the area & found this field to be littered with droppings of hens & toms. I had even found strut marks & dusting beds around the perimeter. The Spring woods were coming to life & I was thinking about setting up right there as I had just gotten scared out of my mind by a thunderous gobble a couple hundred yards beyond the field. But experience had taught me better than to take such a foolish position. If he was roosted a couple hundred yards away, I couldn't expect him to sail straight to the field off the limb. It is a fact that toms love to strut their stuff in fields just like the one I was standing in, but it is also a fact that toms can be very impatient. They generally love to hit the ground as close to their roost as they can. They will drop in a road, a gas line/power line, & even in open woods. As long as they can be seen by the hens, they will strut just about anywhere. By the time it takes to get to the field they usually bump into a hen & get side-tracked. There was a ridge line leading from his roosting area to the field. It was open hardwoods & their was a toppled red oak that was a perfect blind & natural funnel. That position would allow me to get "ahead" of the incoming bird & I could still cover half the field with my 3&1/2 inch gobbler-stoppers. I quickly moved across the field & into the woods & set up. I used my slate call & clucked a few times... nothing. I yelped a little with some interrupting, aggressive clucking & he hammered. He was close! I dropped my slate & shouldered my gun. I waited a few minutes & let out 2 or 3 soft clucks with my mouth call. He didn't gobble but I could hear him walking in the leaves. He & 2 others appeared out of nowhere from behind a large tree directly in front of me moving slightly left to right. How did I know which was mine? Mine was the one with the paintbrush! He was in range, but I just love that rush right before you pull the trigger, so I waited on the shot. Another advantage of setting up between a roosted bird & a field like this is the birds are a little less cautious. I believe the birds aren't expecting an 'encounter' until they reach the fields & they mill through more concerned with his route instead of his destination. After about 4 minutes of intense anticipation, the other 2 birds sacrificially stepped in opposite directions, leaving my tom hung out to dry as the in-betweener. I took him. He was a beautiful bird: 20 pounds, 11/16' spurs, & a thick 8&1/2', I mean it was a paintbrush!  He wasn't my biggest tom, but he was one of my most satisfying. I used a sound tactic from knowledge acquired by a wealth of experiences & lessons learned. I set up in-between the roost & the field & I bagged the in-betweener.