Big Muddy
03-30-2019, 10:33 AM
Well, almost complete and successful. ;)
I finally got enough free time, yesterday, to go to my little turkey lease land, and it was a beautiful day for both hunting and fishing.
First, I fished the big cattle pond, and caught enough crappie, bream, and bass to fillet and give to the landowner and his wife.
Then, I hit the turkey woods around 3 pm.....I sat and called with my best impersonation of Cap's red wasp call, which he shared with me, last year.
At 5:15 pm, 9 hens and a jake leisurely walked out of the woods, and pecked and fed their way across the wide-open pasture.....they stopped and fed within 20 steps of me for what seemed like an eternity.....one ole hen must have gotten tired because she just laid down, right in front of me.
I figured someone, prolly an adjoining neighbor, had already killed the gobbler patriarch of the flock because only the jake was escorting the hens.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of movement across the pasture.....out stepped the biggest meanest-looking gobbler that I've seen in quite a while.....he had to be a 4 or 5 year old bird.
I could see his beard, dragging the ground with my naked eye at 250 yds. away.....now, if he would just follow the flock across that pasture !!!!!
It was an agonizing wait, but he leisurely fed across the pasture, but never joined the group.....he hung up at 55 yards, and I could tell the hens were getting a little nervous, when they started feeding in the opposite direction at a quick pace.....it was now or never !!!!!
I've killed gobblers with my Rem. 870 SPS 12 gauge full choke, out to 70 yds., so I felt good about making the head shot.....I had a perfect sight picture, a perfect gun rest, the perfect gun, ammo, etc......everything was perfect !!!!!
I squeezed off the shot, and the big gobbler literally exploded in a cloud of feathers and dust.....but, instead of seeing the " gobbler death flop", he got up, and ran back across the field from whence he came, but he was definitely wounded !!!!
I was so totally stunned, I couldn't even take a second shot.....I got up, and just stood there in amazement at what I had just witnessed.....finally, I walked over to where he had entered the wood line, but found nothing but a trail of feathers.....my search ended at the property line of the adjoining posted property.
I called my landowner, and informed him of the situation, and he was going to try to get permission to look for the gobbler, this morning.
I was totally distraught over wounding that big beautiful gobbler, and replayed the entire hunt in my head, over and over on my trip home, last night.
The hunt was perfect, and in hindsight, I absolutely would not do anything differently.
And, thanks, Cap, for sharing that red wasp call technique with me.
Just a handful of feathers and a stringer of fish....Oh, well, maybe next time !!!
10581
10582
I finally got enough free time, yesterday, to go to my little turkey lease land, and it was a beautiful day for both hunting and fishing.
First, I fished the big cattle pond, and caught enough crappie, bream, and bass to fillet and give to the landowner and his wife.
Then, I hit the turkey woods around 3 pm.....I sat and called with my best impersonation of Cap's red wasp call, which he shared with me, last year.
At 5:15 pm, 9 hens and a jake leisurely walked out of the woods, and pecked and fed their way across the wide-open pasture.....they stopped and fed within 20 steps of me for what seemed like an eternity.....one ole hen must have gotten tired because she just laid down, right in front of me.
I figured someone, prolly an adjoining neighbor, had already killed the gobbler patriarch of the flock because only the jake was escorting the hens.
Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of movement across the pasture.....out stepped the biggest meanest-looking gobbler that I've seen in quite a while.....he had to be a 4 or 5 year old bird.
I could see his beard, dragging the ground with my naked eye at 250 yds. away.....now, if he would just follow the flock across that pasture !!!!!
It was an agonizing wait, but he leisurely fed across the pasture, but never joined the group.....he hung up at 55 yards, and I could tell the hens were getting a little nervous, when they started feeding in the opposite direction at a quick pace.....it was now or never !!!!!
I've killed gobblers with my Rem. 870 SPS 12 gauge full choke, out to 70 yds., so I felt good about making the head shot.....I had a perfect sight picture, a perfect gun rest, the perfect gun, ammo, etc......everything was perfect !!!!!
I squeezed off the shot, and the big gobbler literally exploded in a cloud of feathers and dust.....but, instead of seeing the " gobbler death flop", he got up, and ran back across the field from whence he came, but he was definitely wounded !!!!
I was so totally stunned, I couldn't even take a second shot.....I got up, and just stood there in amazement at what I had just witnessed.....finally, I walked over to where he had entered the wood line, but found nothing but a trail of feathers.....my search ended at the property line of the adjoining posted property.
I called my landowner, and informed him of the situation, and he was going to try to get permission to look for the gobbler, this morning.
I was totally distraught over wounding that big beautiful gobbler, and replayed the entire hunt in my head, over and over on my trip home, last night.
The hunt was perfect, and in hindsight, I absolutely would not do anything differently.
And, thanks, Cap, for sharing that red wasp call technique with me.
Just a handful of feathers and a stringer of fish....Oh, well, maybe next time !!!
10581
10582