I took the last season this year, that gave me the whole month of May to hunt. The first few days I hunted in my normal spot out in Davison on my friends property. I heard and seen many birds, but nothing in close enough to get a shot at. I did have a bearded hen come in and get so close I could have slapped her. I thought of taking her and making one heck of a full body mount of her but that was the second day of hunting and passed. With many mornings of getting up at 4:30 in the morning and fighting rain and wind I decided to wait a few days and do a video hunt with fellow pro staffers "Mike Adams and Josh Henderson" of Mossy Oak Pro Staff.
Video Hunt...
Friday night Mike called me and asked if we were all set for the next morning and making all the plans where to meet. I woke up Saturday morning and let my dog out and I had a good feeling for the hunt. I took my shower and my cell phone rang. It was Mike. "Hey man we still going?" I said "Yep! Why?" He said "Man it's pouring here at my house" As soon as he said that I looked outside and it was dumping buckets. So off we went. The turkeys got to be out in the rain so do we. I picked Mike up and we got to my brother in laws house and sure enough the rain stopped. We headed out to our blind that was about a mile walk through deep water! I don't think Mike knew what kind of hike we had to do to get to out spot. Ha ha sorry Mike. As soon as we got out there and got set up birds were gobbling all around up. GAME ON!! Every call I made the birds responded. I had two birds going back and fourth with me and then dead. Stopped not a sound from anything... So we sat and waited. Then a gobbler sounded off and I looked over to Mike and kind of gave him a look like awesome here we go. Not thirty seconds later I look to my right and there is a bird. A tom! I spun across my body to get a shot pulled the trigger and missed! I jumped up and tried a pop shot on the run and missed again. I felt so bad. I was like no way I missed. I started to check for any sign of a hit. Then I see Josh "my brother in law" jump up and take off down a trail, I heard him shoot and then splosh. He tripped and fell in a puddle. HA HA we all laughed and talked about what just happened and decided to sit back down and give them some time. The birds didn't run off far. So we sit down and then comes the rain, thunder, and lighting. Time to call it a day. We were wet and cold and headed in. We decided to head in to town and grab some breakfast. We dropped Mike off and Josh and I headed back to his place for an afternoon hunt. We were in my truck and turned the corner to his house and my truck dies. The fuel pump went out!! Great, what else can go wrong today. We got it to his neighbors house that happens to have a hoist and got my truck inside and we headed to town to get a new pump. We changed out the pump, and headed back out for a hunt. It got cold and overcast and not a sound of a turkey. We called it a day. We decided to hunt the next Saturday.
The following Saturday Josh and I headed out. We were setting up the decoys on the trail we were going to be hunting on, when we spooked a bird still on the roost. Crap! We watched where he flew to and he didn't seemed to be to spooked. We sat shoulder to shoulder next to a tree. We decided on who shoots where and to let the other one know when there going to shoot. We sat for about 15 minutes and I started to call. Sure enough that bird we spooked off the roost was heading back our way. Back and fourth I called to him, hearing him getting closer and closer. I told Josh "You hear him, he's coming, be ready!" That went on for about 10 minutes or so and then dead silence. We sat there quiet for a while and we almost filled our pants when this gobbler sounded off about 60 yards from us. I caught a quick look at him before he when into some brush. I got my gun up and ready and started calling to him. He was gobbling back to me and looking all over for this hot hen. He stepped out on the trail, I pulled up and shot. Come to find out there was a small tree in my path I did not see and he was gone! Not a second later after I shot this hen come shooting out of the brush where that tom was and came running straight to us. As soon as she started clucking and yelping,I decided to mess with here and started yelping back at her. She was going crazy trying to find us. I look down the trail and here come two toms. I got ready and told Josh hold on I two toms coming. He told me "I can't see them" I waited and waited for them to get closer. I picked the bigger of the two and let him have it. Flop! He flipped right into a swamp puddle and flipped and flopped. I ran up and checked him out. He was a 2 and a half year old bird with a 5 1/2 beard. Little nubs for spurs. I was so excited! Now I told Josh it's your turn. We switched spots and waited for about a half hour and I started calling. I saw a bird run across the field and told him to get ready. With in five minutes we had a bird in range. Josh pulled up and I said "Take Him" Josh rolled this bird. We jumped up and checked it out. Another Jake with about a 5" beard. Wow! Double birds in less than an hour. We packed up and headed to the house for pictures. What a day, I was so happy for both of us to get birds and to be able to hunt with my brother in law before I moved. It really meant a lot to me to have a hunt with him. We both know that is not the last hunt we have together. Now he needs to come out west and hunt some big game with me.
Josh it was so much fun to turkey hunt with you. I miss you man!
